It was 57 years ago, September 24th, that my parents, Margery Ann Olivera and Thomas Junior Darby married one another in a civil ceremony in Reno, Nevada. The newlyweds spend a honeymoon night at the Mapes Hotel, dining and dancing, before he had to report back for duty at Requa Air Force Station, Klamath, California. The…

The selection of grand marshal is typically an honor bestowed on community members who have participated in good deeds in Del Norte County. The grand marshal usually has a list of accomplishments and associations. One such grand marshal was Sam Lopez, a member of the How-on-quet Tribe of Smith River. He celebrated his 86th birthday in…

It was half-past midnight September 18th, 1891 when a group of 75 hooded and well armed men dropped Luis Ortiz to his death from Reno’s Virginia Street Bridge. By all accounts, he went to his Maker without a whimper. Before his death, Ortiz was run out-of-town. He was also not welcomed in parts of north-eastern California as…

“…the two miners who died trying to steal the payroll from the hotel vault in the basement by digging up into the vault from mines underneath the city. They were successful…to a point. They made off with the money, but their bodies were found in a tunnel nearby. The money was no where to be…

This is generally how I start, when it comes to writing a historical article about California or Nevada — research. I love tying where I live to where I grew up. For example, Bret Harte was a journalist who cut his ‘reporters teeth’ in the Comstock’s Virginia City, along with the likes of Mark Twain…

While on my morning walk I saw a $100 bill. Turns out it was one of those dime-store novelties with a picture of the Mona Lisa where Ben Franklin should have been. It triggered a memory that I had long forgotten about. This too involves a $100 bill. She was my first customer. I had…

“Will you please take that over to the neighbor’s tomorrow?” my wife asked as I sat the kitchen counter eating dinner. “Sure,” I responded, as shoveled another bite of spaghetti into my mouth. She had checked the mail and found a newsletter addressed to our neighbors in our box.  Having gotten home late, she didn’t…

Born August 18th, 1939, in Placerville, California, Robert Lloyd Long passed away September 10th, 2013, in Grants Pass, Oregon, following a brief battle with cancer.  Bob, as he was better known, was a past member of the Crescent City Elk’s BPOE #1689 and a former member of Crescent City’s V.F.W. Post 1381, where he once…

Despite the fierce labor disputes and strikes that threatened the town’s existence in the years 1906-1908, Goldfield was able to wrest the county seat from Hawthorne in 1907, when both towns were still located in the same county. Five banks, a like number of newspapers, two mining stock exchanges and three railroads served the 20,000…

Rounds of hostilities continued in the area until 1864, with warriors of the Klamath and the Yahooskin, a band of Shoshone, also attacking settlers and migrants in their turns. That year the United States and over 1000 Indians, mostly Klamath—signed a treaty, by which the Indians ceded millions of acres of lands and the US…