The Eaton fireplace erased a century-old Sierra Madre lodge in January, however not the resolve of its members who held their signature Oktoberfest on Saturday. The rubble cleared and a stage constructed over the ruins, the 200-member Nature Buddies membership fired up its biergarten grill with shouts of prost! and raised beer steins. Youngsters scrambled up rehabbed trails, and a few danced the schuhplattler, a Bavarian people dance with plenty of foot stomping and thigh and foot slapping.
Nature Buddies lodge, constructed with quaint Bavarian styling by German immigrants in 1923, had been lowered by the fireplace to heaps of charred timber, twisted steel and damaged dishes. 9 months after the destruction, the membership was prepared for its phoenix second.
Nature Buddies, a 100-year-old rustic mountain retreat, hosted its annual Oktoberfest on new platforms constructed above the rubble left behind by the Eaton fireplace.
(Gary Coronado / For The Instances)
“Our members have seen the fireplace as a problem, not a dealbreaker,” mentioned Nature Buddies president Jim Angus. “There’s a brand new sense of alternative, and even pleasure to reimagine the property.” The nonprofit plans to rebuild the three-story lodge in levels because the founders did, preserving its alpine look however including fashionable improvements. Fundraising efforts have netted about $140,000.
Nature Buddies is a department of Naturfreunde, based in 1895 by social democrats to counterpoint the lives of manufacturing unit employees in Vienna. The mother or father group champions ecological and sociopolitical causes and operates 700 lodges worldwide that provide finances lodging and nature actions.
Though dirndl clothes and lederhosen prevailed at Oktoberfest, attended by about 60 individuals, Nature Buddies just isn’t a German social membership however moderately a haven for lovers of nature, artwork and tradition.
“I like Nature Buddies as a result of it jogged my memory of dwelling, north of Tehran — a spot known as Darband,” mentioned member Lila Ghobady, who hosted Nowruz, the Persian New Yr celebration, on the lodge in 2023 in reminiscence of her sister, Fereshteh.
Sierra Madre Clubhouse, Nature Buddies lodge, newly inbuilt 1924.
(Courtesy of Nature Buddies, Los Angeles)
Darband, a dreamy mountain village, mirrors the simplicity of canyon life alongside Woodland Drive, which results in Nature Buddies. The street is lined with stone partitions and cottages adorned with flags, painted rocks, wind chimes and gnomes — a mini Topanga Canyon anchored by Mary’s Market, a 103-year-old eclectic diner and nation retailer.
Ghobady mentioned Nature Buddies remembers her free-spirited teenage days in Darband when, with mates, she’d escape strict costume code legal guidelines. “We’d take off our hijabs, eat nice meals, social gathering collectively,” she mentioned. “Nature Buddies has the identical sort of wealthy Persian tradition, a neighborhood that celebrates life, nature and wonder.”
Wielding a sledgehammer to assist clear the wreckage of the lodge in February, I discovered remnants of that neighborhood that the fireplace had spared: an iron triangle we struck earlier than neighborhood dinners, a espresso cup I drank from after all-night revelries with mates, and a handprint pressed into cement by a long-ago member. Numerous acts of affection had gone into sustaining and beautifying the lodge.
As a 30-year member and previous president, I’ve watched the group evolve right into a hub for various teams, some nonconformist: drum circles, shamanic trainings, sweat lodges, yoga retreats, sound baths, ecological lectures and the Physique Electrical Faculty, based in San Francisco throughout the Eighties AIDS epidemic to show Taoist and Tantric therapeutic massage.
However lengthy earlier than the blaze, the lodge had already reinvented itself a number of instances.
On the floor, the group provides potlucks, film nights and vacation gatherings open to all. However dig deeper, and what Angus calls the membership’s “hidden historical past” emerges.
“We’ve by no means been fairly what we seem,” he mentioned.
The membership had been largely an expatriate German membership that additionally had Jewish members. That started to vary within the early Nineteen Nineties.
1. Lionel Gaimari, six, left, mimics Julian Hasenfratz, off body, throughout a dance contest at Oktoberfest at Nature Buddies. 2. Joan Waller, 87, left and DeeAnne Gunnemann serve themselves German meals. 3. Cheddarwurst on the grill. (Gary Coronado / For The Instances)
“We introduced in mates — a homosexual component and free spirits,” mentioned Bruce Anderson, whose home reverse Nature Buddies was spared within the fireplace. His husband, Cuban-born Ken Symington, turned Nature Buddies’ caretaker in 1993, a publish he retained till his dying at age 90 in 2022. Symington was a mentor to tons of of seekers who gathered on the lodge for occasions and concert events. He additionally turned the engine that saved the membership solvent and thriving, partly by providing the property as a marriage venue.
After I met Symington, he invited me and others to co-found the Invisible Theater. Beginning in 1998, our troupe of 30 held a decade of annual performances, an underground occurring exploring themes of masculinity. It was a uncommon collaboration that deeply linked our tribe by means of artwork, play and free expression.
After Symington’s dying, the membership started yet one more reinvention. Zak Clark, the brand new caretaker, whose bunkhouse on the property later survived the fireplace, attracted youthful members and inspired hands-on involvement.
“We’re stressing the significance of volunteering, and individuals are loving it,” mentioned Clark. “They need to work with their palms and really feel a way of possession, similar to the immigrants who based the membership.”
Nature Buddies constructed a short lived deck among the many remaining partitions and basis of the lodge after fireplace particles was cleared. (Courtesy of Nature Buddies, Los Angeles)
Darrell Goodwin holds a German stein throughout the Oktoberfest celebration. (Gary Coronado / For The Instances)
Two dozen volunteers have labored to make the property usable for out of doors occasions. Retired contractor Darrell Goodwin, who lives down the canyon, constructed the 750-square-foot stage and can head the constructing’s volunteer-led reconstruction. His spouse Heidi Goodwin and her household have been Nature Buddies regulars for the reason that early Nineteen Sixties, when their German emigrant father Benno Werstein joined.
“It was so heavy to see it burned down — all that point and love we’d poured into the constructing,” mentioned Lori Werstein, Heidi Goodwin’s sister. Months earlier than the fireplace, she and her mom Barbara Werstein created Bavarian decor for the lodge’s facade — fake shutters, flower bins and door and window trim. Undaunted, Werstein crafted new alpine touches that adorn the ruins’ newly painted concrete partitions.
The Eaton fireplace destroyed greater than 9,400 constructions, most of them in Altadena; Sierra Madre was not as severely hit.
For members, the fireplace was solely the primary in what Clark known as a “trifecta of horribleness.” Winter downpours introduced a torrential river cascading down Yucca Path, which lies between the leveled lodge and the bunkhouse. Mudslides adopted, burying components of the property underneath 4 ft of sludge.
Subsequent got here the bears, breaking into Clark’s cottage a number of instances, ravaging cupboards and the fridge; it has since been bear-proofed.
Nature Buddies members survey the ruins of the lodge after the Eaton fireplace destroyed it in early January.
(Courtesy of Nature Buddies, Los Angeles)
By early summer season, the cleanup was displaying outcomes. The membership’s rehab effort facilities on increasing its nonprofit standing. A new basis is devoted to restoration, schooling and outreach. “The fireplace gave us permission, or maybe a mandate, to evolve,” mentioned Angus, who plans to determine household and scouting applications and conservation internships.
Member Jeff Cain grabbed the chance to reimagine the encircling slopes. After clearing swaths of torched aloe vegetation, he trenched in about 500 native vegetation that he mentioned “will look spectacular in a number of years.”
At Oktoberfest, I acquired roped right into a schuhplattler dance contest, dropping badly to 6-year-old Lionel Gaimari. (The dance troupe Die Gemütlichen Schuhplattler carried out for free of charge). The successful instances of a stein-holding contest (mugs of water held out with straight arms), clocked at 5 minutes, 57 seconds for the ladies’s group and seven minutes, 20 seconds for the boys’s.
We dug into the potluck, having fun with member Michael Swain’s makeshift band taking part in basic rock. Lead singer Maggie Moran is not any stranger to fireside danger. Her close by enterprise, Adams’ Pack Station, which does donkey provide runs to historic cabins, was financially hit throughout the 2020 Bobcat fireplace.
“She got here out to assist us, and we’ve achieved the identical,” Clark mentioned. “We’re all super-vulnerable to fireside in these components — we stick shut and assist one another.”
Verona Gaimari, 3, middle, dances at Oktoberfest at Nature Buddies.
(Gary Coronado / For The Instances)
Nature Buddies will maintain its annual “Dezemberfest” night time market 4 to eight p.m. Dec. 13. Open to all, the occasion contains arts and crafts distributors, a silent public sale, reside music and appearances by Santa and Krampus. Pricing to be decided.
