GEORGE GAINES, former owner of the Highland Ranch resort (sold to the controversial Blackbird Ranch people a few years ago) outside Philo has died at the age of 95. We not have any particulars. We have not heard if there are plans for an obituary, but we would welcome one.
SILVANO QUEZADA, age 70, of Philo, has also died. Again we have no particulars and await an obituary if one is produced or available.
MENDOCINO COUNTY WAY BACK WHEN: Boonville Racing, 1957 (Ron Parker)
BOONVILLE COUNTY FAIR PREP BEGINS
We are already hard at work getting ready for Fair September 12- 14, 2025. We are looking for volunteers. Anyone interested please contact the office or message us here. 707-895-3011. We can discus what we need and how you might be able to help.
(Mendocino County Fair & Apple Show)
PETIT TETON FARM
Free: organic asparagus starts, organic Seascape strawberry starts. Fresh now: chard, kale, broccolini, herbs, mizuna mustard. All the preserved foods from jams to pickles, soups to hot sauces, made from everything we grow. We sell frozen USDA beef and pork from perfectly raised pigs and cows. Stewing hens and Squab are also available at times. Contact us for what’s available at 707.684.4146 or farmer@petitteton.com.
ONE OLD Boonville man I knew had so much cash in his wallet he wrapped it in wire to keep it all contained between the wallet’s sprung-seam covers. The Depression generation knew in their bones the whole system could fail any time like it did when they were young. (And may be doing again in 2025.) Who can imagine the terrors an elderly pair of immigrant Chinese have survived, but there they are, the old man working the cans on one side of the street, the old lady the other side. They stack their finds at the end of the block, haul it off somewhere, then come back and work another block. I’ve wanted to follow them to see their total operation, but I couldn’t do it without scaring them. And I’ve tried to talk to them but they just smile and keep on moving, on task, not needing to share trade secrets with some hulking busybody of an Ang Mo Qui (Long-nosed monkey or, depending on inflection, Red-haired devil in the Hakka dialect.) The old couple has no competition for ten blocks around. I see them working the trash most mornings and some nights in all kinds of weather.
ONE AFTERNOON a young woman, two small boys in tow, was tying lengths of rope from the spindly limbs of a smallish tree outside my building. She and the two boys looked happy so I assumed she wasn’t about to hang them or herself, but I asked her for a clarification anyway. “I want my kids to rope swing like I got to do when I was a kid,” she explained, “and they won’t let us do it in the parks like this. You don’t mind, do you?”
COMMERCIAL BUILDING FOR RENT IN PHILO, CA
The Floodgate Building is for rent
Commercial Kitchen. Right on Highway 128
1600 square feet approx.
Building could be used as a restaurant, home, office, tasting room, gallery, ample parking, etc.
Rent negotiable.
$1800-$2400 per month
Please call (707) 895-3517 if interested or have questions.
Currently in the process of painting the exterior of building.
We will only respond to phone calls.
Thank you.
I lived in the Valley from 1974-1983. Back then I was Nick Pallazola. My mom is Jan Pallazola, retired teacher, who still lives on Peachland Road. My stepdad is Mike McDonald, longtime elementary school teacher and volleyball coach at AVHS.
I went to high school with the Legendary Jeff Burroughs, Holly and Diana Charles, Zack, Jessica and Ben Anderson, Larry, Lisa, Gina and Denise Carr, Olie and Pam Erickson, Teri Hiatt, the Hiatt sisters, Mike Hilton, DeDe Gowan, Nick Rossi, Bryant Wyant, Charles Davis, Greg Price, Cheryl and Randy Dury, Rhonda and Jerry Tolman, and many others on here.
I visit my mom pretty regularly and live Boonville more than ever…
FROM AN OCTOBER 1886 edition of the Mendocino Beacon: “…We are informed that a fine large lobster was caught in the bay at Noyo last week. A large number of Maine lobsters were planted in San Francisco Bay some years ago and this one is probably an offspring from them. We believe this is the first Maine lobster caught on the coast." And the last?
ALSO FROM AN ANCIENT Beacon of October 1911: “Dwight Kent, the expert mill fisherman, succeeded in landing a large salmon near the mill one day last week. In cleaning the fish Mr. Kent found about four pounds of junk composed of bolts, set screws, etc. He says he thinks the fish must have been hanging around an Oregon foundry, or possibly the Union Iron Works in San Francisco. However, others who claim to know, say this was one of the salmon trained as carriers from the blacksmith shop at the mill who can make emergency trips up-river to the Boom whenever mechanical apparatus is needed up there in a hurry. The hardware is on exhibit at the Beacon office.”
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