Voices of the Valley - Documentaries

Andres Favela

Beth & Walter Tuttle

Billy Owens

Bobby Glover


Wayne McGimsey	- 1000k
	- 1200k

Katy: This is Katy Bradford—

Daniel:––and Daniel Gowan––

Katy:––student historians from Anderson Valley High School’s North Coast Rural Challenge Network’s Oral History Project. We’re here today with

Wayne McGimsey. Thank you, Mr. McGimsey, for inviting us into your home to talk with you.

Daniel: You are one of the oldest people in Anderson Valley to have been born here. Would you tell us when and where you were born?

Mr. McGimsey: I was born in the very upper end of Anderson Valley on what is now the Bradford Ranch. My home was just this side of where the forestry station sits today, which is the old Henry Beeson place, and that was part of the old ranch, and my home was just this side of the old Beeson place.

Katy: Would you describe what Boonville was like back then?

Mr. McGimsey: Boonville back then was a mud hole in the wintertime, and then hard rock in the summer. What I mean by that is they used to call the street of Boonville Mud Creek, because it ran a stream right down the middle of the street and it was always muddy. And in the summer it got so hard you could hit it with a sledgehammer and not break it.
The first business at that time—the main businesses—were eating-places and beer-drinking places––whiskey houses, in other words. (Laughs). The first one that I remember in those times that was a business up right opposite the Fairgrounds. We used to call it the septic tank. I don’t know what they called it later. And anyway, just down the street from there was the Fairgrounds, and beyond the Fairgrounds was J.T. Farrer’s store. It sat right across the street here from this house. Then there was part of the ol’ stage barns, of the early days. Beyond that was Howard June’s old house, beyond that was the old Hotel, and that was the last business that I remember in Boonville on that side of the street—well. On the opposite side of the street we’ll start at Weise’s Valley Inn, which burned down. Isn’t there anymore. Then came J.T Farrer’s which––the building is still there––restored, but it’s still there. And it is not the same as it was at the time that I knew it. It had a porch completely around it when I knew it , which I was told, was wrong when it was done. But they later found a picture of it, clear around. So they came and apologized to me. But I used to play on that porch with the roof over it, when I was a little bit of a kid, so I know it was there. Next to that was the butcher shop, McGimsey and Kindell’s butcher shop. And the icehouse, where they made ice, and sold meat. Next to that was the Anderson Valley—I think they called it—the Anderson Valley Inn. I’m not sure. Next to that was the Chevron station, and next to that was Bivens’ Store, which is the store right next to us here. And before Bivens was there, that was where the old Anytime Saloon stayed. I was too young to remember the old Anytime Saloon. But I used to get haircuts from old Luster Bivens. For five cents…and he’d always give me a candy bar, when I’d get a haircut. (Laughs) Then there was this house which was built by the—the Tarwater’s lived in it at that time, but it was built by other––I’ll think of the name later, probably. Then there was the building right next door, but it wasn’t there at that time. Then next door, which is the church now, was Kat Tarwater’s garage. And that’s the last building that I remember, as a kid. The other buildings were all built afterwards, up as far as the old Wallach house. The old Wallach house was there, but it was back in the field.

Daniel: What did they keep in the garage—where the church is—what did they keep there? What kind of a garage?

Mr. McGimsey: Well, he built anything––anything anybody wanted. He worked on cars, he built ‘em a wrecking truck.

Katy: And all these houses before Boonville? Did they start up where the forestry station is now? Or were they right in this town?

Mr. McGimsey: The forestry station?

Katy: Did they start up by the Forestry Station? Or were they in this town?

Mr. McGimsey: Those buildings were all right here in town except where I named them from the forestry station up this way. The actual original Tarwater garage was up at the forks of the road where 128 meets…

Daniel: What was transportation like in the Valley when you were born?

Mr. McGimsey: Very poor…mostly horses and wagons. There was very few cars. And finally, one or two of the people got to buyin’ cars. My father, who was a butcher, had a buggy and a team of horses that he delivered his meat he butchered with. The old slaughterhouse, just an old slaughterhouse, was right by where the forestry station is now, too. Anyway, transportation was awful hard in them days. Even wagons would get stuck in what they called Dobey Lane. That’s the straight piece of road just on the other side of the Ukiah Road. And cars could hardly ever get through in the wintertime. And one of the first ones to bring a car in was a fella by the name of Bill Hotel. He was going by our place one day and Dad was out there workin’ on somethin’ with his wagon and old Jim looked up to holler at him just to say hello and old Bill Hotel he turned around and looked and was headed out right for that creek down there on the other side of the house. He turned right bottom end up in it! (Laughs). Dad went runnin’ down there and said, “You hurt, Bill?” He says, “No, no, I’m not hurt, I’m not hurt a bit. Damn black gnat just got in my eye!” (Laughs). So that’s about what the transportation was in Boonville in those days. There was no pavement on the road in those days. That was before it was paved.

Katy: I remember when we were here the other day, you were telling us how long it would take to get to what is now San Francisco.

Mr. McGimsey: Yeah…

Katy: How long did it take?

Mr. McGimsey: (Laughs) Two or, it would take, I can’t rightly tell you the exact hours on that, but it would take four or five days; to make the full trip it would take a couple of weeks if you did anything.

Katy: Can you tell use about the old gristmill that used to be here in the Valley?

Mr. McGimsey: The old gristmill? I know very little about the gristmill because it was here and gone before I was born. But it was where Mill Creek in Philo got its name, was from the old gristmill. It didn’t get its name from the old sawmill that was there. It got its name from the old gristmill. And the old machinery for that old gristmill, I have never been able to locate. So it’s somewhere right near there, in that creek somewhere. And somebody ought to find that because that’s the only gristmill that was ever in Anderson Valley.

Katy: And the mill was here before 1918 when you were born?

Mr. McGimsey: That’s right, that’s right. That is correct. And they took the—they hauled the grain and the feed, stuff that they wanted ground––to the mill on horse and wagon. Then they ground it and hauled it out by horse and wagon.

Daniel: What did they grind there?

Mr. McGimsey: Corn, wheat, oats, anything you wanted ground, they ground it.

Daniel: How did they get it there? With the horse and buggy?

Mr. McGimsey: Horse and buggy… they took their horse and wagon and hitched up the horse and hauled ‘em.

Daniel: You’ve known quite a few families, old time families…can you tell us a story about one or two of them?

Mr. McGimsey: Well…over on the Bradford Ranch—you know that one…and I bet your folks haven’t heard this one, either. (Laughs). Some people lived there by the name of Hutsell––when the house out this way from where you live––there used to be a house…it burnt down. I don’t know whether you remember it or not. But it burnt down…you know where it was, people have told you where it was.

Katy: Yeah, I know where it was.

Mr. McGimsey: And it’s just before where you would go up to where the old barn was, and he had a boy named Bob Hutsell who used to run around with my brother. Anyway, Bob went to the coast abaloneing. He had a car, I think it was an old Buick, I think he drove. Anyway, he didn’t get back when he was supposed to, when he said he would. And usually when people in them days told you they were gonna be a certain place at a certain time, they did it. You could depend on ‘em. And nowadays you wait most of the time. But anyway, he didn’t get back, and when he didn’t get back, people got to worrying about him. It got dark and he didn’t get back! Finally a bunch of them decided they better get together and go lookin’ and see if they could find him. And they found him down between Boonville and Philo walking up the road and asked him what was wrong. He said, “ I just shot my car!” “What?” “ I just shot my car!” “What do you mean?” “Well, I was coming down the hill over there and there was a real nice buck over there, and it jumped off the hill and hit right on my radiator, and I pulled out my pistol and I shot him!” “Did you get him?” “Yeah I got him!” “How’d you get your car?” “Well, I shot it, too!” One of the bullets went right through and shot his distributor! He had to walk clear home about halfway over to Greenwood. (Laughs). They lived right on the old place there. (Laughs).

Katy: How has Anderson Valley changed in your lifetime? Is it bigger, or is it smaller?

Mr. McGimsey: It’s just bigger. The only time I ever seen it bigger is when all the mills were in here. And when they were in here I’d say it was bigger percentage of people than it is now. Other than that, the Valley hasn’t changed…it’s still here! Every foot, every little piece of it is still here. A few more houses, a few more people. But it’s still here.
Daniel: I noticed—could you tell us a little more about your brothers?
Mr. McGimsey: My oldest brother there is Harry. (Indicates photo) He’s a minister, lives down in Hemet, California now. My second brother there is Glen. Can’t see good…this is from left to right. Harry, myself (I’ve got the watch on), my brother Glen, and my younger brother, Douglas. Harry’s a minister, Glen was killed in the Army, and Doug passed away about two months ago. And Harry and I are the two left. Also had a brother, Fred, and two sisters, Violet and Faye (also deceased).

Daniel: Was it World War II?

Mr. McGimsey: World War II, he was killed in World War II.

Daniel: Why did you decide to stay here in the Valley?

Mr. McGimsey: Because I love the Valley, and I love the people. You’ll never find better people on earth than you’ll find right here in Anderson Valley. That isn’t to say you won’t find a good one once in awhile, but that’s the 99th one of 100—99 percent of them are real people. But I found that if you respect them, they respect you.

Katy: What are some of your most memorable moments in Anderson Valley?

Mr. McGimsey: I have so many of them, that’s a hard one to come up with.

Daniel: Can you tell us any stories about your life here?

Mr. McGimsey: What about it? Just what I did? I did anything I could do to eat…at times, and I made a little money at times. If I didn’t make money, I could always make enough to eat.

Daniel: What about this house? Do you know much about it?

Mr. McGimsey: All I know is it was one of the oldest in Boonville. Now it’s one of the oldest. I’m not saying it’s the oldest, but it’s one of the oldest. And I’m trying again to think of who built that…I have their pictures, of the people that built it. And they are still in the old big frames that they used to put the pictures in.

Daniel: Was it Clement?

Mr. McGimsey: Clement, Clement built it.

Katy: How about any stories about the telephone lines, when they first came to Anderson Valley?

Mr. McGimsey: Well, first when they came, a fella by the name of Bucky Walter put ‘em in. That’s where it got the name Bucky Walter in Boontling. After that, everybody just got to buyin’ the old ring phones. They had a box, and it would ring one long and three shorts for this one, and three shorts for another, and three shorts and a long for another, three or four shorts for whatever. And they’d just make up their own ring, and let everybody know, and when they wanted to call that person, they would call that person. And everybody in the Valley would run to the phone, to get the message. That’s how we all knew what was happening in Boonville (Laughs). Might as well be honest, we did it! (Laughs).

Daniel: Can you tell us any stories about going to school in Anderson Valley?

Mr. McGimsey: I started my first day of school in this school. Right up here–– that’s the Veterans’ Hall now. That’s where I first went to school. And I only went to school until I was in the fourth grade. Then I quit and went to work. Anyway, I used to walk from my house to school every morning and evening. That’s where I found a lot of my artifacts, too. It’s suprising what can be found between here and there. And as far as schooling, I can’t tell you much about school, because I never had much schooling.

Katy: We heard that you have quite a collection of Indian artifacts, arrowheads and things. Can you tell us about them?

Mr. McGimsey: Well, it’s just like I told you, I found ‘em just walkin’ around the Valley. They’re all over this Valley, you can find ‘em anywhere.

Katy: Do you have a large collection?

Mr. McGimsey: Quite a large collection. There’s part of them, right behind you there, (gestures) and the rest of them, the main part of the big ones, are outside, along the fence. Any time you want to come look at them, you can. And see what you’re lookin’ for. It’s an artifact, I don’t know what it is, all I know is it’s an artifact. That’s what I wanna find out––what is it?

Daniel: I was told that they used Boontling in the Army. Can you tell us some about that?

Mr. McGimsey: The Boontling? Oh, they used that in the service to send messages around. When they wanted to send the message they’d send it in Boontling and they’d never be able to decode it!

Daniel: Because it didn’t make any sense?

Mr. McGimsey: Because it didn’t make any sense to nobody. Just the people that knew the Boontling were the only ones who could decode it. You had to know it to decode it.

Daniel: You’ve done quite a few things to make a living. Can you list some of them for us? Some of the jobs?

Mr. McGimsey: I think you could list that better than I could. I’ve done pretty near everything to make a living.

Daniel: Could you just give us some examples?

Mr. McGimsey: I’ve ranched; I’ve logged; I’ve fished.

Daniel: What kind of things did you do in ranching?

Mr. McGimsey: I ran ranches!

Daniel: Ran the whole thing?

Mr. McGimsey: Ran the whole thing, lock, stock, and barrel.

Katy: Can you tell us how logging was done, when you were working in the woods when you––

Mr. McGimsey: Muddy! Muddy! When I was young I worked in the woods, and when I first started working the woods, you’d go out there and then come home and dump the mud out of your boots in the evening. It was awful hard to log in the early days. Some logs we’d have to dig holes with the tractor to back the truck into to load the log on. It was just hard work in those days.

Katy: How long would it take you to cut down, like, a really, really big tree?

Mr. McGimsey: A real, real big tree?

Katy: Yeah.

Mr. McGimsey: The biggest one I ever worked on was seven days.

Katy: Seven days to get it down, or––

Mr. McGimsey: Seven days to get it on the ground, and save it.

Daniel: What were some of the names of the tools that you used in the woods? And how did you use them?

Mr. McGimsey: Which one do you want the name of? There’s something… I know it’s back there somewhere––(gets out photographs). That’s a logging arch. Yeah, that’s what it is. This is the one I told you, bundled the—piled the logs up and then put the choker around them and come up, lifted them off the ground. And we hauled them in, instead of drug ’em in. It keeps the mud off them. So that we wouldn’t tear the soil to pieces. These are drag saws. They’re the ones before the chain saw, the drag saw was. This here, this tool’s an adz. It’s a big chisel that they used for when they’s building the big trestles and stuff, or the bridges, or the railroads and highways. This is a broad ax. Can’t see that next one, but this is an adz and this is an adz––that’s for chiseling out wood for chawpher hewing and these are falling wedges for big trees, and these are splitting wedges, and this is called a cant hook, a doggin’ hook. And this here is an ox yoke. That’s what they used on the ol’ oxes––the chain fit right here that pulled the logs, and these fit over the ox’s neck. All them tools you can see them over at the Fairgrounds. They are all over there; they’re on the displays.

Daniel: There was a team of two oxes?

Mr. McGimsey: There could be anywhere from two to twenty.

Katy: Did you use all of those tools?

Mr. McGimsey: I’ve used all the tools there, except the ox yoke. I never did use an ox yoke. I’ve seen ’em. I seen the last ones Port Lawson used––last ones I ever seen used. He’s the same one that built the Lawson flyer, that big cable thing that picks logs up and swings it. They use it all over. Breeches buoy, actually.

Mr. Mendosa: Breeches buoy?

Mr. McGimsey: Breeches buoy, actually, is what it’s patterned off of. He took that, and they turned the train over out in Comptche, turned the engine over, and the cable company he worked for told him that he couldn’t rig cables strong enough to put that back on the track without breaking the cable. And he said, “You just send me the cable rig and we’ll take care of that.” Took him a couple of weeks, but he went out and he got it all ready and set and he gave him the signal to hoist her up. And they picked it up and set it right back on the track.

Mr. Mendosa: You said it was modeled after a breeches buoy, is that what you said?

Mr. McGimsey: Breeches buoy is about the same thing. Breeches buoy was invented actually to take lumber from the shores out to boats. And I was looking at a picture here that I was going through yesterday of the last lumber schooner that I seen wreck over on the coast, loaded with lumber, over at the blowhole.

Katy: You told us the other day that a person can learn just about anything from nature. Can you describe what you meant by that?

Mr. McGimsey: Just exactly what I said, honey. Now you think, now, where do your thoughts come from? You. And what are you if you aren’t nature? Now I can’t—that didn’t come over to you, but a person can do anything that they make up their mind to do if it’s humanly possible––if they make up their mind to do it. It’s natural; you’re born with that in you. You can be a sweetheart or you can be a heel.
Daniel: Thank you very much, Mr. McGimsey, for allowing us to come into your home and talk with you. This has been Daniel Gowan––

Katy:––and Katy Bradford in Anderson Valley for the North Coast Rural Challenge Network Oral History Project.

Mr. McGimsey: And I thank you kids for coming by.

Wayne McGimsey passed away the week following this interview. To the end, he was extremely giving of his time and energy to the youth of our community as he had done for decades. Even though he was not able to convey his many colorful stories in the manner most familiar to Valley residents, he gave of himself fully for the benefit of others despite the incredible pain he endured during the pre-interviews and interview recording session. We feel very honored that Mr. McGimsey shared some of his last breaths with us. We hope that this will serve as a permanent reminder of the genuine character of such a great man.