Reid Marshall Aiton Sr.
August 19, 1941 – August 7, 2023

Reid Marshall Aiton Sr. passed on August 7, 2023, in Santa Rosa. He was born in Eureka on August 19, 1941, to Andrew (Marsh) Aiton and Bessie A. (Wahlund) Aiton and was an only child. He married Margaret Kay McCann on January 13, 1961, in Arcata. and they raised three sons, Reid Jr., Rodney & Russell and one daughter, Dianne. 

He started his career in the timber industry as a choker setter working for Bill Boak and later for Simpson Timber Company, where he stayed for over 35 years retiring as the log yard supervisor. He was also the director of the California chapter of the National Trappers Association.

He loved all aspects of being outdoors, a man of many facets, an avid hunter, trapper & fur trader, fisherman, and gardener. Deer season was spent taking his family hunting and years of success was proudly displayed on the walls of his home. Truly the last of his kind, skilled in trapping and the fur trade, he spent countless hours teaching family and friends how to trap, process and grade the hides for sale, and taking them to fur sales and rendezvous. An experienced fisherman, both commercially and for sport, he spent many hours on the ocean with his children. His trapping business also sponsored many little league and Babe Ruth teams in the Blue Lake area.

Reid is survived by his children Reid Jr., Dianne Holba & husband Kevin, Rodney, Russell & wife Michelle, 11 grandchildren, 19 great-grandchildren, and many nieces, nephews, and cousins.

PRIVATE MEMORIAL SERVICE, for Family Members

Will be held at Blue Lake Community Church

440 Wahl Street, Blue Lake, Friday, September 8, 2023, Starts at 11 a.m.

CELEBRATION OF LIFE, for Family & Friends, Everyone is Welcome

Will be held at Camp Bauer, Korbel (GPS plus code: V2HX+JH Korbel, California) Saturday, September 9, 2023 Starts at 1:30 p.m.

For additional information, contact Michelle Aiton: 707-668-5682.

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

PREVIOUSLY:

• (UPDATED with Photos) 41-Year-Old Fortuna Woman Arrested for Threatening to Kill Government Officials, Says Fortuna Police

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This afternoon, Humboldt County Superior Court Commissioner Frances K. Greenleaf granted the County of Humboldt an extension on a temporary restraining order against Fortuna resident Aunna Bollman, 41, who was arrested earlier this month for threatening to kill numerous local government officials and their families. There are 55 individuals requesting protection under the restraining order.

Bollmann

During today’s hearing, the court considered a restraining order request from Deputy County Counsel Thomas Chapin on behalf of the County of Humboldt but, because Bollman has yet to obtain an attorney, Commissioner Greenleaf agreed to issue a short continuance on the matter.

Bollman appeared in court, seeming composed and dressed in a navy blue jumpsuit with her blond hair swept up in a ponytail. She explained that she had not had a chance to talk to an attorney since she was arrested on Aug. 3, noting that the Fortuna Police Department has taken her phone at the time of her arrest. 

Several Humboldt County officials appeared in court as well – including Human Resources Director Zachary O’Hanen, Clerk-Recorder and Registrar of Voters Juan Pablo Cervantes, Deputy County Counsel Goldy Berger and Fourth District Supervisor Natalie Arroyo, who was accompanied by her husband, Jason Lopiccolo. None of them spoke during today’s hearing.

Bollmann is scheduled to appear in court on Friday, Sept. 15 for the next hearing on this restraining order. A criminal hearing against Bollman has yet to be scheduled.

PREVIOUSLY:

• Humboldt OES: Fernbridge Closed Again For Damage Assessment Following This Morning’s 5.4 Shaker
• The Future of Quake-Damaged Fernbridge is Uncertain; New Bridge May Need to Be Built, Caltrans Says
• CROSSING THE WATER: Getting Over the Eel to Ferndale, Before and After the Bridge

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The following info was released Friday by the California Department of Transportation:

Please join Caltrans for another public workshop regarding future access in and out of Ferndale. The workshop will be held on Wednesday, August 30 at Ferndale City Hall from 5:30 to 7 p.m. More information about future Ferndale access can be found here.

Time for a Deeper Dive

In June, Caltrans met with community members to get your input and ideas for the future of transportation access and mobility in Ferndale. Now we’re inviting you to come share your insights on the benefits and challenges of different ideas about access into and out of Ferndale.

How do you envision future community access to Ferndale?

Which potential avenues should we explore further?

This workshop is the second in a series of initial steps in Caltrans’ engagement with the community, and will include opportunities to:

• Hear an update on work on Fernbridge
• Learn about the Caltrans planning process
• Give input on transportation ideas generated by the community. 

Light refreshments will be provided.

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In the meantime, over on its Facebook page, Caltrans District 1 offered the following update on repairs at Fernbridge:

All the equipment needed for repairs on Pier 2 has been mobilized. An oscillator – a piece of drilling equipment that rotates steel pipe casing back and forth into the earth to help facilitate the drilling of piles — is on its way and will be in use soon. Crews have finished putting in metal sheet piles for a cofferdam around Pier 2. Think of the cofferdam as a watertight barrier that is needed for foundation construction.

Additionally, we’ve wrapped up some CFRP strengthening. That means using carbon fiber-reinforced plastic to make the bridge even tougher. We’ve also been filling in some additional cracks. It’s like giving the bridge a superhero suit! Now, we’re digging down to the bottom of the cofferdam to place a concrete seal course to enhance its effectiveness and keep it watertight.

Thanks for your patience and understanding as crews work hard to keep traffic moving over Fernbridge safely.

UPDATE: An owner has been found! The photos were stolen out of her trailer during a recent move, but she tells LoCO she’s happy to get these back. 

Because of Chickenbutt9000, the world is a better place. Well played.

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A local Redditor who goes by the name “Chickenbutt9000” posted earlier today that they’d come across someone’s trove of family snapshots. They’d like to reconnect the memories with their owner if that’s possible. 

The photo album was discovered on the roadway near the intersection of First and T streets in Eureka. Below is a sampling of the over-a-dozen photos in the collection. 

LoCO is under the impression that the vast majority of Humboldt residents have never attempted to navigate Reddit. If the people in these photos are familiar to you, you are welcome to reach out to us and we’ll help connect you or, if you’ve got the know-how, reach out to Chickenbutt9000.

Dixie Garrett died peacefully on July 11, 2023 with family at her bedside. Born Dixie Lee Ashenhurst on August 5, 1936 to Grace (Holloway) and Hayes Ashenhurst of Lamoni, Iowa, Dixie went on to live a life unbent by convention.

Daughter of a military family, Dixie spent her early childhood in far off places such as Tsingtao China and the Phillipines, eventually settling in San Diego, CA. Her parents divorced when she was eighteen; each remarrying on the same day. After graduating from La Jolla High School, Dixie returned to Iowa to attend Graceland College. During her first summer break, while visiting her father and new stepmother in Sasebo, Japan, Dixie was to find her heart’s home. The people, country and culture of Japan were to remain Dixie’s life-long love.

It was while in her early 20s, pursuing degrees at San Diego State University, that Dixie met and married Rod Garrett, future architect of Burning Man’s Black Rock City. Dixie and Rod were counter-culture bohemians with a crowd of beatnik friends in North Hollywood, San Diego at Mira Mar Ranch, and in Marin County. Throughout both their lifetimes, Dixie and Rod told stories of high times with the likes of Lenny Bruce and Tommy Smothers.

The changing culture of the early 1960’s drew the young couple north to Sausalito, where they rented a houseboat on the bay and became good friends and neighbors with Zen philosopher Alan Watts and painter Yanko Varda. In 1965 the two divorced and Dixie was left with life-long heartbreak. As a single mom with two young girls in tow (Spring and Kelley) Dixie did what she could to make ends meet, teaching art classes and renting out rooms. A son, Manning, was born to her in 1969.

As her family’s black sheep, Dixie forswore undergarments, took up the teachings of Sant Mat and moved her children to far northern California in 1970. There, with a few partners, Dixie briefly opened and shortly thereafter closed “That Vegetarian Place” restaurant in Redding.

Inhabiting an artistic and intellectual soul, Dixie possessed a mastery of the spoken word and a keen wit. Dixie wove color and mood around herself in the form of poetry, pastel, sculpture and handmade clothing. She knitted explorations into ponchos. She wrote notes and brainstorms. She got frustrated and angry. She loved and enjoyed and exposed her kids to a wide range of open-minded, cultural experiences. Though the family was poor, Dixie always made holidays special for her children.

Dixie lived a quiet life with her kids under the giant oaks of Bella Vista in Shasta County for many years. In the late 1970s she “pulled herself up by her bootstraps” taking a job as the food stamp outreach coordinator for the FNICO (Far Northern Interior California Outreach) — an acronym she coined and proudly touted. Her new job gave the family a standard of living previously not experienced. Mid-life, Dixie and her second daughter traveled to Japan, where Dixie had the great pleasure of reconnecting with her adopted family the Hamasakis who called her “Dikusi-san.”

In the 1980s Dixie emerged as a creative force in the Redding community theater scene, taking on dramatic and comedic roles that were performed to great accolades and that are still fondly recalled by a great many fans.

After her kids had grown and moved on, Dixie spent many years in a little creekside house in Redding under a cool, leafy canopy. An owl lived in her tree. She had cats. Possum and raccoon were friends. She taught ESL at Shasta College. She knitted, she dipped in her soaking pool and she kept abreast of politics.

To be near her daughters, grandson and new granddaughter Dixie moved to McKinleyville in the early 2000s. Many fine family times were had there. Always a creative genius, Dixie explored computers and digital photography in later life, greatly enjoying herself and often capturing the sacred (and perhaps the profane) of everyday moments and minutiae.

Dixie is preceded in death by her mother Grace and her stepfather Charles, her father Hayes and stepmother Marian.She leaves behind much loved younger sister Ralene Rizzo (who sadly passed away three weeks after Dixie) and kindred-spirit brother Tracy DePue, along with her nieces Abigail Stout and Lora Davis and nephew Tony Rizzo. Dixie is survived by her daughters Spring Garrett (Mitch Higa) and Kelley Garrett (Sandra Rosas), her son Manning Garrett, her grandson Ryley Garrett, granddaughter Rayna Higa, cat Furnando and many dear friends.

Dixie was assuredly one-of-a-kind and will be greatly missed. One can see her in the setting sun, the rising moon, in butterflies and orange poppies. A memorial will take place at a later date. Please email springmay@mac.com for details.

Though Dixie bore the burden of ill health in her final years, she was a good sport about it and kept her sense of humor to the end. And, as Dixie was fond of quoting Looney Tunes, “the the the that’s all Folks!’

Eureka Police Department press release: 

On August 12, 2023, at about 12:48 a.m., Officers with the Eureka Police Department responded to 4th and A Streets for the report of a female covered in blood. Officers contacted a 41-year-old female victim who was suffering from multiple stab wounds. The female was transported to the hospital by ambulance and has since been treated and released.

Officers followed a blood trail from 4th and A Streets to 4 th and Commercial Streets, locating the crime scene in the street. Surveillance provided from several businesses helped detectives identify the suspect as 19-year-old Trinity Thomas-Remington. It appears the victim and Thomas-Remington were acquaintances and had previous disturbances with each other.

On August 23, 2023, Thomas-Remington was contacted by the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office in the Samoa area. Detectives responded to the location and transported the female to EPD for questioning. Thomas-Remington was arrested and booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility for attempted murder.

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact Detective Bailey at dbailey2@eurekaca.gov or (707) 441-4215.

Sequoia Park Zoo press release:

In appreciation for those serving our community and beyond, Sequoia Park Zoo is offering free admission to firefighters. Visitors may present an active firefighter ID card with photo (Department ID or Union ID) or a Red Card (for wildland firefighters) with matching personal photo ID to receive free entry for themselves and a guest.

City of Eureka and Sequoia Park Zoo gratefully acknowledge the members of Humboldt Bay Fire, Cal Fire, and the countless agencies and departments who protect the people, homes, and wildlands in our region and around the world.

“We are happy to offer admission to the heroes who combat fires and keep our communities safe,” says Jim Campbell-Spickler, Director of the Sequoia Park Zoo. “While they are here in our community, these folks are our neighbors, and we welcome them and thank them for their service.”

Although fire plays an important role in maintaining diverse ecosystems, climate change and human impacts have created situations where fires are occurring more frequently and with higher intensity. In addition to the destruction of property and the loss of human life, catastrophic wildfires can displace native wildlife and alter fragile habitats, which may take decades to repair and recover. Now, more than ever, it is critical to support the brave firefighters and responders on the front lines of these disasters.