More details of the circumstances that led 51-year-old Shawn Kolpak to be arrested and accused of the brutal attack of a 75-year-old man in the Arcata Community Forest came to light on the second day of his preliminary hearing.

A judge Friday found there was enough evidence to continue proceedings against Kolpak, but downgraded one charge from aggravated mayhem to simple mayhem, both violent felonies related to bodily disfigurement with different jail times if convicted.

Kolpak was held to answer on the attempted homicide charge, as well as enhancements for causing great bodily injury and Spenceley’s age.

Kolpak previously pleaded not guilty.

The prosecution argued the evidence proved Kolpak was responsible for seriously injuring the man by beating him in the face with his fist — pointing to injuries on the knuckles of Kolpak’s left hand, his fixation on and frustration with a person he thought was taunting him by moving sticks around in the forest, and inconsistencies in his story. Deputy District Attorney Roger Rees argued he was intentionally deceiving police during questioning.

Meanwhile, Deputy Public Defender David Celli argued the prosecution offered a “very fragile daisy-chain” of evidence, and said an animal attack or a fall hadn’t fully been ruled out. He pointed to a lack of witnesses to the attack and a lack of physical evidence — including a confirmed weapon.

Testing results for two pieces of evidence remain pending. The Arcata Police Department is awaiting a DNA test for drops of blood found on a jacket police believe Kolpak was wearing that day. The department is waiting on fingerprinting results for a metal water bottle a K9 unit alerted near the crime scene.

Judge Kaleb Cockrum said the weakest part of the case is the “means,” or how the man was attacked.

“There is room for additional information,” he said, one way or the other, and noted there were other possibilities.

Meanwhile, 75-year-old Bill Spenceley remains unable to speak, in the ICU at a UC Davis hospital after serious head injuries sustained in the Jan. 30 attack on Trail 5 of the Arcata Community Forest.

The second witness Rees brought to the stand was Celeste Villarreal, an APD detective who investigated the attack on Spenceley.

She said Kolpak was initially identified as a person of interest due to a phone call he made to APD reporting a person stacking sticks in the forest. She also noted an open case where Kolpak is accused of assaulting a different man in the face in McKinleyville.

After further questioning of Kolpak, she found him to be fixated on a person that was apparently stacking sticks. While being questioned on the attack, she said he would spontaneously bring up “stick guy,” a man he described as matching the description of Spenceley.

Previously, a friend told police that Spenceley would often move sticks off the trails.

Kolpak had a routine of walking in the area of forest daily early in the morning in the area near where Spenceley was found.

Villarreal said Kolpak believed stick guy was “playing games with him” including stalking and taunting him. Early in the mornings, he described seeing a headlamp light and believed stick guy was following him. Kolpak dropped brown paper napkins in the forest and believed stick guy moved them near the sticks to taunt him; brown paper napkins were found by police near the scene.

His feelings about the stick guy, over the course of a three-hour police interview, ranged from comical, to frustrated and angry. He acknowledged having anger issues but told police he wasn’t angry enough to do anything to stick guy. But Villarreal believed his frustration over the stick guy was deeper than he let on, due to him bringing him up repeatedly.

She testified medical personnel told police it was unlikely Spenceley’s injuries were caused by a wild animal or a fall.

Villarreal said during treatment at the UC Davis Medical Center, a Dr. Pahm told her his injuries were unlikely to be caused by a fall, with a single injury in the back of his head and all others on his face, without other injuries from a fall.

He had some thoracic spinal fractures, but doctors were unable to determine if the fractures were new or old.

Dr. Pahm believed the injuries were caused by blunt force. Police noted the victim’s clothing was not torn and the injuries were concentrated only on his head, something the prosecution argued was inconsistent with a wild animal attack. Medical workers similarly found it unlikely to be an animal attack at Mad River Hospital where he was taken before being airlifted due to the severity of his injuries.

The victim had no defensive wounds.

A key part of the prosecution’s argument were the inconsistencies in Kolpak’s stories when being questioned by police.

He told police he avoided the route where Spenceley was found that day. He claimed to have avoided a side trail leading to where Spenceley was found due to crime scene tape. But Villarreal testified she hadn’t yet put up the tape at the time he claimed to have turned around. When confronted with this he changed his story and said he went in the evening around 5 p.m., but again, Villarreal said this was after police had taken down the tape, around 4 p.m.

“He knows where the crime occurred because he’s the one who did it,” argued Rees, later.

Kolpak told police he tripped on sticks that day, when asked to explain the injuries on the back of his hand. Villarreal cast doubt on his claim to have injured his hand slipping on sticks while carrying a cup of coffee, pointing to the instinctual reaction to catch yourself with the palm of your hand.

With Kolpak believed to be right handed, his attorney, Celli questioned why his left hand would be injured. Instead, Rees argued that Kolpak held the victim with his right hand and beat him with his left.

During closing arguments, Celli emphasized it remains a question whether a crime was committed. He pointed to lacerations on Spenceley, and argued there was a lack of evidence proving it was done by a human and not a mountain lion.

He cast doubt on the doctor’s familiarity with animal attacks and called the testimony to be stricken; but Judge Cockrum kept the testimony on the record while considering the full picture of evidence.

Celli also noted the pair had no previous altercations, with Villarreal testifying the pair would say short greetings to each other on the trail.

Rees countered by asking how a wild animal would gently lay the victim down on the ground, without a trace, and emphasized there was probable cause Kolpak committed the crime.

Video surveillance found Kolpak leaving the place he parked his van to sleep outside of Redwood Capital Bank around 7 a.m., and he told police he walked in the park that morning. Police spoke to people who frequent the area, but nobody confirmed they saw Kolpak that day.

Judge Cockrum agreed there remained an identification issue, but said there was probable cause to hold Kolpak to answer to the charges. He pointed to evidence that put Kolpak in the area, alongside his known pattern, his call to police, and his “paranoia” surrounding the activities of “stick man.”

Cockrum sought to reduce the mayhem charge as aggravated mayhem requires intent to disfigure.

An arraignment on information is scheduled for April.

PREVIOUSLY

• Preliminary Examination Begins for Man Accused of Attempting to Murder 75-Year-Old Arcata Man in Community Forest
• 51-Year-Old Man Arrested for Attempted Murder in Redwood Park; 75-Year-Old Victim Airlifted Out of Town

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Yes indeed, Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former U.S. secretary of state, senator, first lady and presidential candidate, flew in to Humboldt County over the weekend and attended an event at the Requa Inn up in Klamath.

The Outpost had heard just the faintest rumors that she might be headed our way but was unable to confirm it last week. On Friday we got an email saying she’d flown in to ACV from SFO under a fake name.

“Secret service SUVs came and picked her up on the tarmac,” our tipster said.

Today, The Historic Requa Inn posted photos from the visit to its Facebook page:

You may recall Clinton’s prior visit to Humboldt, more than four years ago. Turns out she and daughter Chelsea were here to visit Yurok Chief Justice Abby Abinanti for an Apple TV documentary series called “Gutsy.”

This time around, Clinton again met with Judge Abby and others from the Yurok Tribal Court. She was joined by personal friends Anna Deveare Smith (a renowned playwright, actor and professor) and Susie Buell (entrepreneur, businesswoman and progressive political donor).

Want more photos? Amy Bowers Cordalis, a Yurok Tribal member and activist for Indigenous rights and environmental restoration, posted the following highlight reel to Instagram:

Press release from Humboldt Commons:

Humboldt Commons, the nonprofit senior living community currently in development in the McKinleyville Town Center, has officially opened enrollment for all to its Future Residents Priority List.

This community-led project will feature cottages, apartments and shared community spaces on 14.6 acres south of Hiller Road, designed specifically for active adults aged 62 and older.

By joining the Future Residents Priority List with a $1,000 repayable deposit, prospective residents will secure their place in line for future residence selection, receive ongoing project updates and community news, and be among the first to hear about next steps as Humboldt Commons takes shape.

The community is currently in the schematic design phase, with construction plans advancing steadily.

LSW Architects, recognized for innovative design solutions, will provide the designs for Humboldt Commons. Pacific Builders, a locally based contractor with experience in residential construction, will serve as the project’s builder.

Ann Lindsay, President of Life Plan Humboldt, the local group developing the community, shares, “Joining the Future Residents Priority List now means securing your place in a community that’s already generating real excitement — and it helps you take the first concrete step toward calling it your home. Humboldt Commons will be a community where residents age with independence, social connections and purpose. The community is rooted in sustainability and innovation, and reflects the region’s deeply held values of inclusiveness.”

JoAnn Schuch, fellow board member and new member of the priority list, shares, “I hike with my dog Molly every day for exercise, but also for the social contact we find with the other dog walkers.”

“As I get older, I’m really excited to have the off-leash dog park at Humboldt Commons. It will be nice to have a place close by where we can chat with people while we watch the ‘doggos’ play,” JoAnn said.

Features and Amenities

Residents will choose from beautifully designed apartments and cottages with a focus on senior-friendly design and natural light. And they will enjoy an active lifestyle with walking paths, gardens and access to community trails. 

This vibrant community will feature spaces perfect for gatherings, potlucks, music nights and resident-led activities — all centered on staying connected to others and to continuing lifelong learning. And when you need support, comprehensive services have you covered, from health navigation and home maintenance to options for dining and housekeeping.

Welcome Center

To support future residents and interested community members, Humboldt Commons has opened a Welcome Center at 1585 Heartwood Drive, Suite B, in McKinleyville. Staff members are available by appointment to meet with potential residents and answer questions about the development. The organization will host monthly information sessions, both online and in person, to provide detailed insights into the project vision and the benefits of joining the Future Residents Priority List. Information session schedules are available at humboldt.kendal.org/events, and appointments can be made by emailing Humboldt@humboldt..

Community-Led Effort

Humboldt Commons is the result of years of dedication by Life Plan Humboldt, a nonprofit organization founded in 2020 by local residents seeking more choices for aging well in Humboldt County. The organization set out to create a resident-driven nonprofit senior living community that reflects the region’s independent spirit, where neighbors connect through shared interests, social gatherings and a culture of mutual support. Homes will be thoughtfully designed for comfort and functionality, allowing residents to leave behind home repairs, lawn care and endless maintenance tasks.

Kendal Support

As a Kendal Affiliate in Development, Humboldt Commons partners with Kendal, a nationally recognized nonprofit known for its Quaker values and commitment to purposeful aging. This partnership combines local leadership with Kendal’s support and proven track record in senior living communities. Together, Life Plan Humboldt and Kendal are building a forward-thinking approach to aging-in-community, emphasizing stewardship of the land, intergenerational connection and resident-inspired design.

In a rare approach for senior housing, the land abutting Humboldt Commons will also include a lower-income senior housing component to be built and managed by Rural Community Housing. All residents will share amenities and activities, creating an inclusive model that could be adopted in other rural communities across the country.

About Humboldt Commons

Humboldt Commons is a nonprofit senior living community in development in McKinleyville, California, designed for active adults aged 62 and older. As a Kendal Affiliate in Development, Humboldt Commons combines local leadership from Life Plan Humboldt with the support and expertise of Kendal, a nationally recognized nonprofit senior living organization. The community emphasizes purposeful aging, resident-driven design and inclusivity. For more information, visit humboldt.kendal.org.

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PREVIOUSLY:

• Cal Poly Humboldt Pays Almost Double to Swipe 16-Acre Arcata Property, Foiling Long-Term Plans for Senior Living Community
• YESTERDAY in SUPES: Board Considers Alternatives to Statewide Gas Tax, Signs Letter of Support for Senior Living Community in McKinleyville and More!
• After a False Start in Arcata, Life Plan Humboldt Secures McKinleyville Property for a Large Senior Residential Community
• Assemblymember Wood Nabs Over $1.4M to Help Build Senior Community in McKinleyville
• Government Addresses McKinleyville Town Center Criticisms at Crowded Public Meeting
• Local Nonprofit Buys 14.6 Acres in McKinleyville Town Center With Plans to Build 101 Senior Apartments and Cottages
• LISTEN UP, MCKINLEYVILLAIN: If You are Interested in the McK ‘Town Center’ Plan, Then You Will Want to Put This Date Into Your Calendar App and Set a Notification, Because it Will Be Important
• DONE DEAL: Humboldt County Supervisors Approve McKinleyville Town Center Ordinance Despite Concerns About Lane Reductions on Central Avenue

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

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In the shaded courtyard of a San Francisco affordable housing complex in early March, California’s most prolific Yes In My Backyard legislator rolled out his congressional campaign’s new housing platform.

For Sen. Scott Wiener, it was all very on brand.

Flanked by union construction workers, campaign volunteers and some of the YIMBY advocates who have been on “Team Wiener” since his days on the city’s Board of Supervisors, Wiener ticked through the housing policy highlights. The package was a mix of hyperambitious spending proposals — the type that rarely make it beyond campaign literature — wonky left-of-center objectives and a raft of the kind of pro-development, deregulatory proposals upon which Wiener has built his political reputation.

Proposals to cut red tape might seem an odd fit for Congress, which has historically steered clear of local land-use and construction rules. Wiener was happy to address the apparent mismatch.

“It was also an area, first of all, that the state traditionally was not involved in — and we changed that,” he said.

Since Wiener joined the state Senate in 2017, California’s legislature has undergone a historic pivot on housing. Majorities now embrace the notion, at least rhetorically, that the state has an active role to play in promoting the construction of more homes, even if that means bigfooting local governments and neighborhood groups. More so than any other legislator, Wiener has been the hinge of that pivot.

The question now is whether Wiener, if elected, could help orchestrate the same feat of political reengineering in Congress, given its longstanding aversion to legislating on his policy issue of choice — or, as is increasingly the case, to doing much of anything.

‘Where everything good goes to die’

On the one hand, of course Wiener wants to go to Washington.

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision last year to step aside after holding the seat for nearly four decades created a once-in-a-generation opportunity in San Francisco, a city brimming with Democratic political talent and few empty rungs further up the electoral ladder. Wiener has been a professional politician going on 16 years and is possessed of a professional politician’s career ambitions. He’s also termed out of the state legislature in 2028. When he announced his candidacy last October, it was a well-foreshadowed decision that caught virtually no one in the political world by surprise.

On the other hand…really, Congress?

While the legislative branch of the federal government is not a body known for its productivity, Wiener is an exceptionally productive lawmaker. He is the rare California state legislator who can plausibly claim a degree of public name recognition not just outside of his district, but outside the state. That’s in part thanks to his knack for taking up searingly controversial, headline-baiting bills – banning ICE agents from wearing masks, decriminalizing psychedelics, regulating AI, forcing corporations to publicize their carbon footprints and repealing penalties for activities related to sex work.

But it’s also because he has a habit of actually getting a lot of them passed.

State Sen. Scott Wiener addresses lawmakers during a Senate floor session at the state Capitol in Sacramento on Jan. 23, 2025. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMatters

The Center for Effective Lawmaking, run jointly out of the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University, regularly rank lawmakers on a “State Legislative Effectiveness Score” based on the number of bills authored, how far those bills go and how substantive they are. In California’s Senate last legislative session, Wiener came first, and has spent his entire Senate tenure in the top five.

Wiener has been particularly effective at pushing legislation aimed at boosting the construction of new housing. He has authored bills to speed up the building of apartment buildings, tighten the screws on uncooperative local governments and limit environmental review for new development. In an ideological grand finale last year, Gov. Newsom signed a Wiener bill that legalizes mid-rise apartments around major public transportation stops. That’s been a policy priority of Wiener’s since his first year in the Legislature.

It might be some time before anyone can say conclusively whether those bills have actually resulted in significantly more homes getting built or if the state has become more affordable as a result. But love him as the state’s most prolific housing champion or hate him as a developer shill — there are plenty who fall into either camp — no one can deny that Wiener gets bills passed.

Congress, where he hopes to serve, does not.

By some measures, 2025 may be among the least productive years in recent congressional memory and legislative productivity has been on a downward slope for decades. That makes it an odd place for Wiener to take his next career step.

“I gave him that same speech when he was running for state Senate,” said Laura Foote, executive director of YIMBY Action and longtime Wiener ally, describing Wiener’s 2016 legislative run while still on the San Francisco board. “I was like ‘Scott, the state is a garbage hole. You’re gonna leave us here when we’re actually making some progress here locally. You’re gonna go up to the state level where everything good goes to die.’”

“So there’s a lesson learned there,” she said.

Wiener pushed back on the caricature of a “Do Nothing” Congress, pointing to an expansion of the Child Tax Credit during the pandemic and massive clean energy spending programs enacted under the Biden administration.

“Is Congress a tough place? Absolutely. But am I excited about the prospect of being able to take our work federal? I’m very excited about that,” he said.

Left to right, State senators Scott Wiener, Henry Stern, and Benjamin Allen talk before the start of the Senate floor session at the Capitol Annex Swing Space in Sacramento on Oct. 7, 2024. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMatters

He also stressed that his plan would not be to simply re-run his state legislative playbook at the federal level.

“At the state level, what we learned and acted on was that the state has dramatic power to shape zoning and permitting,” he said. But other barriers, like the high cost of construction, a relative shortage of construction workers and costly financing, are well within Congress’ wheelhouse, he added.

Other big ticket items from his platform include the creation of a federal revolving loan fund for mixed-income “social housing” projects, a proposed boost in funding for rental assistance programs and more federal support for trade schools.

“The proposals that I’m making for Congress strongly complement the land use reforms at the state level,” he said.

But there are also some Wiener classics in the mix. They include tweaking construction regulations and building codes to allow for cheaper development, rewriting the National Environmental Policy Act so that it won’t impede “climate friendly housing” and the creating a “Prohousing Incentive Fund” to reward the governments of localities where more housing is getting built.

Is Congress going YIMBY?

Congress does appear to be coming around slowly to Wiener’s view on housing.

A year-and-a-half ago, a bipartisan group of House members formed the chamber’s first YIMBY Caucus. No coincidence that many of them, like Democratic co-chairs Robert Garcia from Long Beach and Scott Peters from San Diego, hail from California, the political birthplace of the movement and Patient Zero of what has now become a national housing affordability crisis.

“California is a little ahead of the curve because we had our crisis hit 10 years ago,” said Rep. Laura Friedman, a Burbank Democrat and former Assemblymember who ran for Congress under the YIMBY mantle in 2024. It’s only in the last few years that once-affordable refuges across the country are starting to look a bit Californian.

Leading the pack in unaffordability also gave California’s lawmakers an early headstart in trying to tackle the problem, she said. “California has become a testing ground for a lot of these solutions.”

Last Thursday, the U.S. Senate passed what is widely seen as the largest housing bill in a generation. The legislation includes measures that would be at home in Wiener’s platform, including tying federal grants to local housing production and adding new tools to speed up or bypass federal environmental review. (The House still needs to pass the bill.)

The bill represents an unusual development in Congress, where housing was thought of as a “silent crisis,” said Dennis Shea, who oversees housing policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington D.C.-based thinktank. “Now you can’t go a day without being bombarded by three or four stories about housing affordability.”

As in California, housing has become an issue that cuts across partisan and ideological lines, making it one of the more dealmaking-friendly topics in Congress.

“Housing has been a bit of an island of bipartisanship in a sea of division,” said Shea. Case in point: The Senate bill is co-authored by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a progressive, and South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott.

Even so, policymaking in Congress looks a little different than it does in Sacramento, said Friedman, who served in the Assembly between 2016 and 2024. That can make it challenging for former state lawmakers eager to pick up where they left off in Congress.

State Sen. Scott Wiener speaks to supporters during a campaign event. Photo by Ben Christopher, CalMatters

“The skills are transferable because the skills are really about building consensus, but also being strategic about how you can get things moved through. But the process is much harder,” she said. A Democrat in the much smaller California legislature can expect most of their bills to at least get a hearing. Not so in Congress, said Friedman, which has five times the membership and where leadership plays a more assertive role in elevating or throttling legislative proposals.

The flavor of housing policy is a bit different too.

In California, lawmakers have passed a raft of bills over the last decade, steamrolling the preferences and prerogatives of local governments over issues of development.

“The federal government has never played that role,” said David Garcia, deputy director of policy at UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation. Nor is it likely to anytime soon. The bill awaiting a vote in the House is heavy on carrots and light on sticks.

Still, it remains unusual in its aim to promote new housing construction more broadly.

“The speed with which it has become accepted that the federal government should do more on supply is shocking,” Garcia said.

Good timing, it would seem, for California’s YIMBY-in-chief to run for Congress.

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PREVIOUSLY:

• MUSICAL MEMOIR: Playing with Hubert Sumlin and Sunnyland Slim at Arcata’s Jambalaya Club, 1976

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This musicial memoir and others can be found on Paul DeMark’s Substack.

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Sunnyland Slim looked a little stunned when Arcata’s mayor handed him the key to the city.

It was September 4, 1979 when Sunnyland and Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson performed two shows together at Bret Harte’s Club in Arcata’s Jacoby Storehouse. Yes, he was called Cleanhead because he was totally bald. 

Today the venue is The Basement and before that it was Abruzzi’s Italian restaurant. Arcata, for non-local readers, is in Humboldt County, Northern California.

I was a 28-year-old Blue Lake resident at the time and a member of a popular local dance band, Caledonia. I was drumming behind both musicians on a two-week Northern California tour. The rest of the band included Harry Duncan – who booked the tour – on harmonica and vocals and Chicago guitarist Steve Freund, now a resident of the San Francisco Bay Area.

I’d been playing on and off with the 73-year-old Sunnyland for seven years. He literally helped create the Chicago blues sound when he moved from Memphis to Chicago in the early 1940s and started playing with Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf and his own bands.

It was my first time playing with Vinson, 62 at the time. He had been a star swing-jazz, bebop and R&B singer/alto sax player in the 1940s through the early 1970s. Born in Houston, Texas, he was precocious enough as a young man to hook up with Big Bill Broonzy, the Cootie Williams Band and eventually Jay McShann’s Orchestra.

He recorded a number of hit songs that made the rhythm and blues charts featuring his smooth vocals and sax playing — Kidney Stew Blues, Cherry Red, and Cleanhead Blues. It was an honor to play with such a fine, accomplished performer. A soft-spoken, lean man, he was still swinging hard.

Like Sunnyland, he dressed stylishly for the stage. He used subtle gestures to lead me on the drums. When he was coming to a part in a song where there was a stop, he didn’t motion me with his hand over his head or say “look out” over the mic like many singers do. Instead, standing in front of me, he’d take his right hand behind his back and gently close his fist to signal the pause. Classy.

I decided to try to do something special for these blues legends, especially Sunnyland who had become my musical mentor and friend. 

A few weeks before the tour started, I called my friend Wesley Chesbro, who was on the Arcata City Council. “Wesley, do you think there is any way I could convince the city of Arcata to give the keys to the city to Sunnyland and Cleanhead Vinson?”

“Possibly,” he said. “Write a letter to the city council proposing what you’d like to see happen and I’ll present at the next meeting.”

Poster for the 1979 show, created by Don ‘White King D’ Hunter. Note the ticket price: $4 in advance, $4.50 at the door.

In my letter I said they were two extraordinary artists in the history of black rhythm and blues. I requested the city give them each a key to the city of Arcata. Also, since the Robert Cray Blues Band would also be playing Bret Harte’s later that week, I asked the city council to declare it Blues Week in Arcata.

Chesbro called me the day after the city council meeting. “The council approved both of your proposals,” he said. “Now you need to get the keys made.”

I asked Wesley if they could be made out of a redwood in the shape of keys with metal plates bearing their names and the Arcata Key to the City on it. He said to go for it and the city would pay the bill.   

I found a woodshop in Arcata, made the order and left the next day to begin the tour in San Francisco. They told me I could pick them up when I returned.  

I called Chesbro while on the road to ask how the event would unfold. He said he and Arcata Mayor Dan Hauser would be at the beginning of the first show. I told him I wanted it kept a secret. They should come on to the stage just before we are set to play. 

In the band, only Harry knew what was going to happen. As we filed onto the stage to get ready to play the first set, I watched Chesbro and Hauser walk onto the stage. 

Hauser approached the mic and told the sold-out house that the Arcata City Council had voted to declare it Blues Week at its last meeting and it was his honor to present the keys to the city to Sunnyland Slim and Eddie Cleanhead Vinson.

Sunnyland, looking surprised but smiling, stood up and received the foot-long redwood key from Hauser. Chesbro then gave Vinson his own key as the crowd cheered. Sunnyland looked over at me and smiled before we hit the first swing number, Cleanhead’s Kidney Stew.

In an interview in March 2026, Chesbro reflected on the event. “It was a real privilege with two cultural superstars coming to town to help get them their deserved special recognition.”

The morning after the show, Sunnyland picked Harry and me up to visit the local record stores to see if they had any of his albums for sale. He was always hustling his trade.  

We first stopped at the Holiday Gardens Motel to see if Cleanhead would like to go with us. I knocked on his door and he came out in his bathrobe looking tired. “I’ve got to stay in to rest,” he said quietly and closed the door.

When I got back to Sunnyland’s car, he said, “What’s happening with Cleanhead?” I told him he wanted to stay in and sleep.

“The man’s acting like he’s 50 years older than Eubie Blake,” an irritated Sunnyland said, Blake, who was 92 at the time, was renowned as an early jazz and ragtime pianist. At the time, Blake looked more like 100.  

While Sunnyland drove to Arcata’s The Record Works, I was sitting in the back seat of his Oldsmobile station wagon with Harry in the front. “Harry, I had a dream last night that Paul was on the city council,” Sunnyland said. “Paul, you could be a politician.”

Maybe I could have been, but I stuck to playing the drums instead.

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Author’s note: Thank you to Pamela Long for editing and Julian DeMark for photo scanning. 

There are sections of roads being blocked off all over Arcata right now as crews work to complete the steel waterline replacement project, but one chunk of street next to where B and 11th streets intersect has been closed off for a while now, and it’s not because the pipes there needed replacement (though they might now). 

Apparently, it was a landslide that took that little corner out in late 2024, and it’s not a cheap fix; the Arcata City Council approved spending $200,000 to fix the problem at their meeting this Wednesday as part of a mid-year budget review. According to City Engineer Netra Khatri, decades of water runoff from the street weakened the creek embankment the road sits on, and a “heavy rain event” caused a small landslide. It cracked the side of the road nearest the creek, and the city closed that side out of an abundance of caution, especially because a bus route runs on that road. 

Khatri said that the city completed a geotechnical investigation and survey work last year, and he estimated that the road will be reopened in late 2026 after some summer construction. He said the engineering department envisions adding large rocks and plants to stabilize the slope, as well as some more intensive techniques.

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Today, Humboldt State University is the mainstay of the city of Arcata, and the university contributes about five percent of the overall economy of Humboldt County. But for more than fifty years, from 1902–1903 to 1956, the Arcata plant of the California Barrel Company, Ltd. (Cabco), was the backbone of Arcata’s economy. The plant was sold to the Roddis Plywood Corporation in 1956 for more than $12 million.

In 1883, the California Barrel Company was founded in San Francisco by John Koster, who had come to California in 1859 from Charleston, South Carolina. At the age of sixteen, his son, Fred Koster, went to work for his father in the Cabco plant at Eighth and Brannan streets in San Francisco in 1887. He succeeded his father and later became superintendent and president in 1905. Fred Koster was a civic and business leader, serving the city of San Francisco on many important committees until his death in 1958.

The Arcata division of the San Francisco company was first known as the Humboldt Cooperage Company and employed fewer than fifty people. The plant included a small warehouse, two dry kilns, a boiler and engine house, and a building that housed the mill. As the demand for wooden containers increased, the company expanded the Arcata plant. By 1915, the company employed 115 persons in the factory and 25 men in the woods, which were located just north of Essex.

The spruce and fir bolts were shipped to Arcata, where they were sawed into staves and shipped to San Francisco. The barrels were assembled in San Francisco and were used for both liquid and dry products, such as oils, asphaltum, sugar, butter, fish and fruit. Henry Koster, another son, enlarged the company’s field of operation by finding an outlet in the Orient. In 1915, the Arcata plant was called “the best-equipped plant of its kind in the United States.”

The Depression hit the local lumber industry hard, and the Arcata Barrel Factory was no exception. Cabco, the parent company in San Francisco, had to be refinanced by a Canadian bank. But the Arcata plant, like many of the other local mills, spread operating hours so that all employees could meet their living obligations.

Through the years, the Arcata factory employed many Arcata residents, and all businesses in the city felt the impact of the company payroll. The company helped many students work their way through Humboldt State College, and before formal salary schedules appeared, many high school and college teachers worked there in the summer to supplement their incomes.

The California Barrel Company first made barrels in San Francisco for the Spreckels Sugar Company. The barrels were made of imported oak and ash from the eastern United States. Rising prices forced the company to turn to local spruce and fir.

As early as 1890, Humboldt County became a major source of supply, and wood bolts were sent from the county to the San Francisco factory. When Cabco acquired timber and built the Arcata plant in 1902–1903, the Arcata operation became the largest of the company’s operations, and soon Cabco was the biggest barrel producer west of the Mississippi River.

The first machinery was operated by steam, but in 1908 the plant was electrified. The plant continued to expand by adding a new kiln and office building in 1909 and a new warehouse by 1911. By 1924, the plant covered more than thirteen acres with an investment of $400,000, exclusive of timberlands. When Roddis Plywood purchased the property in 1956, the plant covered a twenty-nine-acre site in southwest Arcata.

The company operated bolt camps near Essex, at the head of Strawberry Creek and at Dows Prairie. In the late 1920s, Cabco had a bolt camp on the North Fork of the Mad River, where logs were cut into stave bolts and shipped to Arcata by the Northern Redwood Company railroad. Spruce, fir, hemlock and white fir were cut for bolts. Through the years, the Arcata plant also purchased logs from the Hammond Lumber Company.

During 1928–1929, a wirebound box division was added to the Arcata plant. Cabco purchased a wirebound company in Oakland, and the machinery was shipped to Arcata. The previous owners, Robert Yegge and Marren Meyers, came to Arcata to supervise installation and operation. Soon Cabco plants in Arcata and Los Angeles began to turn out thousands of wirebound boxes, and Cabco became the West’s largest and oldest manufacturer of wooden shipping containers. The new boxes combined strength with lightness, forming an ideal container for shipping many products, ranging from agricultural produce to machinery.

The largest orders at the Arcata plant were for wirebound boxes, which became the number one product in quantity. Unitized covers for orange crates, lettuce boxes and similar containers were the number two product. Cabco’s popular slogans were “light weight, great strength, simplicity of setup and handling” and “designed to fit—engineered to protect.” Up to 1950, the Arcata Barrel Factory still produced barrel staves and heads that were sent to San Francisco for assembly.

By 1950, the sawmill at the Arcata Barrel Factory produced box cleat lumber, and a drag saw fed a set of lathes that turned out veneer. These materials were assembled in the wirebound box department by many workers, men and women, on large assembly lines. Other larger cants from the sawmill went to the slicer department, where they were rapidly cut to produce orange crate covers and similar items made from thin sliced veneer.

In another department, logs were split and sawed on specialized equipment to form barrel staves and heads. The varied products produced by the mill totaled approximately sixty million board feet of timber each year. In 1950, about fifteen railroad cars left the plant each day, full of finished containers and parts that were assembled in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Julius John Krohn, or “J.J.” as he was known, came to Arcata in 1903 when the California Barrel Company began operations. In 1905, he became general manager, a post he held until the firm was sold in 1956. In civic life, he represented Arcata’s largest industrial firm for about fifty years, serving on many committees, including the Arcata Masonic Lodge (where he received his fifty-year pin), as a charter member of the Arcata Rotary Club, as an international representative of the Redwood Council of Boy Scouts, as a director of the Camp Fire Girls, as an original member of the Humboldt State College Advisory Board, and as a past president of the Arcata Chamber of Commerce.

Although Krohn was often in the public spotlight, many people remember him as a shy, quiet person who helped many others through the years. He died in Atherton in 1962 at the age of eighty-two. His daughter, Mrs. George Hitt, lived in Indianola. One of Fred Koster’s four daughters, Mrs. Stuart Miller, lived in Arcata beginning in 1936.

Other key personnel who served for many years at Cabco’s Arcata plant included Murrell Warren, personnel manager and superintendent; T. A. Groom, production manager; Rudolph Schott, engineer and draftsman; Dewey Dolf, timber purchaser and logging superintendent; Lloyd Dolf, camp foreman; Harry Krohn and Clark Taylor, purchasing agents; Robert Yegge, planning officer; Walter Sweet, business office; and Ernest Sweet, cost accountant.

Department foremen included Roland Barweger (wirebound box), Adrian Young (veneer department), William Hengen (sawmill), William Denning (truck shop), Lyle Lancaster and Cecil Turner (shipping clerks), Verne Weltz and Harry Wyatt (slicer department), Curley Bray (vegetable hampers), Harry Donahue (barrel department), Gus Westlund (logging operations), Frank Coleman (recovery), Jim Wyatt (kilns), Art Molander (heading department), Harry Parton (carpenter), James Fabbri (boilers), Clyde Johnson (welder), Fred Parton (stave department), Joseph Halbach (craveneer), Ralph Davis (electrician), Frank Knapp (office custodian), and Pete Brundin (woods and logging).

Office personnel included June Anderson, Josephine Marsh, Anna Nielsen, Lily Miller, Laura Stebbins, Mildred Costa, Bubbles Crivelli, Esther Pifferini Giuntoli, Mary Taylor, Effie Yegge, Mae Banducci, Lester Larsen, Don Hall, Gae Russell Moxon, Bruce Palmer, Lena Fornaceri Kovacovich, June Christie and Adele Nix Dolf. Myrtle “Jonsey” handled payroll for many years.

When Roddis Plywood, which had two sawmills in the area at the time, bought the Arcata plant in 1956, the company had plans to manufacture wooden products. However, those plans failed to materialize, and within two weeks of the purchase, the entire Barrel Company operation in Arcata shut down permanently. One of the main reasons was that wooden containers were being replaced by cheaper paper alternatives.

Roddis Plywood sold out to Weyerhaeuser in 1961, and in 1965 the Arcata Redwood Company acquired the Arcata plant. Today, Arcata Redwood, which employs fifty-four people at the site, operates an Industrial Products Division on the grounds of the former California Barrel Company. The company manufactures items such as cigar material, parts for recreational homes, shelves for outdoor barbecue sets, decorative window components, drawer sides and slats for tray tables.

In August 1978, Lt. Clyde Johnson, a former employee then with the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department, proposed a reunion of former Arcata California Barrel Company employees. On Aug. 26, 1978, the reunion drew 262 attendees and was considered a great success. Albert Ghilarducci was honored for forty-four years of service, and Grover Waldroop, age ninety-one, was the oldest attendee.

Four women were honored guests: Louise Krohn Hitt, daughter of J.J. Krohn; Mrs. Murrell Warren; Edith Krohn, wife of Harry Krohn; and Effie Yegge, wife of Robert Yegge. The next reunion was scheduled for Aug. 2, 1979.

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The former Cabco plant makes up the bulk of what is called “The Barrel District” in the current Arcata General Plan (here highlighted in green). A subset of the “Gateway Area,” the Barrel District is zoned to accommodate the tallest future apartment buildings in the city.