Happy Camp is a small town and there’s no bad side of town. Every side is just about like any other. And this causes some people discomfort.
You see, if you’re used to being able to live on the good side of town in a larger community, it is a step down to come to a place like Happy Camp where we’re all together – the good, the imperfect, and whoever comes to live with us.
We’re deep inside the Klamath National Forest – a group of less than 1500 souls. Some were born here. Some have had family here for many centuries and others for more than one century. But many of us have no idea where our ancestors came from. We were born in this country which is not our ancestors’ native land, and we struggle to find a place we can call home. We’ve been drawn to this remote mountain community either by the hand of fate or the will of God, where we learn that Happy Campers are all like one big extended family. We’re together here, deep in the most remote part of the forest, trying to make the best of it.
So if you’re reading this website thinking you might want to move here as many have done before you, consider this. In Happy Camp we’re not just talking about the unity of mankind. We’re living it. There are no bad people here, but there are plenty of imperfect ones and if we’re going to be honest we’ll admit that everyone is imperfect. There are those who let it show and those who try to hide their imperfections, but in general we’re all pretty much alike.
Though there are no bad people here, there are bad drugs that cause some of our citizens to act in ways others consider to be irresponsible and immature. And in a larger town most of those people would be living on ‘the other side of town’ – forced by economic necessity to rent places that we can not see or be bothered by because we never go there.
Well in Happy Camp, we don’t have that type of luxury. There’s no bad neighborhood. All neighborhoods are pretty much alike with both good and troubled people in them. And though we may complain about our neighbors, they are still like our cousins, brothers and sisters, and they’re probably not going away any time soon. So like any big family there are sometimes petty arguments, then we usually get over them because that’s what people in families do.
So if you’re used to luxury living, it is possible Happy Camp isn’t the place for you. True, you could buy a home outside of town and only drive into town to get your mail and groceries, but then you’d miss the true beauty of Happy Camp. By true beauty I mean the friendships and comaraderie you find by associating with all classes of people here. Yet this apparently is not for everyone.
As editor of this news site I have met people who learned about the town from this site and came here to buy property. Please consider this your warning. Though Happy Camp is a beautiful and isolated community in the middle of a gorgeous national forest, we’re not all upscale and if you find that bothersome, you may want to look for other lodging.
However if you love humanity, care about people, and want to join together with all classes to help and find new kinds of friends, this is a great fishbowl to be in.
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Linda Martin is the editor and publisher of Happy Camp News. She writes novels in her spare time. Her writing website is at http://www.lindajomartin.com.
In my column in the “Pioneer Press” last week, I said that the present Happy Camp Health Services Board, considering comments from the majority of voting members, chose not to give the building to another organization and that“The Karuk Tribe has already put a new building for these services on their property between Second Avenue and the Highway.”
I was mistaken that the new modular was for the doctor’s offices and services that are presently in the Happy Camp Health Services Building. The modular moved unto the property will house program staff moved from the building next to the Administration Building; information technology and self-governance. The building next to the Administration Building was originally designed for a Medical and Dental Clinic and that is the area being remodeled, at considerable cost, for the medical services. The former Council Chambers will be the medical reception, medical records and nurses station. That wing is being remodeled for examination rooms.
That is why the Karuk Tribe of California notified the Happy Camp Health Services that they were NOT interested in buying or leasing the Happy Camp Health Services building and said they planned to be moved out by end of September.To hold a NEW board of VOLUNTEERS responsible for past years isn’t really fair since they coveyed their desire to listen and learn what needed to be improved.
Even though I usually ask readers to respond and share with me, I don’t get large volumes of mail in response! Last week was an exception; I received quite a few calls about the column. A caller might have given me information on corrections,. since she said I was ignorant, and was writing illegal slander, but never gave me a speck of information on what might need correcting. I did ask, but the phone slammed down! I’m still of the same mind, that Happy Camp needs mental health and similar services which are not adequately available, and that a community group, everyone working together, like the Happy Camp Health Services has always been, could help in this regard. I’m a good listener, but after calling names, no one gave me any specifics. We just don’t need more vacant unused buildings sitting around for years when there are nearly a dozen organizations that need places to meet. We can help each other when we can work together more effectively. I’m happy to listen to anyone’s views, but a few pertinent facts might be more effective than bluster and name calling.. I listened quietly to the name calling but got hung up on when I asked for help in understanding their point of view.
The speaker who rudely accused John Godwin of the Happy Camp Health Services of rudeness when he is the quietest, kindest and a hard working volunteer who called the meeting to hear all views, made me wince. That is why Leon Hillman’s comments to friends and neighbors that whatever the disagreement, we will go on being friends and neighbors was so moving. Sharing viewpoints helps us all learn, when it is done in that frame of reference.
We respect the fact that Tribal members families and also many other members of the community and their families were also active in building the clinic building. The land, milled lumber, and many hours of labor were donated by the mill and citizens of the community. Wasn’t it a wonderful accomplishment they achieved together! It reminds me of the Memorial Log Building which was built with community working together, to provide education for our children, also, (although that was before my time!)
We need more mental health services in Happy Camp and lease of the building to an organization working with Behavioral Health, is one way that it could be provided. Also, I see some value in some organization that could be the whole community working together, not exclusively for any particular group to the exclusion of others. Amazing things can be accomplished when we work together!
Give me a call, I’ll be happy to hear your views. If I’m busy at the moment, I’ll be happy to call you back. Also appreciate your telling me of any news and announcements that you have to share. That is why living along the wild beautiful Klamath River in the midst of the green forest, with blue skies above is so wonderful. We have great neighbors, mostly courteous and concerned about the community.
Can we have freedom while standing on territory safeguarded by killing of innocents? Aren’t we losing a part of ourselves, when we allow innocent people to be victims of our warring governments? I feel so sad whenever I hear about people suffering because of the war. Just like in World War 2 when thousands of innocent Japanese civilians were killed by US bombs, I am distressed to know that children have died in Afghanistan during this conflict. Even hearing that the ten year old son of one of the Taliban leaders was killed distressed me. I don’t care who his father was – I do not want children to be cut down before they even get a chance to live. I have a young son about that age! I guess I lost my enthusiasm for this fighting at about the time the wrongful killings began.
I was reading an article in the SF Examiner yesterday about children – about 450 of them – in an orphanage in Kabul, Afghanistan. Most of the children had at least one parent, but that parent didn’t feel able to feed their child. So – there was a picture of little boys with smiling faces, eating plain rice for dinner. Is that all? Just rice? It was the only thing on their plates. It seems like the USA, land of prosperity, could do something to help those poor children return to their families with food in hand. How tragic for the people there, to be so destitute that they think their child will eat better in an institution.
What kind of freedom is this? I will never be free of the memory of these starving and dead children.
This was written for the April meeting of the Klamath River Writers. We were to bring something we had written about renewal.
“I don’t have time for renewal,” I told myself a million times in the last month. Nonetheless, springtime happened all around me. Flowers appeared and the buds of new fruit showed up on Manzanita and plum trees alike. The meadow outside my window turned green and eventually I took myself outside into all that beauty and found a comfortable spot for morning journal writing.
“No time for renewal,” I continued to protest, and yet my life was changing, reworking itself, morphing into something unlike anything I’d done before. I was swept up by the tide of my friends’ and neighbors’ enthusiasm and enrolled in a business class, then an EMT class — then… online… an Artists Way group, design group, and so much more.
My email program crashed this last week, ending my access to the last year of stored email, and though this seemed at the moment to be a disaster, in reality it was a blessing — I was forced to let go of the past and at the same time felt the joy of being released from it. An added bonus — my computer now runs better.
This email release started me over with a fresh, clean, new program, just like all good renewal does. Finally I went outside to the meadow, ready to write about renewal, and at that moment, the spring rain began to fall.
From the National Ifrastructure Protection Center:
1. Use strong passwords. Choose passwords that are difficult or impossible to guess. Give different passwords to all accounts.
2. Make regular backups of critical data. Backups must be made at least once each day. Larger organizations should perform a full backup weekly and incremental backups every day. At least once a month the backup media should be verified.
3. Use virus protection software. That means three things: having it on your computer in the first place, checking daily for new virus signature updates, and then actually scanning all the files on your computer periodically.
4. Use a firewall as a gatekeeper between your computer and the Internet. Firewalls are usually software products. They are essential for those who keep their computers online through the popular DSL and cable modem connections but they are also valuable for those who still dial in.
5. Do not keep computers online when not in use. Either shut them off or physically disconnect them from Internet connection.
6. Do not open e-mail attachments from strangers, regardless of how enticing the Subject Line or attachment may be. Be suspicious of any unexpected e-mail attachment from someone you do know because it may have been sent without that person’s knowledge from an infected machine.
7. Regularly download security patches from your software vendors.
It sometimes seems like a dream but it really happened! I had the most incredible place on earth to go through my youth, the beautiful mountains and clear creeks of Happy Camp. It has been 22 years since my parents dragged me kicking and screaming away from my childhood friends. I was 15 then. Idaho is nice but it was no replacement for what Happy Camp had to offer a boy in his youth.
When the movie “A River Runs Through it” came out I couldn’t help but be reminded of my own childhood. Thanks to my many friends, Eric Hokanson, Rusty Crocker, Tony Titus, Mouse (Wayne) Card, Lance Works, Ronnie White, Richie Bridenstein and many more, I have some of the most incredible memories. Anyone that can go a few yards from their home and have mountain creek swimming, a mountain for a play ground, and unlimited fishing holes knows how difficult it must have been to leave it all behind!
Every memory of growing up in Happy Camp brings a smile to my face. Everything from Kathy Burr giving me a bloody nose in 4th grade to teasing the bears with Eric Hokanson at the landfill. Nothing can replace the memory of playing flag football in the Crockers yard or floating tubes from our home on Indian creek to the Hokanson’s A frame. Few experiences in life have matched exploring the mountains or panning for gold on the banks of the Klamath. Where else can you be picking black berries and discover that a black bear is picking just on the other side of the bush! I have seen many logging trucks since I moved but never one that had a one log load! I have come to learn that there is nothing like a small home town football game. And Big Foot days, how could you replace that!
Thanks to the incredible aspects of Happy Camp and the wonderful people that I grew up with my childhood was like a dream. I often wonder about my old classmates and reminisce of old times. Too many times we allow life to run us over and we fail to do the really important things. Therefore, I thank you for the opportunity to avoid that mistake by expressing my sincere appreciation and love for my hometown and it’s good people.
My beautiful wife, 5 daughters and I will return to visit one day. Until then, may God bless you and find you all happy and well. Don’t take for granted what many people will never have the privilege of experiencing.
Happy Independence Day! It seems like a good time to introduce this new page to our website. Our country is 225 years old – not a long time, but enough time to really muck the government up a bit. Still, the foundation is solid, so hopefully things will get better in the future rather than continuing to deteriorate.
I know we at the new Happy Camp News should be reporting all the news, both good and bad, however since this is a new venture, I don’t want to tackle the controversial topics too soon. Part of me would like the whole world to think that Happy Camp has no problems. It is one of the most remote towns in California, a village of 1100 deep in the Klamath National Forest. We live seventy miles from the nearest California city, which is only about 7,000 people. To the north, we’re forty miles from a small town in Oregon.
I would like to think that people can go to a remote town in the forest and live a crime-free existence, with only good things happening. But reality is that even here, there are problems every now and then. Why, back in the seventies, there was even a bank robbery according to an old news article I read at the Siskiyou Historical Society Museum in Yreka. I can just imagine the robbers trying to make a “get-away” on the Klamath River Highway! How far did they get, anyway?
My plan for this online news service is to report on the good news to begin with. There’s plenty of that going on here, especially with all the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the founding of Happy Camp. Later, once I’m used to news writing again, I’ll probably feel motivated to report bad news too. Let’s just hope that this summer there won’t be anything “too” bad, that can’t be ignored.
My main news writing experience comes from working for a Libertarian newspaper in the Central Valley ten years ago. I have never been a member of a political party, so I’m not planning to feature any one political ideology over another, but I liked the newspaper’s philosophy of printing all the news, including news that the major dailies are afraid to print. Naturally here, I’m not selling advertising as the print newspapers must do, so I won’t be constrained by worries about losing my major advertising income if I say the wrong thing. Also there’s no corporate interests owning this news service, dictating what I can or cannot print. I like that. [Happy Camp News started as a public service venture.]
I have my issues I would like to write about, but am holding off, in large part because I know they are not your issues. I would like for the website to reflect the many opinions of the people in this forest, and hope some of you will feel motivated to write something for your neighbors to read here.
Thank you for your new e-publishing venture with Happy Camp focus!
I had to miss the Bigfoot Byway Dedication due to driving a car full of teenagers to San Francisco for Acquire the Fire at the Cow Palace. I was very glad to read Debbie’s remarks.
The only problem with John Titus’ account of how Happy Camp got its name is that our town was called Happy Camp over a decade before the incident in John Titus’ story. No doubt the name Happy Camp intrigued the Camp brothers (John and Heil) to come here and they did build the brick building for their business in partnership with John Titus.
Before the prospectors that settled the town renamed it Happy Camp in July of 1851 it was called “Murderer’s Bar.” So glad they changed it!
Looking forward to seeing more of your Happy Camp News!
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