A grue is a grisly, short comic poem, with a sadistic bent to it and a twist of some sort in the final line or two. Grues were often called “Little Willies” after the central…
Posts published by “Malcolm Macdonald”
What does Standish-Hickey State Recreation Area, a mile and a half north of Leggett, have to do with the Covid-19 pandemic? Nothing of a direct nature is the correct answer. However, there is a connection…
(The previous two installments described the imprisonment of R.G. Strong in 1873, the 1874 murder of his wife in the Sherwood area, the trial and conviction of David Geiger for that murder, as well as…
John Simpson (think Simpson Lane south of Fort Bragg) and Robert White, early white settlers of the coast and employees of the Mendocino Indian Reservation at Noyo, traveled inland
Sherwood, or Sherwood Valley if you like, lies sheltered from both the dense fog and high wind that can bedevil the coast of Mendocino County. While it can swelter on summer afternoons, it still rests…
The year, 1896. The season, autumn. The time, murderous. A neighbor discovered the half cremated body of John Mudgett, a wealthy rancher of Usal, among the embers of his partially burned home. The passing neighbor…
At its February 10th meeting, the Fort Bragg City Council unanimously approved sending a letter to the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors. The first two paragraphs: “Mendocino County’s reliance on Redwood Quality Management Company (RQMC)…
Dawn belongs to the heifers. Six of them wait every morning near the bottom of the hill. In fair weather a pickup truck brings alfalfa and sometimes meadow grass. On rainy days, the man tugs…
On September 5, 2019, the night manager at the Hospitality House, on North McPherson Street in Fort Bragg, heard what sounded like a dog crying in pain. Stepping outside to a dirt area alongside the…