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It was following graduation from Arcata High School, that I found my part-time job terminated. I had been working on the dairy ranch of The Northern Redwood Lumber Company near Blue Lake. There was no question about it, the economic condition of the country was tough in 1931.

The dairy was operated by Ed Buck. I asked him if there wasn’t anywhere he might find work. I knew that he was the overseer of all the ranches owned by the company. Like all young fellows just out of school, I didn’t want to loaf around the house and sponge off the family. I hoped he would respond favorably because he seemed to like me.

I was pleased when he said, “You can go out over Kneeland to the Iaqua Ranch. You can’t expect any wages but you will get board and room and perhaps some warm clothing.”

This sounded great to me and I took the job. Mel Sundquist, a friend of mine was in the same condition and I told him about what I was doing. Buck gave him the same deal, so we went to Iaqua.

We reported to the foreman, a Dane named Chris Smitz. He put us to work immediately cutting wood for the coming winter. We cut down a large tree and using a cross-cut saw, axe, wedges and sledgehammer, proceeded to make it into firewood. Most of it was cut into 16” lengths for the kitchen stove. The balance was made into chunks suitable for the fireplace.

It was August 1931, and at that time of year in the mountains of Humboldt County it gets hot! We got brown and tough, which we appreciated. After letting the wood season for about two months we hauled it with team and wagon to a large woodshed for storage. As the wood was seasoning, we assisted Chris in sowing a mixture of oats and vetch that would be raised for horse feed. The company, I suppose wanting to save money, let Chris go and kept Mel and me to do the work. After all, they were still not paying us wages.

We had 740 Hereford cattle and ten horses to look after. During October and November it rained enough to sprout the grain. It looked in great shape and it had not snowed.

December arrived and the weather changed, turning very cold. Neither of us had experienced real cold weather in our lives. Mel kept telling me that either he was sick or awfully cold, because he was freezing all the time. He was a good cook. One morning he discovered the eggs didn’t break. Finally he dropped them on the floor and they still didn’t break. We realized for sure that it was indeed very cold. We didn’t know what the temperature was because we had no thermometer. Several days later we saw Charlie Johnson who told us the temperature had been minus 8 degrees.

The extreme cold gave us a lot of trouble. All the grain we had planted was killed, most of the water pipes around the ranch were split and some of the concrete watering troughs were cracked. We were getting along fairly well until after the New Year, keeping busy digging up and replacing water pipes. Our food was running low. Someone from the company was supposed to keep us supplied, but for some reason they had failed to do so and we were quite concerned.

We decided to drive down to Korbel to get our supplies and return the next day. It snowed some before we got started and there had been considerable wind.

We had no great problem until we got to Kneeland. There the wind had drifted the snow over the road to a depth of several feet. I was driving “Autumn,” a Chrysler Coupe, I had purchased in Eureka during the last autumn. We looked at that big snow drift and decided to hit it hard and thereby break through to the solid ground that we could see over the drift. Unfortunately, the snow was too deep. We came to a sudden stop, in snow so deep we had to crawl out the windows.

Fortunately, we had brought one shovel that we used to try to clear a way to get the car free. Several hours later we had managed to get enough snow cleared so that we were able to start the motor. About that time a group of young people from Eureka drove up. They had come up to ski. They all helped us get free of the mess we were in and we went on our way. When we reached Korbel we found out that Buck and another man had driven up by way of Butler Valley and of course, we missed them. That night, Humboldt County had one of the biggest snowstorms ever, and it kept on for several days.

Now, our boss was where we were supposed to be, and he was snowbound! We were busy trying to figure how we were going to get back to Iaqua and how we could get our boss back to Korbel.

There was nine feet of snow on Kneeland Prairie and five and six feet of the same all over the back country. I decided to try going horseback, traveling from Korbel up Mad River, crossing the river at the Cooper Ranch, where there was a livestock bridge suspended by cables. I got over the bridge without too much trouble and several miles up the mountain when the snow got much too deep.

Luck was with me for I met Jack Shaw, who lived on that side of the river. He gave me a good cussing for being up there in that kind of weather and then took me home with him to his ranch, where he put me and the horse up for the night.

Early the next morning I went back to Korbel, traveling the same route. Now what to do? I asked Mel for an idea. After some thinking, he said, “Let’s walk up there!” We had no snowshoes or skis and neither of us had experience traveling in deep snow.

An Indian cowboy who worked for the company said he knew how to make snowshoes using hazelwood limbs. He said they will bend and not break and we were to use small rope or leather to lace them on. We were also told they would last a few miles. We were uncertain how far. He was to go with us so we made three pair of these snowshoes and started out. We drove a company truck up to the Cooper Ranch, where we left it. Then, taking our snowshoes and our lunches, we started our hike. It was 4 a.m.

At first, we didn’t need the snowshoes. It was not until we really started to climb the mountain that we used them and took turns breaking trail. The one in the lead had a tough time because the snow was soft and frankly our homemade snowshoes didn’t work very well.

One time Mel stepped near a fallen tree and disappeared. Wesley Henry, the cowboy, and I dug him out. We broke one of his snowshoes in getting him out of the drift. From then on, Mel and I had to walk in our tracks and this somewhat slowed us down. He was big and strong, but his weight would cause him to sink deep sometimes.

Deep snow in open country erases all the landmarks. Fortunately, Wesley had traveled this trail many times so he was able to lead us in the right direction.

After reaching the top of the mountain we still had several miles to travel before dropping down toward the Iaqua Ranch. It was dark and cold, but beautiful with a full moon shining on the deep snow. An owl perched on some oak tree kept hooting. It seemed an eternity before we reached the tree where it was located. We were walking across pastures where six inches of fence posts were showing.

It was 10 p.m. when we arrived, very tired but safe. Two days later we were able to go out horseback riding on top of the crusted snow, so I started out at 3 a.m. so I could lead the horses back before the crust became soft. I rode one horse and led three tailed together. I had plenty of trouble, but made it.

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