Boonville, October, 1972

“To tell the truth, there just isn’t much going on in Boonville right now,” said O.W. (Dick) Winkler, manager of the Mendocino County Fair and Apple Show as he stood on the curb in front of his office gazing up and down Highway 128.

Judging from the traffic — or lack of it — Winkler’s appraisal was 100% accurate. Once in a while a car went past or a logging truck heading for Cloverdale and beyond with a heavy load, or another bound for the Coast with the trailer riding piggy-back.

Yet something is going on around Boonville. More than one thing, actually.

Winkler shortly before had played host to about 3,000 younger element persons taking part in some sort of be-in at the fairgrounds. He is not much of an incense-sniffer but has learned to take such gatherings in stride.

Under the heading of local doings, one might add that Richard Earle Kossow, a youngish attorney, has set up shop in Boonville and will oppose Judge Homer Mannix in the November election.

And over at Anderson Valley High School the rather dynamic superintendent, Melvin Baker, was supervising the finishing touches on a cluster of three novel geodesic dome design classrooms.

As a final newsy item, the community is getting geared up for a $5.5 million dam project which could solve the most immediate problem — lack of a water system.

The same day Dick Winkler made his curbside observation, Congressman Don Clausen and his aide, Gordon Tippit, called on Homer Mannix to talk over prospects for the federal grant required.

Why confer with Mannix? Any project of consequence in Boonville is certain to involve him in one way or another. Although not much of a drum-beater on his own behalf, he can be pried loose from pertinent facts while sitting in his justice court office in his Mannix Building, diagonally across the street from the fair office.

A native of Los Gatos, Mannix came to Anderson Valley in 1927 and attended Ornbaun Valley School, a one-room facility where he completed the eighth grade.

Later he finished high school at Sutter Creek and then majored in electrical engineering at Cogswell Polytechnic College in San Francisco.

Returning to Boonville in 1943, he had an electrical contractor business going.

At present, his wife, Beatrice, operates a beauty shop next door to the justice court.

A son, Jack, graduated from Anderson Valley High School and Sacramento State College and is an accountant at Queen of the Valley Hospital in Napa.

Mrs. Mannix’s son, David Lampert, is with the Bank of America branch in London.

A daughter, Mrs. Bea Anne Wise, lives in Cloverdale. Another, Mrs. Neil (Kathleen) Kephart, lives in Boonville. Her husband commutes to work at Masonite in Ukiah. A third daughter, Frances, is 14 and completed eighth grade at the local school this year. A son, Homer, 11, has completed the sixth grade.

Judge Mannix probably doesn’t think of it this way, but he is in an unusual position as he also is editor and publisher of the local newspaper, the Anderson Valley Advertiser and Mendocino County Reporter.

He founded the paper and has been the sole owner throughout. Hence he has to write up his own court news, a rather tricky operation.

How did it all come about? “Well, I was in the major appliance and contracting business. I felt the need for a newspaper in the Valley.”

Circulation is about 1,800. A few years ago the paper was much involved in the “War of the Warrants” in Mendocino County, a subject which cannot be fully explained here — perhaps nowhere at all.

How did Mannix come to be judge? He had had political ambitions for quite a while, and ran for county supervisor some years ago, losing by 21 votes in the agonizing days when absentee voter ballots were counted later and could make a difference.

Harwood J. June had been the first manager of the County Fair, starting in 1928, and was judge for many years. Later, Maurice Tindall was judge and still writes an engrossing outdoors column for Mannix’s Advertiser.

Robert Rawles was elected judge, defeating Mannix soundly. Judge Rawles died in June of last year and Mannix was appointed by the County Supervisors to fill the vacancy.

When he ran for the office he had taken and passed a qualifying examination.

Judge Mannix also is his own landlord, having moved the court recently to quarters over his publishing premises.

The Anderson Justice Court is the arm of the Anderson Judicial District, extending generally from the Sonoma County line on Highway 128 to a few miles west of Navarro, including of course the hilly regions flanking the Valley.

This court handles misdemeanors, such as vehicle code and Fish and Game violations, logging pollution, petty theft up to $200 and civil cases to $500.

In November Mannix is to be opposed for a new term by the young attorney Kossow, who is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Minnesota law school.

He spent some early years with a big law firm in Minneapolis. “There was no lack of work there. They had a backlog for ten or fifteen years.” He became dissatisfied with that form of practice and eventually settled in Boonville after some preliminary looks at Mendocino Town on the Coast.

At first he was involved in a school called Compost College in the hills near Anderson Valley. The school is more or less defunct now. He wears his hair long and if you ask him if he is a hippie he says, “I don’t object to the term.” This comes with a laugh.

However, he agrees that his appearance is an advantage in his “store front” Boonville office. Many hippies and related folk are coming into Anderson Valley. They would be “put off” by the usual attorney with his jacket, white shirt and tie.

Law practice in Boonville — how does a guy get by? Not too badly, Kossow says. In real estate parlance property is “red hot” in Anderson Valley now. Sometimes groups of people, all “loving each other” will band together and pick up a piece of property.

Sometimes one or more will leave the area, without completing “establishment” paperwork on the property. Then there are easements, boundaries to be determined, even wills…

Kossow has all the usual certifications on his office wall. Magna cum laude — he laughs at that too, saying, “It’s just too much trouble to be summa cum laude.”

One has the feeling he could have made the higher honor too. Certainly he will be a strong opponent for Mr. Mannix.

The contest will be an almost classic one, a newcomer against a Solid Citizen, though Mr. Mannix notes with a bit of humor he was not born there and does not “qualify” in the strict Anderson Valley tradition.

Yet he does “qualify” in a number of other directions. He was the chapter president of the Anderson Valley Lions Club when it was founded in 1951 and continues as an honorary director.

This club meets the second and fourth Mondays at a place called Our Place in the evenings to allow for travel times of members.

Mannix is a director of the Anderson Valley Chamber of Commerce. The President is S.W. “Smokey” Blattner of Philo.

Further, Mannix is former president and still a member of the board of the Anderson Valley Unified School District. Melvin Baker is superintendent and principal of the high school.

Louis Fortin, who is from Santa Rosa, is elementary school principal.

Mannix has been on the school board for six years and was president for three.

Next we have the Anderson Valley Volunteer Fire Department. The secretary-manager: Homer Mannix. This levies a tax of 42¢ per $100 assessed value. It operates three pumpers, plus another that is semi-retired; a four-wheel drive pickup pumper, and a retired ambulance used for rescue work.

O.W. “Dick” Winkler is chairman of the fire department board. Serving with him are Jack Clow, Frank Falleri, James Gowan and Archie Schoenahl, all very well known citizens.

Bill West, who is maintenance chief, is the new fire chief, having recently succeeded Smokey Blattner.

Carl Kinion is acting assistant chief. Then there are three area captains — Donald Pardini, Boonville, David Perkins, Philo, and Valfrid “Cap” Salmela, Navarro.

The community services district is the legal arm for other functions and hopes of Boonville, such as the proposed water and sewer systems and the Boonville Lighting District which operates street lights on a zone system in town.

Mannix is the district’s secretary-manager.

Television? Yes. Anderson Valley folks have it via a UHF receiver on a hill which reflects the vital rays to the waiting populace below. There is no cable, but receivers/antennas can pick up Channels 2, 4, 5 and 7 out of San Francisco.

Who pays for this? Anyone they can get. There is a television association, headed by Jack Clow. At the outset, the association raised more than $15,000 to get going, and collects about that much annually.

This is a $24 a year voluntary charge, and periodically editor Mannix runs reminders in the Advertiser to pay up.

Then there’s the Anderson Valley Ambulance Service. You pay $5 a year which entitles you to one “free” ride up to 70 miles. Other charges are made according to distance and use.

Frank Falleri is president of the ambulance association. Other directors are Ray Ingram, Margaret Charles, Howard Nelson, Walter Tuttle, Mrs. Arthur “Anna” Brenner, secretary — and Homer Mannix, of course.

A 1971 Pontiac station wagon is the vehicle and works quite well, though they may have to go to one of the “standup” types of ambulance one of these days.

Ray Salatena has been an ambulance driver for 15 years. Bill West (the new fire chief) for 10. Three new drivers recently joined, Patrick Sinnot, Carl Kinion and David Perkins. (Sinnot is Mannix’s printer.)

The ambulance service area extends generally from the Sonoma County line to the mouth of the Navarro River.

An old ambulance was given to the fire department and sits next to the fire station in downtown Boonville. This fire station, by the way, is owned by Lodge 411, Independent Order of Oddfellows. It was built ten years ago for the fire department and leased to it with the exception of three days during the county fair. The idea was that the lodge brothers would operate it as a refreshment stand, and the sides open out to form counters for the purpose.

However, it is hard to get the fellows to work on it these days and the business has not run for the past few years.

Homer Mannix is a past Noble Grand of Lodge 411.

He estimates the population of the Valley as around 3,000. Highway signs at either end of Boonville read 1,025 or 975, depending on which way you’re going.

There has been a substantial influx of people in the past few years, no doubt about it.

One of the unusual projects is Ideal City, just south of Boonville’s business district on Highway 128. A group of persons bought 600 acres and cleared off rocks and brush. The original idea was to put up a motel and shops, but so far it has been all agricultural, with the aid of irrigation.

The owners are not natives, but have been successful in professions elsewhere.

Anderson Valley’s limiting factor is water supply. It comes from wells for domestic use and from the Navarro River for irrigation, when available.

But Mannix, pointing out his justice court window, can mark the site of a proposed dam. One shoulder of a hill will be joined to a “ridgeback” nearby and a dam built to store 6,000 acre-feet of water.

Efforts to get money for this are via Public Law 984 and the US Bureau of Reclamation. It would be a multi-purpose project, providing water for irrigation, domestic use and fish propagation.

Included in the $5.5 million price is a pipeline running down and serving the Valley, a 33-incher at first where the heavy use would be, then converging to an eight-inch at the lower end of the service area.

The projected price is $25 an acre-foot for irrigation with other rates for various other uses.

People in Anderson Valley are mindful of the natural attractions of the area which bring in many tourists — many of whom stick around for years.

Mannix and others were instrumental in taking over a redwood area between Boonville and Philo: Indian Creek State Park.

This was to be turned over to a timber company but by way of a land swap the property was preserved in natural state and will be operated as a park by the local community services district.

One of the foremost “promoters” of Anderson Valley is the postmaster, Mrs. Peggy Bates. The post office was built in 1961 and looks newer than that.

She replaced George Lawson who retired at Boonville after having been postmaster for 34 years.

Mrs. Bates realizes that she is a “newcomer” though she has 22 years residence in the Valley. She knows something about Boontling, the strange local language which evolved in the logging boom period. “It’s controversial,” she said, “but I like it.”

Mrs. Bates noted that Boonville has a medical service, at least periodically. One thing about the town is the high percentage of man-and-wife business teams, such as at the Boonville Lodge, the local bar, and grocery stores and service stations.

A number of expensive homes are springing up back in the hills. One is that of Michael Shapiro, producer of the popular public television show, Sesame Street.

Getting back to Dick Winkler, the fair manager, he commented about the great hippie conclave of 3,000 persons at the fairgrounds.

A former Sebastopol apple grower, Winkler commented that, “They call it a fair. I call it a jamboree.”

In Anderson Valley, the jamboree has only begun.

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat, October 1972)