Federally-protected mustangs run free in Modoc National Forest in California. They’re in a place called Devil’s Garden. The U.S. Forest Service has been rounding up about a thousand of these wild horses for their removal and subsequent adoption (to free up grazing land for livestock). 

In Devil’s Garden, Avanzino Ranch is being used as a gather site to hold the mustangs until they can be picked up by their new owners. This endeavor has been going on for a few years. I’m just now discovering the mustang adoption project, as I have recently begun planning a road trip to Devil’s Garden, my old stomping grounds.

I’ve been outlining a story that will encompass the time my family lived in this remote area. It was 1979, I was seven years old, and we had moved north from Stockton (aka the ‘armpit of California’) to Devil’s Garden. We were there for about six months, enduring severe snow storms, wild animal encounters and washed out roads.  At Avanzino Ranch, we lived in a tiny cinder block house that had no electricity or plumbing. We quickly learned how to build and keep a fire burning to stay warm, pump water from outside to bring in, and cook over a fire.  The closest neighbor lived seven miles away and they spoke very little English.

A portion of our story was featured in the local paper, the Herald and News in March, 1980. We were having difficulty getting to school every day due to the bad roads and lack of gas funds. The school district was unhappy about our sparse school attendance and threatened to have us three kids removed from the home. Shortly after this article was published, we moved closer to town.

Devil’s Garden is in the heart of the Plateau of the Modoc National Forest. It is located 22 miles from the nearest town, Alturas, and takes an hour to get there (best driven using a 4×4 vehicle). If you look on a map, that’s the upper eastern corner of Cali, near the borders of Oregon and Nevada. When the first European settlers traveled to this region in the 1800s, they named it ‘Devil’s Garden’ because the terrain was all so similar it was easy to get lost. Many hunters would go out into the half a million acres of juniper trees, sagebrush and lava rock, and never find their way back home.

Some of the animals inhabiting the area are elk, pronghorn antelope, sage grouse, turkeys, coyotes, bobcats, deer, and wild horses. 

As I work on writing my story about our time living in Devil’s Garden, I’m also making plans to return to the little ranch house when the roads are dry. My kids say they are ready for a road trip!  I’d like to see anew all the places that are fuzzy in my memory. And maybe we’ll see a few wild mustangs while we’re there.