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Posts published by “Malcolm Macdonald”

Miller v. Fort Bragg Unified

There are cases that wend ever so slowly through the court system. In some civil cases even preliminary results can take years. One such case in the Superior Court of Mendocino County is Miller v.…

Of Fire & Creatures of the Deep

Nature's ways can be a predictable or a mysterious thing. Of course, when humans toy with nature, you never know what the result might be. Some folks get all wrapped up in their dedication to…

Jack London & Helmuth Seefeldt

In February, 1874, blue-eyed, brown haired Helmuth Seefeldt was born in Demmin, on the West Pomeranian plain of northeastern Germany at the confluence of three rivers. Little is known about his childhood there or his…

Pig Tales

“When pigs fly,” is a centuries old adynaton, insinuating the obvious impossibility of a statement. However, pigs have flown. The first pig to fly was actually a piglet, proving once again that the youth of…

The Airship Mystery of 1896-97

William Held and Dr. Case, of Ukiah, were riding northbound in a buggy on an early December evening, destination Centerville in the Potter Valley district. Their horses shied as a light flared from the darkness.…

The Albion Rancho

A May 24, 2017 piece in the AVA chronicled the early history of English sailor William Richardson's arrival at San Francisco Bay in 1822, his subsequent marriage to Maria Antonia Martinez, daughter of the presidio…

The Great Comptche Fire of 1931

Somewhere on a shadowy shelf, amid the dusty books and pamphlets here at the ranch, rests a newspaper from eighty-seven years ago. On those faded pages, no photos to spark the imagination, just words to…

Ukiah’s Main Street Murder of 1879

A.O. Carpenter, editor of the Ukiah City Press, labored in his newspaper office early one Thursday morning in April, 1879. The screams of a woman on State Street roused him to his feet. Gazing out…

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