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In the winter of 1620, Pilgrims, traveling by sea, settled at Plymouth, Massachusetts, for religious freedom — a desire to worship God and live according to Holy Scripture. But the country they found was bleak and uninviting, with several inches of snow already on the ground.

Of the 102 passengers aboard the ship, the Mayflower, nearly half died during the first winter of the “great sickness.” Yet, according to settler Edward Winslow, they were grateful to God for his provision in their lives.

A year later, the group celebrated with a feast of thanksgiving, an act of faith. For me much of that celebration hinges on one thing: Freedom of Religion – something that has been forgotten in what is now a mostly secular holiday, filled with eating, football games and shopping.

The scriptures are filled with passages calling us to maintain a thankful heart. From Psalm 106:1, “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,” to Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians urging them to “give thanks in all circumstances” (5:18). It was this latter verse that sustained the Pilgrims, venturing to the New World, who ushered in the Thanksgiving Day celebration.

One of America’s earliest, religious documents, the Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was written by the Separatists, also known as the “Saints”, fleeing from religious persecution by King James of Great Britain. They traveled aboard the Mayflower in 1620 along with adventurers, tradesmen, and servants, most of whom were referred to as “Strangers.”

The Mayflower Compact was signed aboard ship on November 11, 1620 by most adult men, but not by most crew and adult male servants. The Pilgrims used the Julian Calendar, also known as Old Style dates, which, at that time, was ten days behind the Gregorian Calendar.

Signing the covenant were 41 of the ship’s 101 passengers, while the Mayflower was anchored in what is now Provincetown Harbor within the hook at the northern tip of Cape Cod. It is interesting to note that even as they were fleeing religious persecution, they still felt they were Englishmen and wrote their compact as Englishmen.

The document was drawn up in response to “mutinous speeches” that had come about because the Pilgrims had intended to settle in Northern Virginia, but the decision was made after arrival to instead settle in New England. Since there was no government in place, some felt they had no legal obligation to remain within the colony and supply their labor.

The term “Mayflower Compact” was not assigned to this document until 1793, when for the first time it is called the Compact in Alden Bradford’s A Topographical Description of Duxborough, in the County of Plymouth. Previously it had been called “an association and agreement” (William Bradford), “combination” (Plymouth Colony Records), “solemn contract” (Thomas Prince, 1738), and “the covenant” (Rev. Charles Turner, 1774).

The Mayflower Compact attempted to temporarily establish that government until a more official one could be drawn up in England that would give them the right to self-govern themselves in New England. In a way, this was the first American Constitution, though the Compact in practical terms had little influence on subsequent American documents.

John Quincy Adams, a descendant of Mayflower passenger John Alden, does call the Mayflower Compact the foundation of the U.S. Constitution in a speech given in 1802, but this was in principle more than in substance. In reality, the Mayflower Compact was superseded in authority by the 1621 Peirce Patent, which not only gave the Pilgrims the right to self-government at Plymouth, but had the significant advantage of being authorized by the King of England.

Here is the text of the compact as seen in William Bradford’s History Of Plymouth Plantation as written in William Bradford’s History Of Plymouth Plantation. The spelling and punctuation of the document has been modernized.

“In the name of God Amen• We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign Lord King James by the grace of God, of great Britain, France, & Ireland king, defender of the faith, &c

Having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith & honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia• do by these presents solemnly & mutually in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant, & combine our souls together into a civill body politic; for the our better ordering, & preservation & furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof, to enact, constitute, and frame such just & equal laws, ordinances, Acts, constitutions, & offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most mete & convenient for the general good of the colony into which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have here under subscribed our names at Cape Cod the •11• of November, in the year of the reign of our sovereign Lord King James of England, France, & Ireland the eighteenth and of Scotland the fifty fourth. Ano: Dom 1620.

SIGNERS:
John Carver, Edward Tilley, Degory Priest, William Bradford, John Tilley, Thomas Williams, Edward Winslow, Francis Cooke, Gilbert Winslow, William Brewster, Thomas Rogers, Edmund Margesson, Isaac Allerton, Thomas Tinker, Peter Brown, Myles Standish, John Rigsdale, Richard Britteridge, John Alden, Edward Fuller, George Soule, Samuel Fuller, John Turner, Richard Clarke, Christopher Martin, Francis Eaton, Richard Gardinar, William Mullins, James Chilton, John Allerton, William White, John Crackstone, Thomas English, Richard Warren, John Billington, Edward Doty, John Howland, Moses Fletcher, Edward Leister, Stephen Hopkins, John Goodman.”

The Mayflower Compact was first published in 1622. William Bradford wrote a copy of the Mayflower Compact down in his History Of Plymouth Plantation which he wrote from 1630-1654, and that is the version given above.

Neither version gave the names of the signers. Nathaniel Morton in his New England’s Memorial, published in 1669, was the first to record and publish the names of the signers, and Thomas Prince in his Chronological History of New England in the form of Annals (1736) recorded the signers names as well, as did Thomas Hutchinson in 1767.

It is unknown whether the later two authors had access to the original document, or whether they were simply copying Nathaniel Morton’s list of signers.

The original Mayflower Compact has never been found, and is assumed destroyed. Thomas Prince may have had access to the original in 1736, and possibly Thomas Hutchinson did in 1767.

If it indeed survived, it was likely a victim of Revolutionary War looting, along with other such Pilgrim valuables as Bradford’s now lost Register of Births and Deaths, his partially recovered Letterbook, and his entirely recovered History of Plymouth Plantation.

Finally, may you and yours celebrate Thanksgiving in a way you feel both free to do and in a manner appropriate to your beliefs.

The ‘Queen Christina’ ran aground off the coast of Del Norte County on October 21st, 1907. The steamer had sailed from San Francisco, Saturday, the 19th, for Portland, Oregon, with a cargo of wheat.

Build at Newcastle, England, in 1901, she displaced 4,268 tons, had a beam of 48 feet and a length of 360 feet. At the helm was Captain George R. Harris.

Off Point St. George reef, she ran into a heavy fog. Harris, believing he was seven miles off-shore, continued ahead.
Suddenly, the vessel struck a series of rocks, forcing Harris to give the order to abandon ship. The crew made shore safely, in two lifeboats.

When word of the wreck reached Crescent City, the Hobbs, Wall steam-schooner ‘Navarro’ got under way, but was unable to pull her off the rocks. Arrangements were then made to salvage as much as possible from the wreck.

The ‘Queen Christina’ withstood all the Pacific had to offer during the winter of 1907-1908. It was not until January 1909 that she finally broke free and smashed against the reef.

The ‘Crescent City News’ reported the “stranded steamer ‘Queen Christina’ is a complete wreck…there is nothing visible of the ill-fated craft except a portion of the bridge…heavy seas roll over it…the masts have gone by the board.”

Harris blamed for the Point St. George Reef Light crew, claiming the foghorn had not sounded. His charges had to be dismissed when witness after witness testified hearing the horn at the time of the disaster.

Three men rode up to the First National Bank in Winnemucca on September 19th, 1900, and they left with nearly $33,000. The trio reportedly included Butch Cassidy along with Wild Bunch member Kid Curry and another man, whose never been never identified.

It would be the last holdup by the famous gang, which later had its photo, sending one to the First National where it hangs still to this day. It’s disputed whether Cassidy sent the photo or if a local resident sent it as a publicity stunt.

Some claim Cassidy’s involvement is simply a wild-west myth. Still others say it was the Sundance Kid and not Cassidy who helped pull off the robbery.

After the heist, they mounted their horses and made their getaway as the alarm sounded. Although towns folk fire fired several shots at the robbers, who returned the gunfire, no one got injured.

The gang had planned the robbery down to the last detail, including having fresh horses posted about 10 miles apart along their getaway route. This allowed them to quickly outdistanced the posse.

A man known as ‘Cowboy Joe’ Marsters recalled riding with the Wild Bunch as a 14-year-old horse wrangler. He said he liked Cassidy, but wasn’t crazy about the Sundance Kid.

“I saw him hang a man,’’ Marsters said during an 1974 interview.

Marsters also claimed to have seen Cassidy during a rodeo at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. By then both Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were reportedly dead some seven years, killed by the Bolivian Army.

Reports as recent as 2011, say Cassidy, whose given name was Robert LeRoy Parker, survived as a machinist named William T. Phillips, dying in Spokane, Washington in 1937. As for Marsters, he passed away in Doyle, California, north of Reno, in May 1978 at age 83.

One hundred years following incorporation, a 204 page document was presented to the board of supervisors in July 1957, recommending Crescent City’s charter be dissolved. It went on to ask city services be turned over to the County of Del Norte.

The board turned down a motion that would have called for the election of 15 freeholders to draw up a charter for the county. Supervisors Harold Del Ponte, Austin Hunter, and Fred Haight stated that “the county is not ready for such a move at this time.”

Some Del Norte citizens were not content to wait for the right time and notified the board that the citizens could call for an election by petition. When the freeholders were elected, they could draft a charter that would be voted on by county residents.

Charles A. Thunen, member of the advisory council reported that Jack Harper informed them of the immense savings that would result from the change. Thunen, at the time, was principal of Del Norte High, having the school gym named for his following his 1965 death.

Interestingly enough, Harper was also a school district employee. He taught art to students throughout the county, including Gasquet’s Mountain School and Margaret Keating School in Klamath.

Supervisor Del Ponte responded by stating that he didn’t see the point of letting two or three employees go and hiring a $1,000 a month man.  Unemployment was less than two percent at that time and many jobs were available in the logging and lumber industries.

As of 2012, only seventeen cities have disincorporated in California’s history, including Long Beach, Hornitos, Cabazon as well as Pismo Beach and Stanton, each of which later reincorporated.

‘Corky’ Simms passed away November 17, 2013, at his home in Klamath after a three-year battle with cancer. He was born on January 10, 1935, at Kapel, on the Klamath River, to Doris Roberts and raised by Hector Simms.

After his service in the United States Marines, he returned home to work as pile driver, and then went on to work in masonry. He taught many young Yurok tribal members the ways of the Klamath River and how to carry on the traditions that he lived by.

An incident from the mid-70’s remains cemented in my mind. In a conversation with Marge Paul, who owned and operated “Paul’s Cannery,” jus’ north of the new Klamath town site, Corky had ‘strong native energy.’

He was being chased by the law from U.S. 101 up Requa Road, reaching speeds in excess of 90-miles an hour, when he decided to ditch his car in the river between the Patapoff’s home and the Requa Inn. Officers saw his car hit the water and sink with him in it.

Deputies, officers from the highway patrol and volunteer firefighters spent hours searching the river bank for him. It was believed that after escaping the car, Corky either doubled-back and got out of the water under the authorities nose’s or he swam across the river to the southern bank.

Mrs. Paul had a third explanation and swore it was the truth . She said Corky turned himself into a salmon and swam up river to Paul’s cannery, where deputies would later find him sitting at the bar sipping a beer, in dry clothes.

I lived around the Rez long-enough to learn there are things that ‘white-man medicine’ cannot explain.

He is survived by his wife, Brenda Simms; brother Don Natt; sister Amanda Donahue; mother of his children Vada Berry; daughters Winter Berry and Malea Simms; step-daughter Shannon and husband Jon Richards. He was preceded in death by his parents and brothers, Skee Skelton and Butch Lewis.

While researching the Century Airline crash killing two people when it slammed into Castle Rock and burst into flames during March of 1980, I learned about a crash that began while 21-miles above the Mohave Desert. On that Tuesday, December 10th, 1963, the jet was being test-piloted by Colonel Chuck Yeager.

A newspaper report from the following day reads, “His rocket-boosted NF-104 Starfighter smashed to earth near the intersection’s of U.S. 6 and U.S. 466, one of the most heavily traveled points in a desert area otherwise free of traffic or habitation.”

The intersection has since been replaced by SR-14 and SR-58. But what makes this so unique is that pieces of that Starfighter were found only seven miles west of Crescent City, California, roughly 700-miles from where the crash originated.

Aerospace historian Peter W. Merlin writes, “We first visited this site in 1992. It has been picked over quite a bit since then by a number of people including some who were selling the pieces. In 2011, we took Yeager to the site, the first time he had been back since 1963.”

Yeager’s most famous flight came 16-years earlier in 1947, when he flew the X-1 rocket plane at 700 miles-per-hour to become the first man to break the sound barrier. Tom Wolfe adapted the 1963 crash in his 1979 book, “The Right Stuff,” and later depicted in the 1983 movie based on the book.

In the later part of my junior year in high school the re-examination of the President John Fitzgerald Kennedy assassination was nearing its crescendo. While everyone in class was being forced to read such books as “Lord of the Rings,” or “Ragdoll,” I was working my way through three books on the conspiracies surrounding JFK’s death: “The Secret Team: The CIA and Its Allies in Control of the United States and the World,” “The Death of a President: November 20–November 25, 1963,” and “Beyond the Gemstone File.”

The teacher’s name was Miss Fitzgerald, an irony lost on me at the time, and after making my case to her, she relented and allowed me to finish the books and write a report on each one. In the end she was unhappy with my final thoughts on the subject and awarded be a B-minus for my work.

What she took aim at was the fact that I felt that while Lee Harvey Oswald, may have acted alone, firing at the Presidents motorcade, striking first a traffic light, which fragments and bit ricocheted, hitting both the President causing him to exclaim, “God, I’ve been hit,” and injuring a bystander named James Teague. Her other point was that I felt Oswald did hit the President as well as Governor John Connally, but he didn’t fire the fatal shot.

Much has been made of the so-call ‘pristine’ bullet found at Parkland Hospital over the five decades since it happened. However, every picture I’ve seen of this bullet, and many were published in these three books, the bullet is damaged. Furthermore, from what I gathered from those books, Connally was sitting lower and further to the left of the President when the pair were struck, making the ‘pristine’ and the ‘magic bullet the same.

It is called the ‘magic’ bullet because the Warren Commission had it changing direction at least twice in mid-flight, something physics says it impossible. Furthermore, I pointed out in my school report that this was the bullet fired by Oswald, thus showing he did shoot the President.

However, I carried my belief out to the point Miss Fitzgerald, could not abide with my conclusion. I read and reported that the bullet that passed through Kennedy and hitting Connally was 6 mm, while the hole in the base of Kennedy’s head was 8 mm, showing two different weapons were fired.

My conclusion, based on the behavior of the Secret Service and the fact that the detail behind the President’s car had a AR-15 in it, that the shot came from the Secret Service detail. Initially, the Secret Service failed to tell the FBI of the weapon when asked, then admitted during official testimony.

This is also supported by the fact that the Secret Service interfered with the handling of the President’s body at Parkland Hospital by denying Texas authorities to complete an autopsy there. It was made worse by their apparent interference of the autopsy proceedings at Bethesda Medical Center in Maryland.

There is also the witness testimonies taken by police on the day that say they saw a Secret Service agent with the AR-15. Many of those same witnesses stated that this same agent fell backwards in the seat as the third shot was heard.

Follow this up with the reports of the rifle shots coming first two coming with a slight gap between them and the second and three shot being rapid in succession. Lastly, several people told investigators they distinctly smell gun smoke after the report of the third shot.

As for me on that fatal day, I was barely three-years-old; however I have a clear recollection of my mother and our next-door neighbor sitting on the couch, crying as they watched television. Our neighbor was a Korean woman and she had her elastic pants on backwards.

Also I remember my father coming home, getting some gear, and kissing Mom before leaving. And, though I cannot swear to this, I seem to recall watching Walter Cronkite that day, delivering the news that the President was dead as well as the live shooting a couple of days later of Oswald by Jack Ruby.

I qualify this because I’ve seen those two pieces of historical footage time again since, and it could have caused a ‘false memory,’ for me.

Year’s later both of my parents, who were great Kennedy supporters, would talk of the assassination. From them I learned, Dad was gone for nearly two-weeks and that the greatest fear At Mather Air Force Base, in Sacramento at the time was the possible involvement of the Soviets.

We also had the book, “Four Days: The Historical Record of the Death of President Kennedy,” in our home. I must have thumbed through it a couple of dozen times as a kid.

For all of this I got a lesser grade than I thought I deserved, but at least I passed her class and didn’t have to bother with diagramming sentences or reading books which held no interest for me. Finally, everything I wrote then as now, is mere speculation and will be, as so much time has passed since the assassination that, barring new evidence, no one living then or today will ever know what really happened.

They purchased the Angus-cross bull from Harold Del Ponte when the animal was jus’ a couple of days old. Larry Bush and his wife, Audrey took the animal, they named ‘Bahamas’ to their Klamath Glen home, raising him on the bottle.

‘Bahamas’ was two-and-a-half years old, when on December 22nd, 1964, a flood washed him down the river, into the Pacific Ocean and finally into the Crescent City Harbor. He was rescued by some men, including Dave Steward, and was extremely ill from his 16-mile ordeal.

When Audrey went to the harbor to see if it was their steer, the animal stood up for the first time and came right to her. The Bush’s were planning to give him to Crescent City so he would have a place to live out the rest of his life.

But, before that could be done, some of the rescuers hired an attorney and sued to keep him, with the idea of butchering the Angus-mix. It was local brand inspector, Lyle Corliss, who decided the steer belonged to the Bush’s, ending the litigation.

Fees for the steers rescue, the vet, upkeep and attorneys were piling up. Several people including George and Millie Merriman, Colin Henninger and Wally Griffin helped pay them.

Later, the rescue fee was returned after one people who led the rescue was slated to receive an award from the National Humane Society. Unfortunately, that award-winners’ name appears obscured from public records.

‘Bahamas’ was taken to Dr. Vipond’s ranch, near Lake Earl, where he lived through 1967. He was then moved to Bush’s cousin, Alvin Larson’s place in Requa.

Eventually, Bush and his brother, Norman asked Klamath resident, Andy MacBeth to take over the care of the steer. It’s believed MacBeth was the one who made arrangements with the animal’s original owner, Del Ponte to put ‘Bahamas,’ now renamed ‘Captain Courageous,’ out to pasture and on display.

‘Captain Courageous’ lived a long and peaceful life, dying in the spring of 1983. Fourteen years later, a monument to ‘Captain Courageous’ was erected at the south end of the new Klamath town site, next to the two original Golden Bears salvaged from the bridge destroyed by the flood.

While the old Modoc chief remained in the reservation, Kintupash returned to Lost River and lead an abusive harassment against the white settlers who had occupied the area. The small Modoc group of about 43 Indians demanded rent for the occupation of “their land”, which most settlers paid.

After a few attempts to negotiate in behalf of the complaining settlers, including failed attempts by Agent Lindsay Applegate in 1864–6 and Superintendent Huntington in 1867, the Modoc finally relocated in 1869 following a council between Kintpuash; Alfred B. Meacham, the US Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon that replaced Huntington; O.C. Knapp, the US Indian agent on the reservation; Ivan D. Applegate, sub-agent at Yainax on the reservation; and W.C. McKay.

Meacham was from Oregon, and knew Captain Jack and the Modoc.

When soldiers suddenly appeared at the meeting, the Modoc warriors fled, leaving behind their women and children. Meacham placed the women and children in wagons and started for the reservation.

He allowed “Queen Mary”, Captain Jack’s sister, to go meet with Captain Jack to persuade him to move to the reservation. She succeeded.

Once on the reservation, Captain Jack and his band prepared to make their permanent home at Modoc Point.

Washoe County’s Regional Transportation Commission has been awarded a $4.6 million grant to purchase three electric buses. The 35-foot buses will replace three diesel buses and will operate from the Riverwalk District downtown to the University of Nevada, Reno.

So far, where the money for these buses came from no one is saying. Hopefully the citizens of Nevada nor the U.S. are footing this bill.

Officials say the vehicles have fast-charging lithium-ion batteries and fuel cell auxiliary power needed for air conditioning in high desert climate. The grants were announced by Nevada’s U.S. Senator Harry Reid — which explains a lot about the late Friday afternoon presser.

Not even Reid’s senate website explains where the $4.6 million grant originated. This is disturbing as it appears there is a reason to hide the information.

Finally — while the emissions the buses produce will be diminished and this is no doubt good for the environment, this isn’t good for the economy. Somewhere in the county, some business that depends on selling fuel to the RTC is suddenly left without the income brought in by filling those three buses with diesel.

It’s a shame the greening of society doesn’t include people’s bank accounts.