Carole Marie's Author Updates Archives

When purchasing an airline ticket, have you ever made the mistake of choosing a city of the same name in a different state? Such as choosing Portland, Maine rather than Portland, Oregon? They are on completely opposite sides of the country, so it’s a blunder you would deeply regret.

But what if your mistake landed you in outer space? If space travel ever becomes readily available, we’ll have to ensure we don’t make that same mistake with Hawaii.

There is, of course, the lush big island of Hawaii that we know and love. Then there is the minor planet named after Hawaii, which is similar to a big rock — definitely not a tropical paradise. (Its formal name is ‘48575 Hawaii’.)

A minor planet is an astronomical object that orbits the sun. It is larger than a meteorite but smaller than the eight major planets. Minor planets include asteroids, dwarf planets, and distant objects. As minor planet discoveries are confirmed, they receive a number from the Minor Planet Center, and the discoverer can submit a planet name. If you’d like to see a list of all the minor planets named after places, click here.

And as you’re planning your space travel itinerary, here’s a list of minor planets named for various places in the state of Hawaii, including volcanoes:

48575 Hawaii (Big Island of Hawaii)
284891 Kona (Kona District, Hawaii)
342431 Hilo (Hilo, Hawaii)
34901 Mauna Loa (a volcano that forms the largest part of the Big Island of Hawaii)
171183 Haleakala (a volcano on the island of Maui)
188534 Mauna Kea (a volcano on the island of Hawaii)

I stumbled upon these minor planets during my writing research, which prompted a story that I’m currently refining and polishing to submit for traditional publication as a picture book.

In this story the main character, Kai, lives in Hawaii, and the wrong package is delivered to his home. Kai attempts to return it to the galactic delivery driver, but the contents are quite slippery (and there are so many snapping teeth!). After numerous mishaps, they end up in outer space, attempting to get the dangerous package (pssst… it’s a shark) delivered to its intended destination on the minor planet, Hawaii. But there’s no water there. In the end, they discover a solution, one with an ocean of water and the ability to track that slippery shark!

While I enjoy visiting the Hawaiian islands, I have no desire to visit a minor planet that lacks oxygen and pineapples. So, unfortunately, the minor planet of Hawaii is not on my travel itinerary. (But if you ever trek your way there, please take lots of pictures and share them with me.)

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.

*Herald and News* article about the Shelton family

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.