On September 17, 1966, William V. Fowler, Grand Cyclops (leader) of the California Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, organized a reactivation rally in Soledad Canyon. Fowler sought to reactivate the KKK in California, where it was banned by law since 1946. Estimates of the rally's size range from 30 to 100 people, far fewer than the 5,000 to 10,000 Fowler expected. The rally took place on United States Forest Service property and included a fake cross burning. Just one person was arrested at the rally — for assaulting a police officer he mistook for a Klansman.