Eleven Arcata Mayors
Ten of Arcata’s former mayors joined Mayor Mark Wheetley (on right in top hat) on the Arcata Plaza today to celebrate the city’s 150th anniversary. Those who spoke uniformly had trouble pronouncing sesquicentennial (seskwisenˈtenēəl). Perhaps to mark the occasion, someone had decorated the statue of William McKinley with a brassiere. No one made any attempt to remove it.
This article appears in The Sonoma Gang.
Any of these Mayors qualified to be Vice-President?
have any of them left the city $20 million in debt?
That is great! I love the bra.
Can we swap the statue of murderous McKinley in Arcata with the Totem Pole in Mckinleyville inspired from a non-local native culture? (Not to put down Duane or anything, I think he did a great job on it.)
Why didn’t lightning strike these idiots?
I’m pretty sure if lightning was in the air that day it would have hit the bronze McKinley statue first, or maybe the flagpole nearby.
Note re: J. Muskrat — Ernie Pierson carved the totem pole, Duane Flatmo merely touched up the paint job.
“murderous Mckinley”? please elaborate, I must have missed that one in history class.
Thanks for the clarification Bob.
McKinley was responsible for America’s Pacific imperialism that forced a lot of Pacific Islander’s into slavery. I guess if you like sugar and tropical fruit but could care less about slavery and the loss of thousands of years of isolated culture, then McKinley was a good guy, kind of like George Bush, only less infamous.
Lucky for everyone else, someone shot Mckinley on his way up here in San Fran.
Too bad we weren’t that lucky with George Dubya.
Jeff M,
Sorry to be in perpetual clarification mode, but McKinley was not shot in San Fran — Leon Czolgosz shot him at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. As I understand it, the statue on the Plaza commemorates the moment before he was shot, his hand outstretched to shake Czolgosz’.
Thanks again Bob. I heard the Mckinley story years ago when I arrived to Arcata. Kind of like telephone, I guess:)
And I thought it was Captain Cook and pork that killed the pacfic islanders…..