This column is a further exploration into the history of log rafts on the Mendocino Coast and the topic will continue for the next few weeks. When a historian finds all kinds of interesting historical facts while researching, and it just won’t fit in one story, the topic becomes a series. Steam ship towing a log raft out of Noyo Harbor near Fort Bragg. (Virginia Lycan [...]
One of the dilemmas I get into as a historian is that I start out with an idea for a Kelley House column… “I’m going to write about tugboats and log rafts…” then when researching I get side-tracked and diverted by other interesting facts. Pretty soon I’ve got more than enough research for three or four columns, all relevant to my original search. So, if readers [...]
While a very few nice positive things could be said about state representative John B. Sanford of Ukiah 110 years ago… “He was a good businessman, a man of faith, he served his community as a teacher and principal”… the man had a colossal fault in his character. Sanford would turn livid at the suggestion that woman should get to vote. A 1914 anti-suffrage cartoon by [...]
What’s a doghole schooner? The standard joke about Mendocino County’s 30 shipping ports 120 years ago was that they were so small and tight a dog getting ready to settle down would have a hard time turning around to settle down. The ships were small with two masts fore and aft and sails, though many were later converted to steam power. They existed to haul finished [...]
It was going to be a humdinger of a Comptche party in late June. The whole town was invited to show up at the community hall, family would be arriving, all to celebrate Buddy Stenback’s 90th birthday in style. Only problem? A nasty pandemic got in the way and cancelled the party. Buddy Stenback 9 mos old baby photo. Photo courtesy of the Stenback family Stenback [...]
So, a family ancestor writes an autobiography 25 years ago and shares it with the family. Is it of interest to folks outside the family? If it shares some of the history of the Mendocino Coast, then YES! The Kelley House Museum thanks the Voepel/Stenback family of Comptche for a donated 68-page autobiography with a peek into life on the coast in the 1950s and 1960s. [...]
In studying history, one of my favorite discoveries is how creativity and ingenuity solved problems, like moving really BIG things. Incline railways were one such invention. These rail lines had nicknames for their many parts – they were “sidehill railroads” using “gravity systems” to run “log slide engines” and “dropping machines.” Basically, what the systems accomplished was moving logs or lumber in really steep terrain. Hare [...]
As a historian, it is easy to be researching one project and get waylaid by interesting materials that have nothing to do with the research topic at hand. The book “Caspar Notebook – School Days” by Ann M. Connor, self-published in 1979, was half about the topic I was after (schools) but the rest was stuffed with tidbits of Caspar history from 1895 to 1905 that I [...]
After giving attention to Mendocino’s early tailor, William H. White, a few weeks ago in a Kelley House Calendar column, recognition is now directed to the female side of the trade -- the dressmakers and milliners (hat designers) of this town. Dressmaker and Millinery Artist America Jane Elliott, c. 1868. (Courtesy Hazel Jarvis Edwards, Lloyd Smith Collection in Kelley House Museum) If a resident was poor [...]
A Headline in the November 23, 1918 issue of the Mendocino Beacon read: “Drunken Woodsmen Wreck Cookhouse – Raise Hades at Little Valley Camp” Head Cook Wah Bow with his crew at the cookhouse door of Caspar Lumber Company's Camp #1 in 1900-1920. Lee Sing John cooked there in the early years and Wah Bow worked there later. Many other Chinese men worked in the Mill [...]