Ed. note: On Friday, a series of tweets from Wikileaks took aim at Internews, the nonprofit media development agency once based in Arcata. (It still has offices and some employees here.) The tweets come as the Trump Administration dismantles the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Internews’ principal funder.

The tweets spoke of half a billion federal dollars “funneled through” Internews. Coming, as they did, under the Wikileaks brand, they were understood as secret revelations liberated from the deep state. Some local people who had never heard of Internews demanded answers.

In fact, though, there was really nothing of substance in the Wikileaks dump that wasn’t already public knowledge. Here’s a North Coast Journal story from 22 years ago that basically laid out Internews’ whole history and explored the quandaries of the company using federal funding for its work.

But these recent media flurries prompted Kay Elewski, a former Internews staffer, to write down some memories of working for the company. She was kind enough to share them with the Outpost.

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Goodbye To All That
By Kay Elewski

I read in The New York Times that Elon Musk called USAID “corrupt and criminal.” The USAID employees I encountered during my time with Internews Network, the Arcata-based NGO recipient of hefty USAID grants, were multilingual, helpful, dedicated, ambitious. I attended their trainings, shared cocktails and romantic secrets, sought their professional advice, filed reports in a timely manner, and got leads to new assignments.

Internews’ mission when I joined in the mid-nineties was to support and launch independent news media in the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union and other fledgling democracies around the globe. One of the early program offices was based in Kyiv. USAID invested heavily in these activities.

Internews provided equipment and training to nascent radio and television stations setting up news programming that was not government sponsored and controlled. Small media outlets popped up across Central Asia. I visited news programming projects in Almaty, Kazakhstan and in Bishkek, in the Kyrgyz Republic.

It was a privilege and a responsibility to visit the local offices. NGO employees represented an up close and personal America to citizens of places where Americans had not previously been admitted. We brought equipment and trainers and helped set up facilities for news stations to broadcast local reporting. We schooled local staff on the accounting systems for USAID fund use reporting and imported an American business model for team development. News programming evolved to cover the environment, culture, education, economic issues, health and women.

Although USAID funds were grants, the use of these funds required both narrative reports and financial statements. The names of regional officials, lawyers, journalists, fixers and other individuals who assisted us were included in the reports. Program by program, USAID essentially created a global directory, listing individuals, their professions, their contact information.

At the local level, we were genuinely curious about each other’s lives. We shared our histories, problem solving, support, friendship and sometimes deep revelations during the late talking drinking nights that were never paid for on USAID contract dollars. Exactly.

At some point the Internews leadership’s desire to launch programs in Latin America led one of my colleagues who read an article by John Lee Anderson in The New Yorker to send him an email, describe the work we did and ask if he could direct her to journalists in the region. Anderson responded that while she might have other intentions, he never felt as certain as he did when reading her email, that he was being fished by a spook, and stated he did not want to be contacted by her again. Ever.

When I texted her recently, my former colleague wrote: “That was a conversation I will never forget.” At the time, we were both shocked. Spies? CIA ops? Us?

But what was USAID doing around the world, making friends and saving lives? In the big picture, no one I know would consider the US government a benevolent entity. Internews was surely a soft ops, changing hearts and minds, bringing Central Asian teams to DC and California meetings. Of course, corruption lurked. And like all stressed performers under pressure, USAID contractors and employees made mistakes. Funds were misspent on local scams. I’m not calling anyone out. We’re past that.

After a decade, the distant travel lost meaning for me. The big directory was no longer a comfortable concept. Questions about being part of a team that imported a practice of independent fair and balanced news media in the face of rising cable news opinion journalism in the US whined in the back of my thoughts like a vampire mosquito. One long night alone in my Novotel hotel room after visiting the Nyarube massacre site — a small Catholic church where 1,500 Tutsi sought refuge, but were trapped and slaughtered—I watched lightning lash the mountains outside my window and knew I was in the wrong place.

A few months later, back in California, I resigned.

Shedding USAID causes me no grief, but the dismantling of an agency staffed by dedicated personnel around the world aiming to deliver assistance deserves respectful management. Back in the day, USAID and NGOs attracted individuals seeking adventure, community and most of all peaceful relations with other nations. Maybe that no longer matters.

President Donald Trump returned to office last month with a major show of force on immigration, issuing numerous orders and directives to dramatically crack down on enforcement.

They’ve sparked glee from his supporters, condemnation from his opponents, fear from immigrant communities amid nationwide raids — and also plenty of false alarms.

The flurry of new policies — some pushing long-held legal boundaries — are part of a “shock and awe” strategy meant to amplify the promises of a military-assisted mass deportation, experts said. Among the administration’s goals is for fearful immigrants to “voluntarily depart.”

“The big issue is this basically full-court press (from the administration) on immigration enforcement and the fear it’s generated,” said UC Davis immigration law professor Kevin Johnson. “(The fear) probably is the biggest impact of all.”

The uncertainty over immigrants’ futures has led communities to question whether workers should continue to show up to businesses, children to school and patients to doctors’ offices — and whether there will be economic disruptions and school funding consequences as a result.

Many immigrants are staying home. Others have little choice but to continue their routines.

In Kern County, an immigrant citrus picker who spoke on the condition that her name not be used because she fears deportation said like many of her coworkers, she stayed home for a day in the wake of a Border Patrol operation last month — conducted before Trump took office — that seemed to target farmworkers.

But she has bills to pay, so she’s continued going to work and sending her child to daycare. Rumors of immigration authority sightings have also continued to spread, including one that prompted the contractor she works for to keep her crew in the orange grove at the end of a recent workday. The contractor didn’t release them to go home until checking that the roads were clear, she said.

“Everybody goes out with fear,” she said. “But one has needs. And my needs are bigger than the fear.”

Trump’s actions have the potential to drastically remake the immigration landscape. Here’s what’s changed so far and how California is responding.

Targeting birthright citizenship

One of Trump’s first-day executive orders sought to end the century-plus-old practice of granting citizenship to all children born on U.S. soil even if their parents are undocumented. Courts have affirmed the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship since 1898, in the case of a San Francisco man whose parents were from China.

Two federal judges, responding to separate lawsuits, quickly halted the order.

A third lawsuit, brought by 18 states including California and the city of San Francisco, was heard in a Massachusetts federal court last Friday. Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office says the executive order would strip citizenship rights from about 24,500 children who are born in California each year.

Expanding ICE’s reach

The administration has directed the Immigration and Customs Enforcement to expand use of a process called “expedited removal”: deportations that are allowed to bypass immigration courts, where a judge would normally decide the merit of allowing someone to stay in the country. In the past, immigrants without legal status and who do not make an asylum claim can be placed in this process if they’re arrested within 14 days of entering the country, and within 100 miles of the border.

That already covered most of California. The new order expands the process to the entire country, and to immigrants arrested within two years of entering.

“That could have a huge effect” on the number of people authorities can arrest and put in the fast-tracked deportation process far from the border, said UCLA law professor Ahilan Arulanantham.

Immigration courts have a longstanding backlog that in late 2024 rose to 3.5 million cases.

Other Trump actions could also dramatically increase those cases:

• He revoked a policy prohibiting agents from making arrests in “sensitive locations” such as churches, schools and hospitals;
• And he signed the Laken Riley Act, a GOP bill that had some Democratic support, directing ICE to detain and deport immigrants who are charged — not just convicted — with certain crimes.

Experts say much of how this is carried out still depends on how much Congress is willing to allow ICE to spend. The agency, which operates on about $9 billion a year, estimates it needs $27 billion to carry out the Laken Riley Act, NPR has reported.

The reach of ICE’s recent activity is also unclear. The agency in the last week of January posted daily arrest numbers on the social media platform X, showing nationwide an average of about 800 arrests a day. That’s far higher than daily arrests during the Biden administration, which averaged about 300 in 2024, according to ICE.

But it’s not clear how many people have been held in detention, released with immigration court cases pending, or deported: ICE spokesperson Richard Beam said those figures aren’t available, nor was a state-by-state breakdown.

The agency also would not provide figures of how many of those arrested have the criminal convictions the administration says it’s targeting. An NBC News report in late January found for one of the days, nearly half of those arrested were nonviolent offenders or had no criminal record.

Cancelling legal immigration paths

In addition to targeting immigrants without legal status, Trump is revoking pathways for immigrants to arrive legally, often on humanitarian grounds.

Trump suspended refugee admissions in one Day-One order. In other actions, he’s gone after the temporary legal statuses of immigrants whom the Biden administration allowed to enter. Trump’s administration has called those statuses another way to allow illegal immigration under the guise of government support.

For example, his Homeland Security department canceled the temporary status of about 300,000 Venezuelans that had allowed them protections from deportation and work permits. That status, intended to protect people from tumultuous home countries, expires in April, and another 250,000 protected Venezuelans’ status expires in September.

The administration also is preparing, according to the New York Times, to strip the temporary legal status of immigrants from four countries (Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti) that the Biden administration had allowed to enter — and gain work permits — if they found American sponsors, as a way to curb illegal border crossings.

Similarly, on Day One, Trump ended a Biden-era program allowing migrants at the border to schedule appointments to be temporarily allowed into the U.S. with work permits while they wait for immigration cases to be decided.

Because many of those immigrants are newer arrivals, Kathleen Bush-Joseph, policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute said, they’re particularly likely to be put in the fast-tracked deportation process.

Trying to secure local cooperation

The administration is again trying to overturn local and state sanctuary laws, meaning we’re likely to see a return to the California-versus-federal showdown from the first Trump administration on how much the state can be required to help immigration agents.

Those fights, Arulanantham said, “really are fundamental to balance of power between the federal government and states with respect to how immigration enforcement plays out on the ground.”

From the arresting immigration agents to the detention bed space to the judges considering whether to order deportations, the Trump administration doesn’t have nearly the capacity to carry out the level of crackdown he vows.

So his orders seek to sign on more local police as partners in the effort. The administration is also suing Chicago and Cook County over their non-cooperation policies, accusing the cities of “thwarting” enforcement, and has threatened to prosecute local officials who fail to cooperate with immigration agents.

On her first day as attorney general, Pam Bondi ordered the Justice Department to once again pause grants for sanctuary cities and states. That could include California, which in 2017 passed a law barring police and sheriffs from arresting or detaining immigrants on behalf of federal agents.

In the previous iteration of this standoff, California won in court when the federal government tried to withhold funding. On Friday, San Francisco and Santa Clara counties renewed the fight, suing Trump over his latest threats.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Friday said he hadn’t seen any interruptions to grants yet, but “if that happens, we will sue.”

California conservative sheriffs are now in an odd position between a blue state and a red federal administration. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, in a video Thursday, sought to quell fears and “misinformation” among constituents that his agency was involved in immigration enforcement. Yet in the same video, he said he hoped to assist ICE “within the confines of the sanctuary state laws” with arresting undocumented immigrants who are being held in his jails.

California’s response

The Legislature this week passed $50 million in a special session Gov. Gavin Newsom called to help “Trump-proof” the state — $25 million for the state Department of Justice to sue the federal administration on a variety of matters including immigration, and $25 million toward legal aid to represent immigrants in deportation proceedings.

Democratic lawmakers have introduced a series of bills seeking to discourage the presence of immigration authorities near or at schools.

Newsom has scaled back his own criticisms of the president in recent weeks as he seeks to secure federal wildfire aid.

Bonta has continued to push back with a series of press statements encouraging immigrants to know their rights, and advising school employees they don’t have to assist immigration agents in apprehending immigrant students.

California notched some big wins in court opposing many policies during the last Trump administration, including halting the Muslim ban and Trump’s efforts to undo temporary legal status for immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

But Bush-Joseph noted the Supreme Court in 2023 limited the states’ powers to challenge presidential immigration policies when Texas and other red states tried to sue Biden.

“The inverse can be true under the Trump administration if blue states try to bring lawsuits,” Bush-Joseph said.

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

— Romans 13:1

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Without understanding some of the cultural context and original language, we’ve seen the biblical passage of Romans 13 used many times over by governments to justify horrific action towards often marginalized people under their care. It’s been used to justify apartheid, the holocaust, slavery and genocide, as if these actions are condoned by God. In 2018, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions used Romans 13 in a statement to keep undocumented immigrants out of our country, basically referring to our government as the highest authority, demanding compliance. And given the way this chapter is written, taking it at face value and as a proof-text, it makes sense to use it in this way: What the government says goes, and godly people should never rise up against it, question its validity or protest injustice done by our government or politicians because they are instituted by God.

But what about rebellious people like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Christian man who tried to stop Hitler through an assassination plot? Or Daniel in the Bible rebelling against Babylon and King Nebuchadnezzar? Or the magi never returning to King Herod when told to? Or when the apostles were given strict orders from the government to not preach about Jesus, but they rebelled and Peter answered the leaders: “We must obey God rather than human beings!” Throughout scripture and in history, there are many moments when rebelling against sanctioned injustice is the better and more God-honoring way.

Paul wrote this letter during a time of major persecution towards Christians and marginalized people under the government. For Jews and Christians alike, the Roman government would be known to stop rumored rebellions by going into towns or villages, rounding up some of their leaders, and crucifying them on the hills near the towns just so everyone would know how Rome kept the peace. Huge taxes, government corruption, and violent policing blanketed the lands. Further, Paul wrote while Nero was emperor. Nero came to power at 16 years old and was violently cruel. A few years after he took the throne, he blamed Christians for a massive fire in Rome, using this excuse for capital punishment against the Christians by crucifying them, feeding them to the lions or burning them alive.

Paul knew how abhorrent this government often was. Paul didn’t write these words flippantly and certainly didn’t mean for us to use them in ways to justify government oppression or violence.

So how are we to read and interpret scriptures like these? One of the most important things to notice, right from the start, is that Paul doesn’t mention gospel work anywhere in this section. So to take these words and assume they are a part of “good news” is the incorrect thing to do. These words aren’t God’s eternal truths, but they can help Christians live out God’s eternal truths. This section is really about how we live out God’s way through kindness, compassion and love for all, even for our enemies, while this world is often evil and people need to be held accountable for the evil they do. If Jesus Christ calls Christians to love their neighbors, share with the poor, practice radical hospitality, show non-violent resistance and live in unity, what does that mean when a child is trafficked or a woman is raped or Tyre Nichols gets beaten to death by police officers?

Paul seems to suggest that the fallible governmental powers are not held to the same standards as Christians are and God uses those powers, at times, to administer justice.

The word for “established” in the first verse is “hypotasso” which is usually translated into English as “submit” or “be subject to.” “Submit,” here, doesn’t mean loyal obedience and allegiance to our governing authorities. It doesn’t even mean patriotism or national pride. And it certainly doesn’t mean that Christians are to take up the initiative to become the governing authorities, like Christian domination or nationalism (which is NOT Christian).

Hypotasso means “to file.” Like a librarian’s job to file books. They don’t have to like the book, they may even hate it, but they know where it’s supposed to go and it’s their job to get it there.

The writer, Paul, purposefully removes this section from gospel language. (For the word-nerds: “hypotasso” is not “to obey” because that word is “hypakouo.” which he uses in conjunction with how Christians are to live with God. “Hypotasso” is not meaning a type of loyalty, because that word is “pistis” and Paul uses this in conjunction with how Christians are to live with their Messiah. “Hypotasso” is not meaning to sacrifice yourself, because that word is “thysia,” and Paul uses that in conjunction with what it means for Christians to have an embodied faith with their bodies as living sacrifices.)

Romans 13 is Paul writing liberation over these early Christians living in an impossible political time. This is liberating because these Christians owe their government nothing! They can trust God is at work in the world, even in corrupt places where evil exists.

To trust God in the political realm is a relief because we can release our obsessive anxiety with what’s happening through every presidency and change. We get to instead vote for policies and people. We care about our elected officials, pray for them, hold them accountable, and want the best for them and for our country. We won’t remove ourselves from the political realm or ignore the political realities of our country. We stay educated. We call our representatives and work to keep equality and equity intact. We care for the suffering and tangibly do justice for the love of our neighbors. Trusting God in the political realm means we get to focus our primary attention elsewhere, recognizing our anxious hand-wringing and pearl clutching won’t change the powers but standing next to the fearful suffering in our community will change our community.

For these Christians, Rome was often the enemy and Paul had the audacity to tell them to love their enemy. Paul acknowledged the real parts of life, showing them how to live as Jesus-people through every uncertainty and difficulty while seeking the good for their neighbor (Black, brown, white, indigenous, queer, disabled, atheist, religious, straight, undocumented, poor, homeless, wealthy, sick, healthy neighbor).

Part of seeking the good of your neighbor means we must stand against injustice and work for their good to help make systemic changes against any oppressive systems. When Jesus saw the leaders of his day using the temple in a way that further oppressed the poor in the community, Jesus protested. He turned over the tables and drove the money changers out. He caused a ruckus by making a political demonstration. And Paul, when he was arrested in Rome and getting beaten by the government officials, he cried out and advocated for his rights, asserting he was a Roman citizen and what the officials were doing was illegal.

Protesting against injustice can be good work. Writing letters to your government officials can be good work. Staying educated on historical and current issues is good work. Posting on social media about how furious you are about immigration or abortion or standing for Black Lives Matter can be good work. You name the wrong and you fight against injustice, but don’t let that fight be an excuse to remove yourself from actual relationships with the people who are suffering.

This is what I believe Paul is getting at in this section. There’s a real temptation to turn our attention to the fighting against a corrupt system that is too big to control or change while in the process, missing the real humans that are suffering from that system. We can feel good about this work, patting ourselves on the back while completely removed from the actual human beings we’re “fighting” for.

Paul’s like: Just trust God in the government and get to the real stuff of God in the streets! Stop focusing on the machine up there and start paying attention to the real people, your neighbors, down here!

What I find in this chapter is an invitation to live in the tension as people of God with an embodied faith. We’re to love our enemies and bring them water and food, caring for their physical well being. We’re to practice non-violent resistance, choosing not to retaliate or seek revenge. We’re to trust God is still at work. But even in that state of trust, there is tension because I might trust God but I don’t trust the government to always rule rightly and to always treat people with dignity. I don’t always trust the police to do the right thing of serving and protecting all people. I don’t always trust our elected officials to put their egos aside or not think about how to stay in power long enough to lead with compassion. So we protest, and write, and pray, and all the while keeping our gaze and focus on Jesus Christ while seeking the good of our neighbor who we actually know.

This is how we live as people of God in a corrupt world.

In Humboldt we are not new to protecting our environment, but have you ever thought about protecting the night sky from pollution? When nighttime light spills outside of areas we want to illuminate, it becomes light pollution. Bright lights left on at night can disrupt the circadian rhythms of people as well as urban-dwelling and migrating birds, bats, and even aquatic animals, particularly in rivers, estuaries and coastal areas.

Ruskin Hartley, CEO of DarkSky International, shares how his organization is helping to ensure that light is used respectfully and responsibly around the world. Join us for this discussion of the basics of light pollution.

Want to learn more? Check these out:

• New World Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness
• Dark Sky International web page
• Light Pollution Fact Sheet by Humboldt Waterkeeper
• Why Should We Make Humboldt a Dark Sky County? by Sylvia van Royen, Humboldt Waterkeeper

The Great California gold rush was roaring on the Klamath, Salmon and Trinity Rivers by the 1850s. Miners were crowding into the drainages and canyons, highly excited in the search for the precious metal. Supplies to sustain life in the mining settlements were brought in solely by packers and their mule trains over long and hazardous trails carved from the wilderness.

The Humboldt Bay region became well-known as a supply center for the packers. Hundreds of loaded pack-mules arrived from and departed for the interior mines weekly — they left from places such as Humboldt City, Trinidad Bay, Union and Rohnerville.

This is a story of a mule-skinner of that period and of the packing venture to the Humboldt Bay area 123 years ago.

In early February 1856, we find George Bramlett in Weaverville, the owner of 30 head of fine pack animals, and several expert packers in his hire. The weather was beautiful — warm, clear, sunny skies — a touch of spring was about. Experienced mountaineers like Bramlett pondered if this might be the anticipated February “weather break.” ‘This stretch of good weather in the Pacific Northwest can last up to three weeks, then suddenly return to the normal weather pattern. If this was the winter “weather break,” Bramlett was contemplating on making a dash to the coast with his pack-train.

Mules laden with choice food items would bring premium prices from the miners, especially in the winter months when packing came to a virtual standstill. Bramlett decided that butter, eggs, buckwheat flour — all needs high in demand at mining camps — would make up his cargo on the return trip to the Trinity River.

Waiting several more days, with good weather still persisting, Bramlett decided the time was right. Rounding up his men, saddling the horses and outfitting the mules, a gamble was in the making. A race with the weather; if successful, handsome rewards were anticipated.

Bramlett wondered if the Eel River-Weaverville Trail would be open. Were the high passes plugged with deep snow? Were the rivers and creeks swollen, making fording dangerous? What were the chances of being ambushed by hostile Indians?

If trail conditions became severe, Bramlett reasoned, he could always turn back — nothing ventured, nothing gained. Two days later, Bramlett’s outfit plodded into Hyampom Valley via North Fork, Cox Bar, Corrall Bottom and Eltaponi Creek. In Hyampom, he was elated to hear that the high pass over the South Fork Range was open. Travelers reported deep snow, melting somewhat under sunny weather. Late the next day the snow pass over Blake Mountain in the South Fork Range was conquered. Traveling had been difficult for the mules in the deep snow.

Night fell and camp was made on Pilot Creek at a site now called Beckers Cabin on the western slope of the massive mountain. Deep snow was now behind them, however, other worries overtook them. Discussion in camp that night centered on the crossing Mad River into hostile Indian country in the vicinity of Showers Pass and the headwaters of Yager Creek down to the confluence of the Van Duzen River near Hydesville. Noon, the next day, Mad River was forded without incident, no Indians were seen, and everything was going better than anticipated. Two days later, Bramlett arrived on Main Street in Rohnerville in good shape. Towns folks could hardly believe a large packtrain had arrived from Weaverville over the Eel River-Weaverville Trail in February.

Bramlett didn’t waste time — he stated what he came for and said he was is a hurry. Merchants and ranchers from Rohnerville, Slide, McDiarmind Prairie and surrounding settlements furnished him with enough butter and eggs to load half the mules. Bramlett sent the train to Cooper’s Mill on Yager Creek to load with flour.

In the meantime, Bramlett was seeking extra help to get the goods across the mountains to Trinity. A half-dozen Wiyot Indians were hired and several days later, at early dawn, the packtrain pulled out of Cooper’s Mill, fully loaded. The trail took them up Yager Creek to the trail junction at Blanton Prairie — here, the trail crossed easterly to the headwaters of Little Yager Creek to a point near Yager Junction. From here the trail proceeded down into the Mad River Crossing. Bramlett and his men had been here seven days before.

One of the Wiyot Indians who was cook for the packtrain was riding bell mare well in advance of the rest. He swam his mare across the Mad River and on gaining the opposite shore he came on a band of Whilkuts. The Wiyot became so frightened that he hurried his mount back into the turbulent waters, returning to the west shore. When the packers arrived on the scene all they could see was a fleeing band of Indians, trailing smoke from their fire, which they carried away with them. From this point on, nothing Bramlett could say or do would persuade the coast Indians to stay with the pack-train and make their way toward Holm Ridge and South Fork Mountain, which was ahead of them. They firmly believed the region beyond was abundantly inhabited by fierce Whilkut bands, for centuries feared by the Wiyot people.

Undaunted by the desertion, Bramlett and the remaining packers got the train safely across river. For the first time he began to worry. Shorthanded with manpower, he became uneasy about the weather. Looking skyward, mares trails (clouds) were appearing on the horizon to the south. A gentle, cold southerly wind was at the nape of his neck. Bramlett knew a storm was approaching, perhaps a day or two distant, but there was enough time to clear the high pass ahead and make it to the Trinity. Darkness overtook the party when it had almost reached the top at the steep 6,000 foot level. They reached the snow-line some distance back, which had made the going rough.

It was decided to rest the mules, camp for the night and break through the belly-deep snow in the morning. The animals were unloaded and a snug camp made. Around midnight Bramlett and his men were wakened by a heavy snowfall. They were dazed and speechless, and could not comprehend how a storm had moved in so quickly and quietly upon them. By daybreak a foot of snow had fallen, in addition to that already on the ground.

Several hours were spent trying to conquer the last one-half mile to reach the summit in a blinding blizzard. Now it was realized the effort was hopeless. The mules were exhausted; they gave up and stood motionless with their flanks pointed to the storm. A decision was made — the loads quickly unpacked and stashed in the timber by the trail. The butter and eggs were buried in the cold snow to prevent spoilage. The precious flour was covered with canvas to keep it dry. When the storm ceased, they would return, repack the mules and finish the journey to Hyampom and the Trinity. The mules were then turned around and headed downhill. To lose elevation fast was of utmost importance, or they would all freeze. Reaching Mad River, it was found the storm had turned it into a raging torrent and crossing to Rohnerville was not possible. A succession of heavy storms hit the area and they became prisoners, trapped between the Mad River and South Fork Mountain. Their food was soon exhausted and they had nothing to eat except what they could hunt and kill. Several attempts were made to reach the food in the cache on the mountain, but these efforts failed.

Bramlett and his men endured their misery, and 22 days later the storm abated and the water level dropped enough to allow the train to make a safe crossing of Mad River.

Early in March, the packtrain struggled back into Cooper’s Mill empty of cargo. The men were weary and the animals gaunt — all was lost — many dollars were spent in buying goods never to be recovered. A month later, Bramlett’s train left lUnionnion by way of the Humboldt Trail for the Trinity River. The train was loaded with provisions for the miners. Bramlett was anxious to get back to home base; his friends would be glad to see him, and there was a lot to talk about.

The story cannot end here for one segment of the historic Eel River-Weaverville Trail still exists. A long section of the trail Is located on the Mad River District of the Six Rivers National Forest and is still maintained by the U.S. Forest Service from the top of South Fork Mountain near Blake Mountain to Pilot Creek at Beckers Cabin, then westerly up Pilot Ridge to Mud Springs. This section of the Eel River-Weaverville Trail over the years has been renamed and is now referred to as the “County Line Trail.” The trail traverses the dividing boundaries of Humboldt and Trinity counties.

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The story above is excerpted from the November-December 1979 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.

Iris Elizabeth Canter, born on July 24, 2015, passed away on January 25, 2025, at the tender age of nine. A bright shining star, Iris brought boundless life and love to all who knew her.

She was the cherished daughter of Adam and Ana Canter and the beloved sister of Azalea. Iris was deeply loved by her grandparents Alice Roberts and Steve Roberts, as well as Bill and Patty Canter. She also held a special place in the hearts of her Aunt Amber (Uncle Corey “Sundog”) Mascio, Uncle Zach Roberts, and cousins Cove and Jasper Mascio.

A fourth-grade student at Walker Elementary School, she found immense joy in being outdoors, whether riding her bike, camping with her family or playing soccer with friends. Iris also was a ceremonial dancer for the Bear River Band, a role that brought her great pride and connection to her community. She was never a stranger to anyone.

Iris’s radiant spirit touched everyone she met. Her joy and energy were a source of light for her family and friends, leaving an indelible mark on their lives.

A celebration of Iris’s life will be held on February 15, 2025, at 2 p.m. at the Tish Non Village Community Center, located at 266 Keisner Road, Loleta. Family and friends are invited to gather in remembrance of her beautiful life.

Though her time with us was far too short, Iris’s memory will forever shine brightly in the hearts of those who loved her.

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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Iris Canter’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.

Zoinks! A rig clipped a power pole on Broadway near the movie theater a few moments ago, and now there are big big problems. Southbound traffic is being diverted onto side streets while they replace the pole.

Don’t drive Broadway for a little bit, if you can help it!