GLEN ELLEN; HAMLET OFFERS HAUNTING GLIMPSE INTO PAST OF AUTHOR JACK LONDON : ON LOCATION.

Byline: Susanne Hopkins Daily News Travel Editor

It's just six minutes long, but the silent newsreel is mesmerizing. A smiling Jack London cavorts about his ranch in the hills above Sonoma. He drives a manure spreader, slops the pigs, currycombs his horse and cuddles a squealing piglet.

On Nov. 22, 1916, six days after the newsreel was shot, the fabled author and adventurer died at age 40, some say of uremic poisoning, while others claim a morphine overdose by his own hand.

But the legend of the man who penned such classics as ``The Sea Wolf,'' ``The Call of the Wild,'' ``South Sea Tales'' and ``White Fang'' lives on, perpetuated by Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen. This hamlet of 1,000 people is tucked into the hills overlooking California's premier wine country about 15 miles northwest of Sonoma in Northern California. It is where London lived from 1905 to 1916.

The park, which comprises what London called his Beauty Ranch, is where he entertained writers, artists and members of the elite, as well as tramps and wastrels. It's where he raised fruit, grain and vegetables, as well as pigs, English shire horses, cattle and other livestock. It's where he wrote, at the rate of 1,000 words a day and sometimes using a giant tree stump as a table, a few dozen of his 53 books ``John Barleycorn'' and ``Valley of the Moon'' among them - and countless short stories.

And it's where he died.

About 80,000 people visit annually, rambling around the House of Happy Walls, a structure built by his widow, Charmian, between 1919 and 1926, a onetime home that now houses the visitors center and museum; the skeleton of Wolf House, London's mansion, which burned in 1913; his grave site; the cottage where he and Charmian lived for the last five years of his life; and assorted structures such as the pig palace (an elaborate London-designed piggery with 17 pens) silos, stallion barn and manure pit.

Some visitors take advantage of the hiking, horse and bike trails that wind throughout the mountainous terrain in the 803-acre park or take a trek of more than six miles round-trip to see the redwood bathhouse and five-acre lake London had built to entertain friends.

Most come away somewhat surprised at what they learn about London, says Gregory Hayes, a park ranger.

``Usually, there's some surprise at how adventurous and fulfilling a life he led in such a short period of time,'' Hayes says of the adventurer who spent time in Alaska during the gold rush, sailed the South Pacific, served as a war correspondent and hobnobbed around the world with the rich and famous - and the down and out.

``I think everyone is impressed at how much he wrote in such a short period. And they're impressed when they see the farm and how much he accomplished.''

The best place to start a tour here is at the House of Happy Walls, a pleasant stone structure with a Spanish tile roof and an open, airy feel. Charmian London lived here when she was not traveling the world; when she died in 1955 at age 84, her will stipulated that the house be turned into a museum honoring London.

Now owned by the state of California, the house is a repository for London treasures. There are copies of rejection letters (he amassed more than 600 before achieving success, including one from the Saturday Evening Post calling his short story, ``Sunlanders,'' ``too tragic''), memorabilia from his days as a war correspondent in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 and the Mexican Revolution in 1910, copies of original manuscripts and newspaper accounts of his death.

Objects collected by London on his travels and furniture created for the ill-fated Wolf House are also here. But perhaps the most eloquent statement is the re-creation of London's study with his rolltop desk, Dictaphone, ship's bell, original artwork for his books and the chronometer and barometer from the Snark, the vessel on which he and Charmian cruised the South PacificS from 1907 to 1909. Vintage photos show him at work here.

London's grave site is about a half-mile from the museum, past clumps of poison oak, a small creek and up a few steep hills. Mine is a solitary ramble; there's no one about this day and the silence is broken only by the burbling creek and some birds singing their morning song.

The grave site is very simple. The ashes of London and his wife lie beneath a red boulder behind a picket fence. He wasn't, after all, a fancy man.

From the grave site, it's another half-mile to the ruins of Wolf House.

``My house will be standing, act of God permitting, for a thousand years,'' London opined, when construction on the 15,000-square-foot, 26-room house began in 1911.

This house was London's dream, an opulent mansion built of unpeeled redwood logs, lava rock and Spanish tile that would contain four floors, including a two-story living room, sleeping tower, an apartment for Charmian, a gun and trophy room, music alcove, library, reflection pool and stag party room.

But in the wee hours of Aug. 22, 1913, just a month before they were scheduled to move into the $80,000 house, it burned. Why or how was never determined, although London and others believed it might have been arson. The dream died that night; London pledged to rebuild, but he never did.

Now, it's a haunting sight. Moss clings to the sides of the lava rock walls that form the skeleton of the place. The chimneys poke into the gray sky like lonely sentinels. You can walk up some stairs to an overlook where there's a floor plan of the house. And you can imagine what might have been.

Last stop on the tour is the cottage, which is being restored to its 1916 appearance and is only open on weekends.

``It's where Jack London really lived,'' Park Ranger Sheryl Lawton says.

Located across the road from the museum, it backs up to the old Kohler & Frohling vineyards. It's a simple structure, white with black trim, perched on a knoll near the sherry and stallion bSarns and the manure pit.

Jack London State Historic Park is at 2400 London Ranch Road, Glen Ellen. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily; the park is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the winter and 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. in summer. The cottage is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; currently, it is empty. Cost is $5 per vehicle, $4 if a senior citizen is in the vehicle. Information: [phone].

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos, Box

Photo: (1--Color) The ruins of Wolf House stretch hauntingly to a gray sky. Author Jack London's dream house burned just weeks before completion; he never rebuilt it.

Susanne Hopkins/Daily News

(2--Color) ``My house will be standing, act of God permitting, for a thousand years.''

- Jack London

upon beginning construction of his house in 1911; he died in 1916 and is buried with his wife, above, at the estate.

(3) Jack London at Beauty Ranch, his spread in Glen Ellen.

Box: On Location (See text)