Opium Dens and ‘Morphine Fiends’
Humboldt County’s current opioid epidemic parallels its first
Cover Stories
Opium Dens and ‘Morphine Fiends’
When Charles Martin addressed the Judge, his condition invoked the sympathy of everyone in the room. “Standing in the prisoners’ dock, he presented a pitiable sight,” the Humboldt Times described in an edition printed later that day. “Though young in years, he was nevertheless a broken, decrepit being, trembling in every nerve and muscle.” Martin…
The Emerald Gang
While Arcata’s William Whaley spent the proceeds of his international smuggling operation with a “lavish hand” on champagne baths and other luxuries in San Francisco, the “thorough scoundrel” and acknowledged “best dressed man on Kearney Street” sent not a penny to his mother in Humboldt, complained the Humboldt Times on Jan. 12, 1894. The widowed…
Donald Scott Collins: 1935 – 2022
Donald Scott Collins, was born in Monrovia, California on February 24, 1935 to Abraham Lincoln Collins and Sara (Sally) McIntire. Scott, as he was known to his family and friends, will always be remembered as one of the most generous, and forgiving men to those who really knew him. Those who also knew him will…
Humboldt Marks 149th COVID Death, Newly Approved Vaccine for Young Children Now Available
Humboldt County Public Health reported today that the county has confirmed another COVID-19 deaths since its last report June 15, a resident in their 60s. Four new hospitalizations were also reported but, according to a state database, 12 people are currently hospitalized with the virus locally, including two under intensive care. The death reported today…
Steel (Guitar) Yourselves: Folk Fest is Back!
The Humboldt Folklife Society announced today that the Humboldt Folklife Festival is returning for the first time in three years with the (pre-COVID, traditionally annual) event slated for July 14-16, 2022, at the Dell’Arte Amphitheater in Blue Lake. The event brings back attendee favorites: an evening outdoor show on Thursday, July 14, a Barn Dance…
New Law Expands Time for Parents to Register Newborns to Respect Native Cultural Traditions
Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed into law a bill by North Coast Assemblyman Jim Wood that expands the time period in which parents must register the birth of their child. Parents will now have 21 days to register their newborn instead of the previous 10, a time frame that did not recognize culture traditions followed…
Crabs Capitalize on Long Week
It was a busy week of action at the ballpark for the Humboldt Crabs as they played six games including a four-game series against the Seattle Studs which started with a rare Thursday game and was wrapped up with packed Father’s Day bleachers. The week started with a two game series against the Yuba-Sutter Gold…
Donna Elaine Feddersen: 1943-2021
It is with deep sadness that we share the loss of our beautiful and amazing mother, Donna Elaine Feddersen. She passed away at home on Aug. 12, 2021, surrounded by her family, just two weeks after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Donna was born in Scotia, California. The youngest daughter of Vernon and Georgia Hackett.…
Prison Rehab: Can California Learn from Norway?
California has a recidivism problem. Two-thirds of people incarcerated in the state will return to prison within three years, either through new offenses or parole violations, according to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation data. In Norway, by contrast, recidivism is down from 60 to 70 percent in the 1980s to about 20 percent today.…
Hot Opening to Summer
It’s going to warm up tomorrow and the next day, especially inland, for the first official two days of summer. According to the Eureka office of the National Weather Service, a high pressure aloft “will result in increasingly hot interior temperatures through mid-week.” Garberville and Hoopa are forecast to hit 100 degrees Tuesday and 98…
Timothy Norman Jarrells: 1971-2022
Tim Jarrells passed away at the home he shared with his partner, Cher Southard, in Westhaven, California, on June 11, 2022. Born Timothy Norman Jarrells on March 17, 1971, to parents Norman and Mary Jarrells, Tim grew up in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, and Hamilton, Ohio, before moving to California. He graduated from Humboldt State…
NCJ Preview: Opium History, a Softball Swan Song, Birding Dads and Popping Up
This week’s cover looks back at Humboldt’s history, specifically how opium addiction gripped so many in the 1880s and how it parallels our current opiate crisis. We’ve also got the story of Hailey Dolcini, a Ferndale-raised softball player whose grit and pitching arm led her to a historic performance in the Women’s College World Series.…
Latest Election Results: Arroyo’s Lead Grows in the Fourth District Race
The Humboldt County Elections Office released another update on the June election vote tally today. In the Fourth District contest, Natalie Arroyo upped her lead to 52.88 percent of the vote, followed by Mike Newman at 33.30 percent and Kim Bergel at 13.83 percent. If Arroyo can stay above 50 percent mark, she’ll avoid a…
COVID Cuts Rocky Horror Run Short
Ferndale Repertory Theatre announced today it is canceling its final weekend of performances of the musical comedy The Rocky Horror Show after members of the production tested positive for COVID-19. Theaters and live music venues have struggled to hold performances amid the pandemic and the current surge in cases makes the closure unfortunate but not…
For the Love of the Game
Hailey Dolcini sacrificed a lot while growing up in Ferndale. In grade school, she’d skip afternoon playdates with her friends to pitch to her dad in the driveway. When her classmates gathered for middle school dances, she was often traveling with her softball team, thinking missing those moments in darkened gyms was “the hardest thing…
Summer’s Sweetest Songs
“He’s a moody old man/ song of summer in his hand/ he’s a moody old man.” So begins Kate Bush’s “Delius (Song of Summer),” a gorgeous, impressionistic paean to the English composer Frederick Delius and his assistant Eric Fenby, who was placed into the position of scribe by the master’s deterioration at the ugly hand…
Chef Rochelle Burgess Says Hello
Rochelle Burgess has worked in some big-name chefs’ kitchens in New York City and Brooklyn, including those of Daniel Boulud, Francois Payard, Tom Collichio and Dale Talde. But asking about the studio kitchen of the TV cooking competition Chopped will get you a groan and a laugh. If you manage to dig up her 2017…
My Father’s Birding Lessons
My dad wasn’t made from the same mold as other dads. Every weekend there were adventures and usually misadventures. In sub-zero New Hampshire winters we’d snowshoe through frozen river gorges and huddle around a tiny camp stove roasting bratwurst and scalding our taste buds on hot soup from a Thermos. He taught us food tastes…
Klamath/Trinity Rivers 2022 Salmon Season Set
With the number of ocean kings destined for the Klamath River trending upwards, Klamath/Trinity river anglers will have a few more fall Chinook salmon to harvest this fall. During last month’s meeting, the California Fish and Game Commission adopted bag and possession limits for the Klamath Basin based on a quota of 2,119 fall-run adults.…
Gamers
HUSTLE. As a foolishly sentimental person of a certain age, I will likely never give up on Adam Sandler. He rose to prominence at a time when Saturday Night Live was an illicit pleasure, at least in my house, something to be enjoyed as much for the show itself as for the accomplishment of sneaking…
Re: ‘Unhinged’
Editor: Many thanks to Jennifer Fumiko Cahill for “It Might Be Time to Get Totally Motherfucking Unhinged” (Jan. 6), a brilliant, if somewhat understated, take on the gun violence epidemic that’s infected our schools. God or somebody bless her. Gordon Inkeles, Bayside Editor: My very Republican father held that gratuitous profanity merely shows a speaker’s…
‘Strengthening the Safety Net’
Editor: Over 20 years ago I worked with at-risk youth in Humboldt county. We had a 15-year-old youth who had attempted suicide a number of times. They were very disturbed and got into physical fights at school and with their family. Everyone in the community was involved in this case: law enforcement, probation, juvenile court,…
Gimme an Anemone
One drawback of beachcombing is the lack of cheerleaders. So, I assembled my own crew of former NFL and CFL cheerleaders who had been fired for various deviant behaviors. I said, “Welcome. Here are your pompoms. They are designed to look like the giant green sea anemone, Anthopleura xanthogrammica.” The cheerleaders waved their bright green…
‘As Wrong, As Wrong Can Be’
There are no more words Parents can say to children, If they do nothing Again Kirk Gothier
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “The whole point for me is to change as much as possible,” says Aries actor Keira Knightley. What?! Is she serious? Her number one aspiration is to keep transforming and transforming and transforming? I guess I believe her. It’s not an entirely unexpected manifesto coming from an Aries person. But I…
