Falk's Claim: The Life and Death of a Redwood Lumber Town - Softcover

Jon Humboldt Gates

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1878136011 ISBN 13: 9781878136015

Publisher: Moonstone Pub, 1999

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author:

Jon Humboldt Gates is the author of Night Crossings and Falk's Claim, two books based on historical maritime and timber industry events that took place on the California's North Coast. His most recent work - Firestorm - is a personal narrative from the epicenter of the 2017 Tubbs Firestorm that engulfed his home and leveled parts of Santa Rosa, California. Jon is a fifth generation native of Northern California, a travel writer, business journalist, music producer and co-founder of the international market research firm OTR Global. His grandfather and great grandfather lived in the redwood lumber town of Falk, California in the late 1800's.

Review:

The author has created an intriguing picture of early town life and the sense of community and camaraderie which existed. --Times-Standard, Eureka, California

Falk's Claim tells the story of the rise and decline of this company-town in a lucid, chatty, emphatic style ... Anyone interested in the history of lumbering will also appreciate ... Falk's Claim --Forest History Society Magazine, Durham, North Carolina

This detailed recollection of a small mill town - counterpart of Oregon's Valsetz - would be of special interest to lumber-industry historians or for those with nostalgic ties to such company towns of the past. --Register-Guard, Eugene, Oregon

About this edition

• Publisher: Moonstone Pub
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1878136011
• ISBN 13: 9781878136015
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 156