Archie Thompson today. The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

“She didn’t speak English, and I used to make fun of her all the time, but that’s how I learned. She spoke to me every day,” Thompson said. “I learned (Yurok) as I went along. She’d teach me as I went.”

For Thompson, the Yurok language is infused with memories of the sprawling Klamath ranch and the many Yuroks he met there.

“We had a ranch with plenty to eat, and I remember all the old Indians used to come down there to eat, some for days or weeks or months, and we fed all of them, and we didn’t cost them money, and we would talk.

“Sometimes there would be nothing but old Indian people sitting around the stove talking Yurok, and I always remember that.”

Archie Thompson as part of a Del Norte High School graduating class in the ’30s, bottom far right.

“They all laughed and someone would tell a good story. It was all Indian talk, and they wouldn’t talk no white talk at all.”

Many decades later, the 90-year-old Thompson is the elder Yurok who is passing on the language to a new generation. Twice a week, Thompson sits in on Yurok language classes for high-schoolers at Klamath River Early College of the Redwoods in Klamath, where he serves as a living resource, one of a handful of surviving fluent speakers.

Thompson participates in the national Foster Grandparent program, which is run locally by North Coast Opportunities, a regional non-profit.

His work is so valuable that it has been recognized nationally — this year he traveled to Washington, D.C., to receive the Silver Honor in the Mentor Category from the MetLife Foun­dation and the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging.

The trip was a special experience for Thompson. He hobnobbed with First District Congressman Mike Thompson, and he traveled to North Carolina to see his son, Archie Jr., a retired paratrooper with sons and grandsons of his own — Yurok men who speak with incongruous Southern accents. Thompson speaks of his son with evident pride. 

“He’s got a big home back there. He’s not hurting for nothing.” 

Rescue workers carry Amar Kumar away from the wreckage of his tractor-trailer. The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

It took rescue workers about an hour using air-powered tools to extract the injured driver from his mangled cab after the accident at about 2 p.m.

He was identified by a California High­way Patrol officer as Amar Kumar, 48.

Kumar was listed in critical condition Thursday night at Sutter Coast Hospital and was being prepared for a flight to UC Davis Medical Center, a Sutter Coast spokesman said.

His northbound truck and trailer crossed the southbound lane just past  Hamilton Road three miles south of town.

The CHP did not have a report available Thursday evening. At 5:20 p.m., authorities were still trying to pull the truck up from the steep hill.

Regional Border Coast Airport Authority members voted Thursday to apply for a $7 million grant from the Oregon Department of Transportation to help pay for a new terminal at Del Norte County Airport.

The total cost of the project is expected to be $20-25 million.

The local airport is managed by a joint powers agreement that includes representatives of Crescent City, Del Norte County, the Elk Valley Rancheria and Brookings.

“This is certainly something we want to take advantage of,” said Airport Manager Jim Bernard.

In October, ODOT had a meeting in Brookings and representatives took a tour of the local airport and were “very receptive” and said that the airport qualifies for the grant, Bernard said.

In a similar situation, ODOT gave money to the The Dalles Municipal Airport, which is located across the Columbia River in Washington state, he added.

The trial for the man accused of killing 23-year-old Crescent City resident Michelle Dickson has been delayed until January.

On Thursday, Del Norte Superior Court Judge Robert Wier pushed back Josiah Miller’s Nov. 30 trial date to allow the prosecution enough time to respond to motions filed by the suspect’s attorney, including one requesting a change of venue.

A motion hearing has been set for Dec. 15. Judge Wier ordered Miller’s attorney, William Cater, to have all his motions filed by Dec. 3 to allow the Del Norte County District Attorney’s Office time to review the materials.

As Crescent Elk Middle School students congregate, the propeller-topped wind turbine is about to be lifted into place. The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

As students streamed from classrooms and local dignitaries looked on, a long-awaited 40-foot-tall wind turbine was raised on the campus as part of a seventh-grade alternative energy project.

It went up just fine, but there wasn’t enough wind for it to start turning — yet.

Spectators from neighboring businesses and residences joined the throng as the long metal pole with its futuristic-looking propeller was winched into place.

The teacher responsible for the project even issued a proclamation.

“Crescent Elk Middle School is a green school and will continue to lead our community to help create a better future for our wondrous planet Earth and all of its citizens,” said Joe Gillespie.

Joe Gillespie issues a proclamation. The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

 In essence, Crescent Elk will now help power Del Norte County.

“I like that we’re helping the community,” said student Genesis Campbell. “We’re helping to save the planet. I think that it’s very important we’re doing this.”

Campbell wasn’t alone.

Whether it was the scores of kids chanting “Cougars,” or Mayor Kelly Schel­long’s heartfelt thanks to Gillespie’s students, raising the turbine felt like a party.

Dignitaries gather. The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

The school had to get approval from the city Planning Commission for a height variance because maximum building heights in the area are usually 35 feet.

The city is now considering an ordinance to streamline future proposals for wind turbines.

“It’s a huge relief,” said Gillespie about getting the turbine up. “We may have paved the way for these turbines to go up in a much more efficient way in the future.”

A proposed transfer of jurisdiction for 1,200 acres in Tolowa Dunes State Park has ignited controversy.

The issue began with an attempt to preserve waterfowl hunting that has been allowed for years on the land, but opponents of the transfer say it has significance beyond hunting.

The California State Parks and the Department of Fish and Game proposed the transfer to allow hunting to continue.

Due to a series of management mistakes by both agencies, waterfowl hunting has been allowed even though it became illegal after the area’s designation as a state park in 2001.

Earlier this year hunters — and state park officials — were surprised by a decision by Fish and Game to exclude hunting in Tolowa Dunes from its list of allowed sites.

Both agencies then started trying to figure out how to continue allowing hunting in the state park with hopes of resolving the issue in time for the current hunting season, said state park Superintendent Jeff Bomke.

A settlement has been reached in a case involving Alexandre Family EcoDairy Farms and a local woman who became paralyzed by a rare neurological disorder after drinking raw milk.

No lawsuit was filed in the matter, and instead it was resolved through a claim with the Fort Dick dairy’s insurance provider.

As part of the agreement reached late last week, the amount of the settlement is confidential and neither party is allowed to talk about the specifics.

Seattle-based attorney Bill Marler, who represented Crescent City resident Mari Tardiff in the case against Alexandre EcoDairy, said there’s no intent to pursue any further legal action.

“Clearly everyone wants to get this behind them,” Marler said. “The Tardiffs and Mari have a lot of work to do for the rest of their lives and the last thing they need is litigation.”

Mari Tardiff became ill in June 2008 after drinking raw milk from the dairy that was infected with campylobacter, a common food-born pathogen found in domesticated animals.

Swen Raulfs, left, surveys the damage to his tattoo parlor on U.S. Highway 101 on Tuesday. The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

Every day, he places a flag at the front corner of his business near the intersection of U.S. Highway 101 and Ninth Street to advertise that he’s open.

Tuesday morning he kept the same routine, except this time a car that was involved in a high-speed chase barreled into his tattoo parlor about 20 seconds after he walked into the building.

“All of a sudden I hear these screeching tires,” he said, and then the building started to shake. “I thought literally the car was coming through.”

Raulfs hit the ground as shelves, swords and frames rattled on his walls. When he opened the door, the cement steps leading into his business were gone and a green car mangled from the crash was motionless in the middle of the highway.

He also noticed that his 1999 Harley Davidson that was parked next to the building had been hit. As Raulfs looked back to the car, he saw a man leap from the driver’s side and start running.

Raulfs, perturbed about the added insult to his bike, started chasing the man, but the parlor owner didn’t quite make it across the street before authorities told him to stop.

“It was total madness,” he said.

Sheriff’s deputies and city police officers chased the suspect through the Walgreens parking lot and apprehended him in the wooded area north of Ray’s Food Place. He was identified as Derrick Norris, a 21-year-old Klamath resident who had several warrants out for his arrest.

According to sheriff’s Commander Tim Athey, deputies started looking for Norris after a man called authorities Tuesday morning to tell them that his 16-year-old daughter’s fugitive boyfriend was at his house.

The area has seen a noticeable increase in visitors this past summer, according to local tourism officials.

This could be partially due to advertising efforts by the local Visitors Bureau, officials said, or that people simply chose to save money by traveling closer to home.

An indicator that Del Norte County had a better tourism season this year over last is the number of people who came into visitor centers looking for information.

Almost 50 percent more people came into the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce’s visitor center at the Cultural Center this summer, said Gina Zottola, executive director for the chamber.

Between June and September, more than 12,000 people stopped in for information about the area, Zottola said.

Redwood National and State Parks visitor centers saw 12 percent more people walk through its doors this year, said Debbie Savage, a supervising park ranger.

From July to September, 27,000 people stopped at the parks’ visitor center in Crescent City, and 28,000 came into the one in Hiouchi.