APPLE VALLEY — After 12 years as Huell Howser's camera and sound man, Luis Fuerte had much to tell a standing-room only crowd at Redeemer Church on Thursday.

The event, attended by well over a hundred and twenty people, was sponsored by the Mohahve Historical Society, which had invited Fuerte to speak last year. His talk, centered on Howser, his longtime friend and television personality, proved so popular with local history buffs that Fuerte was invited back this year.

Fuerte, a five-time Emmy winner, discussed his book, ‘Louie, Take a Look at This! My time with Huell Howser,’ which detailed his time working with Howser for KCET in Los Angeles. The many stories he related didn’t disappoint the gathering, as he told tale after tale about driving all around California, in search of that special story Howser could share with his television audience.

According to Fuerte, “It was just the two of us in the car – us and the equipment, that is. Especially, that darn heavy hand microphone he always carried.”

Fuerte said that he grew up in the San Bernardino area, after his parents had emigrated from Mexico, and graduated in 1960 from Colton High School. He enlisted in the United States Navy and was stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

“Someone had to protect the Hula girls,” Fuerte said, jokingly.

After his military stint, he entered college and a friend showed him around a small television studio in which she worked. This, according to Fuerte, was when he knew he wanted to be behind a camera.

“I fell in love with filming and that’s all I wanted to do,” he said. Little did he know, that he would not just be a cameraman. His knowledge would also have to include lighting, editing, sound, and anything else needed to complete the project.

“I think it was 1989,” Fuerte said, “and I was in the commissary at KECT, where I was now working as a utility cameraman, when I heard this loud southern twang coming from a very tall man across the room. I knew instantly, it was Huell Howser. I went over and introduced myself and joked that maybe we’d work together sometime.”

Two weeks later, the television station advised Fuerte that he would be shooting a video-log with Howser.

The men hit if off, and the video-logs eventually turned into "Califonia’s Gold," the television series which made Huell Howser virtually a house-hold name.

“Huell and I were complete opposites,” Fuerte said. “He loved being in front of the camera and being shy. I wanted no part of that. I was fine to be the man behind the camera for good.”

Fuerte related one story of how he and Howser did an episode on a window washing team in downtown Los Angeles.

“You know, Huell was afraid of heights, and so was I. But I was so busy making sure I had the right shots that I never realized we were standing on a window washing contraption 71 stories above the streets of LA. When I think of it now, I have terrible flashbacks.”

When asked if Howser did research before hitting the road, Fuerte smiled and said, “No. He didn’t want to know too much about the topic. He told the producers to give him a little information, and he would take it from there. He wanted to be surprised.”

KCET loved the way Howser worked, according to Fuerte. “We never did more than one take during an episode. Huell was a very cost effective host and the station loved that. Could there been more takes sometimes? Yes, in my view, but that wasn’t how Huell worked. Shoot the scene and move on, Louie, he would often tell me.”

Fuerte told of another experience in which the duo filmed and episode at the ’16 to 1’ gold mine in the town of Alleghany.

“Here we were, down in tunnels deep beneath the earth, and they are actually blasting parts of the mountain away above us. Neither of us liked that experience very much.”

“You know, we filmed all the California Missions, including some in Baja. When we hit the seventeenth, Huell looked over at me and said he was going to become a Catholic. When I told him he’d have to go to confession, the idea sort of slipped away from Huell,” Fuerte said.

Though Howser died on January 7, 2013, at the age of 67, that doesn’t mean his personality and spirit are forgotten. Especially not with Fuerte.

“I learned a lot from him. There’s so much history here. It is such a diverse state that we live in.”

At the end of his presentation, Fuerte said, “Huell Howser was an icon in California, and always will be. There won’t be another Huell Howser, that’s for sure.”