Mike Milligan, the chief of the Holy Jim Volunteer Fire Department, who spent nearly five decades as the most ardent advocate for the remote cabin community in the Cleveland National Forest, has died. He was 75.

Milligan, who made it one of his life’s missions to protect Holy Jim Canyon from fires – and what he frequently described as wayward land-and-water-use policies enacted by the federal and state governments – died in his sleep on Aug. 19 in his cabin, said his youngest daughter, Katie Saalfeld.

He had been sick for about a week with flu-like symptoms, Saalfeld said. Milligan posthumously tested negative for COVID-19, she added.

The tract of cabins, in the Orange County portion of the Cleveland National Forest, east of Lake Forest and Trabuco Canyon, dates back to the Reconstruction Era. Multiple fires have threatened Holy Jim, whose founding residents were Union soldiers.

In 2018, the Holy fire – which fire investigators said was caused by arson – destroyed several cabins. And had it not been for the work of federal and county firefighters, as well as Milligan’s all-volunteer crew, more could have been lost.

A complex web of state and federal policies makes it illegal for the Volunteer Fire Department to use water from the creeks – and unlikely that cabin owners would get the OK to rebuild destroyed cottages.

The number of cabins has dwindled, from 62 to 45 by 2017. Now, thirtysomething remain.

Five years ago, when discussing the possibility of Holy Jim eventually vanishing, Milligan, the fire chief for decades, said he never wanted to see that day.

“Hopefully,” Milligan said in 2017, “I’ll be dead by then.”

Milligan was Holy Jim’s steadfast patriarch, leading the community for around one-third of its approximately 150-year history.

Saalfeld, a mother to three children and a nurse at Providence Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, has inherited her father’s cabin. She sat on the cabin’s patio on Thursday afternoon, Aug. 25, holding back tears, her voice cracking, as she discussed Milligan’s legacy.

“They are just such overwhelming shoes to fill,” Saalfeld said. “But I’m willing to try.”

Michael Patrick Milligan was born on May 25, 1947, in Long Beach. His father, James Porter Milligan, sold freight for a living. His mother left when Milligan was 2 years old. The last time he saw her, after sporadic visits, was when he was 5.

Milligan grew up in Long Beach, having a middle-class upbringing; he was mostly raised by his aunt, Mary Francis Hunt.

He attended Cal State Long Beach for several years. But one semester he dropped a class, bringing him below the number of units needed for full-time status. And before he could add another class, the Selective Service System flagged him.

The U.S. Army shipped him to Vietnam in 1968, according to Eric Esphorst, who served as a Marine during the Vietnam War and decades later befriended Milligan while they both worked at Lowe’s.

Milligan, like many Vietnam War veterans, rarely discussed his military service with his family, said his widow, Kate Cannan Milligan. But he and Esphorst bonded over their time in Vietnam.

Milligan, the Army learned, was able to be alone longer than many of his fellow soldiers. So he spent much of his time in Vietnam perched on hills, binoculars to his eyes, scouting enemy positions.

He received multiple commendations and was struck by shrapnel in a leg before eventually receiving an honorable discharge in July 1974, a year before the fall of Saigon. He left the Army as a sergeant.

Milligan retreated to Holy Jim Canyon.

He spent three months in near seclusion, decompressing, as he described it in a 2017 interview.

He built his first cabin, Kate Milligan said – with no power tools.

And he fell in love with Holy Jim.

Over the ensuing decades, he worked as a real estate agent, commercial broker and property manager – and as a Lowe’s employee. He also went back to school, receiving a degree in English and eventually even obtaining a master’s degree in English as well from CSULB.

In the early 1980s, he sold a house to a woman named Kate Cannan. The spark lit in an instant.

“I got out of my car and he got out of his and that was it,” his widow said. “It was one of those things.”

They quickly married. It was the second marriage for both. Together, they raised three children.

The family spent countless days sequestered in Holy Jim Canyon. Milligan would take Saalfeld on walks as a young child, hike with her, watch as she caught salamanders.

As an adult, Saalfeld regularly visited with her three children and her husband, Regis.

Those who knew him described Milligan as equal turns gruff and kind, grumpy yet wise, obstinate in his desire to defend Holy Jim and inquisitive. He was kind and considerate.

Because Regis is from Brazil, Milligan taught himself Portuguese.

He loved journaling and drawing.

“I think that’s why he liked it up here,” Saalfeld said. “He could do what he loved: read, draw, create.”

In 1980, a blaze claimed the life of a Forest Service firefighter and several Holy Jim cabins. In 2016, the Holy Jim fire burned 155 acres. That blaze didn’t claim any cabins, but rains came soon after, bringing sludge that washed out a road and forced several drivers to squeeze out of car windows.

Each time flames threatened Holy Jim, Milligan was there, operating a nearly antique fire engine, hooking hoses up to water tanks, organizing his fellow volunteer firefighters, giving assistance to the pros.

“They are the first line of defense,” Capt. Larry Kurtz, with the Orange County Fire Authority, said in 2017. “And no one knows the area better than they do.”

Then came 2018.

At least 13 cabins burned when a fire, which investigators and prosecutors say was started by arson, scorched thousands of acres of forest in Orange and Riverside counties. Cabin owner Forrest Clark has been charged with igniting the fire, though he and his attorneys have denied that. His trial has not yet started.

“There were suggestions that my Dad started the fire, and he was going to have to testify,” Saalfeld said of one of Clark’s possible defenses. “I know that was hard on him.”

Milligan is survived by his widow, Kate Cannan Milligan; eldest daughter Chelsea Redwood and granddaughter Nikelle; middle daughter Jennifer Vargas and grandson Cannan; and youngest daughter Katie Saalfeld, son-in-law Regis and grandchildren Devin, 11, Nixon, 8, and 1-month-old Davi.

As this year’s fire season approached, and with Holy Jim having newer and younger residents now after the 2018 fire, Milligan once again started preaching prevention measures.

Related links

Is time running out on Holy Jim Canyon? Nature, feds are threatening
Holy Jim, devastated by fire, faces specter of vanishing forever
Holy fire suspect arrested; local allegedly threatened ‘this place will burn’
Judge declines to reduce bail for man accused of igniting massive Holy fire
Who was Holy Jim, anyway?

Several weeks ago, he and his family cleared the hillside near his cabin. He tied a rope around his waist and his grandson Nixon’s, so the 8-year-old would be safe.

Holy Jim is mourning the loss of its patriarch – and worrying about what his absence may mean the next time flames approach.

“He was my friend and my mentor,” said Leslee Riddell, who bought her cabin in Holy Jim 12 years ago and has been president of the community’s homeowners’ association for the last eight. “Anytime I had a question or needed advice, he was there.

Related Articles

“I’ve never grieved for anyone like the way I’m grieving for him,” she added. “It’s like a tsunami.”

The day he died, Saalfeld drove to Holy Jim. She has been a regular at the cabin since then. Yet, she hasn’t stepped through the doorway.

Now, somehow, Holy Jim will have to persist – without its greatest defender.