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On December 7, 2021, Save Mount Diablo and our good partners (California State Parks, CSU East Bay, and the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors) held our annual National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day event.

At the event, Pearl Harbor survivor Earl “Chuck” Kohler ceremoniously lit the Mount Diablo Summit Beacon to commemorate the day. Save Mount Diablo volunteers were standing by at the top of the mountain to ensure the Beacon lighting went smoothly.

This year’s Beacon lighting was a spectacular way to start off our 50th anniversary celebration. As Ted Clement, Executive Director of Save Mount Diablo, puts it, the Beacon lighting ceremony is “not a typical land trust event by any stretch.” Yet, it is “so deeply patriotic and perfect, like land conservation.”

President Teddy Roosevelt’s speech from August 31, 1910, noted: “Of all the questions which can come before this nation, . . . there is none which compares in importance with the great central task of leaving this land even a better land for our descendants than it is for us, and training them into a better race to inhabit the land and pass it on.

“Conservation is a great moral issue for it involves the patriotic duty of insuring the safety and continuance of the nation,” Roosevelt said.

In uncertain times, reflecting on Pearl Harbor as we do in our annual Beacon lighting ceremony is an important reminder that we can overcome great challenges when we come together. We must try to heal divisions between ourselves in order to move forward.

If you missed the event, you can watch our commemorative Beacon lighting video below. Hear stories about what happened at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, directly from Pearl Harbor survivors:

Top photo: Save Mount Diablo Executive Director Ted Clement (left) and Pearl Harbor survivor Chuck Kohler (right). Photo by Floyd McCluhan