The Marble Cone Fire was a wildland fire which burned for three weeks in August, 1977 in the

Santa Lucia Mountains The Santa Lucia Mountains (sæntə luˈsiːə) or Santa Lucia Range is a rugged mountain range in coastal central California, running from Carmel southeast for to the Cuyama River in San Luis Obispo County. The range is never more than from t ...

high country, at the

Big Sur Big Sur () is a rugged and mountainous section of the Central Coast of California between Carmel and San Simeon, where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. It is frequently praised for its dramatic scenery. Big Sur ha ...

area of

Monterey County Monterey County ( ), officially the County of Monterey, is a county located on the Pacific coast in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, its population was 439,035. The county's largest city and county seat is Salinas. Montere ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. By the time it was extinguished, it had burned about "Sequential Changes in Bed Habitat Conditions in the Upper Carmel River Following the Marble-Cone Fire of August, 1977", California Digital Library
/ref> in the

, known as the

Ventana Wilderness The Ventana Wilderness of Los Padres National Forest is a federally designated wilderness area located in the Santa Lucia Range along the Central Coast of California. This wilderness was established in 1969 when the Ventana Wilderness Act redesig ...

, making it the largest wildfire in recorded California history at that time. The fire burned 90% of the vegetation cover in the upper

Big Sur River The Big Sur River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed March 15, 2011 river on the Central Coast of California. The river drains a portion of the Big Sur area, a thinly ...

watershed. This posed the threat of serious flooding in the

Valley, where a much smaller August 1972 fire had led to severe flooding later that year. This time, the rains were moderate and resulted in no major flooding problems.Lussier, Tommie Kay, ''Big Sur: A Complete History and Guide'',

References

External links

"Changes in Distribution of Owl Species Subsequent to Habitat Alteration by Fire", Bruce Elliot, California Department of Fish and Game ''Western Birds'' 16:25-28, 1985
Wildfires in Monterey County, California 1977 fires in the United States 1977 in California 1970s wildfires in the United States Monterey Ranger District, Los Padres National Forest Santa Lucia Range 1977 natural disasters in the United States August 1977 events in the United States Big Sur {{wildfire-stub