‘Poppy fields are glowing.’ AAA gave tips for drivers seeking wildflowers a century ago
Narcissus was among the most beautiful of all mortals, according to the Greek myth.
However, he spurned his multitude of admirers, both male and female.
When Nemesis, the goddess of retribution, observed his heartless actions she cursed him.
When Narcissus came to a pool to drink, he saw his reflection and fell in love. He wasted away gazing at his unattainable visage, despite the pleas of the naiads and dryads.
When the nymphs who built his funeral pyre came to carry his body away, all they found was the narcissus flower.
Like the beauty of Narcissus, wildflowers bring out scores of admirers each spring in San Luis Obispo County.
Back in the brilliant days of Kodachrome, I would keep track of rain patterns, check in with California State Parks staff and nature walk docents to try and get a read on that year’s bloom.
Today anyone can search for their next pollen fix by following social media feeds of wildflower fans.
It is a mixed blessing. Thoughtless narcissists trample flowers for the perfect Instagram photo, or venture into remote areas without remembering to fill up their fuel tanks.
Cars line roads as flower admirers stop to drink in the view.
Hopefully, people leave with a sense of appreciation for the seldom seen patches of California that haven’t been plowed and paved.
Wildflowers were a popular draw back in 1922, when the San Luis Obispo Daily Telegram ran a half-page advertisement touting “Buick supremacy” and the tale of the first car in the Yosemite Valley.
“The trip was made over the Wawona road under its own power,” according to the ad.
“The Buick started for the Yosemite on January 20 this year,” the ad read. “It was caught in a blizzard and snow-slide when nearing the valley and was buried so deep that a flag was placed on the snow drift where it was buried in order to locate it later. When the snow melted (Fred W.) Gross drove the Buick into the valley and was AWARDED THE CAMP CURRY CUP”
Also on the page was an article that likely provided by AAA.
Contrary to the article, picking wildflowers is a bad idea, even if everybody is doing it. If we want to see the wildflowers return to the Central Coast, we’ve got to leave the seeds they came from.
This story ran on page 3 of the May 6, 1922, Daily Telegram:
SEASON OF WILD FLOWERS SHORT
Mr. Motorist—have you picked your spring wildflowers yet?
Everybody is doing it. Auto owners are going wild about wildflowers this year as never before in history, according to the Auto Club of Southern California.
And wildflowers in Southern California have never been so prolific nor so beautiful as at the present time, it is reported. From the Mexican boarder on the south to the northern confines of this territory motorists are daily making up picnic parties to go out and enjoy the spring flowers brought on by April showers.
Poppy fields are glowing in almost every county in the southern portion of the state. Any county bordering on the desert is fortunate as the desert is blooming now like a natural garden. It is one of the phenomena of nature, according to eminent horticulturists.
An unusually heavy rainfall this season explains the great growth of flowers of all kinds in the meadows and on the hillsides. But the wildflower season will be short, lasting only two or three weeks at the most, and so motorists are urged by the club touring bureau to get out and see them at once while the seeing is good.
Hundreds of requests are received every day by the Auto club offices and so some special information has been prepared for those who wish to know how the poppy fields or other wildflower haunts can best be reached. In case your are in doubt where to tour to see nature at its best now, call on the Auto club and you will be given the required directions.
This information is available for all, and it will be of particular value to the many eastern motorists now visiting in this section.
