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Posts published by “Brad Wiley”

Another “Arkie” Mill Saga: Down at Buster Hollifield’s

When Hollifield came here and built his mill, everyone wanted to work for him… — Ken Hurst recollection, August, 2022 When I first moved to The Valley half a century ago, locals were still telling…

The Hurst Family: Arkie Immigration to the Valley

Very old friend Kenny Hurst is a great story-teller and journalist too. I found that out right away almost fifty years ago when he wrote a flamboyant report for the “other” Anderson Valley newspaper I…

The Stubblefield Rose, Part 2

Last week’s ‘Stubblefield’ book review ended with Susan and her Murray family poised to depart from their Missouri home and migrate to California, “the land of gold,” as her husband Cleveland described it. It took…

Grandma Stubblefield, an American Frontier Icon

I had visited Susan Stubblefield’s grave in Evergreen Cemetery numerous times, had heard about this early Valley settler’s memoirs for years and finally got around to reading them last month while working on the Aunt…

Sam Prather, 1942-2022

I don’t recollect when or how Sammy “Prather Ranch” Prather and I first met. But I do know it wasn’t long after I arrived in Anderson Valley in 1971. Perhaps it was at the Floodgate…

Donald Dukes: The First “City Kid,” Part 2

My earlier report on the childhood of Donald Dukes, Bob Glover’s step-son, described his migration from a Kentucky coal camp to industrial Hammond, Indiana, to Bob’s ancestral Guntly Ranch all by the age of ten.…

Aunt Blanche Brown & Indian Creek (Part 2)

Two weeks ago our story introduced us to the life of Aunt Blanche Brown, teacher, historian, community asset.  The episode ended with the fire that consumed her Indian Creek home in January, 1956.  This week…

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