LAKEPORT — When the Kelseyville High School varsity football team walks onto the field at Don Owens Stadium Friday night in Lakeport, it will encounter more than just the Bass Bowl-defending champion Clear Lake Cardinals; the Knights also will be looking down the barrel of a Civil War-era cannon.
For the second straight year in the three-year history of the SERVPRO Bass Bowl, there will be a Civil War cannon firing after every score at the game.
The Bass Bowl committee, through a cooperative effort with the California Historical Artillery Society (CHAS), will bring Civil War living history to Lake County for the SERVPRO Bass Bowl.
“We wanted to have a Civil War cannon at the Bass Bowl to commemorate the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War, in addition to bringing more bang to the game,” Bass Bowl executive director Phil Smoley explained. “If you live within a mile of the stadium, you will hear the cannon.”
The Bass Bowl Committee provided 30 “man-days” of labor at Civil War Days in Duncan Mills last July. In return, CHAS, the sponsors of Civil War Days, agreed to bring an artillery team to Lake County.
Besides historical reenactments, CHAS is involved with horse rescue. They use standard-bred trotters rescued from California”s tracks and retrain them as artillery horses. These horses now live on a 40-acre ranch in the Salinas Valley. CHAS presently use more than 30 horses that were destined for an unpleasant demise.
The Bass Bowl committee puts on a series of fundraising events leading up to the game and tries to increase attendance to the game itself. Net proceeds of these events will be split between the two schools” athletic departments.
“Funding for local sports programs is nearly non-existent,” Smoley said. “Without strong local support, they will go away and that would be a disaster. These events will go a long way to keeping these schools” athletic programs going.”
