Known as “Trinidad” or the “Klamath River” station, Radar Station B-71 was built between 1942 and 1943 in response to Japanese attacks on U.S. soil during World War II. In total, the Army built 65 stations spanning from the Canadian border and into Mexico. But this particular one, located in the coastal bluffs south of…

“We figure that anybody who would do a thing like this must be insane,” Crescent City Police Sgt. Douglas Premo told the Associated Press, following the brutal slaying of a girl found Saturday, February 12th, 1966, between Pacific Avenue and A Street. Myra Sue Gerling, described as a pretty long-haired brunette, was naked, her throat…

The blaze started around three, the morning of February 16th, 1958, gutting the 67-year-old Crescent Bay Hotel at Second and H Streets. Nine other businesses on the ground floor and next to the hotel were also damaged, causing an estimated loss of $300,000. Four fire companies responded to the alarm, two from Crescent City and…

The telephone rang and I answered. It was my friend from Oregon, Hank, inviting me on a fly-fishing trip to northwestern Montana. I declines as I had promised my wife I would to go look for work this week. Good thing, too. Hank had purchased a new RV and was setting out for ‘Big Sky’ country.…

The first couple of months after moving to the Reno area, I was lonely.  All I did is work, writing Keno tickets at the Cal-Neva, then go home. One afternoon, I wrote a ticket for a woman from Canada, named Carol. She was visiting, having traveled with a gambling junket, as they were commonly known.…

The old joke goes: “Your Mama wears combat boots.” For my wife, Mary — it was true. Her mother, and my mother-in-law, Helen Conklin did wear combat boots during World War II. She was a nurse and 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army from 01 May 1945 to 06 December 1946. Boot camp for Helen…

A 1875 lithograph of Carson City and a 1907 Sanborn Fire Insurance map places Chinatown between East Second and East Fourth streets, and from Fall Street to Valley Street. The main street was East Third, with Chinatown spread out on both sides of the Virginia & Truckee Railroad tracks. Population estimates for Chinatown have ranged…

Shortly after getting fired last week from the radio station, a Marine Corps friend sent me an email. In it was a list of 15 rules for leadership. I had seen them before a several years ago, though I’m hard pressed to say where because I don’t recall. He explains that while the material is…

There had been a well-established Chinatown in Crescent City until the mid-1880’s. It was located along 2nd Street between G and H streets, along H to 2nd and 3rd Streets. They were expelled following the fatal shooting of a city councilman in Eureka, February 1st, 1885, during what the was called a ‘Tong War,’ by…