What This Day Means to Me

I was born in 1940, about seven months before Pearl. I remember my Mom doing a Victory Garden, making me save the aluminum wrapping from chewing gum, and rolling up string into big balls. We also had these little stamps for gas and things. I even remember the unforgettable rumble of B-17's leaving for England (we lived in Massachusetts) by way of Newfoundland and Greenland. It's hard to describe a sound 60+ years later but if you've ever heard a squeaky screen door you know what I mean.

Anyway, I was lucky enough to be part of the 1950's and to remember Mel's Drive-In, the skating waitresses, and yes, the '57 Thunderbird. The war in Korea had ended by the time I graduated from high school in 1958 and I blissfully went straight into college, got married, and had three kids with my then pony-tailed wife.

So I was exempt from Vietnam, too.

And now, all these free years later, I wonder how lucky I am that I was not watching flak over Germany or starving and freezing in Korea. I'm even feeling a little guilty that the numbers came up as they did. I'm an armchair WW II buff you see, and knowing now what nineteen year-olds went through so that I could go to college and marry and raise a family in a safe and comfortable country well, it makes me real respectful.

I'm not sure my own kids know what this is all about, either. They are all too old (oh, boy) or married, etc. to be called to Iraq so how can I tell them now neat it is what we've got?

So I'm going out Monday and plant a flag where a B-24 went down here so needlessly in a training accident just because.

Tule Lake Migratory Bird Festival May 17

This annual event promises a lot of activities and fun. It begins at the Refuge Visitor Center on Hill Road in Tule Lake and looks like it could run most of the day with guided bus tours, mist netting and banding, airboat rides, morning bird walks, live blues music and even food.

We have been to this refuge, which is located on Highway 161 right on the Oregon border. To reach it one drives north on Highway 97 from Weed, through Macdoel and turn east on 161 just a few miles beyond Dorris. It took us about 1-1/2 hours from Lake Shastina.

If you don't have a county map call me at 530-938-0385 and I will mail you one.

The article in the paper recommends calling 530-667-2231 for more info and their website is helpful too: www.fws.gov/klamathbasinrefuges.

THE SUNDIAL BRIDGE

If you haven’t visited northern California, I mean far northern California, now is the time to do so. Just an hour south of Siskiyou County is Redding. You may not know it but Redding really has something special to offer.

The Sacramento meanders right through Redding in its entire splendor. Did you know that the headwaters of the Sacramento is in Mt. Shasta City? Don’t forget to visit the Mt. Shasta City Park, sit on a park bench and relax at the headwaters.

The City of Redding decided to dedicate a portion of the river for people to enjoy. They wanted to make it a natural habitat that includes native plants and animals. They created miles of walkways along the river as well as Turtle Bay, the museum that is dedicated to the history and natural habitat of the area. But it gets better. They also built the Sundial Bridge to cross the river. It is an actual sundial. It has been featured in “Sunset Magazine”, “VIA”, and other travel magazines. It is truly worth a visit.

Park your car and either bike or walk across the bridge. Stop on the bridge to admire the river and watch the fisherman. After crossing the bridge you can walk or ride the miles of pathways. This time of year the scenery is painted with wildflowers and huge Oak Trees that seem centuries old. You can even visit the Arboretum, which has all the flowers and bushes you can even imagine.

WHERE IS SPRING?

It is like a roller coaster around here. We get two days of shorts and 70-degree weather and I am madly digging in the garden. The very next day the temperature drops to a high of 45 degrees and a low of 18 degrees. The wind howls and there is no end in sight for the next five days. This really is a little unusual for Siskiyou County. My daughter called from Seattle and said it snowed and not only did it snow but the snow stayed on the ground. So, I guess it is unusual everywhere.

The stall in the planting season has made me think and plan a little more on what I want to grow in my garden. When we first had a touch of warm weather, I rushed out to the nursery and bought Pansies, English Daisies and Ranuculous. I planted them in my pots on the patio and for approximately six hours I had lovely bright spring colors. Well, maybe it was longer than that. But you see, I was asleep when all the color disappeared.

When I woke up in the morning the sun was shining and I could hardly wait to see the touch of spring I had planted. I should not have been surprised but I didn’t have a plant left anywhere. The deer had a snack during the night and I was left with mowed down plants.

Now, I knew that might happen. I even have a spray called Deer Off that has a nasty taste. Did I apply it? Of course not. So, now that the weather is cold and dreary, I am rethinking my choice of plants. I need to do more research on deer resistant plants if there is such a thing.

But, you know it is a trade off. If I lived in a large city I probably would be able to plant anything and not worry. But I chose to live in a rural environment, which is actually a deer habitat. I am intruding on their territory so I need to quit complaining.

Recycling Printer Cartridges

Each of these is worth 3 bucks at most office supply stores and while some of them limit you to three cartridges per purchase here's how you can manipulate that:

Office Depot recycles electonics. Old PC's, printers, monitors, etc. They ask that you buy the box(es) to put them in (small $5, medium $10, large $10) but that (they claim) covers their shipping costs.

So I walk in to the Medford Office Depot with 5 used-up ink cartridges and a $3 coupon from an earlier cartridge trade (they'll take as many as you give them but only 3 can apply to a purchase, they give you a $3 coupon for the remaining ones).

In the back of my car I brought an old PC, a busted printer, two bad keyboards, and a box-full of old speakers, and other accessories.

The clerk suggests I apply 3 of my cartridges ($9) toward the $10 medium box and the other two cartridges + my $3 coupon toward a second medium box for a total net cost to me of $2.

Then he grabs a shopping cart, goes out to our car, and loads up all my stuff. After putting it all into the boxes and filling out the forms himself, he asks me to sign and I'm gone.

Maybe 15 minutes but I have responsibly disposed of things I'd have to wait months to do locally.

For 2 bucks.


footnote: We just replaced a printer (you can't repair them these days, not only are parts unavailable but the labor cost may approach the cost of a new one.....)and noticed the black ink cartridge seemed pretty small compared to the old one. Sure enough, the defunct printer used a 40 ml cartridge which I used to buy for $15 (remanufactured, from PrintPal.com in Medford) and the new one has a 10 ml cartridge which costs, yup you got it, $13.95. One-fourth the capacity, one buck less. Why do I suspect a plan here?

Siskiyou County in WW II

Sally and I take day trips to places in Siskiyou County that are off the beaten path and one of these was the old county airport just north of Montague. It is a curious, almost haunting place with abandoned hangars and buildings dating to the 1940's and most intriguing, a hugely long 7,300 foot paved airstrip.

So I got to asking around and it turns out this field was built by the Army Corps of Engineers in late '42, early '43 as an emergency field for the military aircraft during WW II, specifically the "heavies" like the B-17 and B-24 that were on training flights or Lend Lease transfers to Russia. That's how I got onto the following story....

It was overcast that night in Salinas on June 10, 1943 when B-24E tail number 42-7119 finally lifted off at ten minutes to midnight on a night navigational training flight. There were two student pilots on board, an instructor pilot, navigator, engineer, and gunners; total crew was ten.

The bomber, part of the 7th bomb squadron, was nearly new with just over 200 flying hours on three of its monster Pratt & Whitney R1830-65 Twin Wasp radial engines. Yet a host of "small" problems delayed the lift off including hydraulic leaks and radio trouble.

The flight plan was to climb to 11,000 feet then turn northwest over Sacramento and head for Scotia, a small mill town just south of Eureka on Highway 101. Then due east to Redding, south to Bakersfield, and home. We don't know where it actually went however, because although orders were to report in every 30 minutes no radio contact was ever made with the flight.

What we do know is that George Linnville in Weed was wakened by his wife around 2:20am that next morning saying she heard a big plane with engine trouble flying nearby. George stumbled outside, looked up toward the sound, and saw a large aircraft pass over the town heading north with engines sounding "funny". As he was watching, the craft's navigation lights blinked off and it began a slow turn to the west and south, eventually crashing behind a hill south of town and exploding. Now 94, George still remembers the glow.

Four of the ten, including the instructor and one of the student pilots had managed to bail out just before impact but six others perished. The instructor's testimony in the subsequent investigation stated that # 2 engine had lost oil pressure but would not feather (propellor blades twisted edge-on into the wind to minimize drag). Engines are numbered from left to right so this was the engine closest to the student pilot Albert Demeusy in the left seat.

The instructor pilot asked the navigator, George Clarke who was killed in the crash, where they were and he replied they were over Redding but when # 2 suddenly feathered all by itself, the instructor, 1st Lt. Douglas Thornburg decided they could make it safely to Sacramento.

Then number one feathered itself as well.

The craft now has one completely dead wing with two engines running at full power on the opposite wing, a hopeless condition and the instructor told the crew to don their chutes. He thought they were at 8,000 feet when his occurred and turning south (it would have been nearly impossible to prevent the craft from making a left turn at this point, regardless). The instructor said he saw mountains on either side (it was a quarter moon that morning), probably Black Butte to his left and the Eddies to his right and told the co-pilot to head toward a clearing below. Rumor has it that he or some other member of the crew knew about the old Deetz Airstrip which mail pilots used, but there is no way to know for sure.

Weed is roughly 3,000 ft. altitude so the airplane was only 5,000 ft. above the ground if their altitimeter was correct (which is questionable, both electrical and vacuum power systems had failed by this point). The aircraft went in near Truck Village Drive, almost under where the southbound lanes of Interstate 5 now are. The resulting explosion and fire destroyed most of the plane and the Army salvaged the rest within a few days. The site is just short of the Deetz field by a mile or two.

I have been to the site and have collected some small pieces of molten aluminum, 50 calibre ammunition clips, and such, but no artifacts with "32" on them, Consolidated's official signature. Nor any name plate with serial numbers or other traceable information. Local stories relate that residents combed the wreck site for months afterward, returning bits and pieces to the Sheriff's Department and some, to their homes. One man claims to still have an oil pressure guage which would be a sad twist if true.

When the weather warms and the ground thaws I'll be back with friends and metal detectors to lay out a search grid. We plan to erect a simple stone cairn to memorialize the fallen crew eventually. But some things I'll never learn: why, with an instructor pilot aboard, was the craft so far off course (nearly 60 miles north of Redding)? How could a prop feather all by itself? With 5,000 feet of clearance, why did six men not have time to bail out? And the closure question: Does anyone have an artifact from this wreck on their mantlepiece?

I continue to interview witnesses and put pleas in the local papers for artifacts or stories. I am also trying to find decendants of the crew in the hopes that someone will have a story to tell. I will post updates of this story's progress on my local blog www.myshastina.com under the aviation label and continue to wait for the phone to ring. My number is 530-938-0385 or you can email me at batchelder@gotsky.com.

Bruce Batchelder


FOOTNOTE 5 APRIL; We now have a "32" part thanks to an energetic local volunteer who is a bottle-hunter on the side. It has GK32B047 stamped on it and (again, thanks to Craig Fuller of Aviation Archaeology.com) is identified as a hinge for one of the rollers on the bomb bay door (in the B-24 they rolled up, into the fuselage rather than swinging outward as in the B-17). Doyle Yandell, the volunteer also found a cooked-off 50 cal shell so there is no doubt the plane was military and built by Consolidated in San Diego. Our next 'dig' is Saturday April 12 and volunteers with metal detectors have promised to show up. See you there !

THE STATE OF JEFFERSON CONTINUED

The citizens of the northern California and southern Oregon counties felt isolated and ignored in the 1940's. These rural counties were sparcely populated and depended on lumber and fishing for survival. The legeislatures located in Salem and Sacramento seemingly ignored their needs. So they revolted.

They started to gain newspaper notoriety when they declared that the new state of Jefferson would not have sales tax, property tax, or income tax. The source of revenue for the new state would be red light districts and gambling halls, of all things.

On December 4, 1941 the election for the first govenor of the state of Jefferson was held. A crescent City judge, John C. Childs, won the election. Quite a party ensued. Hollywood newsreels were invited along with photographers from "Life" and "Time" magazines. The local people were asked to dress like cowboys and carry pistols. Even the kids were given a day off from school to join in a parade to the court house.

Then progress came to an end. December 7, 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and all national attention was focused on the tragedy. Judge Child, in his last act as govenor, declared that all activity toward the state of Jefferson stop and all enery be put forth to defending the United States.

Many citizens still remember those days and periodically there is some revival. As you near Yreka on Interstate 5, you can see a sign painted on a barn proclaiming the state of Jefferson. There are even business named Jefferson.

One can only wonder what would have happened if the plans for a new state had not been interupted by WWII. Would we have had a new state of Jefferson. It is conjecture that this was not a joke but an effort to gain attention to the problems of rural counties that had little voice when it came to competing with Los Angeles or San Francisco.