“Negro” Bill’s Cabin

While I was hiking in Rich Gulch, in the Jacksonville Woodlands in Southern Oregon, I walked a little ways above the former mining works to the area called Frenchman’s Gulch. It got that name due to the numbers of French families who made their way into the area in the 19th and very early 20th centuries. There are several interpretive signs there which include maps of the area. One small square on those maps is marked “Negro Bill’s Cabin.”

I knew that Jacksonville had at one point been a very ethnically varied town, as many are that attract people due to the possibility of making money. Jacksonville in the 1850s was the biggest gold rush between Sutter’s Mill and the Klondike. There were Jewish families, Chinese and black, though many, most in fact, left after the gold petered out.

I wanted to find out more about this Bill so I contacted the Southern Oregon Historical Society (SOHS) at the Jacksonville Museum and the Jacksonville Woodlands Association.

It turns out that on the original U.S. Land Office mining maps, the cabin was identified as “N/gger Bill’s Cabin.” (Not the preferred nomenclature, Dude.)

Larry Smith, president of the Jacksonville Woodlands Association told me they wrestled with that for a bit, not wishing to be ahistorical but also not wanting to post that word on a sign that would exist without sufficient context. They settled on “Negro Bill’s cabin.”

Carol Harbison-Samuelson, formerly Library Manager and Photo Archivist for the SOHS, was good enough to do some research on this topic.

Our collection includes an 1867 road work book that lists “colored men” working on the roads and the amount they were paid ~ a man named Bill is listed. In the county commissioner’s journal of December 5th of 1877 a request is made to pay, “Mr. William Short (colored) $2.50 for cleaning the court house and county jail.” In the Jackson County census of 1870 and 1880 ~ Mr. William Short (black) is listed as living in the Jacksonville Precinct. In the 1870 census he is listed as 40 years old and in the 1880 census he is listed as being 51 years of age. I imagine he is the same man as “Negro Bill” because the other black men have different names ~ I find only one William or Bill. Perhaps you can get an idea where his cabin was by looking at the census records.

So, chances are not bad that our Bill is the William Short in the 1870 census.

I subsequently checked the burial list of the Jacksonville Cemetery, at Bill’s suggestion, and found the same William Short listed.

Short     William

05/07/1902    City        7     6

WV

Age at Death - 74 years. Colored.

He was born in 1828 in West Virginia, no doubt a slave, and died 74 years later. He was buried in the City section of the Jacksonville Cemetery, in Block 7, Plot 6.

I’m hoping to find out whether this William Short is the Bill who had the cabin and, if so, find additional information about him in the census records, as Carol suggested, and in microfilm of Jacksonville’s numerous old newspapers. If it’s not him, I hope to find out who was and what their life was like.

Twittering My Bafflement

If I had the slightest shred of cool to squander (and thought doodaddery was in fact cool), I would tremble at the daunting notion of making the following utterance. Since I’m militantly uncool and effortlessly contrarian, I’ll probably get through it somehow.

I am utterly dumbfounded by Twitter.

So. With Twitter you…tell people what you’re doing, via phone or computer, and then it publishes it, in, like one sentence pronouncements? Am I missing something? And then you can…publish a feed to this gold? And put it on your blog? And subscribe to [had to stop to laugh, honestly] other peoples’?

Holy crap.

Marshall tried to tell me it was Good. Of course, he was high again, from yet another day spent sprawled on a piece of soiled cardboard under the Burnside Bridge huffing gas off a rag.

I should say, I like Evan. I used Blogger and Odeo (one more than the other). I thought his buyback of Odeo was innovative and sensible and I especially appreciated his support of Blogswana. But that notwithstanding, and Zeitgeist or keiner Zeitgeist, I get the same feeling looking at Twitter as I do when I see people nodding thoughtfully at performance art, a narcotic combination of derangement of the senses and emperor’s new clothes.

So, with all due respect, what the fuck?

Twitter

Precipitous Increase in Governmental Filtering of the Internet

According to an article on the BBC news site, governmental increase in Internet filtering (structural censorship) has increased markedly.

“In five years we have gone from a couple of states doing state-mandated net filtering to 25,” said John Palfrey, at Harvard Law School.

Drawing on studies by the OpenNet Initiative, the article publishes the following list of countries in which ONI has found filtering.

Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Burma/Myanmar, China, Ethiopia, India, Iran, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, UAE, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Yemen.

The article talks about a survey (no indication if it’s recent or not) that ONI did that studied 41 countries. I couldn’t find that survey on ONI’s website. That may be due to a website redesign combined with the fact I don’t want to spend all day rooting around on it.

filtering, ONI, internet, free_speech, censorship

This claim has yet to be independently verified

In the last several years, whenever a group or person in Iraq has issued a statement, there is often a phrase I’ve heard on TV and radio, and read in newspaper articles, in magazines and online news sites that accompanies it. Sometimes it comes from reporters and other times from officials.

This claim has yet to be independently verified.

Who is it exactly who verifies terrorist claims in Iraq? A person, persons, a group or groups? How ‘independent’ is this verification? What method or methods are used to verify these claims? Are they graphological? Do they trace I.P. addresses? Do they evaluate the language that is used? Do they use sources to track who is saying what? Are different methods used in different situations?

We’ve all heard this phrase but has it ever been explained? I think it hasn’t. It almost reads as a caveat, as if to say, “We’re treating a rumor like news but by phrasing it like this it’s somehow less like InTouch.” When you hear it, it has the feel of authority. “Don’t worry, someone somewhere somehow will make sure this is true.” But who exactly? And where, when and how will they do so? So far as I can tell? No one, nowhere, never and not.

journalism, MSM

Daily Constitutional #1: Jacksonville Woodlands, Rich Gulch

Although it’s not a great photo, this place, the Jacksonville Woodlands, is my favorite place to hike. It’s a rink of privately-acquired (though publicly accessible) woods surrounding the historic town of Jacksonville, Oregon, where part of my family is from.

I wrote up my favorite hike there as a sample for a column I was planning to try with the Medford Mail Tribune. Since I’ve accepted the job in Eugene with a large independent video game developer and publisher, I won’t be writing it for them. Hopefully, someone else will. As for me, I think, when the mood takes me, I’ll just do it here. Consider this the first installment of my “Daily Constitutional.”

Daily Constitutional #1

If you spend too much time in front of the TV, as I have done lately, your impression of fitness will wind up pretty skewed. According to the square oracle, the only way a person like you or I can get fit is to purchase something, usually something large and expensive, and then spend either hours a day on it or, less convincingly, minutes. But most doctors agree that you can grab great health gains from a simple activity that the overwhelming majority of us know how to do, even if we do it too seldom: walking.

When I say walking, I don’t mean hiking, even less snowshoeing or mountain climbing. A good walk of half and hour to an hour each day can result in weight loss, lowering of blood pressure, reduction of stress and strengthening of muscles. So, my plan is to put my feet where my mouth is (without actually putting my foot in my mouth, though no promises there). I’ll give you a nice, simple, easily-accessible walk to do somewhere in the area each day. If you take the walk, chime in on our online forums and tell us what you thought. If you have a walk to suggest, write me and let me know.

The Jacksonville Woodlands. Rich Gulch Trail. Two Miles Round Trip. Moderate

Over the past 17 years the Jacksonville Woodlands Association has secured and maintained 20 pieces of land surrounding the town of Jacksonville. They’ve created low-impact trails, trail maps (available for a buck at trailheads) and even in some places put in interpretive signage.

The Rich Gulch trail is one of my favorites. When I go to Jville, I drive up Highway 99, take a left on Old Stage Road, jog right on Griffin Creek and left back onto Stage, then come into town on California Street. At the far end of town, take a left on Oregon Street, an immediate right on Pine, an immediate left again on First, then another right after the Britt Festival grounds. Park in the lot at the trailhead.

From the trailhead at the map box, head out across the flat land through a widely-spaced oak forest, keeping to the left of the old water tank. Eventually, you’ll work your way up the slope, birdsong usually your only companion. Walk on, along the side of a little pine valley. As you come up to Rich Gulch itself, the site of a great deal of the gold mining that put Jacksonville on the map, you will see an area gated off with waist-high metal fencing. That’s one of the sinkholes created when local residents returned to gold mining during the depths of the Great Depression. The hole, ten feet wide and twice as deep, yields an unexpected occupant, the body of an old car.

Twelve interpretive signs will give you interesting information on the mining history of the area.

Walk a few feet further on and look down to the right. That’s Petard Ditch, that carried water for mining from Jackson Creek, hand dug by the miners. Now look to the left. There’s a ridge there and if you walk up to it, you’ll see it was the retaining wall for the small reservoir in front of it. There, the water would be stored, allowing pressure to build up. In the summer time (after the main gold mining died out) it was used as a swimming hole by local kids.

Across the further ridge you’ll see the main diggings. Here the water, whose pressure had built up in the reservoir, was loosed in soil-stripping gushes through great hoses, washing the dirt of the sides of the gulch and into the “long Tom” and other sluicing boxes to separate the gold.

Mining changed the area. It created fascinating, and in some cases even beautiful, effects, though it took its toll as well. The land is not the same as it was before the gold rush.

From the diggings, you can head back the same way your came, or take your pick of further walks. The half-mile Frenchman Mine Loop will take you up over the valley where many early French pioneers lived, ranched and, yes, made wines from the vineyards they planted, long before Rogue Valley wines had won any awards. In the other direction, the 1.5 Petard Ditch Loop will take you to Jackson Creek.

Walking is man’s best medicine. –Hippocrates, Greek physician, 5th century B.C.

[We're going over to do the Petard Ditch Trail tomorrow. Perhaps I'll write that up and ask S. to take a decent photo. Once back in Eugene, I'll do Mt. Pisgah, my favorite place to walk in that area.]

Jacksonville, Jacksonville_Woodlands, hiking, Oregon, fitness

100 Peaks Over 7,800 Feet in Oregon

Some time ago I came across a great article by Jeff Howbert on the Mazamas’ web site. (The Mazamas are a 113-year old Northwest mountain-climbing organization.)

Want to make a couple of quick bucks? Here’s a bar bet almost any Washington climber should jump at. The conversation would go something like this…After swapping lies for awhile, you casually observe, “Boy, there’s a lot of high mountains down in Oregon, too. In fact, I heard there’s almost a hundred that are over 8000 feet high.” Your climbing buddy/victim will probably deny this without even thinking about it. “Nah, no way!”

In fact, it’s true. Check out Jeff’s piece on the Mazamas site and then check out their list of Oregon’s 100 Highest Peaks.

Oregon, peaks, mountains, Mazamas

Site Architecture & Strategy

I am occasionally charged by clients with creating the design and strategy for a website they have planned, or with helping them reach a goal toward which I think a website of some sort is the best avenue.

Below is the outline for a site devoted to filling holes in news coverage that I created for a large media concern. The goal is to identify, write up and pitch stories that fall through the gaps, as well as to identify and aggregate more diverse sources, in order to create a resource for show producers to bring their shows more into line with the concerns, and makeup, of their audience, (who, shockingly, are not all straight, white, middle-class Christian men in the 50s from the East Coast).

Architecture and features

The Site’s purpose is to provide coverage of, perspectives by and sources for groups and topics that are underrepresented in the company’s coverage.

The Site is, in essence, a blog. It would share many of the common components and the structure of a blog. But it goes off-page. Among the duties of the editor is, once the stories are written or gathered, sources are identified, and material is posted, to reach out actively to producers, reporters and anchors.

Elements of The Site

* Publishing done in posts: immediacy, RSS
* Posts in reverse chronological order
* Posts assigned to categories: topical navigation
* Posts tagged: topical navigation
* Permalinks: sharable
* Comment fields: conversation
* Feeds: convenience
* Photos
* Podcasting: downloadable, live voice, presence
* Videocasting: downloadable, live voice, presence
* Topic feeds: I could create feeds that pull from news sources, blogs and other sites (using keywords and phrases) to catch and deliver newly published pieces on issues of immediate use

Architecture of The Site

* Two or three column
* Posts in center column
* Blogroll in right column
* Additional tools (topic feeds, etc.) in left column if three, otherwise in right

Additional elements of The Site

* Pitching: selling the stories internally
* Guest authors: specific topics and unique specialist perspectives
* Posted feed pages (pages where the topical feeds are automatically posted in readable posts)
* Digg-style ratings system
* Accessibility: although as editor I will often be busy writing and putting together stories, a larger proportion than usual of my time must be dedicated to fielding, and in some cases, soliciting contributions from readers; My email address, physical location and I.M. address should be published; get-togethers should be scheduled and/or “office hours” for drop-in visits
* Wiki for collaborative authorship, discussion and preservation of The Site’s activities
* Feed other company coverage into the Site, such as the content from specific programs, reporters covering related issues as well as reporters not specifically dedicated to “diversity” issues (military reporters, economic reporters); have the Site act as a clearinghouse for information that fulfills the company’s coverage needs.

Coverage

Coverage in The Site will provide the company’s editorial staff with specifics where they may beforehand have spoken in generalities. The following are both subjects of coverage, as well as an implied audience for coverage. That is, not only will The Site provide a source for learning more about these groups and the individuals that form them, and about the areas and the people who live in them. It will also inform the editorial staff about the concerns of the individuals involved, concerns that beforehand may have been either underrepresented or not covered at all due to an lack of familiarity.

* Ethnic minorities and their members
* Religious communities and their worshipers
* Underrepresented geographic areas and their inhabitants
* Underrepresented social and economic classes and their members
* The elderly
* Native Americans
* Immigrant groups and their members

Authorship & style

* The editor will be the author of most of the posts
* Guest authors will be invited; they will include both representatives of and authorities on the coverage groups, as well as the company’s editorial employees who have done stories on coverage groups
* Commenting will be actively solicited and encouraged among the readers
* Style will depend on the type of post and the author; but in a blog, unlike most journalism, the accessibility and personality of the author is a benefit, not a liability; after all, this is not merely a conduit for information, it is a space for vital conversations
* Types of materials on offer will include brief posts consisting of simple references to other material, interviews, complete articles, analysis, hard news

Development

* Establish text posts
* Add audio (podcasting)
* Add video (vlogcasting)
* Accept and publish independent stories (from non-Site company personnel)
* Host roundtables with live blogging/video coverage

journalism, diversity, coverage, site_architecture

Dinosaur Jr.

I went into a record store and tried to find something new to listen to. I wanted something loud, something that leaned forward. In desperation, I grabbed Beyond, a new record by Dinosaur Jr. I was never a huge fan of the band. They were fine, someone I knew even played bass for them for a while, but it was a time of great competition. There were a lot of bands worth listening to in the 90s. To my great shock, the record is actually good. It’s better than good. Mostly “mature” is an adjective best employed by critics. To the rest of us, it usually just means dull. But there’s a sense of texture to the songs on the record you can’t usually get without finding you’ve survived disappointments with your fuck-you engine in tact. This record has that.

punk, rock, DinosaurJr

Journalism acc. to T. Pratchett

Leave it to a guy who writes about wizards and trolls to come up with one of the truer statements about journalism I’ve yet to read.

“Well, I wrote the article in the Times!” he snapped. “And what’s in there is what I say! Me! Because I found things out, and checked things, and people who say ‘ing’ a lot tried to kill me! I’m not the man that’s the brother of some man you met in the pub! I’m not some stupid rumor put about to make trouble! So just remember that, before you try any of that ‘everyone knows’ stuff! And in an hour or so I’ve got to go up to the Palace and see Commander Vimes and whoever is the Patrician and a lot of other people, to get this whole thing sorted out! And it’s not going to be very nice, but I’m going to have to do it, because I wanted you to know things that are important!“

As Thomas Paine once said, “Fuckin’ A.”

journalism, Discworld

Latest Publications: Bullfighting in Locals Guide, Raw Food for Ashland Daily Tidings

My two latest publications are available online. They are Five in the Afternoon: In Spain, the Bullfight is more than just a relic (page eight) in LocalsGuide and Raw food means healthy food for Ashland family in the Ashland Daily Tidings.

Living currently in Ashland, it didn’t take long to receive the first letter complaining that the bullfighting article was a glorification of the activity. To quote Mrs. Lovejoy, “Won’t someone please think about the children!” And man, regarding the raw food article, there are a lot of people who hate Tony B. Makes me love him just a little bit more, if that’s possible.

journalism, publications, bullfighting, raw_food