Fortuna California – Fenley's Footprints

I took delivery of Peggy, my new truck, just after the first of the year. After a shakedown trip to Florida with the new camper, I departed Georgia on the third of June. On September 21 I arrived in Fortuna, California, the unofficial turnaround point of my 2018 odyssey . Up until now I had been travelling to get here, when I leave Humboldt County I will be travelling back to Georgia.

There is only one place to park an RV in the City Fortuna – fortunately it is a good one. Riverwalk RV Park is located across the road from the Eel River. On the other side is Highway 101, so there is a bit of highway noise, but it’s no worse than when I used to live a half mile from the Interstate in Atlanta. The park is a bit pricey, but it has all the amenities you could want, including some I don’t use like a pool. Most importantly it feels like you are living in town. Usually this wouldn’t be what I’m looking for, but since I consider Fortuna my hometown it is the exception to my usual rural camping rule.

Fortuna Riverwalk along the Eel River at sunset

Sun setting on the Eel River, Fortuna, California

Corner of 11th and J

One of the first orders of business was to check out the house where my grandparents lived since the thirties. Aunt Betsy inherited the house, though she sold it years later (and made me promise I wouldn’t tell my mother). The current owners have done a lot of work on the place, including repainting the exterior to gray from the original pea green and replacing the ladder-steep stairway to the second floor. Sadly, Grandma Betty’s prized garden has been covered with yard turf, but a few things remain that made me smile.

The concrete walkway that Ted and I built out back is still solid as ever. A new one was needed because decades of added compost had raised the level of the soil six inches above the original walk, making it function as a river when it rained. While her apple tree near the garage was gone, Grandma’s pear tree is still going strong, loaded with pears just as it had been when I spent my summers here in the 1970s.

I knocked on the door to introduce myself. A younger guy with a small child appeared and I explained my purpose for taking pictures of his house, and entreated him not to report me to FPD as a suspicious character. He seemed skeptical and didn’t offer to show me the interior, but with his daughter there I understood his caution. I guess my Gentleman of Leisure business card was insufficiently reassuring.

My grandparent’s house in Fortuna. They lived on the corner of 11th and J for sixty years, just a block from Fortuna Union High School where Ted taught shop.

My grandmother’s pear tree continues to be prolific. She was an expert in grafting, so this tree produced three different varieties. It would bear so heavily I would have to thin the fruit several times mid season to keep the branches from breaking.

From this angle you can see the new staircase that has been installed. It blocks the window that used to be over the daybed where my Grandmother would read the paper and nap in the afternoon.

Fortuna United Methodist Church

One of Ted’s Hats. The weather station behind me is also his – he made it out of redwood burl.

I was in town for over a week, so I had the opportunity to attend service at the Methodist church where the Lipperts were members. Ted always wore a hat when he left the house, and a jacket and tie when attending church. Back in the Seventies the pastor was a pretty dry speaker and given to extensive sermons on obscure topics. My job at church was to nudge my grandpa when he fell asleep. Grandma told me: “I don’t mind if he nods a little, but it’s embarrassing when his head falls back and he starts to snore!”. When it was a particularly boring service she would have to nudge me to wake up and nudge Ted. On one warm summer Sunday, I recall the sermon was really long, and by the end all three of us were fast asleep.

A handful of the church elders remembered my folks – one had been a student in my grandmother’s English class. There was also a friend of the McWhorter clan that was part of our extended family in Fortuna in attendance. I was invited back later in the week for the “Oh My! It’s Salad and Pie” supper where I was seated next to a pair of newlyweds. It was good to know the small congregation is still viable.

Sanctuary of Fortuna UMC. My grandparents renewed their vows on their 40th anniversary right here.

Stained glass in the sanctuary of Fortuna United Methodist Church

Depot Museum

One day I headed over to the old depot museum at Rohner Park. Rohner is a big name in Humboldt; he was a Swiss guy that owned the local mercantile in the Forty-Niner days. While the miners dug for gold he got rich selling them supplies, and eventually owned all the land where Fortuna stands today. The focus of Rohner Park is the rodeo grounds. Rodeo (pronounced row-day-oh here) has always been a big deal locally; the Fortuna Rodeo in July has been the town’s central annual event for almost 100 years. Even in late September there was some kind of horse event going on in the park, but my interest that day was the local history museum, particularly their research room.

Some of the collections at the Depot Museum. What fun it would be to try picking all those old locks!

Fortuna’s industries – logging, fishing and dairy

Old solid copper pot nearly five feet wide in the Fortuna Depot museum was used to make Swiss Cheese at a local dairy for decades.

Legacy, Redux

The museum’s research room has a collection of yearbooks and scrapbooks from the local high school going back to the Twenties. I dug into these, and unearthed a bunch of old photos of my family. My grandfather was best represented since he was on the faculty for decades. I was disappointed that I was unable to find any pictures of my grandmother though. Although she taught English at all of the Fortuna schools, she worked as a long-term substitute, often filling in for another teacher for months during sickness or pregnancy. That meant she wasn’t officially on staff at any one school, so they didn’t include her in the faculty photos.

Aunt Betsy’s senior photo at Fortuna Union High. She succeeded at becoming a nurse, but failed as a housewife – mostly due to making a poor choice for a husband.

My mother’s senior picture at Fortuna Union High. She liked her hair in this picture, which continued to be her one assent to vanity for the rest of her life.

Ted the year he retired in 1966 after teaching shop at Fortuna High for 36 years.

One of Betty’s favorite photos of Ted from the 30s. He wore a tie in class even when welding!

A rare candid photo of Ted from the late 30s

Election ads were a lot more well mannered in 1964 when my grandfather ran for County Supervisor.

An unexpected find was that the museum had access to a digital archive of both Humboldt newspapers. The archive is not available via the Internet, but can be searched for free at the museum. It’s not the fastest system, but it makes material available to the public that isn’t easily found elsewhere. I didn’t have enough time to do serious research, but I did locate a few interesting mentions of my grandfather’s political career. He was a City Councilman for 20 years, Mayor of Fortuna for 12. He quit politics after losing a bid to become County Supervisor in 1964. Here is a campaign ad from that time. It’s remarkable how much respect and reason was exhibited in politics back then compared to the strident shilling of today. Excuse the poor quality of the image as it is a photo of a computer screen, cleaned up as best I could.

Next time: Exploring Humboldt Bay

Corner of 11th and J

Fortuna United Methodist Church

Depot Museum

Legacy, Redux

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