Maybe
you’ve heard about biodiesel. Meet its cousin, “renewable
diesel.” Made from oils and fats, supporters claim that it can
simply replace diesel and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Humboldt
County is banking on renewable diesel to meet its climate
obligations in its draft Regional Climate Action Plan. But is this
too good to be true? Host Tom Wheeler and guest, Gary Hughes of the
organization Biofuelwatch, explore these questions and to learn more
about the concerns arising from the California pivot to high
deforestation risk liquid biofuels.
NOTE from the HUMBOLDT HISTORIAN: This article contains the text of a speech
given by the author to the American Association of University
Women at the Eureka Presbyterian Church on March 1, 1997.
The AAUW had honored Kate Buchanan as “A Woman
Making a Difference in Humboldt County” for its Women in
History project.
###
My sister Kate Buchanan died sixteen years
ago. I am more than delighted and moved by
your honoring her after all those years. Many in this
room probably knew and remember Kate, but I’m
sure more are present who did not know her — who
only know the “Kate Buchanan Room.” I hope in
these brief minutes to capture the essence of her
personality, so that when you hear that name, you
will feel acquainted with her.
Kate Buchanan with her brother Edgar Buchanan and Humboldt State College President Cornelius Siemens in June 1961. Photo via the Humboldt Historian.
Kate was born in Humansville, Missouri in 1904,
joining a three year-old sister, now 95, and a two-year old brother, Edgar Buchanan, who became a
character actor appearing in over 100 movies and
several TV series before he died in 1979, two years
before Kate. Kate and Edgar were always very close.
Together they were a comedy team.
When she was 3, the family moved to Pleasanton, Kansas,
and when she was 4, another sister arrived, pretty, sweet little
Lova, who is now 88. Kate cared and played with her as if she
were a doll. Eight years later, out west in Ashland, Oregon, I
arrived, and Katie, now 12 years old, took me on as her new
doll — and continued to mother and spoil me and my family
until the day she died.
Kate always knew who she was. Even her baby pictures
capture her strength. In grammar school and high school in
Ashland, she and my brother were engrossed in theater, either
putting on shows in the barn or attending movies, road shows,
and programs in the great circular, dome-roofed, sawdust-floored Chatauqua building that now houses the outdoor
Shakespeare theater in Ashland.
One play in the barn on a stage with a gunny sack curtain
was attended by the neighbor ladies seated on apple boxes. As
part of the action, my brother Edgar shot a gun. The frightened
ladies fell off their boxes, and the red cow broke its rope and
ran. From his upstairs dental office window my father saw his
own cow running down Main Street.
Kate always had money that she earned. Our big yard was
filled with cherry and almond trees. Each summer she picked
cherries and took them to the train station to sell to the
passengers. Edgar would say, “I’ll take you to the movies if
you’ll buy the tickets.” In later years, she’d say, “Wasn’t I a
fool to let him do that to me!”
One night the folks were gone for the evening, and Katie
and Edgar enlisted my
other sisters to stage a
murder to frighten our
parents when they came
home. Kate was the victim,
lying stretched on the hall
floor with catsup for blood
spilled on her back. A
“bloody” butcher knife lay
by her. Being three or four,
I took the grisly affair
seriously and to this day
cannot eat catsup. When
our parents came home.
Mama walked right past
Kate, saying “Get up, Katie,
and clean that mess.” I
guess the folks were used to
their shenanigans.
Like George Washington, my first character
lesson involved a cherry tree. While Kate was high in the tree,
picking, I, probably four, had been told to fill my bucket with
the ones that had dropped to the ground. I decided it would be
easier and faster to fill my bucket with handfuls from Kate’s
full buckets. She saw me, slithered down and roared, “That is
called CHEATING, and don’t you EVER do that again.” I’ll
never forget it. She could wither and dissolve you with her
character lessons. She knew RIGHT from WRONG and
throughout her life was fierce in her moral teachings to me, my
sons and the hundreds of young people she directed.
Kate always knew her own mind. When she finished high
school in Ashland, she told our father that now she knew
everything there was to know, and she would not go with the
family to Eugene, where we were moving so everyone could
attend the University of Oregon. Instead, she wanted to
teach — you could then with a high school diploma — and she
did, in the one-room. Green Springs Mountain school for one
year. She lived with a farm family with four sons and no
electricity. Every night “old father Davis” read a chapter from
the Bible by lamplight. That year was one of the richest in her
life. She talked about it as
long as she lived.
Kate had a powerful
imagination, a rare sense
of humor and was an
artful story teller and
mimic. When you were
with her, the world was
always big and wonderful. No one was more fun
to be with. My earliest
memory was being sick
and Katie entertaining me
with stories about the little
man who lived in the
stove flue. At the dinner
table, she dramatized every event of the day.
When she went off to
teach, she would regale us
with vivid, dramatized
stories, mimicking and quoting the people she worked with,
her students, her landlady — everyone.
At the University of Oregon, she and my brother were the
stars in the campus theater and Kate, an English Major, eamed
a teaching credential. In 1927 she started teaching at Roseburg
High School, where she directed all the plays and taught
English for eleven years. She was more than successful —
students worshipped her. When she retired in 1968 from
Humboldt State University, forty-seven years after Roseburg,
about twenty of her former students from Roseburg came for
the retirement party. Following Kate’s death, several of them
have continued to correspond with me.
She loved teaching English and American literature and I
think this must have been her greatest contribution. Her
dramatic ability, her humor, her enthusiasm for life and
literature, her intelligence, and keen interpretive skills were
her tools. From memory she could recite reams of poetry and
brought Shakespeare, “Idylls of the King,” Hawthorne — all
the great pieces — alive in her classrooms. She was a strong
disciplinarian and demanded much from her students. She
built character through literature — but she was close to the
students and their personal problems and always kept them
laughing and enjoying school.
Kate wanted to move on, so in 1939 she went to the
University of Oregon to serve on the Dean of Women’s
staff, and from there she went to Portland to Lewis and
Clark College as Dean of Women and Professor of English.
A summer in New York with graduate work at Columbia
University and seeing Broadway plays was a high point for
her.
When the war came, she applied for a position with the
DuPont Company to work on The Manhattan Project at
Hanford, Wash, where the atomic bomb was made, but of
course then no one knew what was going on. When she
applied for the job, the interviewer asked her why she was
leaving her current job. She said, “I just looked him right in
the eye and said, ‘How would you like to be Dean of
Women in a Presbyterian College!’”
She was in charge of the housing of the thousands of
women workers. We all relived that period through her
colorful accounts of events and the amazing people she
met. Kate was fearless in managing these women who were
older, often rough, tough, worldly laborers, unlike anyone
she’d ever known. In August 1945, when the bomb was
dropped, she was shocked and troubled to think she had
been a part of it. After the war she was offered a permanent
administrative position with the company, but declined.
Kate always had many male friends, some quite seriously
smitten. She collected several proposals, a few from
impressive, talented, successful men. But she remained
single by choice. I think she was simply too independent
and never found a man who was as strong as herself. She
used to laugh and say, “Every day in every way, I give
thanks for my state of single blessedness.” Being a wife
requires waiting and accommodating — she could never do
that. She had her own goals, priorities, and life, and wanted
to live it freely her way.
She loved to cook and feed people — popcorn, cookies,
bountiful meals with huge portions. Her cooking was a
metaphor of her personality — nurturing, generous, giving,
big portions of warm and pleasant comfort. She served as
confidante for so many people. Her door was always open,
and she would always listen. With a compassionate heart,
she soothed and instilled confidence. She made you feel
important, gave good horse-sense advice that made life
seem easier. She was direct, honest — but always with a
sensitive heart.
My second son was born the summer of 1946, and Kate,
who adored babies and children, was on hand. She came to
Arcata from the University of Oregon where she was on the
English faculty. President and Mrs. Gist invited us for
dinner one evening, and Kate charmed them so that Gist
offered her a teaching position. The temptation was too
great. “I’ll stay a year just to be with the children.” She
joined the faculty at Humboldt State College in the fall of
1946, That January I became seriously ill, and Kate stepped
in to take charge and stayed.
My children became hers. My husband Don and the
children and all their little friends adored her. She drove the
children and their friends to school in her Ford, which
became a magic airplane. Each child had a job — radio man,
navigator, copilot, mechanic — there were motor sounds,
hurried orders, SWITCH ON, CONTACT!, urgent
conversations, all in make-believe. As 50-something
adults, these children still talk of the fun of it.
I always admired Kate and Don’s ability to work so
closely together and share so many responsibilities at home
and at school. They did not agree on many issues, but each
respected the other. I was doubly blessed
Kate’s politics were mostly conservative. She was
religious, but as an adult did not attend a church. She would
quip, “Cast your bread upon the waters and it will come
back sandwiches.” She planned her own memorial service,
which included four friends: a Catholic priest, a Hebrew
colleague, an Orthodox Greek friend, and a Protestant
minister. She explained, “I want to cover all bases — just in
case.”
Cars were a passion with Kate. She taught herself to
drive at 15 by observing our Dad and brother. On her first
trip she took my mother to town, ripped off the barn door,
took out the front gate post, and when parking diagonally
on a hill in downtown Ashland, continued on through a
store window. She owned a succession of cars, but the
greatest was her first, a dark green Buick roadster with a
rumble seat. She had waited until she had enough money to
pay cash — $700. She did all business on a cash basis. A
silver, naked, winged Victory figure graced the radiator
cap. My beautiful sister Lova taught at Roseburg too, and
the two of them were a smashing sight in that car.
We had a family orchestra. Kate loved music but was
tone deaf. She could not sing, but did. She also chose to
play the violin and was always just a shade off. Her
rendition of “Humoresque” was excruciating to listen to. It
always puzzled me that she could so accurately imitate
people’s speech, but could not hear musical notes.
She devoted all her summers to caring for our aging
parents.
Kate was not an idle chatterer. She did not speak unless
she had something to say. Although she was a clown, she
was always discreet in her joking. Any humor with a barb
was aimed at the pretentious, the pompous, and the
arrogant who she thought deserved it!
Kate was fiercely moral, but not self-righteous or
saintly. She was a strong, life-loving, humorous, warm and
compassionate human being. My family and I thank you
very much for this occasion to remember her.
###
The story above is excerpted from the Winter 1997 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 Historianat this link.
With deep love and admiration, we remember Valene June Farlow, who
passed away in Garberville, after a remarkable 24-year battle
with cancer. She would have turned 90 this year, a milestone that reflected
a life rich in love, faith, and adventure.
Born in Los Angeles on July 19, 1935, Val was a
woman of strength, warmth, and unwavering
faith. She was preceded in death by her parents,
her sister Dona, her childhood friend & sister-in-
law Mary. She leaves behind a loving family; her
siblings Jim, Nyla, Vance, and
Dina; her stepdaughter Wendie;
her grandchildren Brent and
Brandon and their families; and a
host of cherished nieces, nephews,
extended family, and dear friends,
including her longtime friend in
faith, Jo Ann.
Val’s devotion to her faith as one of Jehovah’s
Witnesses shaped her life in profound ways. In
1953, she embarked on an unforgettable journey
across the country to attend an International
Convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses in New York
City. The experience deeply moved her, and upon
returning home, she was baptized, beginning a
lifelong commitment to serving Jehovah God. She
made the journey again in 1958, this time camping
along the way with family and friends — an
adventure she would never forget.
In 1967, Val embraced another
great adventure, moving with her
husband and stepdaughter to the
Mattole River area in Southern
Humboldt County. Along with her
siblings and mother, she helped
build a life in the rugged beauty of the Mattole River.
Their home—a former logger’s cabin—became the heart of their new way
of life, filled with gardens, animals, and laughter. With a milk cow, a steer
named “YumYum,” and the joy of simple living, those years were filled
with unforgettable memories.
Val was a gifted artist, a talented draftsperson, and
a lover of books and nature. She spent years drafting
maps for a title company in southern California and
later for Bushnell Survey in Garberville.
But beyond her skills, it was her love for
people that defined her. She was a source
of encouragement, kindness, and deep
faith, always eager to share her hope in
Jehovah’s promises of a future free from
pain and suffering. This hope sustained her
through years of illness, giving her peace and strength.
Val was a woman of great faith, kindness, and resilience. She kept her zest
for life even as she aged and through illness. Her love will continue to be
felt by all who knew her and will be deeply missed.
###
The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Valene Farlow’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.
Marian West Ziemer October
10, 1950 – November 17, 2024
Marian
West Ziemer, 74, passed away in peace at her home on November 17
surrounded by
family. She will be remembered as a loving wife, sister, mother,
stepmother, grandmother, and foster mother.
Marian
was born in Berkeley on October 10, 1950 to Orwin and
Jennivieve (Tootell) Westwick. Her family was active in the Berkeley
Friends Meeting (Quaker) community and civil rights activities. She
was surrounded by a household full of pets including a capuchin and a
squirrel monkey, an armadillo, a collie dog, and her beloved mixed
dog Marnie. In 1968, while her parents moved to Fairbanks, Alaska,
Marian began college at Humboldt State University in Arcata,
California. She graduated with a B.S. degree in Forestry. Marian
frequented Murray Field Airport where she received her pilot’s
license in 1971. She enjoyed flying in a biplane doing loop-de-loops
for fun. She also got a thrill flying with a friend on a mail
carrier, watching the landscape below. Marian was active in the
Quaker community and lived in a commune called “the farm” while
she went to college. She was the first woman on a forest firefighting
crew where she was able to bring her Siberian Husky dog with her
while she worked alongside inmate crews.
Marian
met Bob Ziemer while doing field surveys for the Forest Service
Redwood Sciences Laboratory in Arcata. She was amused by his sense of
humor and his collection of carnivorous plants. They were married in
their partially built house below a spruce forest surrounded by
friends on January 1, 1978. With their union, Marian became a loving
step mother to Tanya and Aimee. Marian and Bob lived in a small yurt
while building the house. Marian’s love for animals flourished as
they built a barn where she raised dairy goats. Marian and Bob had
Karen and Ryan who both grew up loving nature and drinking fresh
goat’s milk, bottle feeding baby goats, calves, and rescued fawns.
They traveled to goat shows where Marian’s Canyon Creek Alpine
goats won many championships.
She
began her journey as a foster parent in 1987 as an advocate for CASA
(Court Appointed Special Advocates) while getting licensed for foster
care. Her first placements were medically fragile newborns which
became her focus and where she “found her niche”. Her daughters
Laura, Holly, and Mariah were all placed with the family at birth
through the local foster care system and subsequently adopted into
the Ziemer family. She believed in meditation and energy work to
communicate trust, love, and warmth while the babies healed and found
peace in her arms. Over 37 years, Marian and Bob fostered close to
150 high risk infants. It can’t be overstated how devoted she was
to each individual baby placed in her care, she felt deeply honored
to be a part of and bear witness to the beginning chapter of so many
important peoples lives. She could recite with incredible detail
every baby she cared for, the circumstances of their birth, stories
of their families of origin, and how each one impacted and enriched
her life with their presence. A powerful champion for the most
vulnerable among us she regarded every child as a teacher that she
was privileged to have the opportunity to know and learn from. She
shared her valuable knowledge and insight with others by committing
decades to mentoring new foster and adoptive families and training
licensing classes on caring for system involved infants. Her last
foster child went to their permanent home when her cancer treatment
began.
One
of her favorite sayings, inherited from her beloved father, was
“Enjoy Life!” and it was clear by how generously she chose to
spend her time here on earth that she understood life to be an
amazing adventure, best enjoyed while dedicating yourself to the
service of others, your community and the planet. A tireless advocate
for those in need, she not only selflessly opened her heart and home
to foster children while balancing the needs of her own family, she
also found time to help establish and co-lead a 4-H Northern Humboldt
chapter of Guide Dogs for the Blind while devoting years to being
trained in and performing emergency wildlife rescue with the Humboldt
Wildlife Care Center. An enduring gift of her remarkable legacy is
the connections and community she made with incredible families and
individuals across Humboldt who everyday work humbly to make this
County a better place.
In
celebration of a life of a true Humanitarian, whose remarkable
journey wove together her compassionate understanding of the human
condition and love for all creatures great and small, she will
continue to inspire future generations to understand the profound
impact each and every one of us is capable of when we follow her
shining example of the grounding force of gratitude and embrace every
moment with curiosity, humor and optimism. To honor her memory we ask
that whenever possible you make the brave choice to move through the
world with empathy and become a living example of how courageously
existing with love can inspire hope in others even when faced with
life’s greatest adversities.
Marian
is survived by her husband Bob Ziemer (married 46 years), children
Karen Ziemer (Nils Caspar), Ryan Ziemer (Tamima Ziemer), Laura
Ziemer, Holly Ziemer (Tori Perreault), Mariah Ziemer, Tanya Ziemer
Trump, and Aimee Ziemer Markham (Jay Markham). Grandchildren Connor
Trump (Michelle Dickey), Ian Trump, Elias Markham, Miles Markham, Kat
Ziemer, and Zach Ziemer. Sister Laurel Westwick Cox (Charles Cox),
nephews and nieces Dorn Cox (Sarah Cox), Justin Cox (Stacey Luoma),
Annalisa Wild Miller (Joel Wild Miller), and Brittany Otto (Ian
Otto). Grandnephews and grandnieces Andreas and Miles Cox, Cadel,
Senja, and Cirrus Cox, and Ayla and Finn Wild Miller.
A
service of remembrance will be held on April 12, 2025 at 2 p.m. at the
Humboldt Unitarian Fellowship in Bayside, California.
###
The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Marian Ziemer’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.
On March 21, 2025, at 4pm, Daryl Ray Jones, 31, of Lawton, Oklahoma was arrested by the Lawton Police Department on Humboldt County warrants for multiple felony counts of making terrorist threats. Lawton was identified as the suspect in a string of threats to schools and businesses resulting in lockdown protocols throughout Humboldt County.
Jones was taken into custody without incident in the 5500 block of Cache Road in the city of Lawton and was booked and lodged at the Lawton City Jail. Jones will be extradited to Humboldt County to face charges.
The Arcata Police Department extends its gratitude to the Lawton Police Department and our regional partners for their part in bringing this matter to a resolution.
An extradition warrant has been issued for the out-of-state individual who is believed to be responsible for a string of threatening phone calls to Humboldt County schools. The threats, which have been deemed non-credible by local law enforcement officials, have prompted lockdowns at several local schools. Just today, Arcata High School, Coastal Grove Charter School, Pacific Union Middle School and Jacoby Creek School were put under a brief lockdown.
“We are in contact with Arcata Police [Department], who do not think the threat is credible,” Arcata High School Principal Kristin Ferderber wrote in a statement issued to parents early this afternoon. The school directed students and staff to “shelter in place” while APD investigated the threat. The lockdown has since been lifted.
In a press release issued Wednesday afternoon, local law enforcement said they were able to track down an out-of-state adult male suspect who’s believed to have phoned in threats to “over 20 schools and businesses” since January.
Reached for additional information this afternoon, Arcata Police Chief Bart Silvers confirmed that the threats made today appear to be from the same suspect. “A local full extradition arrest warrant has been issued and sent to the out-of-state agency for service,” Silvers wrote in an email to the Outpost. “We are currently working with them to locate and apprehend the suspect.”
A health inspector descended upon Arcata’s Fourth Street Market today. This health inspector did not care for what they found.
Their inspection report states:
Observed cockroach droppings, dead cockroach bodies and two (2) live adult German cockroaches in deli cabinet. Increase cleaning, vermin-proofing and professional pest control efforts to exclude insects from the facility.
…
Due to active cockroach infestation, this facility is closed and permit suspended by this office.
Food preparation at the market is off, for the time being. No poor boy sandwiches for you.
Fourth Street has the ability to appeal the inspector’s ruling. The entire health inspection report can be found at this link.
