I'm guessing we all know something about her. Lewis And Clark, and all. I now know she was more interpreter than guide, but still there with them. I've met her -- metaphysically speaking, of course…
Posts published in “Essays”
“My God, what a beautiful day” I thought to myself as I was flying southbound in my 1954 Piper because for once the California Central Valley was absolutely crystal clear. It was only about 8:30…
Texas loosens, Italy locks down. With the skies mostly still clear and quiet, one can hear the collective champing at the bit before the gates open...
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…
I sat down once for an interview with the tattoo artist Lyle Tuttle, and I could not be more grateful for the time I spent with him. Because he inspired me to get my first…
The internet is the land of a million tongues and a thousand truths, many false. It’s a brightly lit shadowy world where facts are sometimes factual, political agendas are everywhere and everything is coated in…
Local history explorations often start with something as simple as a piece of paper. Walking into the Comptche store recently owner Belinda Pollack handed me a sheet of paper and asked “Who was Amanda Newman?”…
As the stock market was rising to ever-higher heights in the summer of 1929, Claud Cockburn got assigned by The Times to its New York office. (Whereas The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times,…
The saga of John F. Wheeler did not come to an end when Chester Ford deposited him in the county jail at Ukiah. The rest of the Mendocino Outlaws were still at large. Wheeler's connection…