A unique opportunity to experience a Jack London read aloud in the same area as the story! Camp Via and the Historic Orchard will be on view as you listen to this story. In 1914 Jack London wrote this largely overlooked short story about his neighbors down the hill, the residents of the Sonoma State Home for the Feeble-Minded.

“Told in the Drooling Ward” as “one of London’s unique experiments with point of view.” In this case, the connection between London’s rural home and the subject of the story is direct: The narrator is a resident of a mental institution, and London’s ranch abutted the grounds of the California Home for the Care and Training of the Feeble Minded (which changed its name to the Sonoma State Home in 1909). Moreover, part of the story actually takes place on Beauty Ranch—and London and his wife, thinly disguised, make cameo appearances.” Jeanne Campbell Reesman Jack London scholar.

Join us as Jeff Falconer presents an overview of the Sonoma State Home during the era of Jack London before reading the story out loud at Camp Via overlooking the Historic Orchard, lying within the grounds of the former Sonoma State Home and now part of Jack London State Historic Park. A lively conversation will follow discussing this story.

Note: Parking is offsite located at the intersection of Wilson and Sonoma Circle off of Arnold Drive within the Sonoma Developmental Center in Glen Ellen. From there we will shuttle you to Camp Via. Limited access by the car shuttle.

As an alternative, you can hike on your own from the Jack London Park main entrance on London Ranch Road, a medium-effort, six-mile (round trip) hike to the Orchard and Camp Via (a $10 parking fee will apply to this option.) Or hike up Orchard Road from the SDC

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