Pages of History: Men topping tallest trees

Residents in the Hiouchi area the past two weeks may have been surprised to see some men high in the tops of some of the tallest trees in the world.

A new state department branch known as the “Tree Hazard Program” has been formed and a crew has been working at Jedediah Smith State Park in Del Norte County.

The purpose of this program is to send recently hired men around to different parks to remove all dead or broken branches, cut down trees that could fall on some unsuspecting camper, or top trees that are unsafe. This program is so new that it only had its beginnings Sept. 10, when the first man arrived in Sacramento to form a crew of three others to begin this type of work.

Jedediah Smith is the fourth park that they have worked in, having previously been in Tahoe, Jack London and Sugar Loaf state parks.

Civil Defense in action

The first cryptic message over the National Warning System was sent at 5:16 p.m. Pacific coast time, saying that a quake measuring a magnitude of 7.5 had occurred and had generated a tsunami that was spreading.

Upon receiving the warnings, the local civil defense office personnel gathered at the headquarters at the Del Norte Sheriff’s Office well ahead of the expected 10:40 p.m. tsunami, where plans were made to evacuate the lower part of Crescent City should the wave strike Del Norte County. At 9:45 p.m., word was received that the danger was past. 

Babe Crivelli story

A Crescent City ham-radio listener early Friday morning heard details on a local story that will be broadcast over Voice of America on Sunday morning.

Charles Selig, Houichi, was listening to his radio when he heard the Voice of America announcer say that on Nov. 30 a story about Babe Crivelli, a Klamath bull who was washed out twice in Klamath River floods, will be broadcast on a program called Studio One. It will be beamed to Southeast Asia.

Success no ‘sure thing’

Action by the Crescent City Harbor Commission on Tuesday, Nov. 4, to proceed with federal and state grant applications for the proposed Whaler Island project drew a round of applause from the audience, the largest to attend a Harbor Commission meeting in the past three years.

Public approval of the project seemed evident and the commission acted accord­ingly.

The proposed project, which would develop a causeway to the island and provide mooring slips or piers for the fishing fleet, has not been pushed by the commission pending the economic and feasibility analysis which the commission received Tuesday night. Details are not firmed at this time.