Ross Sherburn's dad "Shine" Sherburn, and my dad Everett, worked together years ago, back in the late fifties. Ross has been commenting back in the "The Last Logger" post. I moved his last comment up here because I've been wanting to post about this for a long time anyway... so here goes.
"Ernie, if memory serves, there was another difficulty at Ben Masts air strip one time!”
Ross, you are right. Dad, and the fellow that I was named after, Ernie Hughes, was trying to land on Ben Masts mountain top airstrip in Laytonville. Dad was piloting the plane. The plane was an old PT-13 Stearman Bi-wing. They had been grading the airstrip and there was a berm left in the middle.
Dad had his head leaning over the edge of the cockpit to see the ground. They hit the berm on touch down, and the plane bounced up and knocked dad out. Ernie didn’t know that dad was knocked out so he didn’t try to fly the airplane. When it became apparent to Ernie that they were going to crash, he turned the fuel and the engine off which probably stopped any fire that might have happened. Ernie wasn’t badly hurt, but dad got hit in the head with a limb and he was hospitalized for a few days but he fully recovered.
The Plane was owned by the Laytonville flying club and they used the plane for recreational flying. I think that they thought of themselves as stunt pilots because they would take turns flying the plane to do loops, stalls, spins and other stunts. They had a lot of fun with the plane. The Club also had a low wing BT-13 trainer, that they would fly and do stunts with also. When I was a kid growing up in Laytonville there were many stories about the aerial acrobatics over Laytonville.
Dad had many hours of flying aircraft, at one time he worked as a pilot flying Cessna Aircraft from the factory in Wichita Kansas to California, to market out here.
After that, in the fifties, Dad worked for Ben Mast, flying a Piper Super-Cub equipped with a scintillator, which is a radiation detector. While the prospectors at the time were taking pack-mules into the steep canyons of Utah looking for uranium with Geiger counters, Dad was diving over the edge of the canyons, and swooping down the bottom, and maneuvering between the cliffs, and flying out the bottom end of the canyon. When they hit a hot spot, they would send a crew in to stake it out, and file a mineral claim. Ben hired Dad because he was a skilled pilot and had seen him do many crazy things with an airplane and walk away from it. (And, some that he didn’t) To fly the canyons of Moab Utah was probably one of the craziest things that my dad ever did and it was probably a miracle that he walked away from the job without so much as a scratch. He said that there were no trials runs, they would drop down through the canyons with all of the radiation detectors going all of the time. Some times they would do a tighter swoop if they got a good reading.
While dad was back there he witnessed many Indian burial sites, and found hundreds of dinosaur bones. It must have been a real experience for him. It was wide open country at the time and anyone that found Uranium could claim it. They thought that nuclear power would eventually be free. I wonder what they would think if they could see us now!
Dad assumed that Ben was going to open a Uranium mine, but he didn’t. Ben sold his claims and moved back to Laytonville as a rich man.
Later-on Ben started drilling for natural gas in Laytonville and the oil companies bought his oil rights, and he made even more money. I guess that Ben was just in the right place at the right time. I think, and many more do too, that there must certainly be massive deposits of natural gas under Laytonville. Any deep well that is dug in the valley seeps natural gas.
When Ben would get accused of being just plain damn lucky, he would drawl, “Well if You’re so damn smart, why didn’t you do it?”
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76 comments:
if memory serves again,i think there was still another difficulty with one of those big smoke stacks on samoa???
You've got me there Ross.???
Enlighten me.
too much for me to type and explain!i'll have to call you sometime.there is also something else i have wanted to mention to you for about 20 years now!
Ross, my business phone is 707-923-2416. Someone answers it from 9:00am until 5:30. The people that answer it will know how to contact me. I'm looking forward to talking to you.
Kudo's. As a radial engine junkie, the only thing I like better then good flying stories are TRUE flying stories.
i have been upside down in a plane once in my life!that was with ernies dad.circa,late 50s
To put things in prospective, the airplanes that the flying club bought military surplus after the war cost about $1,500.00 for two Stearmans, and one BT-13. One Stearman was airworthy and the BT-13 flew. One Stearman was a "parts plane".
Most of the members of the Laytonville flying club weren't even licensed at the time that they bought the planes, but there was an ex-military pilot instructor, that was giving them their ground school and flight lessons. His name was Dick Burgess.
Most of the people flew the planes anyway, and got their licenses later. Rules didn’t count for much in Laytonville back then.
Ross, most of the people that took flying lessons from Dick Burgess were taught how to fly “upside-down”, he thought that it was an important part of their training to know a planes limits.
Your dad told me a different story about the landing at the Ben Mast site. Boy, did he ever pull my leg with that one. I've been wrong about that one for 55 years.
Oregon? is that you?
If it is, you'll have to catch me up on it at the family reunion. I always hesitate to bring my dad up. It always provokes a million stories.
The only thing that I ever got to hear were “stories”. I was just born when it happened, so I don’t have any direct recollection. But, I thought that it was the “True Story”.
They had some hellacious fun back then, it's a wonder that any of them lived through it.
I remember telling someone that the Stearman had a "Nine Foot prop". I was roundly ridiculed that I thought that a little plane like that would have a nine foot prop. So one week-end I went down there and found the old crash site. Sure enough the old metal prop was still there. I drug it off the hill and threw it in the back of the truck just for proof. It measured just exactly nine feet.
I took it to the family ranch in Laytonville, and it kicked around there for a while. I think that sombody put it by the side fence and it got stolen. Or grandma Ruby took it to the dump like she did all the team harnesses and plows and all the other old horse drawn equipment that just about anybody would have bought from her, and hauled them off for her, if she had asked. But NOPE!
ernies story pretty much follows what my dad told me of the incident.my dad viewed the wreckage after it happened,said there were not very many big pieces of the plane left.he didn't know how they had survived it.what year did this happen in? i lived in laytonville as well as garberville also.
Yep, it's me. I took that prop to the mill and straighten it and when I went to Alaska I left it in Pat's shop with strick instructions to my brother to watch it till I could get it back. I had planed on keeping it till hell froze over unless the real owner layed claim to it. After Lillian's house sold it ended up "lost".
Oregon
Damn brothers are like that!
Well it’s probably all polished up and mounted over somebody’s fireplace like they were the last of the “barnstormers” or something. All good things just seem to slip away.
boy!i sure stirred up a lot of "stick time"for you guys to talk about!LOL
Ross, I’m really glad that you came by, if you are uncomfortable with writing, I really don’t care. I just want to hear stories. Especially from people that knew what it was like around here “Back then”. You are more qualified to talk about this country that most of the people that live here now.
Where was your dads mill? I remember it being on the north side of the road just past the bridge going to the airport. The place is called Rivercrest court or something like that now. It is a housing subdivision that Jim Johnson put in.
Do you remember any old logging stories about this area that would be interesting?
I have a terrible time writing myself. I’ve learned a few tricks by putting everything in my word processor and cutting and pasting it into the text. It tells me when I’m being stupid. So, I really don’t care how you talk or write. I was raised with people that talked like us. Nobody is going to bug you on this site. I have a “delete button”, if anyone gives you a speck of trouble they will be gone!
I think that my dad logged for your dad out Sprowel Creek, I really don’t remember where they were shipping their logs then. But I remember the logs were from Western Timber Corporation.
thanks ernie,even though i was pretty young at the time, i remember quite a few stories.some of them passed down from my dad.logging tales from covelo,willits,laytonville,garberville and all places in between.seems as though there was always something interesting or exciting happening in those days,such as your dads mishaps!anyway,my typing finger is getting sore.i know you are a busy person,you could give me a call sometime when it is convenient.there isn't too many sherburns in the corning phone book!hey!what about that movie(gun glory)they filmed down on tooby bros.property.that was a big deal at the time!in one scene,you can see smoke from the burner,from that mill by the bridge.all for now!
I remember that mill I think. I don't remember the burner and in my mind thought the conveyor went out over the river bar and during high water in the winter it would wash away the tailings and sawdust. In the early 50's I went by there at least twice a day.
I looked for land marks when I watched Gun Glory and all I saw that I recognised was the water going down the side of the cliff from the colvert by the airport.
Oregon
That's Funny the only thing I remember about Gun Glory is Rhonda Fleming.
Carol Pancoast worked in the movie. I think that he was in a few of the horse scenes, and I think that he scouted some of movie locations. He found some bluff up on Red Mountain where they did some explosions.
i have pics of the mill and smoke coming out of the burner,taken from our house just south of town up the hill.our lower neighbor was gib clifton.clifton took me for a ride one time in his gas deliverly truck.we went out west past dimmicks mill.at one point,i noticed an old locomotive setting out in the brush.i think it is the same one that is displayed at the logging museum in eureka!i could be wrong however??BTW,i have the gun glory movie.i can see the cut of the road of the 101 and almost can see our old house!what about go-carts&guns,ernie??? LOL
I saw that old locomotive too. The thing that caught my eye was how small it was and it had a door (boiler?)that was plated, looked like nickel. As I recall it was close to a place called Moody but don't hold me to that. Where ever it was, it was off the road in the brush.
Oregon
do, or should i know oregon??? give me a clue!maybe you owed my dad money?many did!
The Locomotive was parked on the tracks at “Moody” west of Piercy. Rogan Coombs did give it to the logging Museum. The road that goes out past the airport was called the Moody road at one time. It went over Sprowel Creek and down the ridge on the Nielson Ranch and down Indian Creek into moody. The bridge that crossed the South fork of the Eel on the way to the airport was called “The Moody Bridge”, and before highway 101 was built, it was the main road between Garberville and Piercy. I wonder if the “newcomers” that renamed everything knew that?
Ross, I think of you guys living just south of town every now and then on my way home from work. I live in Benbow and when you go out the on-ramp from Garberville, if you look across the freeway you can still see the back of the flat that your house sat on. Its about where the benchrest was for your dads rifle range. The thing that makes me notice it is that there is an almost perfect juniper tree growing there. It really stands out to a person the sees things like that.
Ross, I doubt "Oregon" owed your dad any money, but he was pretty closly connected to that Go-cart that you remember.
Hey, did you Southern Humboldt folks ever have local pilots screwing around and flying UNDER the local bridges? We had a couple of hot dogs that would fly under the bridges over the Trinity River.
Also, in the 50's and 60's, the only people who had airplanes were the mill owners. At least in the Klamath Trinity Area.
oh boy!trinity talk,i went to high school in weaverville!!!more stories there.....LOL
if memory serves again and again and again,bob munson had one of the bigger planes around!a twin engine cessna,but of course,i could be wrong again!
Larry Brown had an airplane and he would fly to work. It always botherd everybody that he would start making his turn to the east as soon as he lifted off,and he would fly right over all the planes tied on the ground and barely miss the trees.
We had a few pilots that flew under the bridges here also. I don't want to talk about too many of them because a few are still my friends and neighbors.
funny!i remember larry brown taking off that way.the browns had a pet raccoon,we had a pet skunk!you look back in time and these were the things that made life interesting to us kids!i have to go to town and work on a rental today,i shall return!
"Trinity Talk"
I lived in Weaverville for three months and Hayfork for three years. I had a lot more fun in Hayfork. It was just a little more wild. I'm planning on going to Willow Creek and Hayfork next week to visit relatives on my way to Redding.
Off the subject of my note here. As I remember, Shine Sherburn was a household name when I was a kid and not sure if I ever met him.
But I was just listening to the loggers in the family talk and I had more interesting things to do like build and fly model airplanes and catch snakes.
Oregon
I remember Shine Sherburn and my dad liked to target practice and go to turkey shoots. They loaded their own ammo. I'm not sure which one of them came up with the idea, but they decided that their bullets would shoot straighter if they would pack them clear full to keep the gun powder level. So they would put the right amount of gunpowder in the shells, then they would fill them the rest of the way up with cornmeal. Then they would cafefully carry the box of ammo in an upright position, until they got to the shooters bench.(Don’t try this at home kids, these people were trained unprofessionals).
I remember that they always won a turkey, so there must have been something to their theory. I think that they were just good shots myself.
The thing that I remember is when they would shoot the gun it would be kind of smoky, and it would smell like Corn Muffins. When they guy gave out the turkeys he asked Shine and my dad; “What are you guys shooting, biscuits?
Another story that I remember bout the rifle range is they were testing bullets for impact for hunting. They had this box of clay that they called ballistic clay. They would shoot into it and it would make this big funnel shaped hole with a bullet at the bottom. I remember someone talking about how this is what it would look like if you got attacked, and had to defend yourself in the woods from a wild box of clay.
There's a lot to be said for the corn meal. I used to shoot a little compition pistols with Uncle Ed. One time he developed a load at home and he would test fire them into an old stump at home. He would point down into the stump. Well, when Ed shot at the range he would always point the gun into the air and then lower it slowly into firing position so the powder was sitting the same. BIG difference between shooting a load down hill with the powder at the front of the case and having the powder mostly sitting at the back of the case. He almost blew his gun apart. This was with wildcat amunition and loaded on the heavy side.
Oregon
ernie,if you remember,my dads solid bench was in a redwood building.this was so he could shoot when the weather was bad.they said at one time there were more sako rifles sold in garberville than any other town of that size in the nation.pretty sure my dad bought the first one from darryl s. that had the tackle shop.i talked to harry slagle about 10 years ago.one of the first things out of his mouth,was if i still had my dads guns? i do!
friday nite!guess everyones at the brass rail!LOL
Actually this is Rodeo Weekend and we were all down at the bull riding event at Greycliff Acres in Benbow. It is also the Harley Run this weekend. There are about five thousand extra people floating around Garberville this weekend. The parade in the morning (Saturday) is going to be interesting. Supposedly the Harley riders are not supposed to start their Harleys around the Horses. (Yeah Right)
It was 41 degrees this morning at 5:48am, and by 2:48pm it was 100 degrees here. The humidity was only 11 percent. I think that they shut the woods down if it gets under 22%.
Some pretty wild figures if you watch the weather like I do as an air-conditioning guy.
The shelter Cove Grotto is closed and has been for several years, the property is for sale. It has been cleaned up and made presentable again. I don’t think that it will ever make it as a bar again. The party crowd doesn’t drink like they used to, now they smoke weed. Also the mill workers from up north don’t come down here anymore. For some reason they don’t get along with all of our hippies.
The Brass Rail still exists, but doesn't do near the business it did back in the fifties and the sixties.
we get over in your neck of the woods about once a year!and its about time for me to see the ocean again
ernie,i will call you later in the week! ok?
Ross, 707-923-2734= work. They know how to get a hold of me.
I'm looking forward to talking to you.
besides being a daredevil pilot,i heard your dad was a pretty good shot with a hand gun? does this hold true?
Yes, if it had a trigger, my whole family was good with it. My uncle Edwin was an expert with a pistol. My grandfather, Bill Rathjens, was in the German army and was also an expert pistol shooter. My dad said that he had never seen anyone better at shooting a pistol. From any stance or position he hit his target with great accuracy.
you know! its very funny,i have a smith&wesson 32-20 revolver that used to belong to ernies dad!
Ross, I used to shoot that pistol. Everett had a 32-20 rifle too that I shot a lot. My uncle Edwin has it now.
Oregon
old shine died in 1977,its been in my possession since then!
I always wondered what happend to that pistol. When I was shooting the old octagon barreled rifle the only ammo you could buy was loaded for pistols so the rifle was a little under powered. It was a straight shooter though. You could hit a ground squirrel at a hundred yards with it if the squirrel didn't walk off before the bullet got there.
i think this revolver needs to be back in the branscomb family,but no one has picked up on that yet!
Well that might be but, that would have to be Ernie or Uncle Ed. I don't even know how Uncle Everett got it or when. Hell, he might have got it from Shine to start with. I bet Ernie knows but he probably doesn't check this far back on his blog. LOL
Oregon
You guys just think I don't know.
I was just trying to figure out what was being offered.
Is there a price on it? Because I might consider buying it. My wife might have something to say about it, but she's like that. I believe that Uncle Edwin might want it.
oregon,you don't have to tell me who you are!but do i know your family name? even though i was a kid back in those days,i remember a lot.but i can't remember what happened last week!LOL
I think that my dad traded Edwin a shotgun for that thirty-two-twenty Rifle but Edwin has both I think. Some scoundrel ended up with my Ruger 22 cal. rifle, but I think that he's taking good care of it. I have the rest of dads guns. They are pretty worn out.
I still have a Finnish made Sako rifle with a seven-to-nine power scope, that I used as a jeep gun, so it's not pristine anymore.
I also have a forty-one Colt lightning, that belonged to my dad. He said that he got it from a man that said that it was Grampa Branscomb’s gun that he took to Alaska with him, during the Alaskan Gold Rush. The story was that Grampa got in a fight over a Gold Claim and killed two men with it. After that he decided to come home. I guess he figured he would live longer.
Uncle Ben claimed that he has Grampa’s gun, but my dad claimed that it was the wrong kind of gun to be Grampa’s. Ain’t history wonderful?
Oregon here, My last name is Newland. My mom was Uncle Everett's sister and my dad was partners with Carol and Charlie Pancoast. Riverside Farm Dairy. It was just across the Briceland bridge and past that sawmill you guys are always talking about.
i remember riverside dairy very well,ricky pancoast was one of my best buddys at one time,they sold and delivered foremost products at the time!heck!you may have been one of the guys pushing ernies go-cart across the briceland bridge!
This is Hilarious. Ross, the go cart belonged to Newland. (Oregon)
On a sadder note, I'm not sure if either of you know that Paul Pancoast died. His sevices are next weekend, June 28. sat at the dairy.
Ricky Pancoast drives a propane delivery truck for Blue Star Gas. He still lives here, out by the north end of the airport. Still a great guy. I see him all the time.
if memory serves again,hardy wallen drove the blue star gas truck when i was a kid!please correct me,i'm just guessing on this!and,BTW,i read where paul pancoast died,it was in the news,via your blog here!i thought the go-cart belonged to e.b., ernie seemed to be in charge of it? go-carts were a big deal back then!i ended up with a mini-bike after we moved away!circa 1963
You probably got that impression because I helped build it. But it depends on witch generation of go-cart you were talking about. Newland and I bought a forty horse power Evinrude motor and put on it. It had a water cooled radiator, and it would eat-up anything... Anything.
Did that sound too gloaty?
The go cart got stolen and I don't know what happend to it from there. I think that Newland got it back. But we were both married by then and we had better things to intertain ourselves with.
the go-cart i remember,probably had a single mac engine????
It started off as a Homelite, the only one in the area. We kicked those yellow carts butt.
Oregon
ernie,i have a cancelled check for $100,000 written out by my dad for a timber purchase,would you like to see it sometime?there is a little story here also! it was actually rogans fathers money,but mal couldn't swing the deal without my dads help,most people liked my dad!circa 1959. to me,that was pretty big money at the time!
BTW,i think this was reed mountain property!just some more FYI!
When I first moved to Garberville in 1955, ranch land was selling for $50.00 per acre, $60.00 dollars per acre if the ranch had timber.
we moved from laytonville to garberville at the same time{1955} whats up with that?? my dad started logging for dewey carpenter ,who had a mill just south of redway.oregon something was the name??? dewey lived on the golf course at benbow,also drove a cadillac.BTW,my dad drove cadillacs also,not bad for a gypo logger! LOL
Ross, I think the name of the mill was West Coast Lumber Company. The mill was a stud mill. All that they sawed was two-by-fours. It was a favorite place for people to collect lumber. The burner was right beside the road, and the green chain emptied there also. So all you had to do was pull your pick-up in there and load it up with mill-ends or lumber.
I don’t know the ‘55 connection. But most of the old loggers worked together at one time or another. Maybe they both moved up here to log for Benbow. Another company that dad and Roy Goforth Logged for was Western Timber Corporation. Do any of those names ring a bell?
It’s funny that you should mention that mill. A few years ago they built a heath center there. In the plans of the health center was a full basement for storage and business offices. Imagine their surprise when they started to dig the hole for the basement and found all the rigging from the overhead cable that they used to unload the trucks and feed the pond and the mill. They had thrown all the scrap cables, old worn out blocks and junk into the mill pond and covered it over with dirt. They had a heck of a time digging the basement.
Ross called me last Friday, and we talked for quite a while. He told me about another one of the old flying stories about dad. I not sure if this story is connected to dad or someone else, but everything fits. They quite often flew to Eureka for Cat parts or parts for one of the mills. It was important to keep everything running back then. Because if one operation stopped everything stopped.
But the story goes that they loaded whatever part in the plane, and took off going west out of Murry field. It was foggy and he was flying on instruments. The plane was overloaded. And was having trouble gaining elevation. Just as he turned south, the top of one of the Samoa smokestacks jumped out of the fog and bit about a foot of the wing off. I hadn’t heard this story before and I don’t know what else happened, but it was the start of a real interesting story. Maybe someday I’ll hear the rest.
ernie,i think you are correct about it being west coast lumber company!dewey was from oregon and i think he retired back to oregon after his salt mine dealings near coalinga.and about the samoa story,i think ross here is the only one left to tell it!!!
about roy goforth,he came out of covelo just like the sherburns,my dad worked with him also.
i remember benbows mill,west of benbow near the river.my dad logged for benbow also,my older sister"pat" baby sat for them!
Ross, I remember your sister. She was a Cheerleader at South Fork High School. And a whole lot better looking than you! (If you'll pardon my saying so)
She must have baby sat for a kid by the name of Winston Benbow, which was actually Johns younger brother, otherwise the age thing is all wrong. Or maybe Johns kids are older than I thought.
ernie,you are corrct about my sister being a cheerleader at that school in miranda!now you have my poor old brain working on some more stories!
Ross Sherburn won"t be able to blog for awhile,he was called to a fire Monday at Junction City,the Iron Complex fire.He will gone for couple of weeks or so.
Kathy.
That's okay we will talk to you. Is Ross a volunteer fireman, an equipment operator or something?
The tire shop Ross works for does the tire work for cal fire, forest service,etc.He is camping with the big boys!!!He calls it his real vacation,no wife to bug him,no kids,or grandkids wanting to shoot with their Papa.We all miss him,even if he is an old coot!!!I know a little about the logging,my Dad came down from Bly,Oregon with Crane Mills when they bought land at Patton Mills,I wasn"t born yet,not until 49,we lived in Patton Mills until I was 5.My Dad was a mechanic and the best damm welder around, people still talk about his welding. Our son Rex is very proud of his Grandfathers Shine Sherburn and Warren(Ozzie) Osborn, he only wishes he would have been born sooner, but he has stories from Ross and My Dad's Brother.I will close and quit talking,nice to talk to all of you.
Oops!! I must not have clicked the right button for my name!!
Kathy, we figured it out anyway, the fact that I asked you about Ross, and you told me, was a dead giveaway.
Anyway you can write to my blog anytime. I like people that are proud of their family. My dad was also a good welder; he worked in the ship yards for the Bethlehem Steel in Pittsburg California for a while during the war. He always said that he could build anything out of steel.
Ernie, I don't think you liked my story about MY uncle Everett. From now on when ever I go over the Noyo Bridge in Fort Bragg it will have a new meaning to me. As far as I know he is the only person to fly under that bridge. Uncle Edwin told me that story as told to him by your dad so it has to be true.
I liked the idea of setting the altimeter to "0" as the spray from the surf got the landing gear wet.
Back after the war. In the early days of the lumber boom everybody that had an airplane flew it under a bridge at one time or another.
The Maple Hills bridge in Miranda was still being flown under as late as the sixties. And just like always. they would hide their planes and lay low for a while.
Ernie, is was so nice to meet you in person,sorry we didn"t make to breakfast,next time we will be more prompt!Ross is back in fire camp at Junction City,I'm back in Corning.Smoke is very bad here tonite.Those fires east of Chico flared up the other nite,lost 50 homes in Concow,Paradise is being threatened again,they are evacuating again.They are having a rough time over there.Those firefighters have to be exhausted by now. Its been a month since it all started.I hope we can get a break in this weather.Hopefully the delta breeze kicks in,that always cools us down.Again very nice meeting you, next time we will give you more warning when we are coming over.Ross has to make a trip over there every so often. He has good memories of living there.Hope to see you again soon.
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