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Jack Ringer, 2003

Jack Ringer of the Kern County Fire Department received the award in 2003 in recognition of his outstanding archaeological survey work to support Vegetation Management Program (VMP) projects throughout Kern County, in his capacity as county VMP coordinator. The Board presentation, delivered by Dan Foster, included a series of power point images shown to Board members and the general public through a new audiovisual system recently installed in the Resources Building Auditorium in Sacramento.Jack was born in Wasco, raised in Bakersfield, and has lived in the Bakersfield area for most of his life. He attended local schools and Bakersfield College. He attended Humboldt State University from 1969-1974 during what he calls the "conservation/environmental awareness era", and was interested in how things related in the ecosystem, not just the growing and harvesting of trees. He took a variety of classes and graduated in 1974 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Natural Resources Management. Coincidentally, while at Humboldt, Jack had the dorm room right next to Dave Dulitz, recently retired from CAL FIRE, who would later become the 1996 Golden Trowel Award recipient for his excellent archaeological work on Mountain Home State Forest.

Jack began a career in fire service in 1967 working as a seasonal firefighter for the KCFD. He worked in that position until 1970, when he went to work for the BLM as a seasonal firefighter at Lake Crowley. In 1971-1972 he worked as the helitack crew foreman for the Sequoia National Forest at Kernville. In 1973 he became the Fuels officer for the Cannell Meadow Ranger District. In 1974 he promoted to position as a Supervisory Forestry Technician at the Black Rock Station on the Kern Plateau. In 1975 he was hired as a permanent firefighter with the KCFD. A year later he promoted to fire apparatus engineer. In 1978 he promoted to Fire Captain and worked at various fire stations throughout the county over the next six years. In 1984 he went into what was then called the Chaparral Management Program and remained as the Program Manager ever since. During the period of 1990 through 1992 he was reassigned as a station captain due to budget cuts. Even then he still kept the department VMP Program going by working on it on his days off. In 1993 he returned to the VMP Program Manager position fulltime, and continues in that capacity to the present time.

Jack's interest in archaeology started at an early age when as a child he found Indian artifacts. His interest really took off when he came into the VMP Program and started reading books on archaeology of the local Indians and other California Indian tribes. He found his first pictograph site near Caliente in 1986 - a discovery which launched an intense interest in prehistoric rock art. He completed Archaeological Training Class #52 in 1997 and Refresher Course 81R in 2002. Jack also attributes much of his passion to his association and long friendship with Lew Resley, a fellow fire fighter at KCFD. Lew became his mentor, and Jack quickly developed the same passion for searching for pictograph sites. For several years Lew would accompany Jack while conducting fieldwork associated with planning VMP projects in the Kern County backcountry; work that always included a careful search for rock art panels and other sites that could be affected. Jack and Lew spent many years together, sometimes on their days off searching in surrounding counties as well. Jack has become known as a local expert with considerable knowledge about the location of rock paintings in this part of California. Although most of the 116 archaeological sites Jack has found are pictograph panels, he has also discovered midden deposits, bedrock mortars, lithic scatters, burials, cupules, rock foundations, and mining sites.

Jack's discoveries are within the Southern Sierra Pictograph Style area located in the dry foothill country of Kern, Fresno, and Tulare counties. Most of the elements of paintings in this style are abstract, curvilinear, but sometimes spectacular, and sometimes containing recognizable images such as human-like forms (called anthropomorphs) and animal-like depictions (called zoomorphs). The function and purpose of these pictographs is difficult to ascertain as we have such scant information about them. Two ethnographers in the late 1800s were informed that local Indians did not paint rocks, but we know they certainly they did. Apparently the informants were unaware of the practice. From stylistic analogy, it seems probable that the pictographs were made in connection with shamanistic practices, perhaps associated with hunting big game, as some panels have been found associated with shamans caches. The Southern Sierra may be the oldest of the painted styles, possibly dating from AD 1 to 1600 with most sites probably painted between AD 500 and 1200. Although scientists have known for years that pictographs occur in this country, Jack's work has led to the discovery of many new sites, which has contributed much more information about them.

One of Jack's favorite and most impressive pictograph discoveries is the site he named Three Springs, located on the San Emigidio Ranch. This magnificent pictograph site contains polychrome figures inside a small cave formed by a talus slope of sandstone boulders. Although the paintings at Three Springs are not particularly numerous nor extensive, they are wonderfully well-preserved and exquisitely painted on the back wall and ceiling of the shelter. Colors include red, black, orange, and blue. The use of blue is quite rare in prehistoric California. The images include anthropomorphs and other complex line or dot-and-line motifs. The most dramatic image, and the centerpiece of the panel, is a polychrome anthropomorphic figure with a small black head, feathers, with webbed feet and hands. It is painted in red, blue, and black. Beneath this beautiful image is a curious series of stick-like figures five painted in black and six painted in orange. The archaeological significance of this part of the panel is the dramatic evidence of superimposition, the orange paintings were clearly applied over the top of existing black images - and therefore younger in age. This panel also contains several curious "pinwheel" shaped images in red and paired lines and rows of dots in red and black. Another discovery Jack made on this ranch, named Lizard Cave, is the occurrence of a pictograph panel within the largest of several rock shelters contained in a massive sandstone outcropping. Most of the red figures are on the back wall of the shelter and include a series of parallel lines, tick marks, anthropomorphs, and a ladder motif in red. The centerpiece of this panel is a long, red stylistic figure of some type of animal located on the ceiling of the arch which encloses the entrance to the shelter. This strange figure, thought by Jack to possibly represent a "lizard", has human-like hands and skillfully painted fingers as well as two large projections or "horns" on its head. Sadly, in 1990, a private contractor hired to take soundings on this ranch for oil exploration, foolishly applied his name and the date of his visit in black felt pen during his lunch break. These horrible inscriptions were thoughtlessly applied over the prehistoric paintings. The landowners found out about this damage and the individual was required to pay the cost of graffiti removal performed by expert conservators working under the auspices of the Getty Conservation Institute of Marina Del Rey, California. Jack believes that there are possible summer solstice implications which he is continuing to investigate.

Jack has also discovered pictograph sites in rock shelters on surfaces that have much less protection from the elements. One such place that CAL FIRE named Ringer Rock contains red painted elements on a partially exposed rock surface.

Another one of Jack's many contributions we recognize is his long-standing effort to protect archaeological sites from site looters, relic hunters, and others that conduct illicit excavations at midden sites. One such example is the Back Canyon BRM and Midden Site, where he alerted the landowner about fresh digging at a rich midden site and effectively inspired the landowner to recognize the importance this resources and its unique potential to answer questions about the prehistory of the Back Canyon area. Jack has excellent skills at communicating with private landowners and informed many of them about the importance of protecting archaeological sites on their lands. These landowners, initially apprehensive, now proudly consider these sites as an asset to the property that they vigorously protect. That effort leads to the ultimate type of resource protection - protection efforts initiated by an inspired landowner, not through government regulations. Inspired landowners will give consideration to cultural resources during all types of land management activities, in the long term, not during projects initiated by KCFD or CAL FIRE.

Jack recently assisted UCLA in locating a piece of property in the Tehachapi area (Cummings Ranch) that contained known sites where students could practice archaeological survey techniques. He located such a property, secured permission from the landowner to hold the field class, and even participated as a guest lecturer.Through the VMP program, archaeological survey personnel are making tremendous discoveries in some of the rural, brush covered lands in California's foothills, and Jack Ringer was given special recognition for his tremendous accomplishments. Jack still lives in Bakersfield with his wife, Cindy, who is a registered nurse. Together they have two children, Jaclyn and Brittany. Jaclyn is a junior at Sonoma State University and Brittany is a senior in high school. In his spare time, when he is not out looking for rock art sites, Jack enjoys doing projects around the house, and photographing spring wildflowers. One of his future projects he plans to complete soon after his retirement (estimated to occur sometime in 2004) is to restore a classic 1970 Ford Mustang.