The Death of Smith

Thursday morning I went to hear Chris O'Sullivan, who is giving a well-attended series of talks on California history.  These talks in Healdsburg are better than going to a movie. Chris has everything organized short of a light show, and his commentary is for mature audiences only. For example, when I was young we were taught a sanitized version of California history, which left me feeling sorry for John Sutter, who was so nice to the newly arrived Americans and then lost everything when gold was discovered. Now I find out that Sutter had enslaved local Indians and had deserted his family in Europe and was a crummy dude in most ways.

I've learned that when the Americans arrived in California, they sneaked into a foreign country without passports, visas or permission, and they weren't welcome. The Latinos took pity on them and let them stay, although the Americans were in fact illegal aliens.  

We talked a bit about the early explorer Jedediah Smith.

Thursday evening I attended a meeting of the Democratic club in what used to be, Chris claims, the town of Poor Man's Flats (now rather feebly called Windsor). At the meeting a representative of State Senator Mike McGuire told us that Mike had introduced a bill on the fate of the Smith (Jedediah Smith) River, the last truly pristine river in California. The Smith begins in Oregon and crosses into California, and it seems that Oregon might be on the verge of authorizing a strip mining operation on the edge of the river. It will be sad if it turns out that Oregon kills the Smith.