The ‘Biggest Of Everything’ Reports

It was common years ago to report to the local newspaper if you had managed to grow the “biggest” of anything. From historian Nannie Escola’s newspaper clippings, we found attention directed to the “biggest” things around Mendocino.

In November 1878, E.C. Toushes of Navarro brought in three cabbages weighing 22, 25, and 26 ¾ pounds to the newspaper office for inspection. W.H. Kent of Ten Mile River grew a 33-pound cabbage and a six-pound potato. A turnip from WM Heeser’s ranch was 50 inches in circumference and weighed 26 pounds.

Ocean and animal life was reported on too. In February 1882 a “devil fish,” (octopus) was captured off the coast. It possessed tentacles 11 feet six inches long. In July 1882, a leghorn hen laid an egg six and a half inches in circumference and three inches long.

In October 1884, Hillman Perkins of Salmon Creek presented the editor apples weighing 24 and 16 ounces, 13 and a half and 12 3/4 inches around, respectively. W.H. Oppenlander of Comptche reported his tomato crop featured vegetables six inches wide in October 1910.

The Apple Show in Mendocino City in November 1913 featured an eight-pound potato grown at the L.E. White Lumber Company ranch in Greenwood. The largest apple at the show was 18 inches tall and 16 ¼ inches in circumference and won the prize for Mrs. F.F. McKee of Bear Harbor. Corn stalks over 14 feet high were shown by W.H. Oppenlander. A nine-pound pumpkin was displayed by H.C. Steudeman, who was in charge of Mendocino Lumber Company’s ranch on Big River.

Sometimes the number was not weight or circumference, but sheer numbers. In 1893, the Beacon reported 400 cypress trees were to be planted around Mendocino High School’s hall. In 1906, the Beacon reported 20 rows of eucalyptus, and an outside row of cypress were to be planted around Noyo Harbor to break the wind. I wonder if any of these trees are still growing?

In a note from Mrs. Ford’s letter from Mendocino to Bell Vaughn dated November 3, 1941, it addressed the biggest redwood ever cut on Big River. Located at the Little North Fork about one and a half miles up the creek on the south bank, the stump was 21 feet across, and the log cut was 12 feet long and 13 feet six inches wide. It floated to the sawmills.