He has called the Ventana Wilderness home – and his workshop for making violin bows.

A house is the last thing you’d expect to find along the idyllic and remote headwaters of the Carmel River deep in the Ventana Wilderness, but that’s exactly where 94-year-old Jack English lived full-time for 13 years.

The place is accessible only by foot – a rugged 12-mile hike from Los Padres Dam, or a steep 6-mile descent from dusty Tassajara Road. English, a retired contractor, moved to the weekend home after his wife died, hiking in and out until he came to rely on the generosity of a helicopter pilot friend.

Enduring gout that leaves his knuckles and elbows gnarled and swollen, he continues crafting violin bows, an art he honed at his remote spot. His health is in a bit of a decline; the Weekly caught up with him at the Soquel home of his son, Dennis English, where he’s currently staying.

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Weekly: When did you first discover Pine Valley?

Jack English: I went to Pine Valley when I was 11 years old, the first time, with my parents. I really love that place. I think it’s the prettiest spot in those mountains. It’s always been wilderness, but it wasn’t called Ventana then.

How did you come to own a home in the middle of a wilderness area?

The government put up the land for auction, and I bid on it. It was while my wife and I were living in Alaska. Alaska always treated me well, but we had to come back [to Soquel] to take care of my father and mother.

We got the material for the cabin down there, mostly. The nails and cement had to be packed in. My wife and I, we spent a lot of time down there. We used to go vacationing there, and I always wanted to live there. My wife was the brains of the outfit. She handled all the paperwork, investing, she watched everything. Her nickname was Scrumptious. And she was, too.

How did you decide to live on the edge of the grid?

I’d worked in gold mines before [World War II], then afterward went to work in Alaska. I used to hunt a lot. That’s why I went to Alaska in the first place, for moose, caribou, elk, deer, grizzly..

I used to have dogs; they’d put a mountain lion up a tree, then we’d shoot him out of the tree. I shot so much big game, I’ve killed everything in North America practically. I just don’t want to kill anything anymore. I think, ‘What did I kill all that stuff for?’

When did you start making violin and cello bows?

It’s been a long time, over 60 years. I started because my son was interested in violins. I can’t play, it’s not in me. But my son can. He was the state fiddling champion three times.

Tell me about the inlays and colors in the bows.

There’s ebony, red abalone, ivory, walrus ivory, tortoise shell. It’s illegal. But I’m not breaking the law deliberately. I got ivory, and I got it legal; it came as an artifact in a pawn shop. The snakewood, this spotty wood, is very costly.

How much do they cost?

I’m afraid to tell you. I’ve sold a lot of them, mostly for $2,000. With all the inlay, they’re $3,000 apiece.

Can you still handle delicate bow-making with bad gout in your hands?

It interferes with my work because I can’t hold anything. Now it takes 40 hours per bow. It’s very delicate work. You can be doing perfect then there’s a flaw, something you didn’t see. But I’m working on them even now, even though all of my sophisticated equipment is down at the cabin in Pine Valley.

Do you have any advice for staying healthy and active into your 90s?

Both my wife and I didn’t drink, we didn’t smoke, we didn’t use drugs. We do not believe in it. We believe in clean. One of my philosophies is, if you don’t tell the truth it catches up with you.

Do you expect to be able to live in Pine Valley again?

My wife wanted her ashes scattered in Pine Valley, in the meadow and around the cabin. I’ve told my son, mix us together and then scatter it. To me, that’s very important. We were partners in everything.