Cold nights spent in orange groves as an adolescent come back to Galen Beery as he stands with lighter in hand next to a smudge pot. Thick black smoke, created by the burning oil in the bases of these smudge pots, filled the orchards and the sky over La Verne. Although the smoke would leave a cover in the morning resembling black fog, the heat emitted from the smudge pots kept the oranges from freezing. Beery, now the independent historian of La Verne, keeps remnants of this bygone farming technique alive at La Verne's Heritage Park. / photo by Jennifer Contreras