Let’s begin with the absurd: Federal and state agencies (the US Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and the California Department of Fish and Game) are…
Posts published by “Malcolm Macdonald”
Federal authorities arrested five Mendocino area residents last month, charging each with one count of conspiring to possess with intent to distribute drugs. This is part of a larger drug trafficking case involving the Bay…
This time of year always puts me in mind of World War II. A little known story of that “good war” concerns Wake Island. The entry of the United States into the war seemed a…
During World War I, my maternal grandmother grew up on a ranch in the sand hills above the North Platte River of Nebraska. My great-grandparents, Dennis and Mary Emily Ward, raised my mother’s mother as…
Autumn turns toward winter and Thanksgiving is upon us. At this time of year the old timers of this area, the Pomo, gathered acorns, storing them in watertight baskets inside huts made from brush, willow…
Last week’s column touched on Pomo sites near Fort Bragg, which in turn sent me to Samuel Alfred Barrett’s The Ethno-Geography of the Pomo and Neighboring Indians, first published in 1908. Much of the field…
On October 28th I attended a presentation by archeologist/historian Thad Van Bueren at the Kelley House in Mendocino. If you missed it and are curious about the early history of this County I’d recommend Mr.…
Update on the case of the homeless man acquitted of charges he intentionally injured his pit bull, Frankie, on August 19th of this year. First, we must go back to the only member of the…
October 24th marks the birthday of Sarah Josepha Hale 224 years ago. Practically every English speaker recognizes her eight line poem by its first five words: “Mary had a little lamb…” Sarah Josepha Hale was…