Jon Humboldt Gates

In 1984, Jon Humboldt Gates, having spent two years studying Russian and planning his journey, left his rural home on the California north coast and landed on the shores of the Soviet Far East by ship via Japan. He spent the next eight weeks traveling by rail and automobile through Russia and Ukraine, riding the full length of the Trans-Siberian Railway, driving alone for hundreds of kilometers through Russia and traveling south to the Black Sea. Along the way, he met scores of people from all walks of life, most of whom had never met an American; an old woman with six white geese on a country road who pleaded with him for peace, a 14-year-old boy from Siberia who shared his love for dogs, a man who invited him to plunge into the icy waters of Lake Baikal, a group of musicians in Kyiv (Kiev in 1984) who became the seed of a transnational music project, and an ice cream flavor Baskin-Robbins had never imagined. He formed deep friendships, some that were lasting, others that were celebrated in the moment. First published in 1988, this second edition is being re-released in the midst of a great tragedy across the frontier of Russia and Ukraine. These events could never have been imagined in 1984. Many of the people in this travelogue are from Ukraine and Russia, and a few from other Soviet republics. No matter where they were from, people across the USSR in the waning days of the nation were universally hopeful for a better world, a peaceful future, and they enthusiastically welcomed a foreign traveler in their midst.

Nominated for the Forest History Award, Falk's Claim chronicles a California north coast redwood lumber community from it's bustling early days in the 1890's though it's decline to a ghost town in the 1950s. Told through personal histories, it is a vivid portrait of a disappearing way of life in small rural communities. Richly illustrated with more than 60 black and white photographs, the daily lives emerge - trusted neighbors, the rough-edged ways of the lumber camps, the town characters, the kids, the fights and the festivities. The author discovered the abandoned ghost town in 1968 while hiking in the Elk River Valley and became fascinated with the scores of vacant structures, including trestles, the mill, shops, the general store, cook house, homes, tools, wood stoves, vehicles and other memorabilia of the times. The author spent 10 years interviewing people who'd lived in the town, collecting photographs and reconstructing the history of the Falk ghost town. Throughout this tale, the sense of change and renewal challenge our notions of permanence, reminding us that our history is but a moment when measured against the enduring cycles of nature.

At night, a harbor entrance becomes a dark and unpredictable corridor. One of the most dangerous harbor crossings in North America is the entrance to Humboldt Bay, on the California North Coast. For years, mariners have traded tales of shipwrecks and narrow escapes on the bar. The five stories retold here occurred between 1933 and 1982. They are based on recollections of sailors who survived the treacherous waters when a rogue wave came out of the darkness. In 1933, two teenagers pilot a small sailboat on a midnight adventure. Forty years later, Christmas Eve turns into a nightmare for the fishermen aboard the LADY FAME. Theirs are two of the voices that evoke the haunting uncertainty of a night crossing.

The impenetrable coast of Humboldt County has been a historic navigational conundrum for sea captains since the 16th century. The Humboldt bar crossing, the lack of safe harbors, the storms, the unpredictable seas, and the rocky shores caused tragic shipwrecks, drownings, and maritime disasters. Beginning in 1850, the Department of the Treasury funded the construction of 11 lighthouses in California, including the Humboldt Harbor Lighthouse, the first one in Humboldt County. Due to its poor location in the sand dunes, the lighthouse was abandoned in 1892. New lighthouses were built in more appropriate locations such as Table Bluff, Cape Mendocino, Trinidad, and Punta Gorda. An increase in population on the north coast resulted in the reliance on passenger schooners and freight vessels, making these lighthouses critical to Humboldt County's economic stability and success. The Trinidad Head Lighthouse is the only one in operation today, yet the lighthouses of Humboldt County and their keepers remain integral to California's maritime history.

A personal memoir in the aftermath of the 2017 Tubbs Wildfire in Sonoma County California that burned 5600 homes, 36,000 acres, left 22 people dead and thousands homeless. In verse form, the volume of vignettes captures the terror, confusion, anger, loss, impotence and disconnection wrought by the North Bay Fires on one couple and their community and, ultimately their resolve and hope. The book contains 30 black and white photographs depicting the aftermath and recovery from the fire.