Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On Sept. 6, 2025, at about 8:19 a.m. a Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputy was driving the area of Henderson St. and B St., in Eureka when he observed 68-year-old Daniel Griffith of Eureka smoking methamphetamine. The deputy contacted Griffith and placed him under arrest without incident.

 

In addition, Griffith had several outstanding misdemeanor warrants for his arrest and was in possession of a stolen shopping cart from a nearby business. Griffith was transported to the Humboldt County Correctional Facility where he was booked and housed on the following charges:

• H.S. 11550(a) Use or be Under the Influence of any Controlled Substance
• H.S. 11395(b)(1) Possession of controlled Substance with 2 or more priors
• B.P. 22435.2(a) Theft of a shopping cart
• P.C. 496(a) Possession of stolen property
• P.C. 978.5 Bench Warrant / Failure to Appear

This is Griffith’s ninth arrest for very similar charges since the beginning of 2024 and due to the new voter approved felony H.S.11395(b)(1) under Proposition 36 this is the first time he was not cited and released from the HCCF.

 

This case is still under investigation.

 

Anyone with information about this case or related criminal activity is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at (707) 268-2539.

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Press release from Six Rivers National Forest:

Dillon Fire: 11,957 acres; 57% containment

Email: 2025.Dillon@firenet.gov   

Personnel: 1,242

Online Fire Information: www.linktr.ee/srffirepio      

Containment increased significantly in the southern area of the fire Sunday as crews strengthened control lines along Rock Creek. Clear weather conditions allowed air operations to conduct frequent water drops throughout the fire area, at times with four helicopters flying simultaneously.  

Crews continue to look at opportunities to go direct on the southwest corner of the fire from Forest Road 13N47 north toward Forest Road 14N21 to keep the fire footprint as small as possible. The fire continues to back to the west into Coffee Can Creek drainage.

Structure protection efforts continue along the Highway 96 area. The safety of people, property and structures remains a top priority.
The spot fire across from Dillon Creek Campground is secure; firefighters have laid hose down to the Klamath River. Hose lays will remain in the area until after the forecasted rain passes on Tuesday.
Cool and wet conditions were prevalent Sunday, and half an inch of rain is expected this morning with larger showers in the afternoon. Smoldering conditions will follow.

The combination of rain and smoke will lower visibility on roads near the fire area. Slick conditions are possible. The public is encouraged to exercise caution and be mindful of heavy equipment.

A virtual public meeting will be held at 6 p.m. today on both the Six Rivers’ and Klamath national forests’ Facebook pages. Recordings will be available on the respective pages afterwards.
Evacuations and Closures:

Intermittent closures of Highway 96 are possible, particularly near Seiad Valley. Road updates can be found on the Caltrans’ website at https://dot.ca.gov/travel.

The Six Rivers National Forest has issued a forest closure order in the vicinity of the Dillon Fire. More information can be found at www.linktr.ee/srffirepio.

The Ti Bar area has been placed in a level 3-GO status. Dillon Fire evacuations and warnings can be found at https://protect.genasys.com:

Evacuation Orders: SIS-1402-A, SIS-1405, SIS-1503-A, SIS-1506, SIS-1509-A and SIS-1509-B.

Evacuation Warnings: SIS-1300, SIS-1301, SIS-1402-B, SIS-1408, SIS-1503-B, 1509-C and SIS-1509-D.

Shelter information and evacuation resources are available through the Siskiyou County Office of Emergency Services at (530) 340–3539.

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This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

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Since he first floated the idea on a podcast this summer, Gov. Gavin Newsom has been the face of a plan to redraw California’s congressional lines to favor Democrats.

Now, as the state hurtles toward a Nov. 4 special election in which voters will decide whether to adopt a new gerrymandered map, opponents are grappling with how much to center Newsom in their campaign to defeat the proposal.

At the California Republican Party convention in Garden Grove this past weekend — which aimed to mobilize conservatives against Newsom’s measure, known as Proposition 50 — the governor was a curiously negligible presence.

In strategy sessions and trainings, GOP leaders largely looked beyond Newsom, whose slick style, celebrity stature and unabashedly liberal politics have for years offered California Republicans a delicious foil. Even the merchandise tables were missing their usual fare depicting the governor as a dictator with a Hitler mustache.

“I don’t think this is about Gavin Newsom. This is what he wants to do, but this is about Californians,” Corrin Rankin, the party chair, told reporters. She said the party will run a get-out-the-vote operation educating Republicans about how the new map would effectively take away their right to choose who represents them.

“We’re going to make sure that fine print is in bold letters and people see what exactly they’re voting for and that they’re not fooled again by the Democratic Party,” Rankin said.

Make it about the map

During a presentation Saturday afternoon about legal challenges to the redistricting gambit, Orange County Republican Party Chair Will O’Neill told attendees their most effective talking point to defeat Proposition 50 is to simply show voters the new map.

Newsom’s plan would toss out congressional districts drawn by an independent citizen commission in 2021 and adopt lines that flip the partisan lean of five Republican-held seats while shoring up the Democratic registration advantage in five more swing districts. The GOP could be left with as few as four of California’s 52 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Will O’Neill, chairman of the Republican Party of Orange County, speaks during the California Republican Party fall 2025 convention in Garden Grove, Orange County. He encouraged delegates to highlight the most “absurd” changes in the proposed congressional maps as part of the anti-Proposition 50 campaign. Sept. 6, 2025. Photo by Jules Hotz for CalMatters

O’Neill told delegates to find the most “absurd” changes in their communities and post them on social media. He highlighted a proposed district around Lake Tahoe that’s been compared to an elephant head, because of a trunk-shaped swath that dips into the heavily Democratic suburbs of Sacramento, and a line drawn down the middle of a residential street in Mission Viejo, splitting houses on either side into different seats.

To win, O’Neill said in an interview, Republicans have to broaden the election to be about the detrimental impacts of Proposition 50 and reach the vast majority of Californians who are not living in hyperpartisan online environments. Only 25% of voters in the state are registered Republican, compared to 45% who are registered Democratic and 22% who have no party preference.

“Whether the person likes Donald Trump or Gavin Newsom isn’t really the issue,” O’Neill said. “If this is a straight Republican vs. Democrat election, we lose.”

There’s no escaping Newsom

For many voters, Proposition 50 will be a choice between Newsom and Trump. That’s exactly how Newsom himself has framed it.

The governor began talking about redistricting in July, after Trump pressured Texas Republicans to call a special session to redraw the state’s congressional map and bolster the GOP’s narrow control of the House. The new lines in Texas will likely flip five Democratic seats to Republicans.

Newsom has argued that California’s retaliation was necessary to save democracy — preserving Democrats’ chances of winning back the House in the 2026 midterms and preventing Trump from dragging the United States into authoritarianism.

The president, who remains deeply unpopular in California, is everywhere in Newsom’s campaign for Proposition 50, which he has dubbed the “Election Rigging Response Act.” It echoes the governor’s successful strategy for defeating a recall attempt in 2021.

But Newsom is everywhere as well. He stars prominently in one of the first ads for the campaign, which features footage from a rally he held in Los Angeles last month, where he urges voters to “stand up for our democracy.”

And some opponents are putting Newsom at the forefront of their pitch to voters.

First: A vendor talks to attendees at the California Republican Party fall 2025 convention in Garden Grove. Last: The California Republican Party’s North Region vice chair and Placer County chair, Mark Wright, holds a “No on 50” sign at the convention. Photos by Jules Hotz for CalMatters

Former California GOP Chair Jessica Millan Patterson is leading one of the campaigns against the measure, which has taken the name No On 50 – Stop Newsom’s Power Grab. She said in an interview that Newsom “turns out Republicans,” who are frustrated by their belief that he has treated his governorship like merely a stepping stone to the White House.

It makes Newsom a potent symbol for what Patterson called “the corruption and those backroom deals when Sacramento politicians have that type of power” to draw their own districts, which in this case would leave vast swaths of conservative Californians without representation in Washington, D.C. She slammed the governor for wearing gerrymandering “like a badge of honor.”

“It’s a sense of justice. I think people get really fired up about it,” Patterson said. “We’re going to make sure the rest of the country sees that even Californians aren’t falling for his lame vanity project here.”

A split campaign strategy

Around the convention, Assemblymember David Tangipa was the rare voice making Proposition 50 about Newsom. He urged attendees to ask everyone they know one question: Does Gavin Newsom deserve more power?

Tangipa, a Fresno Republican, said he expected that question to carry weight even in heavily Democratic California, because enough people have woken up to the problems created by the state’s liberal policies. Voters, he noted, overwhelmingly approved a tough-on-crime measure last year that Newsom fiercely opposed.

“He’s not running a redistricting campaign. He’s running an anti-Trump campaign,” Tangipa said. “They love that we want to get into facts and data and everything else and they’re getting into emotion.”

Not everyone is so convinced. Olivia Valentine, president of the Hawthorne Lawndale Gardena Republican Assembly, was in search of door signs and other materials she could use to canvass against Proposition 50. She said she would refrain from bashing Newsom because she didn’t want voters to think she was a “partisan hack.”

“I don’t want that response. I want them to understand why it’s going to be bad for everybody,” Valentine said. “Everyone should be concerned that their vote is being taken away. That’s scary.”

Shawn Steel, RNC National Committeeman for California, speaks during a panel at the California Republican Party fall 2025 convention in Garden Grove, on Sept. 6, 2025. Photo by Jules Hotz for CalMatters

The conundrum over how much to involve Newsom — who Republicans seem uniformly convinced is using the redistricting fight to boost his prospects in an expected 2028 presidential run — is visible everywhere in the campaign.

Charles Munger, Jr., a longtime California GOP megadonor who poured millions into the ballot measure that created the independent redistricting commission, is running his own operation aimed at liberal-leaning voters. The ads have a good government message about the inherent corruption of politicians drawing their own districts, eschewing mention of Newsom and Trump altogether.

Republicans also hope that former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the party’s last statewide officeholder and another champion of the commission, will rally independents against Proposition 50. Schwarzenegger has spoken out against the measure, posting himself online in a “terminate gerrymandering” T-shirt, but he has not announced a formal role in the campaign.

The motivating factor: fairness

On Saturday morning, California GOP delegates from the north state, a deeply conservative area that would be chopped up and redistributed into Democratic-leaning districts under the new congressional map, packed into a small hotel ballroom.

Most are currently represented by Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a Chico Republican, whose chief of staff, Mark Spannagel, visited the session to discuss the bifurcated strategy for defeating Proposition 50.

“What motivates our center-right is not the mealy-mouthed stuff that’s going to motivate our friends on the left,” he said. “So you need to speak to them differently and you need to motivate them in a different way.”

Then Johanna Lassaga, chair of the Yuba County Republican Central Committee, stepped to the front to show off a campaign sign she had made: black and yellow, featuring simple language (“No on 50: Defend Fair Elections”) with no mention of Newsom.

California Republican Party Yuba County Chair Johanna Lassaga at the California Republican Party fall 2025 convention in Garden Grove, Orange County. Sept. 6, 2025. Photo by Jules Hotz for CalMatters

She had thousands available for delegates to buy and distribute around their communities. She asked if anyone had property along the highway where they would be willing to hang banners that could be seen by drivers — even liberals who might be drawn to the intentionally nonpartisan message.

In an interview, Lassaga said she is deeply worried about losing a member of Congress who understands her rural community. Her family farms rice and raises cattle, and she doesn’t think a Democratic representative from a more urban area would fight for them to get water.

But Lassaga said she is trying to lift people up by focusing on what they can do to win. She is trusting in the “power of seven” — encouraging everyone to tell seven people they know to vote against Proposition 50 and then have them pass on the word to seven more people. She recently talked to the salespeople at the dealership where her husband bought a new car.

“We can’t sit and wallow in our self-pity,” she said. “The whole thing is a multilevel marketing scheme with no product.”

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This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

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A beloved teacher arrested for soliciting a minor. A coach convicted of sexual abuse. A school district hit with a multi-million-dollar jury verdict for failing to protect students.

The steady drumbeat of stories in recent years about educator sexual abuse in K-12 school districts across California shows the scope of misconduct is much wider than previously known. Yet the stories only hint at how common sexual harassment and grooming behavior has become in schools, with the best available data from the U.S. Education Department suggesting that 1 in 10 children is targeted for grooming at some point in their K-12 education.

A new bill, which is poised to pass the Legislature in the coming days, would give local and state officials more tools to identify and combat sexual abuse, and educate students to better identify the most common signs of grooming behavior. Senate Bill 848, or “Safe Learning Environments Act,” was authored by Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, a Democrat from Alhambra, in response to an investigative report in Business Insider, The Predators’ Playground. The 2023 story documented decades of sexual misconduct involving nearly two dozen different educators, ranging from lewd remarks about students’ bodies during class to statutory rape, at a single California school, Rosemead High, which is in Pérez’s district.

Since the article was published, at least five civil lawsuits have been filed by former Rosemead students, while the state attorney general’s Bureau of Children’s Justice opened a rare investigation into the handling of educator sexual misconduct claims, which is ongoing.

“California lacks a comprehensive standardized approach to preventing abuse in K-12 schools,” Pérez told fellow lawmakers in urging their support. “Several high profile cases continue to highlight systemic failures and underscore an urgent need for stronger preventative measures to protect children.”

In an interview with CalMatters, Pérez said she could personally relate to the Rosemead story. When she was in high school, a male staffer some 20 years her senior took an interest in her, asking her questions about sex and boys her age. Then one day, when she returned to campus soon after graduating, he stopped her to ask if she’d turned 18 and if he could take her to dinner. That’s when, Pérez said, it dawned on her that he’d been grooming her for a sexual relationship.

State Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez addresses fellow lawmakers on the Senate floor at the state Capitol in Sacramento on Aug. 21, 2025. Lawmakers are expected to vote on a redistricting plan aimed at countering a similar move by the Texas Legislature. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters

“I didn’t tell my parents or anything, but I talked about it with my friends,” she recalled. “And I remember talking about it, even at 17. That’s when my friends started sharing their own stories.”

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If it becomes law, Pérez’s bill would create a database of employee misconduct that district administrators must use to background prospective job candidates, require school district officials to report and track “egregious” instances of employee misconduct, mandate training for both educators and students on how to combat and recognize the signs of grooming, and require school districts to implement new written policies defining professional boundaries. It would also apply stricter prior employment check requirements for non-teachers, such as coaches, janitors and bus drivers, update the legal definition of “grooming” to include electronic communications and extend mandated reporter requirements to all employees.

Much of the policy changes in the bill are drawn from a January report produced by the state-funded Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team. The report studied the financial impact of a wave of lawsuits made possible through a landmark 2019 law that temporarily dropped the statute of limitations for victims of childhood sexual abuse to file civil claims against school districts for failing to protect them. Many of the resulting jury verdicts and settlements have been in the tens of millions of dollars, with some much higher.

As CalMatters previously reported, insurance premiums have skyrocketed for school districts, pushing some to the brink of financial insolvency. Estimates for the total value of claims statewide are around $3 billion, with many cases ongoing.

Pérez said this grim reality played a key role in her decision to draft the bill. “There are now dollars and cents being assigned to these cases,” she said. “It’s really opened up this conversation about what can we do to better prevent this abuse from happening.”

Billie-Jo Grant, a professor at Cal Poly Pomona and a leading researcher in educator sexual misconduct, said the majority of grooming cases in schools go unreported. In many cases, a student is ashamed or feels complicit in the behavior, Grant said, while employees routinely fail to report suspicious behavior for fear of tarnishing a colleague’s reputation.

Because of a lack of federal data, Grant has tracked teacher arrests using published news clips, which show that more than 3,000 educators nationwide have been arrested since 2017 following allegations of sexual misconduct involving students. California’s Commission on Teacher Credentialing, meanwhile, has opened more than 1,300 investigations of teacher sexual misconduct over the same time period – a figure that does not include cases which are never referred to the state by school district officials.

Grant, who frequently serves as an expert witness in criminal sexual abuse cases, described Pérez’s bill as a great start toward creating more complete data on the frequency of abuse. She stressed, however, that relying on school officials to determine whether misconduct allegations are “substantiated” will lead to underreporting.

“I think what’s left out is all of the times where they simply don’t do an investigation, look at a complaint at face value, and ask the teacher if they’d resign. And that’s the end of the story,” Grant said. “The problem is there is no accountability for school administrators. Our system relies on them doing thorough investigations.”

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A primary element of Pérez’s bill addresses “pass the trash,” a well-documented process in which teachers accused of sexual misconduct quietly resign, only to be hired elsewhere and re-offend. Research funded by the U.S. Department of Justice shows that an educator will on average pass through three different school districts before they are ultimately stopped. Many of these teachers are able to be rehired because of confidential separation agreements, in which school officials agree to not disclose allegations of misconduct to would-be employers in exchange for the educator’s resignation.

That’s what happened earlier this year with David Pitts, a former Rosemead High choir teacher who was placed on administrative leave at a nearby school after he was named in Business Insider’s reporting. A school district investigation of Pitts’ behavior nearly led to an administrative hearing at the state level — a final step that most cases never reach because the teacher has quietly resigned — before Pitts settled. Under the terms of his settlement agreement, Pitts will remain on the payroll until 2026. District officials agreed that if they receive any reference check from a potential employer, they would respond only by “providing Employee’s dates of employment and assignments, and indicating that Employee retired from the District.” Both Pitts and the district’s head of human resources declined to comment.

Pérez invited Cindy Lam, a Rosemead alum who said she was groomed by Pitts when she served as his student piano accompanist in 2001, to testify in Sacramento in support of her bill.

“By the time he initiated sex with me, I was putty in his hands. And by the time I realized I had been groomed, I was completely isolated and psychologically destroyed,” Lam said. “A law like SB 848 would have adequately educated me about grooming behaviors. I would have known that these interactions were inappropriate and reported them.”

Opposition to the bill, which has bipartisan support, is focused on due process concerns raised by employee unions that have historically opposed similar attempts to strengthen pass the trash laws in California. The California Teachers Association — the state’s largest teacher’s union, which opposed similar legislation in 2012 and again in 2018, — notably does not oppose the bill. The California Federation of Teachers and California State Employees Association, however, which together represent both teachers and the non-credentialed educators who would be included in the disciplinary database that Pérez’s bill would create, recently opposed it. Both unions cited concerns over due process as the primary reason.

“We need to ensure a policy that captures individuals that are unfit to work in education while making sure innocent and unfairly charged employees have fair access to justice,” said California Federation of Teachers legislative director Tristan Brown. “We are committed to working with the senator to make that a reality.”

Numerous other states already rely on similar hiring databases, however, which regulators have cited as key tools in keeping students safe. California is one of just 16 states that lack a comprehensive pass the trash law, a 2022 report published by the Department of Education found.

Back in the Rosemead community, many have welcomed Pérez’s bill as a needed change in a community where boundaries between teachers and students have frequently been blurred. Kristy Rowe, a Rosemead alum who graduated before Lam, testified in support of Pérez’s bill as well.

Rowe said she had a sexual relationship with Paul Arevalo, a business teacher known on campus for inviting cheerleaders to sit on his lap in between classes. Not long after Rowe met him, Arevalo was investigated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for allegedly offering to buy another female student condoms and sending her sexually explicit messages during class, disciplinary documents show. Arevalo went on to marry a former student and, after transferring to a nearby school in the district, was placed on leave in 2017 when administrators found he’d sexually harassed another student, records show. Arevalo declined to comment.

“Comprehensive legal reform is urgently needed to center the voices of potential victims, to mandate specialized training for educational personnel, and to ensure that future harm is avoided,” Rowe told lawmakers. “Addressing these gaps is not only a matter of justice, it is a moral imperative to protect children, empower survivors, and create a society where such abuse is neither tolerated nor hidden.”

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Matt Drange is a freelance investigative reporter based in the San Francisco Bay Area and an alumnus of Rosemead High School. He can be reached at mattdrange@gmail.com.

Trudi Lee Smith, 54, of Eureka, passed away on August 25,2025, surrounded by love, after a short but courageous battle with brain cancer.

Trudi lived her life with an open heart and a fierce love for her family. She was a devoted mother, grandmother, sister, and friend, and nothing brought her more joy than time spent with her children and grandchildren. She worked hard throughout her life, but Trudi also knew how to embrace joy. She loved being surrounded by friends, laughter, and music. Many will remember her evenings with Danny, sharing a cocktail at 707 Bar with the crew after work, or swaying to live music on the boardwalk, her smile lighting up the night.

The beach was her place of peace — whether it was walking barefoot in the sand, listening to the waves, or watching the sun sink into the horizon, Trudi found comfort and joy by the water. Purple was her favorite color, and much like the ocean sunsets she adored, she carried its spirit — bright, bold, and full of life.

Trudi was preceded in death by her beloved grandmother, Nellie Hanson; her stepfather, Phil Hodgson; her son-in-law, Anthony Benelisha; and the true love of her life and soulmate, Danny Smith.

She leaves behind her children: Ashleigh Benelisha (Tyler), Cheyenne Jordan, Tyler Jordan (Sami), Kyle Karr, Cody Karr, and stepdaughter Kaylee Smith. Trudi was a proud and loving grandmother to Eleanor and Alex, who were the light of her life.

She is also survived by her mother, Nancy Hodgson; her father, Lornell Knaus (Elaine); and her siblings: Kent Knaus (Deb), Tory Knaus (Linda), Kelly Knaus (Sunni), Dan Hodgson (Collette), and Doug Hodgson (Thu). She will be deeply missed by her many cousins, nieces, nephews, and friends, all of whom were touched by her big heart, her laughter, and her unwavering strength.

A celebration of Trudi’s life will be held at a later time, with details to come. This will be a time where family and friends will be invited to gather, share stories, and honor the incredible woman who gave so much love in her 54 years.

Her memory will live on in every sunset and in the crashing of the waves. And as her beloved Eeyore once said, “It never hurts to keep looking for sunshine.” Keep looking for the sunshine as Trudi did in any situation, no matter the clouds.

A special thanks to Hospice of Humboldt, including the wonderful staff at the Hospice House for giving our Trudi peace and comfort at the end. Arrangements provided by Ayres Family Cremation.

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I have very fond memories of my aunt, Olive Hanna, who was born in Arcata in 1876, including her insistence that I learn to swim by diligently escorting me back and forth to the old Yacht Club salt water pool in Humboldt Bay when I was a small child.

Aunt Olive was given a journal by her step father, Jasper Davies, who later became principal of Winship School in Eureka, on her fifteenth birthday, June 18, 1891. She faithfully kept a day by day diary until Dec. 31, 1892, shortly after my uncle, Wesley Davies, was born, and the journal’s pages were filled.

Life for a teenager in the 1890’s was very dull compared to today’s standards. No pot, no rock concerts — just visits back and forth with cousins, walks downtown, an occasional overnight with friends in Eureka, and Sunday night parties at the Christian Endeavor.

However, in my aunt’s diary a story emerges that rivals one of today’s television soap operas.

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The first mention of Grace Gwinn occurs on July 3, 1891. Grace apparently was a close friend of Hattie Davies (later Plaskell), a young sister of Jasper Davies, who was however about the same age as my Aunt Olive, and my mother, Clarissa Hanna (later Dorais):

Grace Gwinn came this afternoon. Clara has seen her but I have not. She and Hattie went right to Janes Creek.

On July 8th:

Mama asked Grace to stay for supper. She stayed quite a while after supper and we had a real pleasant time. She expects to come down in the fall and if she does is going to stay at least a night with us.

Then, on November 2nd:

Papa got a telegram from Mr. Gwinn tonight saying that Jack Littlefield had run away with Gracie and to telegraph to all points to keep him from marrying her and share no expense. Gracie was so wild, pretty and dissatisfied living in the country that if she had been two or three years older I wouldn’t have been so surprised but I did not think she would do anything so dreadful so soon: she is about my age. I guess they will surely be caught now. I wonder where poor Grace is tonight, and who that wretch is. I feel so sorry for her mother, father and Bert. They are such nice people. I am glad that I am not pretty, and not the kind that boys run after. Perhaps if poor Gracie had been as ugly as Bert she would not have come to this. What will Hattie say, she had a letter not long ago, and would be more likely to know who that fellow is than anybody. It sounds kind of wicked but it seems as if Grace had better be dead than this, but she is so young she may yet be able to be something good if her father gets her before it is too late.

November 4th:

Bert stayed all night at Grandma’s last night and from him we know the whole story. Mr. Gwinn went to Blocksburg last Friday to be gone overnight. Mrs. Gwinn and Ethyl went to bed quite early and along in the evening the dogs commenced to make a fuss and Bert quieted them and went to bed, and Grace and Reggie sat in the sitting room reading, the dogs kept barking all evening, but they supposed the cattle smelled the salt in the yard and were trying to get at it. Reggie stopped them several times and finally went to bed on a couch in the room, and the dogs commenced again and Grace went to the door and scolded them, and Reg’s last recollections are seeing her in the doorway.

When Mrs. Gwinn went to call her she was gone. She found a note from Grace saying she was going to run away and would be in Woodland in four days. This fellow was discharged from there sometime ago, but a week ago came back to that neighborhood riding a horse and leading another. He had been seen several times and met them every day as they went to school. Bert thinks there is no love affair about it, for Grace wouldn’t be marrying a no account mountaineer, she would want some rich city fellow who could keep her in style, and she has been saying she would run away and go to Woodland for she hates the mountains, and this fellow has agreed to help her to it, and she has gone with him on his horse, and it was dark and stormy and there is no telling where the wretch will take her or what he will do with her.

Perhaps she would be glad enough to get home if she could now. Mrs. Gwinn was very near wild when she found Grace gone and Bert could not leave her, so he sent the only man on the place, a halfbreed, for his father, and later Saturday started out himself. He very near killed his horse riding it night and day. Last night he got word from his father that they spent the night at laqua and for Bert to come to Bridgeville. At noon a telegraph came saying Mr. Gwinn would be in Eureka tonight. That is all I know. I wonder what that wretch will do with Grace and if she will be found. Telegrams have been sent in every direction. They are anxious to get him before Mr. Gwinn does for they are afraid he will shoot him.

November 5th:

It’s all a mistake. Grace went of her own free will and is enjoying. They know about where they are but can’t get them. It has been going on for months and she has done such vile wicked things I can’t write them, they are not fit to read. Her father is very near crazy and they can’t do anything with him, and the only thing to do now is to let them get married. She is ruined now, and my mother will never let me even see her again if she can help it. I know it’s true but can’t seem to believe it. It don’t seem as if Grace could do it, and it will kill her father and mother or set them crazy. It seems like a horrible dream, and to think she was so low down when she was here in July, I can’t believe it.

November 7th:

Hattie and I had quite a talk about Grace. Hattie never wants to see her again and she just hates her and can’t understand how she has been deceiving her. Hattie burned all her letters tonight. She wanted to get rid of them yet found it hard. Hattie says as much as she hates her, that if she was to see her she would forget and speak to her, and I’m afraid I might on the spur of the moment, although I wouldn’t be seen with her nor would Hattie or any other respectable person. We heard that Grace passed through town Sunday night and have got a letter from Mr. Cummings saying that Grace stayed about four miles from their place Tuesday night.

Did Grace and her “no account mountaineer” live happily ever after? Who knows? There is only this cryptic notation on November 10th:

Grace is caught, but he isn’t, but she will get away again someday I think.

And that is the end of the story, except for one passing reference on June 18, 1892:

I am sixteen today and have kept my book for a year. Next year I am not going to put in anything but what I do or we do here at home. I wish I did not have that G.G. affair in November (in my diary) but I could not think of much else at the time.

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POSTSCRIPT from 2025: Local history buffs may have caught on the name of Grace’s suitor, Jack Littlefield. He was indeed the same man who was infamously murdered three years later in somewhat murky circumstances after beefing with the “Round Valley Cattle King,” George White — a psychopath.

The story of the Littlefield murder is told from numerous perspectives in Round Valley Retribution, a recent and wonderful book by local author Karen Campbell-Hendricks that also gives us the rest of Grace’s story. She did indeed find the “rich city fellow who would keep her in style,” eventually marrying a wealthy San Francisco civil engineer and setting up house for almost 25 years, before dying in 1933. —Ed.

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The story above was originally printed in the September-October 1980 issue of the Humboldt Historian, a journal of the Humboldt County Historical Society. It is reprinted here with permission. The Humboldt County Historical Society is a nonprofit organization devoted to archiving, preserving and sharing Humboldt County’s rich history. You can become a member and receive a year’s worth of new issues of The Humboldt Historian at this link.

Vanta Lea (Harvey) Schuetzle went home to be with the Lord on September 2, 2025 while surrounded by family after a brief illness. She was born March 10, 1934 in Greens Fork, Indiana to Leroy and Ruby Harvey. In 1948,her parents traveled to Carlotta, and she, her 2 brothers and their dog Muggins made the trip in the back of their Willy’s Jeep. She attended Fortuna High School after arriving in California. She met her future husband Raymond Schuetzle at John and Mable’s Store in Carlotta. They married in June of 1950, and after the ceremony he rolled her down Main Street in Fortuna in a wheelbarrow. They enjoyed a life of family and love until his passing in 2005.

Vanta was active in community organizations. She was part of Cuddeback’s PTA, a Girl Scout Leader, and later in life a member of the DAR, and long time member of Fortuna Methodist Church.

Vanta enjoyed her many years working at Payless Drugs in Eureka. During this time she held several positions, but her favorite was being the warehouse manager. She made life long friends during her years at Payless.

Vanta enjoyed cooking for her family and neighbors, and is famous for her homemade apple pies. A skill she has passed on to several of her grandchildren. Over the years, she spent many hours baking thousands of cookies for her family, friends, and many organizations. She could be found enjoying her flower gardens, chickens, painting, canning and making jams and jellies. Each of her grandchildren held a special place in her heart.

She was preceded in death by her parents Leroy and Ruby, brothers Marvin, Butch, and John Harvey, husband of 55 years, Raymond, son-in-law Dan Carter, and Grandson Heath Browning. Vanta will be greatly missed by those who knew her. She is survived by her children, Suzie Woodward, Nancy Carter, Ernie (Valerie) Schuetzle, Randy Schuetzle, Keith (Angela) Schuetzle, and Regina Schuetzle. She is also survived by her 13 grandchildren and their spouses, many great grandchildren and great-great grandchildren, and brother Jerry Harvey. A memorial service will be held on October 18th at 12:00 at the Fortuna Monday Club. A potluck reception will immediately follow, please bring a potluck dish if you can.

A special thanks is given to PACE, Susanne Ross, Roxane Heiob, Dr. Jennifer Heidmann, and the staff at the Ida Emmerson Hospice House. Arrangements were handled by Ayres Family Cremation.

In lieu of flowers please make donations to Ida Emmerson Hospice House or your favorite charity.

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