{"id":2281,"date":"1999-11-07T20:30:16","date_gmt":"1999-11-07T20:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogschapman.wpenginepowered.com\/huell-howser-archives\/1999\/01\/08\/devils-postpile-californias-gold-1011\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T21:35:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T21:35:57","slug":"devils-postpile-californias-gold-1011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/huell-howser-archives\/1999\/11\/07\/devils-postpile-californias-gold-1011\/","title":{"rendered":"Devils Postpile &#8211; California&#039;s Gold (1011)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Surreal, awesome, unbelievable, weird? These are just some of the words that come out of&nbsp;your mouth when you view the Devils Postpile. Located in the Eastern Sierras, this formation is one of nature&#8217;s true masterpieces.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Towering 60 feet over the San Joaquin River the postpile looks like a huge cathedral pipe organ built entirely of stone. The postpile is actually composed of thousands of columns of fine-grained, black-colored basalt. 100,000 years ago cooling molten rock contracted, creating perfect cracks. As gravity pulled on the face it created thousands of columns and the postpile was born. Join Huell as he tours this fine example of nature&#8217;s &#8220;California&#8217;s Gold&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Note: This episode was released across Public Broadcasting Service&#8217;s (PBS) affiliated stations in California, but not necessarily on the same day for each station. The date shown represents the earliest, approximate airdate for this episode.<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Embedded Media titled: GOLD01011_devils_postpile\" src=\"https:\/\/video.chapman.edu\/V\/Video?v=9862899&amp;node=43278627&amp;a=152531439&amp;preload=false\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Surreal, awesome, unbelievable, weird? These are just some of the words that come out of&nbsp;your mouth when you view the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"custom_author_name":"","chapman_pin_hero_slider":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1677,1678,1679,392,1680,1681],"class_list":["post-2281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-californias-gold","tag-basalt","tag-devils-postpile","tag-devils-postpile-national-monument","tag-eastern-sierra","tag-sierra-mountains","tag-wymond-eckhardt"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Huell Howser Archives at Chapman University | Chapman Blogs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/huell-howser-archives\/1999\/11\/07\/devils-postpile-californias-gold-1011\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Devils Postpile - California&#039;s Gold (1011) - Huell Howser Archives at Chapman University\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Surreal, awesome, unbelievable, weird? 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