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“The Econews Report,” Jan. 6, 2024

It was Memorial Day, 2016 at Eureka’s pioneer Myrtle Grove Cemetery. Two Coast Guard members had placed a small symbolic lantern at the grave of Sarah E. Johnson to honor her service. They told our small group of volunteers that she had been the lighthouse keeper at Humboldt Bay’s first lighthouse on the north spit. Fifty years a resident and I had not known of a lighthouse on the north spit, not to mention that there had been a woman lighthouse keeper! Always intrigued by strong women stories, I had to learn more. The stone’s inscription gave only a few clues:

In memory of Mrs. Sarah E. Johnson
Native of Belfast, Ireland
Died Oct. 19, 1869
Aged 43 years

Gravestone of Sarah Johnson in 2016. The stone has since been returned to its original upright stance.

Seriously Seeking Sarah

That week, on duty as docent at the Humboldt Room at the County Library, I took advantage of what had become my “go to” directory for information on early Humboldt families: The Early Members of Humboldt County Pioneer Society. Turning to the index — there she was: Johnson, Sarah E., pg. 381. However, page 381 turned out to be the bio page for a James McKenna. Confused that it wasn’t Johnson, I scanned the page to the very end where a footnote read:

In August 1852, Sarah filed for divorce from William McKenna. She said he was a drinker and beat her. Sarah moved up to Eureka, Humboldt County, California…She ended up working as a lighthouse keeper to support her and the children. She married W. John Johnson 31 August 1856…

Apparently Sarah once had the married name of McKenna. More surprisingly, the adjacent bio page was for Sarah’s first child, William McKenna Jr., who had been born in 1843 in Australia, a fact that quite got my attention — traveling from Ireland, to Australia, to California in that era was highly unusual and utterly daring. This was fast becoming a compelling need to know more.

Why Australia? Recalling school history classes I wondered if a push factor for leaving Ireland could have been the infamous potato famine. A quick fact check ruled that out because the years of the famine were 1845-1855, and Sarah’s first child was born in New South Wales, Australia in 1843, two years before the famine that devastated Ireland.

The next possibility was the notorious convict ships. Was Sarah a convict? Was her husband William a convict and was she among the wives who were transported as a kind of family reunification program? Repeated searches on relevant listings failed to reveal any evidence of such a theory.

Absent any documentation other than the birth of their first child in 1843 and her marriage date of May 1839, and having run out of obvious push and/or pull factors, it was time to try some basic internet searches, starting with “Irish immigration to Australia 1840.”

It turns out there was a concerted effort by the New South Wales government to attract young skilled British and Irish men and women to populate and domesticate the colony. The notice pictured to the left was one of the advertisements that inspired relocation to Australia with free ‘government assisted’ emigration passage paid using colonial funds. In 1841, more than 13,700 Irish emigrated to New South Wales. Various records indicate that Sarah’s husband, William, identified as a carpenter — a suitably useful skill for the growing colony.

And populate they did. Their first child was born in July 1843 — a son, William John McKenna Jr., named after his father. He was followed in August of 1845 by daughter Eliza, and a third child, Alexander, was born in September of 1847. The baptism records of the two brothers indicate that the family was Catholic and also revealed their mother’s maiden name as Homes (alternately Holmes) and that the family lived in Balmain, near Sydney, New South Wales.

Another Ocean Voyage — Another Emigration — Another Continent 1849

Word of gold in California reached Sydney in late 1848.

It was impossible to know with certainty what determined their decision to join the gold rush, but one wonders whether Sarah had much choice. William sold the two lots on which he had built a weatherboard cottage at 20 Datchett St. in Balmain (a rather posh address today) in May of 1849 and by May 26, the family was aboard a ship bound for San Francisco.

There comes a time in a research project, if you’re very fortunate, you get a lucky strike of your own! Gold Fleet for California Forty-niners from Australia and New Zealand was just such a book. Thank you, Charles Bateson! Not only did this book have great details of the period, it also included an appendix of charts detailing departure and arrival dates, facts about the vessels, length of journey, number of passengers, and even the name of the captain.

Recalling William McKenna Jr.’s page in the Pioneer Society Directory notes, he arrived in California in August 1849. Bateson’s chart indicated only four ships arriving in San Francisco in August: the Fanny, the Spencer, the Louisa and the Regia. It was not difficult to find a website with passenger lists. At TheShipList. com, there was another lucky strike. For the barque Louisa, in the very center of her passenger list, was the listing “Mr. and Mrs. William McKenna & three children.”

Additionally, we learn that the Louisa was 307 tons, the basis on which maritime law determined the number of passengers allowed, which was one passenger per three tons. Seventy-eight passengers were well within the limit, so she was not overly crowded. Departure from Sydney was May 26, 1849 and arrival at San Francisco August 29, 1849 — ninety- five days at sea — 45 days longer than planned! Did they have enough provisions? One imagines a scenario of wild storms or having been becalmed for countless days…There are no records of what kind of quarters were available, nor if passengers were expected to provide their own provisions. On such a voyage, over three months with three children under six might be something short of traumatic, but not by much.

California 1849, Here They Are

The next documentation that helps us know what happened to the McKenna family after arriving in California was the 1852 census in which they were residing in Benicia. William was enumerated as a carpenter and the family had a fourth child — James. Consulting the trusty Pioneer Society directory, the birth date given for James’ birth was October 1849. That was a mere two months after their San Francisco arrival — clearly, Sarah had been very pregnant throughout the entire voyage! One stands in awe at the strength and endurance of such pioneer women.

Despite the fact that Sarah was shown on the 1852 Benicia California Census of October 1 as living with William and their children, there exists a legal record filed two months previously on August 11, 1852, a petition asking the Solano County court to grant Sarah a divorce from William. This seems to indicate things had not gone well for the family.

For that the said plaintiff on or about the month of May AD 1839 was united to the said defendant, William McKinny [sic.] in the holy bonds of Matrimony.

This is our only source of a date for their marriage. Additionally, since the baptism records were in the Catholic church, we can assume Sarah and William were Catholic, which categorically forbade divorce. Consequently, we can further assume that this was something of an extreme situation. A few of the charges are transcribed here in rather sordid details:

Plaintiff charges that the said Defendant is now and has been for the last three years an habitual drunkard or guilty of intemperance, and that during said period he has beaten the said plaintiff with extreme cruelty by beating, striking, and choking plaintiff in a cruel and inhuman manner that his treatment has been such often times to drive her and her children from the house to seek a shelter at the mercy of friends…

The court petition continues:

…that for the last three years or more she has supported and maintained said children by her own industry and exertions…She also requests the property and dwelling which was purchased with money earned by said plaintiff, be and remain the property of said plaintiff.

Arriving in Humboldt — the Fort and the Family — 1853

You will be forgiven if you assumed, as did I, that Sarah and William parted ways after the court proceedings and, moreover, that Sarah went to Eureka on her own. I had imagined the intrepid Sarah, boldly selling the house, arranging for passage, and with four children in tow, boarding a ship bound for Humboldt to start a new life in a new land.

There is a possibility that the court did not rule in her favor. But, regardless, let us not underestimate the complexity of human relationships, the charm of the Irish (sober or not), religious obligations, a change of heart, or any combination of circumstances that determine one’s decisions. Six months after the date of the complaint, it appears the entire family, including the abusive husband, moved to Eureka together.

This important fact would have escaped me had it not been for COVID-19 sheltering. With no Humboldt Room available, I was forced to consult my humble personal library in which was found a rather tattered edition of Chad Hoopes’ Lure of Humboldt Bay Region. I was surprised to learn that the 4th Infantry which eventually was dispatched to establish Fort Humboldt, had been based in Benicia and departed from there to Humboldt on the ship Goliah in January of 1853, the very same month on the arrival of the McKenna family in Humboldt. It turned out that William Sr. had “entered federal service in Benicia, as a master mechanic.” The family most likely arrived in Humboldt County with the 4th Infantry.

Additionally, there was a seemingly unconnected and obscure but defining detail that could not be ignored, as it placed William McKenna Sr. in Eureka in early 1853. Mr. Hoopes for some unknown reason included this detail from a military report in his treatise on early Fort Humboldt:

The buildings and furnishings of the fort were crude, rough, and handmade. William McKenna, a carpenter from Eureka, built desks for the adjutants and the commanding officers for $30 each.

William, a year and a half later, is named in yet another Humboldt County public record, a birth record for Thomas E. McKenna.

MCKENNA, William & ______________, born 10 June 1854 Thomas E.

That the mother is not named is rather unusual, but subsequent records including the 1860 census, clearly identified Thomas with Sarah as his mother.

The next record featuring the family in Humboldt does not occur for another two years. It is a notice in the Humboldt Times in September of 1856.

A Bucksport Marriage

The Humboldt Times September 9, 1856 announced that on “Sunday, August 31, 1856 at Bucksport, near Fort Humboldt. Mrs. Sarah McKenna was married to Captain John Johnson at the home of Mr. Wm. Roberts.” This would suggest that Sarah, albeit belatedly, had ultimately acted on the 1852 decision to divorce William.

Captain Johnson, the new bridegroom, like most people in Humboldt in 1854, was from elsewhere. A native of Hollowell, Maine, he had been involved in maritime pursuits. The 1850 Hollowell census showed John Johnson age 36, with his wife Elizabeth age 32, and three children: Frank A. age 9, Isaac age 7, and John age 1. The year after the 1850 census, a daughter, Lizzie, was born. Some time after that, Elizabeth, his wife, presumably died. For what reasons we can only guess, he left his four children with his sister, Betsey Nash, and her family and sailed off to California, arriving at Humboldt Bay in time to accept the lighthouse keeper position and marry Sarah McKenna in 1854.

It is unclear what had drawn him to Humboldt; we only know he had accepted the post of lighthouse keeper five months before the wedding. Technically, he had become the second keeper after another man, a Mr. Pearce, had resigned in frustration after waiting two long years for the lens to arrive.

While the house was completed and functional, the light was not yet in operation. It would be another three months before the French-designed Fresnel lens arrived and was installed. Meanwhile, the Captain, with Sarah and the children, settled into life on the north spit.

Life Amid Shifting Sands at Land’s End — 1856

Lighthouse-keeping fosters images of isolation, harsh weather, primitive living, and loneliness. That the first Humboldt Bay lighthouse keepers faced isolation is a given; it was at the very southern end of the north peninsula. The harsh weather there, with wind, rain and shifting sands, was unrelenting. That living conditions were primitive, is assumed; after all, it was the frontier in 1856. But to suggest that any family of seven people experienced loneliness anywhere would be a stretch.

The solution to supplying the lighthouse. The original stereographic image c1870s, credited to Eadweard Muybridge, is held in the Bancroft Library. Title: “Humboldt Lighthouse 4th order fixed light 53 feet above sea level.” Possibly the earliest photo of the lighthouse.

Access to supplies from Bucksport or Eureka meant boating across the bay, mooring, loading items, and then returning across the bay and packing in supplies across nearly a three-quarter mile stretch of sand. In subsequent years, a boardwalk was constructed, but in those earliest times everything had to be carried. The children were aged 13, 10, 9, 7, and 2. Certainly their abilities were utilized when possible.

Two vendor billings, butcher A.S. Rollins and merchant Alex Gilmore revealed what manner of purchases were made. These apparent everyday necessities give a sense of what items the family needed as well as an insight of how they may have lived on their remote peninsula.

Undoubtedly, with the onset of winter winds and the predictable cold rain, there was a concerted effort to arrange for heating. Old photos show the lighthouse had two chimneys, so it can be assumed they used wood for heating. In addition to beach driftwood, wood for warmth may have been available as a byproduct of several local logging mills. The issue, of course, was getting any source of firewood to the very isolated south tip of the north spit.

As to the essential need for water, both the north and the south spits were favorably situated to have fresh water just below the ground surface, a fact known to the resident Wiyot people. A hydrological phenomenon termed “freshwater lens” exists there in which rainwater is filtered and contained above the heavier salt water.

Despite logistical difficulties, the anxiously awaited Fresnel lens was installed by December 20, 1856. The lighthouse was at last considered fully functional. The location for the lighthouse had been selected so the light could be seen from the ocean, the bar, and the bay. While sensible in concept, the site was but a few feet above sea level which meant the light could be seen from only twelve nautical miles on a fog-free night with calm seas — not conditions for which Humboldt Bay is noted.

With longer winter nights coming on, the routine of chores necessary to maintain the facilities changed markedly. And when the new light was installed, even more chores were added.

The oil lamp required fuel. Much of lighthouse literature comments that vegetable oil such as wild cabbage oil was used in the lamps, but would it not have been more logical in Humboldt Bay for local whale oil to have been used? Just across the bay, Captain Buhne was known to engage in whaling at Humboldt Bay as early as 1854, so whale oil may have been used, at least at first. Other sourcing was needed by 1858 since the whale population was nearing depletion. Whatever the kind of oil, like all supplies, it had to be hauled to the lighthouse over the cursed ¾ mile of sand.

Johnson/McKenna family’s comings and goings

It had been nine months since the installation of the Fresnel lens, the family had settled somewhat into the routine of life at a lighthouse and, as in the course of human events, a very happy and very human event occurred on September 28, 1857 as seen in this birth announcement in the Humboldt Times: she was named Sarah Elizabeth after her mother.

Yet, a mere two weeks later another event occurred at the lighthouse — alas, a sad and tragic event, but also an all-too-human event. This notice was posted in the Humboldt Times as well:

Captain Johnson had died on October 11, 1857 at the age of about forty-four. No cause of death was given. However, Doctor Josiah Simpson from Fort Humboldt had recorded earlier, on July 17, that he visited “the lighthouse at midnight and remained till daylight.” Whether or not this visit was related to his ultimate demise two months later is not known. The physician who did attend Johnson’s “final illness” was another doctor, also from the fort, a Dr. L. Guild.

Doing What Had to Be Done

It is impossible to imagine exactly how the Captain’s death affected the bereaved household, but devastation may not be too strong an assumption. However, considering Sarah’s recoveries from other adversities, it is somewhat more than likely that she persevered pragmatically as she always had, and did what had to be done.

We learn a coffin was provided by Robert G. Simonson for $20. Their neighbor on the peninsula, George Fay, made an “enclosure around the grave” for another $20. Consulting a local early cemeteries expert about where his grave might be, Karen Hendricks reported: “Originally the Fay family had a burial ground at Fairhaven. All of the bodies were removed and taken to Ocean View. But in 1857 most burials were at Bucksport or at Fort Humboldt. The bodies at Fort Humboldt were removed to Myrtle Grove.” So we cannot say with certainty where he was buried. While Sarah was buried in 1869 at Myrtle Grove — which had opened in 1861 — there is no record of the Captain having been moved there to join her in the same cemetery.

Yet another formality “had to be done.” Since Johnson died intestate, (i.e.,without a will) there was the requisite and daunting probate court process. Those legalities took the rest of 1857 and the entire following year to resolve. Her designated administrator, Daniel Pickard, had to deal with: two different probate judges (J. C. Wyman and A. J. Huestis), multiple claims from debtors and clerks, recorders, public auctions, and real estate transactions among other complexities. Pickard’s thoroughness is the reason we have the documentation in the public record of the process, which lends further insight into Sarah’s situation.

Sarah Becomes the Keeper of the Lighthouse — Life Goes On

In 1857 there were few women lighthouse keepers unless they had inherited the position from the death of their husband or father. Sarah’s oldest son William was but fourteen, not quite of an age to take over, but his help and that of his siblings would have been essential. Winter was around the corner and there was a two-week-old baby to care for as well.

Official National Archives recording lighthouse keepers of the United States list Captain Johnson as having served until “his demise at 1859.” Given that the Captain’s death notice in the Humboldt Times was dated October 11, 1857, the National Archive was clearly in error, possibly attributable to delayed notification. Somewhat less logical is the possibility that the delay was deliberate so Sarah would not have to take the pay cut which would be her due as a female for that position. However, David J. Clark, author of “The Humboldt Harbour Lighthouse” (Humboldt Historian Winter 2011), suggests it was a clerical error due to communication times and distance; “the Lighthouse Board was notoriously slow.”

The ledger from The Lighthouse Board shows $1,000 [$33,049 in 2021 dollars] Annual Salary for the keeper,  J. Johnson, but when the keeper changed to Sarah Johnson, it was $600. The CPI Inflation Calculator website, shows in 1859, $600 was equivalent to $19,830 in 2021 dollars, hardly enough for a single mother with five children.

According to Humboldt County public records, by January 11, 1858, three months after she was widowed, Sarah paid $90 for a parcel of land in the developing town of Bucksport. In the spring of the following year, 1859, she purchased three more lots for $40 in Bucksport from Joshua Vansant, who would eventually become her son-in-law.

There was one particularly curious real estate transaction which came to light in the probate records. It seems, in May of 1856, before he married, the deceased, Captain Johnson, bought a quarter section on Table Bluff from Dr. Jonathan Clark. The probate court ruled that the 160 acres must be sold at public auction to pay Captain Johnson’s note of $280 at 25% interest to Dr. Clark.

The auction was duly advertised and duly held. Sarah, herself, placed the only bid. Her bid was $5, and it was accepted, which is strange enough, but here is the really strange part: within weeks — according to the title records — Jonathan Clark seems to have sold the property back to Sarah Johnson on December 27, 1858 for $475 — hardly the auctioned bid of $5.37 Was the winning $5 auction bid an act of charity for a bereaved widow? Was the subsequent $475 sale taking advantage of her? Or is there some other explanation?

1860 — The First Federal Census Comes to Humboldt

A census can document much, and suggest even more. That which is between the lines invites assumption, implication, and imagination. With that in mind, it would be irresponsible to guess why, according to the census, Sarah’s two oldest children were no longer living at the lighthouse in July 1860. William Jr., at seventeen was enumerated on the 1860 Federal census as a farm laborer among eight other laborers and living with a stock raiser near Hydesville.

Just four residences prior, but on the same precinct page, fifteen-year-old Eliza was listed with a nearby farm family and attending school. Three months later, she would marry Joshua Vansant, twenty-nine.38 Additionally, in due time, Sarah’s first grandson was born at the lighthouse on November 19, 1861.39 In those days, daughters would often give birth at the home of their mother, apparently even if that home was a lighthouse at land’s end.

The decade of 1860 could accurately be considered a particularly difficult and even tragic time for the increasingly settled north coast corner of California. The country had undergone rapid changes since Euro-American colonization began in 1850. Seeking a land route from the sea to the inland gold mines, the fortune hunters entered Humboldt Bay and encountered the indigenous Wiyot villages. Driven by gold-fever greed, the new arrivals found it expedient to disregard any territorial claims by indigenous peoples and proceeded to implement their exploitative goals.

As early as 1852, the culture clash had increased with such severity that Fort Humboldt was created in January 1853 by the federal government, ostensibly to keep peace between the colonizers and the Indians. However, incursions and depredations continued and many lives were lost by peoples protecting their way of life. In the conclusions of many historians, events culminated in nothing short of genocide. Individuals, small bands and entire Indian villages were decimated over the next decade by vigilantes and government- sanctioned militias as well as soldiers from Fort Humboldt.40 Respected historian Jerry Rohde documents numerous incidents of violence upon as many as eleven Indian villages concurrent with the infamous 1860 massacre at Tuluwat, formerly Indian Island. At least three of the incidents were within earshot of the peninsula and its lighthouse.

Summer of 1862: Amid a Prisoner-of-War Camp.

By mid-July 1862, Sarah’s household consisted of herself, her three younger sons: fourteen-year-old Alex, thirteen-year-old James, eight-year-old Thomas, and four-year-old Sarah.

At Fort Humboldt, directly across the bay, the Indians, having been “brought in for their protection” were being literally corralled in crowded, unsanitary conditions to the extent that there was illness, death, and violations upon the women. In August, over 700 Indians were removed across the bay and imprisoned on the southern tip of the north spit where they could be guarded by just a few soldiers picketed along a single line spanning the peninsula from the bay to the ocean. That end of the peninsula was conveniently Federal land and, in the center, was the lighthouse.

The following month, on September 14, over 800 Indians were shipped north about 100 miles on the coastal steamer Panama to the new Smith River Reservation near Crescent City and the Oregon line. Over the next three years, however, the controversial peninsula camp continued as a “reserve,” confining as many as 600 Indians as late as September 1865.

In none of the military reports are Sarah and family mentioned, nor even the lighthouse despite being geographically in the center of the camp. Of course, maintaining lighthouse duty would be required. The absence of such information is a puzzle.

The Humboldt Harbour Light at Work

Winters on the Humboldt coast would have periods of strong winds, high seas, and extreme tides. The winter of 1862-63 was particularly difficult. The treacherous conditions of the Humboldt Bar were legendary, and the little lighthouse did its best but it was never adequate for the site. The shifting sands of the bar were influenced by multiple watersheds feeding into the bay. That the forested drainage was being logged aggressively also contributed to silt and consequently, changes at the bar.

That winter, in February 1863, Humboldt suffered two disastrous shipwrecks within a month. The first was the brig Aeolus on her way out to sea. Captain Buhne’s dependable tugboat, the Mary Ann, was beached and stranded on the south peninsula attempting to rescue the Aeolus. Not knowing when or if the Mary Ann could be repaired, a replacement tug was purchased from San Francisco: the steam tug Merrimac. The second disaster was the sinking of the new steam tug, on her maiden voyage to Humboldt and within view of the lighthouse. All aboard were lost.

The Times Weekly article of February 28, 1863 reported:

Quartermaster Swasey was watching her with a glass from the Fort [Humboldt] when she went down and some boys in the tower of the light house had still a better view. They say that when she rose on the sea she stood on her bow for an instant, and when the roller combed her over her port bow she disappeared.

Both incidents were daylight occurrences, yet each speaks to the treacherous nature of the bar.

Sarah Retires

In August, Sarah Johnson officially resigned her post at the lighthouse. G. H. Nye was appointed on December 31, 1863 as her replacement. She had served six years — the longest of any lighthouse keeper at that station. The Indian “reserve” was still in existence until 1865. As mentioned earlier, as a woman, her salary was considerably less than that of her husband for the same job. Of the keepers who followed her over the remaining twenty-seven years of the Humboldt Harbour lighthouse: nineteen resigned, eight transferred, seven were fired, three died, and one deserted. All of them were men.

1863 had been a year of other significant changes for Sarah. By November she had sold her three Bucksport blocks for $600 to her seventeen-year- old son, Alexander. Yet in the same year, his address was recorded as Canyon City, Oregon where he had moved and where he was enumerated in the 1870 Federal Census. Alexander’s obituary, at age eighty, read: “he struck out on his own in 1863 and settled in Oregon.” By the summer of 1864, Sarah sold her quarter section in Table Bluff to one Patrick O’Rourk for $900, just short of doubling her $475 purchase price in six years.

Consequently, her 1864 household consisted of fifteen-year-old James, ten-year-old Thomas, and eight-year-old Sarah. She had the proceeds from her real estate sales. Although not yet forty and relatively young, she had had a hard life. We don’t know where she lived at that time. She may still have had her single lot in Bucksport.

There is little documentation of Sarah’s last four years except for a stark, cold, notice in the press on October 23, 1869 under the simple heading : “DIED.”

And then there was her probate for which her son- in-law, Joshua Vansant was petitioner. Here is an excerpt of a transcription:

…the deceased left no real estate and but little personal estate. The whole of which was exhausted towards the payment of the expenses of her last sickness and funeral.

The notice gives the cause of death as paralysis, suggesting something like a stroke. Consequently, we can’t know how long her “last sickness” lasted. While her age of forty-three seems young to us, in the U.S., the life expectancy in 1860 was a mere forty years. However, it cannot be said her life was anything but full. Her children, with the exception of twelve-year-old Sarah, were probably of an age to manage themselves more or less independently. The two younger sons do not appear in the 1870 census but young Sarah appears living in her older half-sister Eliza Vansant’s home.

A portrait on the back of which “Sarah Johnson” was written with pencil. The portrait is believed to be the daughter who was born at the lighthouse to Sarah and Captain Johnson in 1857.

The surnames of McKenna and Vansant descendants through the three older children, include such names as Campton, Glatt, Messerle, and Wing. Neither Thomas nor James married and young daughter Sarah’s two children did not survive to adulthood. Still, the stories of Sarah’s descendants through her three older children would fill another article.

Sarah had sufficient reason to be satisfied with her life. We can only hope she had time and peace of mind to reflect on the richness of her life. Somehow I rather imagine she was, as ever, more focused on “doing what had to be done.”

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Author’s comment: When I reflect on my mindset while compiling Sarah’s story, I am concerned that I have over-sentimentalized her life. If that is so, it is because the obstacles she surmounted seem so incredibly difficult to our twenty-first century sensibilities. If she lived today, she would have had more choices in raising her children; more support as a victim of domestic violence; travel would have been less arduous; medical care could have prolonged her years; and her reduced salary for being female could have been mitigated. But taken all in all, the truth is that, for her time, she did no more than what any woman who “does what needs to be done” would do. Still, it is a story of strength, perseverance, and character.

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The story above was originally printed in the Spring 2022 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.

Albert Allie Markussen lll (Bubba) was born March 20, 1966, in Hoopa. He passed December 29, 2023, in Weitchpec.

Albert is a graduate of Hoopa Valley High School, class of 1984. He worked as a Wildland firefighter for USFS for many years in Orleans. He found that he belonged on the water more, so he spent 15+ years working for Hoopa and Yurok Tribal Fisheries. Albert enjoyed many hobbies like hunting, fishing, woodworking, woodcutting and spending time talking with his friends and family. Most importantly, he was a proud father to his children and the many more he claimed as his own.

Albert was preceded in death by his prandparents, Albert A Markussen Sr Lottie E Markussen & George L Williams, Marie Knudsen Williams; father, Albert A Markussen Jr; daughter, Rebecca Rose Markussen; uncles Teddy James, Wallace Markussen, Lewellen Markussen (Stoons), Kenneth Schultz; aunts Daisy M French, Gertrude Markussen; cousins: Dorothy Tennison, Vernon Markussen, Leonard Markussen, Ricky Markussen, Ronald French, Gloria French, Gloria Brooks, Melissa Brookes, Jay Jay Price & Damien French, Debra Markussen.

Albert was survived by his mother Marlene L Markussen; siblings and their significant others: Elizabeth Azzuz & Vini Dix, George Markussen & Koni Markussen, Daughters: Laurabelle Markussen, Mahleena Scott, Bonus; daughters Talonna Marshall (Whits Marshall), April Sylvia (Eagle Moon), Lulu Osborne (Steven Osborne), Kylee Mastel, Trinity Newsom; sons Nicholas M Markussen, Ryan K Scott Jr.; nephew and significant other Saif Azzuz & Lulu Thrower; niece Alyssa Sobolik & family; great-nephew Moya Thrower-Azzuz; great-niece: Viola Azzuz; great-aunt Barbara Schultz and family; stepfamily to children Yoli Andrews (Shawn Andrews and Dillinger).

EXTENDED FAMILY - TOO MANY TO MENTION:

(Please do not be offended if you’re not listed)

Thom’s, Tripp’s, Offield’s, Albers’, James’, Knight, Alvarado, Minard, Alameda, Bowie, Holguin, Jamie Holt, Tori Holt-Barto & family, Edith Bowen & Don Leach, Irma Amaro, Gary Markussen Sr and Family, Linda Morse, Gary Markussen Jr & family, Colleen Colegrove & family, Katrina Rusby & family, Delores Markussen & family, Bernadette Markussen & family, Genevieve Markussen & family, Austin Mitchell & family, Mitchell family, Julian Markussen Sr & family Julian Markussen Jr & family. Vernon Markussen Jr & family, Tara Tracy & family, Tracy Family,

Pallbearers: Nicholas M Markussen, Ryan K Scott Jr, Saif Azzuz, Phillip Minard, Dennis Young, Whits Marshall, Temp Asenbauer, Little Arlen Doolittle Jr, Victor Knight.

Honorary Pallbearers: George Markussen, Carl Wilson, Kenny Dolittle, Ryon Markussen Sr, Ryon Markussen Jr, Ryan Offins , Darren Howerton, Vini Dix, Nicholas McCovey, Shane Anderson, Nathen French, Llewelleyn French, Ronald French, Daniel French Sr, Daniel French Jr, Julian Markussen Sr, Julian Markussen Jr, Gary Markussen Sr, Gary Markussen Jr, Codie Donahue, Anthony Colegrove, Thomas Markussen, Louie Myers, Dewey Myers, Harold Myers, Frankie Joe Myers, Rich Myers, Emilio Tripp.

The Markussen Family will be holding the funeral services at the Yurok Tribal Office in Weitchpec on January 7, 2024 at 12 p.m. Reception will follow.

The kitchen will be open at 9 a.m. at the Weitchpec tribal office.

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Eureka’s new police chief, 25-year EPD veteran Brian Stephens, sees himself as a traditional cop. He values uniformity and a clean, professional appearance. When fellow officers requested permission to wear external tactical vests as a means of reducing the lower back pain that comes from carrying up to 30 pounds of gear around on their duty belts all day, he was initially opposed. The vests looked more military-tactical than traditional, he thought, though he later changed his mind and now concedes that they’ve been helpful.

“I see the good they have done for the backs” of officers, he said in an interview with the Outpost on Wednesday. “I support it … and will continue to support it. It’s not going away.”

Still, expect him to run a tight ship. An Army veteran born and raised in rural Kentucky, Stephens revered law enforcement as a kid and believes police departments should operate efficiently. Officers should look sharp — clean shaven or mustaches neatly trimmed, uniforms tidy, preferably no visible tattoos, though that’s another thing he’s relaxed about, to some extent; they’re allowed in the department these days. 

Stephens, who was sworn in as chief at a ceremony Thursday afternoon, takes over a woefully short-staffed department that’s still trying to move past the controversy and upheaval that followed a 2021 Sacramento Bee story detailing a series of vulgar, sexist and dehumanizing text messages among a squad of EPD officers led by former Sgt. Rodrigo Reyna-Sanchez. 

Former chief Steve Watson retired before the completion of an independent investigation into the texting scandal. When it was concluded, three of the five officers being investigated — Sanchez, Capt. Patrick O’Neill and Mark Meftah — resigned or retired rather than submitting to disciplinary action. Then-Chief Todd Jarvis said “appropriate corrective action” was taken for the other officers involved.

Stephens has long been friends with Sanchez, who’s called “Rigo” by officers. The two of them came up through the academy together, and to this day Stephens keeps a framed picture on his office shelf of Sanchez standing with other officers. 

Stephens’ tenure with the department stretches back to a time when EPD had a reputation for being aggressive and quick to use force, when the prevailing approach to law enforcement was “just hook and book, and if they’re resisting, overwhelm them with force,” as one current EPD officer described that era. 

Former chief Garr Nielsen characterized the department’s longtime reputation as “callous, cruel and dehumanizing,” as quoted in a 2021 Sac Bee story.

Nielsen was sworn in as chief in 2007 on the heels of four fatal officer-involved shootings in a nine-month span. This included the killing of Cheri Lyn Moore, a 49-year-old woman suffering a mental health crisis who was shot to death in her apartment by members of an EPD SWAT team. A grand jury later indicted the police chief and lieutenant who authorized the operation, though a judge ultimately dismissed the charges.

Nielsen’s efforts to reform the department — which included disbanding the SWAT team, partnering with the county’s domestic violence services department and establishing a problem-oriented policing (POP) unit to deal with nuisance properties and persistent drug problems — inspired push-back and resentment among a core group of officers within the department. In 2011 Nielsen was fired without cause, with then-City Manager David Tyson reportedly giving him just minutes to clear out his desk, change out of his uniform and leave the building.

Andy Mills, who came to the department from San Diego and served as Eureka’s police chief from 2013-2017, arguably had more success in reforming the department and its reputation in the community. He initiated regular “Coffee with the Captains” events, inviting community members to engage directly with commanding officers. He also implemented implicit bias training for officers and promoted community policing and de-escalation techniques. However, in an exit interview with the Times-Standard he said some cops in the department embraced their intimidating reputation.

“Officers literally tell me that they want people to fear us when they drive into this community,” he told reporter Will Houston. “I said, ‘Who do you want to fear you exactly, my mother who’s 84?’”

If the reform efforts of Nielsen, Mills and Watson were aimed at dismantling the department’s culture of toxic masculinity, the texting scandal undercut the community’s faith that any progress had been made, at least among this one squad, whose texts to each other included endorsements of violence, explicit remarks about women’s bodies and obscene jokes targeting people experiencing homelessness and mental illness.

Last year, an outside auditor reviewed the official response to EPD’s texting scandal and concluded that the city handled it appropriately, holding “most involved in the misconduct accountable” while making progress toward improving department culture. The audit praised Jarvis for improving officer oversight, implementing a misconduct policy and prohibiting the use of personal phones to conduct on-duty business, except in emergencies. Jarvis also took steps to improve employee wellness by requiring annual counseling sessions and offering fully covered follow-ups.

Jarvis, who retired as Stephens took over on Thursday, has encouraged both the department and the community to look forward rather than backwards. Speaking to the city’s Community Oversight on Police Practices Board last year he said, “We have really worked hard to change the culture to one of accountability, one of higher expectations, one where we don’t ever want to see this again,” as quoted by Thadeus Greenson in the North Coast Journal.

‘Every day policing changes’

On Thursday, Stephens sat down for an interview in his office. On the wall above him hung a wood carving in the shape of Kentucky, a thin blue line running through it horizontally and various badge patches affixed to the bottom with thumbtacks. Next to that was a plaque inscribed with a prayer asking the Lord to grant him various virtues, including “concern for those who trust me and compassion for those who need me.” A wooden thin blue line flag dangled from a hook at the bottom.

Stephens was hired in February of 1999 by then-chief Arnie Millsap, and he recounted some words of guidance he’d imparted.

“Arnie had three things he wanted me to accomplish in my career, and that was to lessen the anger, anxiety and fear of our community,” Stephens said. “Those were the three things he wanted me to strive for.”

That directive proved to be less straightforward than it may sound.

“I realized over the last 25 years that that goal line is always moving, because society is always changing,” he said. “So it’s been something to strive for.”

Stephens has worked for quite a few chiefs during his quarter-century tenure, and he said he’s learned something from each of them. Asked how he feels he and the department have done in making progress toward Millsap’s objectives, Stephens said it “ebbs and flows” with changes in the culture and in criminal justice. In particular, he referred to reduced criminal penalties for certain drug and property crimes.

“You know, it’s hard to hold people accountable when legislation changes and there’s not the accountable piece … when they change crimes and what the outcomes of those are, so then you have the frustration and the anger from the community that their cars are being broken into, that we have retail theft and, ‘Why isn’t anything be done about that?’” Stephens said. “Well, that’s really hard to try to get on top of when you don’t control what the foundation was that caused that change.”

He also spoke about social changes, referring obliquely to “national events” that have impacted policing and cultural attitudes toward law enforcement.

“Every day policing changes as a profession, and you have to be willing and flexible enough to change with it … ,” he said. “You know, all it takes is one event to start making changes in policy and changes in tools that can be used.”

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Asked if he was referring specifically to the Black Lives Matter protests that exploded across the country in response to a series of police killings of Black men and women, Stephens said that movement was just the latest episode to impact policing. He later said the movement has likely impacted officer recruitment and retention, both at EPD and across the country.

“People question, ‘Is this really what I want to do? Do I want to stand out here and get yelled at for something that I personally didn’t do but because of the uniform I wear I’m the target now?’” he said. 

In what may have been a reference to the murder of George Floyd, Stephens said, “It may take, you know, nine minutes for that event to evolve [but it] has repercussions that last for years in the profession. So, I think now we’re just seeing the pendulum start to swing back to where people are seeing [policing] as a viable career again, or at least a job.”

Staffing woes

The Eureka Police Department is budgeted for 48 positions, including sworn officers and support staff, such as community service officers, dispatch, records specialists and administrative technicians. The department is currently down 13 sworn officers, including two sergeant vacancies.

In a recent open letter to the community, the Eureka Police Officers Association (EPOA), which represents the department’s rank-and-file officers, decried the “rapid loss of numerous and experienced Police Officers,” saying EPD is operating with just 60 percent of the normal sworn officer positions filled.

While agencies across the state are struggling to fill vacancies, EPD in particular has had a difficult time retaining officers.

“We are a training ground for other agencies,” Redding Police Department in particular, Stephens said. 

EPD officers often see the grass as greener in other areas, largely because the workload in Eureka “has alway been higher than any other agency in the region,” Stephens said. “We handle somewhere between 200 and 250 calls for service a day.”

Police departments in the Central Valley are offering signing bonuses of up to $80,000, he added, and while Eureka is now offering new officers a $50,000 signing bonus, it can still be hard to hire and keep sworn officers.

On Jan. 1 the department re-initiated its “emergency staffing matrix,” last seen almost two years ago. This entails the elimination of the department’s swing shift in favor of mandatory 12-and-a-half-hour shifts for all sworn officers, with some working the day shift and others the night shift.

Stephens said this will stabilize the schedule, and while he allowed that some officers may dislike working such long hours at a stretch, many of them were already clocking 50 to 60 hours of overtime each month, which interfered with the department’s ability to send officers away for training opportunities. And the new schedule allows each officer to get four successive days off each month during which they can either relax and reset or come in to work on special projects, earning overtime while not being tied to the dispatch radio.

Meanwhile, Eureka’s higher rate of calls for service don’t necessarily mean that the city’s crime stats are “crazy,” Stephens said; it’s just that there are a lot of situations in which residents call the police, including public disturbances and incidents involving people who are homeless.

Officers will look at Arcata, where “you can do a third of the work and you can make a couple dollars, probably, more an hour … it’s hard to take a young cop who feels stressed because of the amount of calls we’re handling and our staffing issues and try to get them to stay,” Stephens said.

Others say Stephens himself is at least partly to blame. One current EPD officer, who spoke to the Outpost on condition of anonymity due to fear of professional repercussions, said he’s not excited about Stephens’ ascendancy to the position of chief, nor are many of his fellow officers.

“He’s just been opposed to so many forward-looking, progressive ideas,” said the officer, who we’ll call Smith (not their real name). “He’s very much a traditionalist [with a] 20th century cop mentality.”

Stephens was tight with the clique of “bad boy” officers of yesteryear, according to Smith, who described the chief’s outlook as “regressive.”

“I started formulating [a plan] to leave when I heard last spring that Stephens was gonna be chief,” Smith said, adding that they’re not the only one. “We’ve lost so many people these last six or seven years. Now myself and two others are looking for an exit. … We’re literally at a breaking point, staffing-wise. … This is a failure of leadership: poor planning, poor working conditions and poor treatment.”

‘Pillar of leadership’

Other officers disagree and say Stephens is definitely an asset to the department.

EPOA President Detective Joseph Couch, for example, told the Outpost that Stephens is widely perceived as a dedicated EPD employee.

“He has kind of been a pillar of the leadership since I began seven years ago, and he continues to push forward [and] to help patrol in whatever way he can through his capabilities,” Couch said. “He has been assistant chief for the last year or so under the leadership of Jarvis, and I think some of [Jarvis’s] leadership qualities have rubbed off on Stephens. … The hope for the guys and gals on patrol is that he kind of continues where Jarvis left off and continues to make the Eureka Police Department a better place to work.”

Asked whether some officers still see Stephens as one of the hard-hitting good ol’ boys, Couch said anyone who’s been with the department for so long is bound to carry some of that stigma, but he doesn’t believe it’s warranted in this case.

“All of the experiences I’ve had with Stephens have been positive,” Couch said. “He’s willing to pass on knowledge to those who’ll listen. Any time leadership changes and a new chief takes over there will always be portions of staff who will be concerned. With law enforcement that’s just something that will happen. Personally, I hope for the best. I think deep down Stephens has the betterment of [officers] in his mind. I think the majority of staff feel the same way.”

Patrol Sgt. Jonathan Eckert agreed, saying Stephens has grown as a leader and frequently displays patience.

“Chief Stephens is often in the unenviable position of having to say ‘no’ or ‘We need to change our approach,’” Eckert said in an email. “During these times he does an excellent job of walking his staff through why the change is needed.”

And Eckert credits Stephens with working hard to get the department through a difficult time. 

“He has aggressively worked to increase our recruitment efforts and I know he is heavily invested in the department producing and retaining the highest-quality officers in the area,” he said.

On Thursday, just a few hours before Stephens was sworn in, former chief Mills offered his endorsement on Facebook, writing, “Brian is the definition of kindness, loyalty and fidelity to the Constitution. Brian earned this spot and ALL of Eureka please support him and EPD. It’s in your best interest.”

‘I think you have to be a progressive police agency these days’

Stephens spoke with pride about the various progressive reforms that the department has made in recent years, including the creation of the Community Safety Engagement Team (CSET), whose mission is to proactively address quality of life, crime and disorder, and the Crisis Alternative Response of Eureka (CARE), which offers mental health and substance use services.

Echoing the likes of Nielsen and Mills, Stephens said the department now takes “more of a social approach” to many problems, trying to connect people with resources and services while attempting to balance accountability with compassion.

“We’ve got to have the right people to do that, and I think that’s where we’re really thriving right now as an agency,” he said.

A 2019 report from the Civil Grand Jury criticized Eureka’s law-enforcement-heavy approach to the ongoing homelessness crisis, saying the city “has taken a kind of carrot and stick approach but with an emphasis on the stick.”

The grand jury concluded that EPD’s forced evictions of homeless encampments on South Jetty in 1997 and the Palco Marsh in 2016 just served to disperse the unhoused population without solving the underlying issues facing them and the rest of the community.

Stephens said that things have since changed for the better.

“We looked at using enforcement to try to change behavior … . It didn’t work, right?” he said. “Somebody said — it may have been Chief Watson — ‘We can’t arrest our way out of the societal issues that we’re facing with homelessness and mental health issues and drug addiction.’ So we had to find a different approach.”

EPD has done that largely through collaborations with other departments and agencies, hiring a mental health officer and using Measure Z funds to create new, more progressive programs.

“Do we really get anything out of writing a person suffering from homelessness a ticket for camping or for littering if they don’t have the means to pay it and the courts aren’t going to hold them in jail for any type of consequence either? It’s a waste of paper, right?” he said.

Even with the staffing problems, the department’s CARE team has been expanded, and soon they’ll likely be able to provide 24/7 coverage, Stephens said.

There’s an ongoing effort to “bifurcate” law enforcement’s responsibilities from those better handled by social services,”because that’s what society wants right now, right?” he said. “Do you need a cop to go deal with somebody’s having a mental health issue?”

Thanks in large part to the CARE program, EPD is now diverting 80-85 percent of mental health holds, meaning people who previously might have been detained at Sempervirens are instead being connected with clinicians who’ve already been assigned to them through the county, according to Stephens.

“That’s the great thing: There’s follow up care now,” he said. “It’s not just us going out and putting a Band-Aid on it.”

The culture of the department

Stephens was reluctant to discuss the texting scandal, his friendship with Sanchez and the culture of the old EPD. But when pressed he said that it may simply be impossible to root out all problem officers because there’s not some special supply of flawless candidates for law enforcement.

“We hire from the communities we serve and from the human race, and there are things that happen,” he said. “Are we going to be able to prevent an issue from happening again? I don’t know that we can. I don’t know that any organization can.”

He cited the Catholic Church as an example. “Are they able to say that they’ll never have another issue with some type of abuse from a priest? I don’t think you can, because people are human and things happen.”

We pointed out that the Catholic Church has a history of brushing abuse under the rug rather than dealing with it.

“And this got dealt with,” he said, referring to the texting scandal. 

Going forward, he said he plans to focus on training and mentoring young officers while placing an emphasis on “immediate corrective action” and mandatory reporting of wrongdoing. It’s a policy now.

“You’re not being a snitch,” Stephens said. “If you see something wrong, you need to bring it forward so we can try to correct it immediately.”

Which is not to say that there’s no room left in the department for rooting out and apprehending the bad guys. Later in the conversation, Stephens complimented his group of police investigators, saying that in the last six months they’ve been shorthanded but nevertheless “have been just knocking out crime after crime after crime.”

“And that’s just an accolade to them and the commitment they have: ‘You’re not going to do these things in our city and get away with it. We’re gonna hunt you down, we’re gonna find you, and we’re gonna hold you accountable for it,” Stephens said.

Addressing the staffing crisis

Stephens is optimistic about addressing the department’s short-staffing woes. One cadet graduated from the academy’s training program last Friday, he said, and an officer has been hired from Virginia. Two more recruits will start at the academy on Monday, and Stephens plans to advertise for more recruits this month with a goal of enlisting five into the academy in July.

He’s also hopeful that Eureka’s $50,000 signing bonus will attract some established officers. He convinced people at City Hall that it’s a good value.

“If we pay them $50,000 and a bonus, then that’s still cheaper than the roughly $65,000 we spend in six months to pay for their academy,” he said.

As for retaining officers, he said his top priority as chief will be looking after the welfare of the department and its staff. He emphasized the importance of EPD’s now-extensive wellness program, saying it’s working incredibly well to provide services to workers.

In addition to a “robust” peer support team, the county signed a three-year contract with Restoration Family Services to provide a mental health clinician for sworn officers and support staff alike. 

“We do mandatory debriefing every year, so every employee has to sit down for a half hour with the clinician. And they don’t have to talk; they just have to be there,” he said. The department provides up to 12 meetings per year for any officer who’s been involved in a critical incident they’re struggling with. The service is also available to officers’ spouses, fully covered.

“The stigma is gone in this agency about mental health,” Stephens said, adding that officers no longer fear that discussing their feelings will result in getting their gun taken away. 

“Person after person after person tells me — just today I was on the phone with one of my employees who just said, ‘If it wasn’t for that, I don’t know where I would be right now,’” Stephens said. “And they talk about it openly in the hallway. And they talk about who they see and make recommendations to one another. … It’s probably the best program for our officers and our employees that we put in place, that in the long run is going to have the most beneficial effects.”

‘A lot of positive change’

Stephens is also feeling good about the state of Eureka. He said he takes his cues not from crime statistics or even officer feedback, but rather from the people he talks to out in the community. It bothers him when people say they don’t feel safe coming to Old Town to attend Friday Night Markets or other events.

“But what I’m hearing on the street — from both community members that have lived here for years [and] some that have left and come back, because they all love to talk to you and tell you how things changed — [is that] Eureka is in a good place,” Stephens said.

“There’s been a lot of positive change and they see that. You look at the people that come out for our public events and stuff, and they want to be in downtown. They want to be in Eureka.”

He added that while he won’t rest on those laurels, he feels good about the safety of the community and the current attitudes of community members.

Before parting ways with a firm handshake, Stephens said he wanted to say something to the people of Eureka.

“I’ve given 25 years half of my adult — half of my life on this Earth [to the EPD]. And I promise and commit to the community to continue, in whatever time I have left in this position, to work tirelessly to protect them and provide a safe environment for them.”

Asked if he has a timeline for when he might like to retire he said no but then amended that answer: “At the end of my career.”

The opening of this legislative session coincides with the should-be-opening of crab season on the North Coast. Unfortunately, crabbers and buyers haven’t come to terms on a price yet, so local crabbers have not yet rushed out to set their pots.

However! Down in Sacramento, outgoing Assm. Jim Wood, who has repped the North Coast since 2014, just introduced a new bill that would enshrine the tasty fellow pictured above — Metacarcinus magister, the Dungeness crab — as the state’s official crustacean.

The crab, notes Assembly Bill 1797, is “an essential part of California’s ecosystem and economy.” If the bill passes and is signed by the governor, Mr. Dungeness will forever take his place alongside California’s official state marine mammal (the gray whale), its official state insect (the California dogface butterfly), its official state grass (purple needlegrass), its freshwater fish (the golden trout), its official reptile (desert tortoise), its official lichen (lace lichen) and the newest member of the gang, its official state mushroom (California golden chanterelle) — among many others.

Will the bill pass? It’s hard to imagine much opposition. Which assemblymember is going to stand up and denounce the Dungeness in favor of, say, the Oregon pillbug? It seems hard to imagine.

The bill is coauthored by our Sen. Mike McGuire, as well Assmbs. Dawn Addis and Gail Pellerin.

Wood is soliciting your crab jokes on Twitter:

Hope our bill brings awareness of the positive impact the #DungenessCrab has to the economies of the North Coast and other California coastal communities. Looking forward to hearing the crab puns. Send in your best. I’m sure they’ll crack me up… https://t.co/fgVHYcUV5x

— Assemblymember Jim Wood (@JimWoodAD2) January 5, 2024

Converting a state prison into a rehabilitative center, as the Newsom administration seeks to do with San Quentin, means changing how guards do their jobs.

Instead of shying away from “overfamiliarity” with incarcerated people, prison guards should ask them about their families or favorite NFL teams. Instead of only reporting offenses, guards should note positive change in inmates. Instead of adopting a militarized footing against prisoners, guards should meet them in a common area to eat or watch movies.

Those are some of the recommendations from an advisory panel overseeing the conversion of San Quentin into what Gov. Gavin Newsom called a “model rehabilitation center.”

A 156-page report released today by the San Quentin Transformation Advisory Council also calls for an end to double-person cells, and better housing for guards who stay on the prison campus in Marin County to avoid long commutes.

The report’s recommendations are not required to be adopted by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

One of the biggest changes recommended would be retraining prison guards as “community correctional officers.” In their new role, prison guards hired for this job would be retrained to understand the traumatic life experiences common to incarcerated people, substance abuse disorders, mental illness and anger management.

Guards with welding, plumbing or carpentry experience would be able to do vocational training in those subjects. Eventually, the community correctional officers would become part of an inmate’s rehabilitation team.

The report quoted an unnamed correction department official as saying: “We train staff like they are going to war. We’re not going to war. We have to change the training.”

San Quentin houses about 3,300 of California’s more than 90,000 inmates. In March, Newsom pledged to transform the prison into a rehabilitation hub. He has marked four other state prisons for closure since he took office in 2019, a trend enabled by California’s falling population of state prison inmates.

Newsom looks to Norway on prison policy

The plan for San Quentin is modeled on prisons in Scandinavian countries, including Norway, which significantly decreased its rate of prisoners being convicted of crimes after release from 60%-70% in the 1980s to about 20% today when it began to allow prisoners more freedom and focused its prisons on rehabilitation.

In those prisons, incarcerated people can wear their own clothes, cook their own food and have relative freedom of movement within the prison walls. That model has taken root in states as disparate as deep-blue Connecticut and deep-red North Dakota.

California prison officials took a tour of Norwegian facilities in 2019 and said they came away impressed. The group included leaders from the union that represents state prison guards, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association.

Newsom estimated it would cost $380 million to remodel the prison as a rehabilitation campus. The new report from his advisory committee urges the administration to look for ways to reduce that expense.

Though California lawmakers have mentioned the prison programs in Norway and North Dakota as successful systems to replicate, it’s unclear exactly what California’s model will look like. That’s something the Legislative Analyst’s Office pointed out in a report last year, shortly after Newsom announced the conversion plan for San Quentin.

“While the administration has articulated some broad approaches to pursuing the goals of the California Model, such as ‘becoming a trauma informed organization,’ it has not identified any clear changes to policy, practice, or prison environments it deems necessary to achieve the goals,” the report’s author, Caitlin O’Neil, wrote in May.

San Quentin already home to rehab programs

San Quentin, California’s oldest prison, has a lengthy list of maintenance needs that totaled more than $1.6 billion in 2021. But it also has an award-winning prison newspaper, the inmate-hosted podcast Ear Hustle and a program in which inmates can earn an associate’s degree in general studies after completing 20 classes.

Keith Brown, who served time at California State Prison, Corcoran and is still incarcerated at San Quentin, told CalMatters in July that the experience in San Quentin was notably better.

Corcoran “didn’t have any programs, really, and it (got) real hot there,” Brown said. “Here it’s a little bit better. Asked the principal to take (a) class, and he got me right in.”

The advisory report notes that San Quentin is a desirable location for inmates, with a waiting list that sometimes stretches for years, so the prison should take as many inmates as it can. But San Quentin also has major renovation needs, and the cost just to bring it up to code is prohibitive. The only way to do that, according to the report, is to reduce the number of inmates at San Quentin.

The complications go further still — California elected officials have shown a distaste for more prison spending while the prison population drops and would prefer to spend that money on community-oriented solutions, but cutting money to the prisons means fewer programs and worse living conditions.

“There is no magic wand that can resolve all of these tensions,” the advisory group wrote in the report. “Policymakers will be grappling with these tradeoffs.”

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CalMatters investigative reporter Byrhonda Lyons contributed to this story. CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

Denise Joan Anaya (69), fondly known and loved within her small community of Fortuna, passed away at home, surrounded by her closest loved ones on December 13, 2023. She was born in Compton on December 30, 1953 to Arthur and Joan Teasley. Soon they relocated to Fortuna, where their family grew, and eventually, Denise was the eldest of five siblings whom she loved and cared for like a second mother. Her father passed and it was just the six of them until her mother remarried Howard Hammers, who became their beloved father figure and raised them as his own.

She attended Fortuna Union High School, and it was there she met her now-husband, Henry. She often looked back fondly on those days at FUHS and loved retelling the shared memories she and Henry had from that time. She met many lifelong friends at Fortuna High. She was not only very sociable, funny, beautiful, approachable and made friends easily, but she was also an honor student, graduating at the top of her class. She was nominated by her peers for titles such as Dairy Princess and Student Council. She participated in many clubs and extracurriculars and was named “most versatile,” alongside Henry, their senior year. Leaving Humboldt County was never an option for her — her family, future husband, and her best friends were all she needed so that is where she remained. After high school, the sweethearts spent many years having fun being wild and carefree before marrying on August 23, 1986 on the Northern Queen in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. They welcomed their daughter, Cassi, the following year and their son, Spenser, four years later, and their family was complete.

Denise accomplished many amazing things in her life. She was a hard worker, made friends easily, and was fiercely witty and intelligent. She worked at Bowman’s Drug Store before moving to the banking industry, beginning with Bank of Loleta and quickly moving up the ladder becoming a manager at US Bank. She worked long days and was always keeping busy, but never too busy for her family. Eventually, she decided the banking industry did not allow for the time she desired with her kids, in addition to caring for her mother and visiting her grandmother. She went back to school and obtained her bookkeeping degree, going on to work for Linda’s Hallmark and accounting firm Wyatt and Whitchurch for many years.

Of all her accomplishments, her family was her most beloved. She never missed an opportunity to volunteer at school events, was always chaperoning field trips, and attended every soccer game, school performance and extracurricular. She was known as the “community mom” due to her warm demeanor and open-minded and open-door philosophy, always welcoming friends and family whenever they needed anything — a place to stay, a warm meal, prom dresses or back-to-school clothes. She anonymously paid school lunch debts, gave rides to practices and soccer, football and basketball games, and would work into the late evening to do so. She used bonuses from work to take her family (and sometimes friends) on epic vacations, Disney World being her favorite of them all, her happy place.

Denise lived a full and joyful life until a devastating car accident left her paralyzed November 3, 2011. She nearly lost many battles over her time fighting for her life at Santa Rosa Hospital. But she beat the odds and awoke from her coma on November 11, 2011. She continued to celebrate this day every year, saying she felt it was the start of her “second life.” Following her accident, the community came together to support her and her family, raising funds to assist in her transition home in a beautiful fundraiser put together by her family and Cassi’s close friends, whom she considered her “other” daughters. This sustained her husband and kids while they moved from hotel to hotel to be close to her as she recovered, in addition to making their home handicap-friendly and helping pay for essential medical equipment. We will forever be amazed by their compassion and the sacrifices our community made for us at that time.

We were blessed with 12 more years with her after that. She maintained her independence, and for most of the 12 years she was happy and healthy, she didn’t let her accident define her, she shined with positivity and grace. She was an inspiration. We often referred to her as a “local celebrity” as we couldn’t go anywhere without her seeing a dozen people she knew and was happy to catch up with. She traveled, gardened, and walked her dog in between doctor appointments and physical therapy, but her favorite way to pass her time was with her grandbabies. Her primary goal, written on her whiteboard in rehabilitation at UC Davis, was to “hold her future grandbabies,” and she did, often and without complaint. She attended their baseball and soccer games, their school performances and award ceremonies. Every breath she took was for those kids.

When it became apparent her time was limited, her kids attempted to repay her limitless generosity by taking her back to Disney World. It was a dream they were determined to make a reality, and although it was difficult, her health dwindling, they took her back to her happy place in November 2022 to celebrate her 11th “second chance anniversary.” She got to ride the Jungle Cruise again, shop on Main Street USA, and have a Mickey Mouse Ice Cream Sandwich watching the fireworks, not only with her husband and kids but with her grandkids. It was a very special time that will be remembered as our fondest memory all together.

Unfortunately, after returning from Florida, after over a decade of defying the odds, her health started to decline more rapidly, and she was once again fighting for her life. Her last few years were spent in and out of hospitals and rehabilitation facilities. She beat COVID-19, pneumonia and sepsis multiple times, often all at once. She had many surgeries and treatments but ultimately, it was pneumonia that took her from us, though it had tried and failed many times prior. She wouldn’t give up, regardless of the prognosis or diagnosis. She was determined to stay with us as long as possible, and she stayed true to that promise until the very end, once again defying the odds and surprising us all.

Denise was special. She was often seen flying down Fortuna Boulevard in her bright pink wheelchair with her beloved husky, Koda, in tow; not a care in the world, just happy to be in the sunshine. Anyone who was blessed to know her understood she was a beacon of strength, determination, and positivity. She lived by the motto “Let it Be,” and never complained or lessened her grip on the joy of life and the gift of second chances. She loved hard and unconditionally, she gave everything she had to others, and she stepped up when others wouldn’t or couldn’t. Even when she was vulnerable and her body tired, she led with grace and love and radiated empathy and compassion. Her smile could light up the darkest, and her energy warm, the coldest of days. She never judged; she didn’t hold grudges. She never turned down the opportunity to make someone else’s day better, even at her own expense; but you would never know, she would ensure that. She didn’t expect anything in return for her acts of kindness or good deeds, she felt a sense of obligation to carry others’ grief and hardships, regardless of the circumstances. Everyone was a friend, and everyone deserved 100% of her, whether it was reciprocated or not. To know Denise was truly to love her – and she loved back, powerfully.

She is preceded in death by her father, Arthur Teasley, mother, Joan Hammers (née Vanduzer), sister Rebecca “Becky” Davy (nee Teasley), and stepfather Howard Hammers. She is survived by her loving husband of 37 years, Henry G. Anaya, Jr., her children, Cassandra “Cassi” Anaya-Bishop (Ryan), and Spenser Anaya (Kari), grandchildren Noah and Sawyer Rose Bishop and Kaliahna and Talon Anaya, and siblings Susan Teasley (Monica), Will Teasley, and Scott Teasley (Leslie), as well as multiple brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, cousins, nieces and nephews which she considered, loved and raised as her own.

We are sincerely grateful to all those who supported and helped care for Denise not only in her final days but since her devastating accident. It is apparent how truly loved she was and the outpouring of sympathy that we have received is amazing and has not gone unnoticed or unappreciated. Please know, that if you have reached out and not received a response, we have read all your letters, notes, and messages, and we have listened to every voicemail. Denise was very loved, by very many, and this has been quite a devastating loss for our family; we are just taking the necessary time to grieve this amazing person we held so dear: a mother, wife, sister, daughter, and best friend to all.

We would like to thank her long-time doctor, Donald Baird, her surgeon, Dr. Pardoe, Hospice of Humboldt, and the many nurses and staff who took such wonderful care of her during her stays at St. Joseph Hospital and the Ida Emmerson Hospice House.

A service has been planned for February 18, 2024, at the River Lodge in Fortuna beginning at 2 p.m. with an open-house-style celebration of life to follow until 6 p.m. Accommodations can be made at the Best Western Hotel on Riverwalk Drive, across from the River Lodge.

We request any donations be made to Hospice of Humboldt, as we attribute the borrowed time we had with her to their amazing care and support in her last days. Hospice House and the nurses, aides and social workers who held our hands through the end we will be forever indebted to and equally grateful.

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