A state program could help farmers in Scott Valley utilize 70 percent of their legal water during drought

March 30, 2022

Liz Writes Life

Urgent help for Scott Valley farmers

With the unprecedented curtailment of all well water rights under the State Water Resources Control Board’s (SWB) August 30, 2021 Drought Emergency Order, farmers in Scott Valley are facing a possible 100 percent loss of water for irrigation this summer.

But, help may be available: It is the possibility of farmers and ranchers being able to show how they can and will reduce their normal water usage by 30 percent. This is a voluntary option. The SWB curtailment regulations are tied-in to the water-flow of the Scott River. As the flow goes down in late spring, the curtailments will go up – likely sooner than later.

A few days ago, I talked with Sari Sommarstrom, who is a retired local watershed consultant. She said this option offered by the SWB could be what helps irrigators survive this year and maintain their livelihoods. The paperwork process of creating a plan is certainly worth looking into.

The Siskiyou Resource Conservation District, (RCD) is willing to serve as a “Coordinating Entity” for what the SWB will recognize as a “groundwater reduction Local Cooperative Solution” in the Scott River watershed.

According to information I have gathered, the Cooperative Solution is not a guarantee as each plan will need to be approved by the SWB. Also, the RCD needs to obtain the funding to administer the program and will also charge a reasonable fee to each participant as a cost-share contribution.

The next step for agricultural well users is to write a plan explaining how they will achieve 30 percent water reduction. Development and monitoring are important aspects of any farmer’s plan. If interested, Scott Valley groundwater irrigators should contact the RCD office in Etna as soon as possible for assistance. Call 530-467-3975.

There are a variety of ways to reduce water usage, it must be acknowledged that most will also reduce income and may greatly affect profitability.

Some of the options for water reduction are: Fallowing 30 percent of irrigated acreage; forgo a cutting or two in the hay fields; replace a hay crop with a lower water usage crop; change from flood to wheel-line; and upgrade from wheel-line to a center pivot.

Over the years, many center pivots have been implemented throughout Scott Valley. It is because this irrigation system does reduce the amount of water used. Farmers are always innovating. I also heard that some farmers have found soil moisture sensors to be quite effective in saving water.

A note to non-agricultural well users: You as a residential home dweller are not under this Emergency Drought curtailment. Last year, many of us received a letter from the state demanding we report our water usage from our residential well. Yep, it scared the heck out of us. And most of us complied. Apparently, (this is info I have received from several reliable sources and I have checked out the SWB website) the curtailment of water usage was directed at agriculture not residential home dwellers.

Garden

Spring is springing! It is so nice to see the explosion of pink blossoms on the ornamental plum trees. Several of my regular plum trees are also striking with their bright white blossoms. And the forsythia is gorgeous with bright yellow flowers. Unfortunately, one of my forsythia has just a few branches with yellow blooms and my other one is dead. Yep, not enough water.

Plants and fields are suffering. That last rain was helpful, but barely made puddles at my place. The drought is certainly causing great havoc.

My wildflower area under the pine tree still needed clearing, so I made a date with my 16 year-old grandson, Bryce, for some help. I picked him up after school and we cut and chopped the old dry perennials of fever few, iris stalks, Oriental poppies, cosmos, dahlia, Shasta daisies, yarrow, tansy, mint, asters and daylilies. We even pruned the two rose bushes. They were way overgrown! We even found a few blooming flowers under the dried vegetation -- violets and blue and pink bell-like blooms on lung-wort plants. The fever few, iris, tansy, daylilies and Shasta daisies are also trying to grow.

A few daffodils are blooming, but without the moisture they need the blooms tend to fall over. The tulip vegetation perked-up a bit from the rain and is about six-inches high. There may be a few blooms in April.

But with this drought, these perennials are not going to do well if I don’t start irrigating. I don’t have a system set-up that is frost free and don’t think I have the energy to attach hoses and drag them around throughout April and May like I did last year. Oh, to find the fountain of youth would be wonderful. Or some good rain storms would fix the problem!

May peace and calm be with you this week. Smile – just cuz it makes you feel better!

Liz Bowen began writing ranch and farm news, published in newspapers, in 1976. She is a native of Siskiyou County. Columns from the past can be found at: lizwriteslife.blogspot.com. Call her at 530-467-3515.

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Ode to a bridge -- part 2

March 23, 2022

Liz Writes Life

Ode to a bridge Part 2

A few days later, I called Mike again to ask some questions about his Cramer family. He had told me several stories during our phone call – and on many other occasions. I hadn’t written anything down and needed clarifications. Mike’s great uncle Ira Cramer and his wife, Ruth, were living in the dove-tailed wooden plank house, on the Moffett Creek ranch, when he died in 1931.

Ira was holding his young daughter, Dorothy, and collapsed from a heart attack. Mike was told that Ira had just walked in the house after rolling or dragging a dead cow out of the barn. He was a big sturdy man. Family surmised he over-worked his body and blew-out his heart.

So, that dove-tailed wooden plank two-story house is likely about 100 years old. I took photos of it. On the east side, there is modernization -- a swamp cooler and satellite TV dish can be seen. I posted a photo on my LizWritesLife.blogspot.com along with last week’s “Liz Writes Life” article.

In our chat, Mike mentioned that I had misspelled Cramer in last month’s article about his great aunt Ruth Markon. It only has one “m” not two! Ooops, so sorry.

The history that Mike shares about his Cramer family is pretty amazing. Yes, Ira’s father was German, but born in New York in 1831. His name was George Lansing Cramer. Mike said he rode horseback out to California during the gold rush time period and settled on Moffett Creek at the bottom of we now call Forest Mt. He planted peach, apple and pear trees and the little county road is appropriately named “Peach Orchard Lane.” The ranch also served as a stage stop.

George met Emily Bills, who crossed with her family from Illinois by wagon train. She was expected to marry a man in Scott Valley, but apparently didn’t much care for him. Emily decided to elope with George in June 1863. They rode north fording the Klamath River, on horseback, and were married in Jacksonville, Oregon. The couple set up house and Emily gave birth to 16 children. Mike said they also adopted three orphan children. Wow, what a household that must have been!

One of those children was Mike’s grandfather Fredrick William Cramer. He and Ira along with brothers Harry and Charles went into business together. They operated a butcher shop named Etna Packers in Etna along with other businesses. Mike still has one of the old ledgers touting the names of the clients from back then.

Monday, March 7, 2022

Well, I will get back to my original plan of relating my drive up East Moffett Creek Road to obtain a photo of the nano-high-tech concrete bridge laid by Siskiyou County in November 2020.

Not long after turning off Highway 3, driving down Peach Orchard Lane to East Moffett Creek Road, I was stopped by a county flagman. The road crew was cleaning the gutter. It wasn’t a long wait and then I was given the slow sign. When I began to pass the grader, I recognized the operator. He is a life-long friend (went through Etna schools together) and was a good friend of my husband. Figuring there wasn’t any other traffic on this dirt road to irritate by stopping; I explained I was looking for the new bridge. Yep, it would be the third bridge crossing the creek. Quick, but nice reconnection!

It was maybe four or five miles, but it seems longer driving 25 mph on a dirt road. I saw the Duzel Road coming in with the new bridge. After parking, I surveyed my options for taking photos. The poor old barbed-wire fence had holes big enough that I could duck through. I wanted to get some side photos, which was easy because there wasn’t any water running in the creek. Ray Haupt had told me that the county did not pave the bridge, because the nano-tech concrete was expected to last 100 years. About 20 feet before and after the bridge, the road had been paved.

About that time, I noticed a young woman walking down Duzel Road with two dogs. She recognized me first. We had a nice chat and then I took about 20 photos.

The sun was warm. My window was rolled down, so I decided to drive back home over Duzel Road. I had never been on it before and felt adventurous! About a mile up this one-lane, but well-maintained dirt road I stopped. A woodcutter was cutting up limbs and the road was blocked. I didn’t want to bother him and decided to turn around at the widened corner just behind me. It was then that I noticed he was walking towards me. His dog had alerted him that I was there.

I stepped out of my Chevy Trax and was, again, surprised to be recognized. We both mentioned that we were much older than in our high school days over 50 years ago. He said he could move his pickup and I would be able to continue on the road, but I decided to retrace my path. I really wasn’t sure where Duzel Road comes out in Scott Valley and might adventure it other time.

My trip home to Callahan was uneventful: Didn’t run into anyone to talk to, even at the grocery store. So it seemed like a good time to reflect on life in rural areas. Driving down what should have been a lonely dirt road, held several surprises that made March 7th a very pleasant day.

May peace and calm be with you this week. Smile – just cuz it makes you feel better!

Liz Bowen began writing ranch and farm news, published in newspapers, in 1976. She is a native of Siskiyou County. Columns from the past can be found at: lizwriteslife.blogspot.com. Call her at 530-467-3515.

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Old dove-tailed wooden plank house on Moffett Creek

  Ira Cramer had this dove-tailed wooden plank house built in late-1920s up Moffett Creek near Fort Jones, CA.  Photo by Liz Bowen on March 7, 2022.

New high-tech bridge and pioneer history

March 16, 2022

Liz Writes Life

Today I will share my life-adventure from Monday, March 7, 2022. This depicts a typical Scott Valley-rural-lifestyle-day, but will take a while to get to it, cuz there are several prefaces.

This story, actually begins 16 months ago, when I wrote my weekly column about a new technology that makes concrete lighter and super-strong using a newly- developed technology of nanocellulose wood fiber. It is also expected to last 100 years!

Grace Bennett, who is now retired from the Dist. 4 Siskiyou Co. Supervisor position, pushed to coordinate with the U.S. Forest Service through a grant to utilize the new technology -- locally. Ray Haupt, Siskiyou Co.  Supervisor for Dist. 5, was in his first term and worked with Grace on the project.

Ultimately, four very long concrete slabs with the new technology replaced a wooden-plank bridge over Moffett Creek in the East Moffett Creek and Scarface area. That was on Nov. 3, 2020 and Grace invited me to attend. I took photos of the crane that lowered the slabs in place. Scott Waite was director of Public Works at the time and Ben Haupt was Timber Management Officer at Klamath National Forest. Both were also involved as was Oregon State University at Corvallis and Knife River Materials, in Oregon, who actually manufactured the concrete.

Another aside: I later learned, from a contractor, that cement and concrete should not be referred to as the same thing. In the Nov. 18, 2020 article, I incorrectly referred to concrete as cement, which is an ingredient in concrete.

So, out-of-the-blue last week, I received a phone call from Angela Aguero. She was writing an article on the wood fiber nanocellulose technology for a trade magazine called “Concrete International.” Angela explains that the article is an introductory overview of nanocellulose concrete and why the industry should care. Through internet searching, she had found the Nov. 3, 2020 “Liz Writes Life” column about Siskiyou County using the technology in its bridge replacement.

Surprisingly, Siskiyou County may have placed the first bridge of this kind -- in the United States! She hasn’t found any others. Yes, Grace, Ray and Siskiyou’s partners were on the cutting-edge of actually implementing a real-world example for use of the concrete. Angela needed more information for her article. I gave her Grace’s name and phone number.

But, in our discussion, Angela said she could not find a photo of the completed bridge. Siskiyou Daily News published two of my photos from the placing of the bridge. Hum, without thinking, I offered to go get a photo of the finished bridge. Now for another “but” –  weather sites predicted snow and or rain for a few days, which meant dreary light from storm clouds. Not good for clear photographs. (And we certainly didn’t receive enough moisture!) I told her it would be Sunday or Monday, before I could get a sunny photo. Angela was on deadline, but said that would still work.

I remembered to take my camera on Sunday morning, when I went to church planning on making a quick drive out to get photos if it was sunny. Yep, I drove out there, but couldn’t remember how far up the bridge was located. Feeling skeptical of the first bridge, where I took photos, I went home. Later that evening, I emailed Ray Haupt to get his directions. I was embarrassed I didn’t find the bridge. He actually looked it up on Google maps and it was several miles further along East Moffett Creek Road.

On Monday morning, I also decided to call Mike Cramer, whose family once owned much of the area and still ranches there. He knows Moffett Creek well! And, his directions were the same as Ray’s only with Scott Valley descriptions. He recalled several of the cattle guards I would drive over; yep, go past the huge metal barn with several houses. He mentioned that his grandfather, Fredrick William Cramer, built the older house in the 1930s.

Then several more miles down the dirt road (maintained by the county), a road from around Duzel comes in from the west. The bridge can be seen right there crossing Moffett Creek. If I missed the turn-off (you can’t miss it) I would then go by a two-story dove-tailed wooden plank house – and that was too far. The house was built for his Great Uncle Ira Cramer, his grandfather’s brother.

A quick tidbit from Mike – the man that built the house was named Jack Paige or Page and charged $85. No, Mike wasn’t sure when the house was built. It looks well over 100 years old to me.

Well, I guess this will be a two-part story or maybe three-part story as I really haven’t started on my Monday adventure up Moffett Creek. So, I will do like the television shows before a commercial – leave you hanging!

I did post several photos of the bridge on my blog. Address is below. It looks like a regular bridge.

May peace and calm be with you this week. Smile – just cuz it makes you feel better!

Oh, and Happy St. Patrick’s Day tomorrow!

Liz Bowen began writing ranch and farm news, published in newspapers, in 1976. She is a native of Siskiyou County. Columns from the past can be found at: lizwriteslife.blogspot.com. Call her at 530-467-3515.

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Bridge made of wood fiber nanocellulose in Siskiyou County, CA.

 These top two photos were taken March 7, 2022 of the finished wood fiber nanocellulose cement bridge over Moffett Creek in Siskiyou County, CA. Due to a continuing drought, there is unfortunately no water going under the bridge.

Siskiyou County leaders involved in utilizing the new type of wood fiber nanocellulose cement for a bridge were Ben Haupt, Klamath National Forest Timber Manager; Ray Haupt, Siskiyou County Dist. 5 Supervisor; Scott Waite, director of Siskiyou County Public Works; and Grace Bennett, retired Siskiyou County Supervisor from Dist. 4. Grace is considered the driving force in utilizing the new nanocellulose wood fiber technology. Photo was taken in November 2020, when the four high-tech slabs were laid across the bridge.

Above, Grace Bennett, Ray Haupt and Ben Haupt walking on the newly-laid wood fiber nanocellulose cement bridge over Moffett Creek in Siskiyou County, California in November 2020. 

For more on this high-tech bridge, check out the November 18, 2020 article "Liz Writes Life" on this blog or published in Siskiyou Daily News in Yreka, California. 

Photos taken by Liz Bowen

Placing a new bridge made with wood fiber nanocellulose cement - Siskiyou County, CA.

 

Setting one of the long high-tech nanocellulose cement slab to replace a wooden bridge over Moffett Creek in Siskiyou County, California in November 2020.  Photo by Liz Bowen.

3-9-2022 - Drought, water and wildfires

March 9, 2022

Liz Writes Life

No rain or snow in January and February certainly added to drought in California. L.A. Times reporter, Ian James, reported on Feb. 24, 2022 that many farmers in the federal Central Valley Project will not receive water from the federal system this year. In mid-February, the federal Bureau of Reclamation announced a zero-water allocation for many irrigation districts that supply farmers throughout the Central Valley. Makes one wonder where our food will be grown?

James also reported that cities that receive water from the federal project in the Central Valley and “parts of the Bay Area were allocated 25 percent of their historical water use.”

Statewide the drought is an alarming problem and our local elected officials are speaking out within their areas of influence.

I received a press release from our Dist. 1 Assemblywoman Megan Dahle, who sits on the Water, Parks, & Wildlife Committee. The committee convened in mid-February and she spoke out about the problem rural North State farmers and ranchers face with unreliable water availability. She also reasoned the implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act must be flexible, especially in the various different regions throughout the state. “One size does not fit all,” she explained.

Assemblywoman Dahle noted that the 2014 Water Bond was passed in an effort to combat California’s massive droughts. The Water Bond was expected to increase water storage, both in surface reservoirs and underground water storage. These water projects have not happened. She told the committee that building these infrastructure projects “must be a priority.”

Dahle also brought to light that new costs being imposed by the state will be an “additional burden for exhausted farmers‚ while illegal pot growers continually get away with flouting the rules. This has to change.”

So following today’s theme of water and drought, I will jump to Dist. 1 Congressman Doug LaMalfa, who is working with several other congressmen to influence the federal Bureau of Reclamation and the California Dept. of Water Resources. LaMalfa led the small California Republican group in sending a letter requesting a more flexible water operation for this 2022 water year.

In a press release I received, LaMalfa said: “Despite heavy storms in Northern California this December, state water storage levels are still well below their annual average. Lake Shasta is 580,000 acre-feet short of its storage total on this date last year, and remains at 37% of total capacity and 52% of historical average.

“Lake Oroville is at 47% capacity, nearly 2 million acre-feet short of its storage total. I urge the DWR and Reclamation to quickly resubmit a TUCP to the State Water Board, this issue can’t wait. We must conserve the limited water supply we do have before regulators needlessly send the water to the ocean without any benefit to humans or species. With water levels this low we need to conserve every drop. Everyone is going to be affected by the lack of water and we can’t waste it hoping more miraculously shows up.” 

LaMalfa referred to a TUCP, which is a Temporary Urgency Change Petition utilized by the state and federal water agencies.

Upcoming wildfire season

Last week, California Congressmen, Doug LaMalfa and Tom McClintock, introduced legislation directing the U.S. Forest Service to immediately suppress wildfires on National Forest System lands and to put an end to the policy of letting fires burn.

Hum, this would certainly be welcome for communities threatened by wildfires.

LaMalfa said, “The days of ‘monitoring’ fires must end – Northern California is burning up at a record rate. The Forest Service’s monitoring policy and ‘watch and wait’ has allowed multiple catastrophic fires to unnecessarily escalate and devastate our wildlands and rural towns.

“In 24 hours, what starts out as a small blaze can expand to consume thousands of homes, municipal facilities and businesses. Drought stricken, unmanaged, overgrown forests are a ticking time bomb for another massive fire. In addition to aggressive initial attacks on fires, we must properly manage our forests by thinning near towns and infrastructure, clear a wider buffer zone around power lines, as well as use roads as firebreaks. Our forests are overgrown, the long term solution is to return to proper management and aggressively thin them.”

I really liked LaMalfa’s final statement:  “Why is America the number 2 importer of wood, while our own forests burn to the ground - causing untold damage to families, pollution that chokes half the country and destroying the environment?”

Sure do hope this legislation moves forward and quickly!

May peace and calm be with you this week. Smile – just cuz it makes you feel better!

Liz Bowen began writing ranch and farm news, published in newspapers, in 1976. She is a native of Siskiyou County. Columns from the past can be found at: lizwriteslife.blogspot.com. Call her at 530-467-3515.

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Liz Writes Life -- 3-2-22 Golf in April and a world-wide Family History conference

March 2, 2022

Liz Writes Life

Golf in April

The Rotary Club of Scott Valley will be hosting its 28^th Annual Golf Tournament at the Weed Golf Course on Saturday, April 30, 2022.

Registration is at 8 a.m. and a shotgun start at 9 a.m. Entry fees are $70 which includes green fees, cart, coffee and donuts in the morning.  Lunch will feature polish sausage & hamburgers. Members of the course pay $45 and must secure their own carts. Early registration is encouraged so Rotary can plan the field and have enough carts.

This is a four-man scramble and will be handicapped. If you do not have a handicap, one will be assigned. This tournament is opened to the public. Contact Bob or Vinnie McNeil for more information at 530-468-2608.

$140 million for firefighters

A Northern California wildland firefighting company has received a grant that will allow it to develop and train 5,000 new professional firefighters throughout the nation.

Congressman Doug LaMalfa recently announced that a United States Forest Service Indefinite-Delivery contract was awarded to Firestorm Wildland Fire Suppression, Inc. This contract award was part of several made throughout the country for Type 2 Initial Attack qualified wildland firefighter crews. The contract period is for the next five years and up to $140 million.

LaMalfa said, “I applaud the hard work of the Firestorm crew and their dedication to the forestry industry. Type 2 wildland firefighters are essential in wildland fire management and are at the forefront of dangerous conditions to build fire lines across backcountry terrain with hand tools and chainsaws.”

He added that Firestorm is a “leader in emergency services and forest management in the Butte County area.”

Leah Will, Co-owner of Firestorm Wildland Fire Suppression, was “thrilled” with the new award of the Type II Attack Handcrew contract. She said the grant will allow Firestorm to develop and train 600 new professional firefighters within the organization and 5,000 nationally.

Enjoy Family History

RootsTech the world’s largest family history and genealogy conference will be held this week in Salt Lake City, Utah, but will be shown virtually over the internet --  and it is free!

RootsTech was first held in 2011, at the Salt Palace conference center, with several thousand people attending. It grew quickly with motivational speakers, dozens of workshops and a giant room full of innovative and technology-type of showcasing. But because of the pandemic lockdown last year, it went all-virtual and found it was even more successful. RootsTech reported that more than 1 million visitors tuned-in from over 240 countries and territories during the 2021 conference.

Yes, learning about and doing family history is popular. This year, the theme is: Choose Connection. And connection will be easy in a variety of ways. “Relatives at RootsTech” is a feature participants can use through the FamilySearch Family Tree to connect to known and unknown relatives also participating in the conference. This technology was a big hit last year. There is also a program that will show you many famous relatives and ancestors are in your family tree.

There are a variety of keynote speakers from boxing legend Azumah Nelson, who recorded his speech in Accra, Ghana to Argentine singer Diego Torres, who recorded his event from Buenos Aires, Argentine to French baker Apollonia Poilane, who recorded his speech from Versailles, French. USA actor Matthew Modine is also one of the speakers.

Daily family history workshop sessions will be streamed in 11 languages and other sessions will be available in 40 additional languages. Leaders of the conference believe “connection” is a powerful thing. They have watched as people around the world want to connect; want to figure out how they fit in; how they belong; and how they connect to their family and society. Doing family history is one way to truly connect and find understanding.

If you go to the RootsTech.org website, you can find 1,500 sessions from last year’s conference in the vast online learning library. (Just to let you know, RootsTech website is hosted by FamilySearch.org.)

I did notice that these sessions can be fairly short at 15 to 30 minutes. When the conference was live at the Salt Palace, before the pandemic, many sessions were much longer. It seems the organizers have been able to get presenters to focus-in on their subject a bit better, saying they are more strategic about quality over quantity. I prefer the shorter presentations. Guess my attention-span isn’t very long!

So, I encourage anyone interested in learning about family history and recording family stories to check this event out. It should be inspiring. This year’s event will feature about 900 new sessions from presenters, who are from around the world. It is easy to peruse through the topics buttons. You can also learn how to use specific websites like FamilySearch.org, Ancestry.com, My Heritage and others.

Hope you give it a try!

May peace and calm be with you this week. Smile – just cuz it makes you feel better!

Liz Bowen began writing ranch and farm news, published in newspapers, in 1976. She is a native of Siskiyou County. Columns from the past can be found at: lizwriteslife.blogspot.com. Call her at 530-467-3515.

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Liz Writes Life - 2-23-22 Macdoel's Lady Judge in 1929

Feb. 23, 2022

Liz Writes Life

Not much to report on the garden-front. Feels like we are in a waiting/limbo situation with the lack of rain and snow in January and February. Most of the garden was cleaned-up, but I haven’t clean-out the vegetation in the wildflower area yet and it looks a mess. So, I was surprised to notice some daffodils are up seven to eight inches. They are not yet blooming. I will repeat myself: Sure praying for a miserable “miracle” March!

Butte Valley’s lady judge

Because I wrote about Sawyer’s Bar Justice of the Peace Ruth Markon last week, I will follow it up with stories about Macdoel’s lady judge, Lena Neasham. The article written in the 1993 “Siskiyou Pioneer” book Law Enforcement issue is by Ernest “Bud” Neasham, the judge’s son. Bud and his brother, Bob, had birds-eye seats for many of his mom’s cases, so I believe they are true! And I will share a few of the situations.

In the fall of 1929, Lena Neasham was elected Justice of the Peace of Macdoel Township. Before moving with her husband and boys to Macdoel, Lena had worked briefly for a municipal judge in Redding and picked-up some of the legal jargon and knowledge of how courts worked.

When a vacancy occurred on the local bench in Macdoel, some of Lena’s new friends thought she was best qualified and should run for the office. Notable supporters were the Butte Valley game warden and the local blind telephone proprietor, who was an unofficial attorney. Lena was 31 years old and rarely mentioned that her education was only through the eighth grade level, which was fairly normal for the time period.

Once elected, Lena had misgivings about her ability. But she acquired some form-books, a battered second-hand typewriter, several law books and a leather-bound volume of Blackstone’s Commentaries. The books looked impressive behind her law table in the living room.

Bud recalled that he and his brother were “fascinated by the strange people who started coming to the house.” A couple men brought in some dried coyote pelts to collect the reward offered by the county for ridding the range of such “varmints.” Lena tried to act cool as she took her household scissors and cut the scalps from the pelts in the approved manner. It was likely a yucky job.

One time, a Southern Pacific Railroad special officer brought a hobo to the house to be arraigned on a trespassing and vagrancy violation. The poor prisoner looked thoroughly cowed with his face showing the marks of a rather violent arrest. Lena let the officer know she did not approve of his methods.

Judge Neasham’s first jury trial was held in the neighboring Township of Dorris on April 11, 1930. She was very nervous about conducting a jury trial, but the Dorris bench was vacant and she was called to preside. Although receiving procedural advice from the county district attorney, she was uneasy. And she also had to drive the family car the 14 miles to Dorris, where the town hall served as the municipal court room. She was quite nervous about driving the car. Carl, her husband, had taught her to drive after they arrived in Butte Valley and it was an “emotional experience” for both of them, according to Bud.

The jury trial proved to be drawn-out and tedious, including choosing the jury. Senator J.A. Allen represented Siskiyou County and a Mr. Mills from Klamath Falls represented the defense. What was the crime? The defendant was accused of the illegal possession of intoxicating liquor – a crime during this time of national prohibition.

A point was made by the defendant that the arresting officer had a grudge against him. As it turned out, a member of the jury, disliking the officer and believing the officer’s alleged grudge to be sufficient grounds, held out for acquittal. Judge Neasham questioned the jury foreman about the 11 to 1 verdict and was told the man voting against conviction had let it be known that he would sit in the jury room until “hell froze over” before changing his vote. A mistrial was declared and everyone went home.

Within a year or so, Lena’s husband and his partner, Lloyd Stevenson, decided to leave their Mount Hebron store and open a new one in Dunsmuir. And so Lena resigned from her judicial position. A big going-away party was given for the two families by the Friday Card Club. It was held at the Macdoel Hotel. The card game winners, along with the notable attendees, were announced in the local “Butte Valley Star” newspaper. There was no mention of any drinking of alcohol.

Well, there you have it: A few snippets of local life in 1930.

May peace and calm be with you this week. Smile – just cuz it makes you feel better!

Liz Bowen began writing ranch and farm news, published in newspapers, in 1976. She is a native of Siskiyou County. Columns from the past can be found at: lizwriteslife.blogspot.com. Call her at 530-467-3515.

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