30 years ago, Jesse Hawkes formed a mountain
rescue team called the High Mountain Rangers. Based in the foothills of the
Sierra
Nevada mountains near Lake Tahoe, the rangers used the latest in high-tech
equipment - along with their knowledge of mountaineering and survival techniques
- to protect the residents and visitors, as well as the animals that lived in
the mountains.
Jesse was now semi-retired and living with his
teenaged son Cody in a cabin in the mountains. His older son Matt was running
the business, along with fellow rangers Robin, Cutler, Hart, Frank "White Eagle"
Avila
(a full-blooded Shoshone Indian) and Izzy, the young apprentice. Matt kept in
close contact with his father and sought advice by short-wave radio. Jesse and
his wife, Jackie, a blackjack dealer at one of the casinos in South Lake Tahoe,
had been separated for years because she was not interested in living the
isolated life-style that suited her husband.
The shows' star Robert Conrad had practically
his whole real-life family working on the series. His two sons on the series
were his real-life sons, his daughter Joan was the executive producer and her
husband, Timothy Erwin, had a starring role.
High
Mountain Rangers
was filmed on location in the
Sierra Nevada
mountains near Lake Tahoe, California.
