Previously, I described how a small sawmill from the Timber Boom Days after World War II operated and my first week on the job at Philo Lumber doing production work. My recollection of the first…
Posts published by “Brad Wiley”
Gary Womack, 1940-2021, was not of our Valley; he was born and raised in a small town in southern Oregon few of us have ever heard of, Central Point in the Cascade foothills west of…
As I rambled along in my previous Floodgate stories articles, little vignettes would illuminate themselves in dusty corners of the cerebral warehouse where the larger memories were stored so many years ago. Some of them…
It's time to get down to the biography of Sam and Marguerite Avery's life in Anderson Valley, 1946-77. In preparation I went back to my archives to find a copy of the local monthly newspaper,…
As I've described previously Floodgate Store was a complex retail business operation with long daily hours. During the day Marguerite Avery was the sole attendant at the deli, convenience goods, bar and gas pumps part…
Last week’s Floodgate story mentioned that the gyppo logging company working for Masonite Corporation in the seventies, Shuster Enterprises (!), provided its crews with transportation to jobsite, important for those living on the Ukiah side…
New Year's Eve, 1971-2, my consort and my first in Anderson Valley. We had moved here from San Francisco on April Fools Day, been in residence for nine months, had made a few friends among the…
Down at the Deep End the Valley's vistas become more telescopic as the flatland gives way to rolling hills, tightening ridges framing the more evident tree-lined River until it disappears into the woods west of…
Over the decades it wasn't just helping Sam Prather manage his sheep bands that introduced me to other ridgetops around The Valley. Sometimes it was other activities both agricultural and social, driving, for example, up…