Companion to every-winter.md, the Sugar Bowl, part three (September 1903–November 1913). It was written on 2026-10-11 in Judson Thursby's voice, following the directors' notes. It folds in, now in Thursby's voice, material first told by other narrators: Lindsay's tunnel, Hill's dredger and the 1908 pool from Turning the Trinity; the 1904 cage and Don Kirkham from Kirkham Creek; the Clasby–Black shooting from Eight Cents to the Yard; and the fire behind the warehouse from Let It Pour Down.
verified means read from the scan (willow-creek-corpus/transcripts/). ocr means archive OCR only;
OCR items are paraphrased in the story unless noted.
Documented
| Used in the story | Source | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Feb 1906: Andrew L. Foote dynamites the Herbert H. dam on China Creek (James Henderson, Eber Beaulieu, William Wagner); his 35-year water right; sergeant under Grant at Fort Humboldt; the rifle; Fred Lux; "took a long shot at James Henderson, the superintendent of the mine, who is the son-in-law of the aged miner"; Justice Waterman; Constable Thomas H. Brett takes them to Eureka | BLA19060210.2.13 verified (API, 2026-10-11) |
quoted |
| Foote released on habeas corpus, bail $1,000; the district attorney will not use the criminal courts for a water right | BLA19060217.2.20 verified (API, 2026-10-11) |
|
| The civil trial going ahead in Nov 1906 | HTS19061128.2.23 ocr |
|
| Foote: scar on the left cheek (1896 Great Register); died Oct 1914 at the Veterans' Home in Napa county | BLA19550428.2.57 verified (1955 retrospective) |
|
| Sept 1903: the house on the Brett place, 16×30 with an L 14×20, 1½ stories, corrugated iron "the safest way from fires"; moving from Sugar Bowl to be near the Willow Creek school | BLA19030926.2.10 verified |
quoted |
| John Douglas and wife up from Sugar Bowl (Mar 1903); Al visits "his brothers, John and James Douglas, of the Sugar Bowl ranch" (May 1903); 1,500 lb of fence wire (July 1903) | BLA19030404.2.64, BLA19030523.2.25, BLA19030711.2.31 verified |
|
| Feb 1904 flood: the mail carrier over Willow Creek by ladder and rope, Kirkham Creek "also on the rampage", the cage; "Mail Carrier McDonald is a man of resources…" | BLA19040227.2.2 ocr |
quoted from OCR, as in Kirkham Creek |
| May 1905: Lindsay and Stewart's tunnel at Horse Shoe Bend, 405 ft × 16 ft, 6-ft sides, 7½-ft arch, ninety days | BLA19050527.2.7 verified |
quoted |
| Mr. and Mrs. Russell on the crew, she cooking (Aug 1905) | BLA19050819.2.80 verified |
quoted |
| July 1905: James Douglas buried to his neck by a slide of gravel in the mine, extricated himself, hurried to Hoopa to Dr. J. S. Lindley; no bones broken, badly bruised | BLA19050729.2.3 ocr |
paraphrased |
| Aug 1905: James "improving nicely"; John Douglas and son Robert of Hoopa at Korbel and Blue Lake on business | BLA19050812.2.25 verified |
|
| Apr 1906: Lindsay back from the San Francisco earthquake, "many tales of horror to recite"; 505 ft; three-quarters of a mile | BLA19060428.2.65 verified |
quoted |
| June 1906: Koon family quarantined with smallpox at South Fork, "light form", T. Donahue caring for the sick; lower Trinity school closed; Memorial Day at the Willow Creek school and cemetery, Miss Mosely; Brett baby girl; Joe Eslick and A. Clark to prospect and mine on the Douglas place | BLA19060609.2.8 verified |
quoted |
| Robert Douglas vaccinated against smallpox (June 1906) | BLA19060630.2.54 ocr |
|
| Oct 1906: Ranney and Clark lease the Sugar Bowl placer from the Douglas brothers, "for all it is worth … just as long as the water supply lasts" | BLA19061027.2.3 verified |
quoted |
| Nov 1906: 28° at China Flat; Wm. Swanson of Hoopa with turkeys for market; Clark, Raney and Chas. and Harry Waterman to winter at Sugar Bowl | BLA19061201.2.8 verified |
|
| Feb 1907: the dance at the Willow Creek hotel, the list including Mrs. Frank Martin and two daughters, "a number of strange men from New river", "Adhma Clark and Charlie Waterman of Sugar Bowl" | BLA19070302.2.70 verified |
quoted |
| Mar 1907: the landslide that "demolished all there boxes but one"; Abner visiting his brothers; James Patterson's bride, "a writer of marked ability"; Jerry Smith's orange clings, 14½ inches | BLA19070309.2.79 verified |
quoted |
| Apr 1907: Brent first over the Berry road; Moston's radishes and onions; Robert reports "a small slide in the mining ditch"; "John Douglas has been building a new boat, to replace the one he recently lost by the freshet" | BLA19070413.2.2 verified |
quoted |
| Hill's dredger, Aug 1907: Hill and Watson of Boston, "They think they have a fine thing"; "the chug-chug-chug of the little engine…"; camps from Arcata, Glendale and Dows Prairie; Bert Baldwin "fond of melons"; hail at New River; a wedding expected | HTS19070815.2.60, BLA19070831.2.70 verified |
quoted |
| Dec 1907: Hill, Watson and Pastene discontinue for the season, "a view to building a large dredger" | BLA19071214.2.2 verified |
quoted |
| Bert Baldwin, head accountant at Riverside, with the comptometer (1903) | BLA19030711.2.31 verified |
|
| Dec 1907: Mrs. Wm. Bussell, Mrs. John Douglas and Buck Kidd to Blue Lake by horseback for their sister's illness | BLA19071221.2.2 verified (API, 2026-10-11) |
|
| Sarah Scott: born 1 Jan 1858; kidney removed; died Saturday 12:30; survivors as quoted; Presbyterian church; Blue Lake cemetery; Abner Douglas a pallbearer | BLA19071228.2.3 verified |
quoted |
| The three return to China Flat on Monday afternoon | BLA19071228.2.89 ocr |
|
| Jan 1908: the new road through the Brett place, "a decided improvement…"; "a Mr. Crow, bound for the Eslick mine"; Mrs. John Douglas to Sugar Bowl to visit her son Robert | BLA19080111.2.7 verified |
quoted |
| Feb 1 1908: the riverbed deed to J. A. Brent for $1 (signers as listed) | see Turning the Trinity companion (HTS19080310.2.38 verified) |
|
| Brent's survey, South Fork to Hoopa, then the Klamath; "plenty of capital behind the enterprise" | BLA19080328.2.6 verified |
quoted |
| Dec 1908: Fulton and Bacon of the Yosemite Improvement Co., "abandoned it until next spring … from Willow Creek down as far as its mouth at Weitchpec" | BLA19081219.2.5 verified |
quoted |
| Oct 1908: the Reno owners; tunnel operations discontinued; "next spring" | BLA19081010.2.106 verified |
|
| Dec 1908: "Sugar Bowl Ranch Sold": Douglas to George W. Hennings, "who recently arrived from Oregon", "some good mining ground" | BLA19081205.2.6 verified |
quoted |
| Feb 1909: Jack Saum; "Mining operations at the Sugar Bowl mine have been discontinued on account of a slide damaging the ditch a distance of about 150 feet" | BLA19090227.2.71 verified |
quoted |
| Apr 1909: Mrs. Venus Foote dies at China Flat; buried at the Kidd Cemetery on Willow Creek; leaves husband A. N. Foote, brother Saxy, half-brother Buck, half-sisters Mrs. Bussell and Mrs. Douglas | BLA19090410.2.49, HTS19090416.2.35 verified (API, 2026-10-11) |
|
| Apr 1909: Don Kirkham's three fingers at the Clover Flat winch, Dr. Gross | BLA19090501.2.37 verified |
|
| Apr 1909: Lewiston's 1,600-ft tunnel completed after three years | BLA19090410.2.7 verified |
|
| Oct 1909: Olmstead buys Clover Flat and the old Dungan mine; Miss Simmers "to see what kind of property her capital is invested in"; dam at the head; Korbel rails as riffles; electric light; night and day | BLA19091023.2.2 verified |
quoted |
| Mar 1910: 70 ft of flume out at Clover Flat, two days to repair; operated night and day | BLA19100319.2.6 verified |
|
| Oct 1910: Clasby and Black, partners and friends from Arbuckle, leased the Eslick or Red Porphyry claim; a 1,000-ft ditch to a gold-saving machine; deer hunting at dusk; Deputy Dolson in Harold Reed's automobile; accidental death; body to Arbuckle on the Thursday steamer; mother Mrs. Petro, a sister, four half-sisters; "cast quite a gloom" | BLA19101029.2.2 verified |
quoted |
| Clasby's father, as constable at Arbuckle, had been shot by a friend | HTS19101025.2.11 verified |
|
| Sherwood's 600-lb gasoline gold-saving machine at the Eslick mine (Sept 1910) | BLA19100924.2.45 verified |
|
| Dec 1910: Hennings–Anna Martin wedding at Mrs. F. Martin Sr.'s at the South Fork mouth; Rev. Gillman; "May they live long and prosper" | BLA19101210.2.4 verified |
quoted |
| Gilman's walking, "Cultivating a swinging gait…", the Willow Creek schoolhouse service by lantern and candles in cans, "Walked 16 Miles For Marriage" | BLA19380507.2.32 verified (partial) |
quoted; a Hupa sacred site named nearby in the memoir is deliberately not used |
| Frank Martin drowned off White's cable, Jan 1899 | see The White Cable | |
| July 1911: Rosa Martin to Sugar Bowl with Joe Martin, wife and daughter; the Walkers and A. Vlaeff of Oakland several weeks' guests | BLA19110715.2.39 ocr; BLA19110722.2.11 verified |
|
| June 1911: Fourth of July preparations, "The 4th is the day and Willow Creek will be the place"; Deering mowers for D. F. Young and W. A. Bussell | BLA19110617.2.12 verified |
quoted |
| Aug 1911: Adam Kemp and Landlord Smith's watermelons, "an inch per day"; forest fire at the head of Campbell Creek, "which empties into the Trinity river at Hoopa", Ranger Frank Graham and about ten men; the South Fork steel bridge site | BLA19110805.2.10 verified |
quoted |
| Oct 1912: Halliday and Meitz, $840.30 a ton, the ledge, "mother lode", Mueller's window, a dozen men | HTS19121008.2.2 verified |
quoted |
| Halliday married at Christmas 1912; his wife to Fortuna; he to Bonnieville on the West Fork | BLA19130104.2.7 verified |
|
| Dec 1912: "Let it pour down"; the No. 2 giant hauled from Clover Flat by Joseph and John Martin and packed five miles to the Gem; Clifton and platinum "worth twice as much"; the bridge "about forty feet higher" | BLA19121214.2.2 verified |
quoted |
| Jan 1913: the trail to Bair's drifted; Lytle's twelve-foot rise; "George W. Hennings of Sugar Bowl ranch wears a broad smile. He reports a baby girl, born on the 13th of this month." | BLA19130125.2.4 verified |
quoted |
| Mar 1913: Hennings home from hospital, operation avoided | BLA19130301.2.12 ocr |
|
| 28 May 1913: Carl Hennings, nineteen months, the sugar-coated tablets, the mother on foot, the father on horseback, Mr. Murray's team, Dr. Anderson; the body taken to Willow Creek | BLA19130531.2.80 verified |
quoted |
| June 1913: Hennings confined in Eureka with appendicitis | BLA19130614.2.79 verified |
|
| Nov 1913: "Sugar Bowl Ranch Sold" to Mrs. Martha J. Hatfield; 240 acres, 50 cultivated, the 80-acre low gravel bar "where mining can be successfully prosecuted every winter", irrigated from Campbell Creek; the Henningses to the Martin ranch | BLA19131115.2.8 verified |
quoted |
| Ted Griffith with the Hatfields (son-in-law) | BLA19131129.2.14 verified; see Six Hundred Inches |
Invented
- Judson Thursby and all his doings.
- At the bowl: walking the ditch for James each spring, the 1904 repairs, the 1909 rebuild, and building the boat.
- At the tunnel: drilling the face with Amos Tolliver, and whistling at the fuses.
- Journeys: riding over the summit with the three Kidds, and driving the wedding couple to the bridge.
- Mines and fires: the Clover Flat night shift, the Clasby ditch crew, and the fire behind the warehouse.
- With the Henningses: holding Grace, sitting with her the day Carl died, and driving the Hatfields' second wagon.
- All dialogue and private moments.
- The Douglases: James's "It always comes back down" and "So did I"; John's reasons for selling and his hat at the lane; Mrs. Douglas's line on the summit and "too pretty for the river"; Bob on his mother.
- Neighbours and Hennings: Will Bussell's reason for signing, Waterman's "about forty years and a stamp mill", and Hennings's "Jud, it is a farm" (as in Six Hundred Inches).
- The Martin women: Anna and the cable, and her stopping above the river.
- James alone in the bowl, the melons and the pickle jar, the hired help, and his crossing the river to live in the iron-roofed house in the winter of 1908–09. The record has him at Sugar Bowl through 1907.
- How James dug himself out. The record says only that he extricated himself with difficulty. Also invented: the rumour that he was dead, his shutting off the water, and the hitch.
- The China Creek chapter: Thursby's belief that Foote missed on purpose, the river's feelings, Mrs. Douglas's pies, and whether Foote and Henderson spoke again. How Henderson is Foote's son-in-law (through which daughter) is not in the record.
- Tim Donahue having had smallpox before, and the old soldiers at the cemetery gate.
- The Thanksgiving turkey; Ranney, Clark and James at the wrecked boxes; the boat's wood, building, launch and circle.
- That Anna was the daughter at the 1907 dance (the record gives "two daughters"), and that she asked about her father.
- Hennings's appearance and Oregon background beyond "recently arrived from Oregon". Also invented: the 1909 rebuild "for the farm", Saum's run down the hill, and Foote filling Venus's grave.
- Miss Simmers walking the ditch; the crowds at the electric light.
- The Gilman wedding details: the rain, the stocking feet and the guest list.
- Adam Kemp's tape and book, Anna's reply, and Hennings and Thursby watching the fire.
- The fire behind the warehouse, as a gathering of real men, from Let It Pour Down, with John Douglas reciting X. That it rained the next day follows that story.
- The hired girl, Anna's walk home, and the evening on the ditch with Hennings.
- The Hatfield girl's "Is that ours?" and the closing view.
- Amos Tolliver (invented; retired narrator of Turning the Trinity) as Thursby's drill partner.
Suggested by the record but not shown by it
- The Mrs. Jack Fletcher of Glendale (Sarah Scott's daughter, 1907) may be the wife of the Jack Fletcher who drove Brizard's Blue Lake stage in 1912. This is unproven.
- "George B. Smith" in the 1908 deed is probably Landlord George Smith of the Willow Creek hotel.
- The 1909 ditch rebuild. The 1913 sale says the ranch was irrigated by the Campbell Creek ditch, so the 1909 break was repaired. When and by whom is not recorded.
- The Kidd cemetery holds Native burials (1902) as well as Kidds (1909). It is a sensitive site for any spatial output.