STUDIO NEGOTIATIONS

My friend, Paul Moeller is in a physical therapy unit in Sonora after a fall that broke his femur at the hip. He is 88 years old. I met him in 1980 when he was putting together a calendar of local activities and events to promote interest in the county. He did this as a volunteer and he came to visit my writer's workshop. I had a batch of kittens at the time, and he took one of them home for his wife.

In 1982, he asked for volunteers to videotape events in the county and I answered the call. I later joked, that once he got his grip on you, there was no escape. Hardworking, indomitable, always a positive thinker, results oriented...it is to his vision and credit, a small rural county has a Public Access Studio while large cities like Stockton and Modesto do not.


The Paul Moeller Studio was built by all we volunteers on an undeveloped lot owned by the Calaveras County Water District.  The CCWD Board granted permission for the studio out of respect for Moeller's  dedication and hard work. He taped the North Fork dam, a federal project with CCWD as one of the integral water interests involved. The video taping continued for over a year during that project.

The County Board of Supervisors named the Studio after Moeller years later as a thankful honorarium. He has so many visitors, people at the rehabilitation center, ask,"Is he famous?"  We laugh and say, "yes."


Yesterday, I met with Ed Lark, the studio manager and Robert Creamer, an engineer from CCWD. Our volunteer group is negotiating to buy the land under the studio which involves separating the "back lot" from the rest of CCWD property. They want to sell their old office buildings. They've moved to new quarters but our interests are tied together.


It involves, relocating water lines, surveying and conveying a new lot, access to the property that doesn't go through the front part of their lot and so on.  Negotiations have been ongoing  since 2005. There are three volunteers left. None of us do programming anymore. Government works slowly. I rarely visit the studio for any length of time, but yesterday, I wanted to tromp the property and see for myself what the engineer had in mind.


The engineer is very knowledgeable and accommodating and I got an education in planning. While interesting to me, probably boring to anyone else. But, the way the studio was built is an  unconventional story.

We had no funds so we charged $60 to put a program on channel. That money came from local businesses. There was no advertising, but the sponsors got credit for supporting each program. We operated that way for about ten years.

Moeller and a  supportive business man, Mearl Lucken, talked the bank into giving us a loan to build our studio.  The plan was for the Bret Harte High School woodshop class to build the studio labor free, for their education. When the foundation was done, school was over, the kids disappeared and Moeller decided we had to have a new plan.

The economy was in a slump. Enter local contractor Gary Hensley from Valley Springs. He had very little work. He quizzed Moeller about how much money he made from CCTV. When he learned that Moeller and all 230 volunteers, received nary a penny, he agreed to build the studio. His crew of five came early each morning, and worked for half a day. Volunteers handed up boards as the studio rose.
They made the workers lunch. It was a jolly time.
The inside, sheet rock, plumbing and air conditioning and so on, was done by contractors who worked for reduced prices to support our non-profit. The complicated electrical was done by Moeller himself.   The rest, as they say, is history. An amazing community effort.   What keeps me involved is respect for Moeller, and knowing that he accomplished all the above by dint of his personality and at the same time, he did other volunteer work in the county as well. Indefatigable.

BLAINE COUTY AT CHINOOK,MONTANA.

Jim looks on Google Earth and tries to decide where we will park for the night. He chose Chinook, MT. because it had  potential places to park and the Blaine County Museum, for something to do. On the way in, we passed the Lohman building with two bars that have big neon signs. I walked to Finley’s Grocery store for milk, but I knew there had to be a story here.

The Mint was open. The friendly bartender told me the bar opened in 1911, closed briefly during prohibition and became a dress shop. It reopened after prohibition as a bar and has been one ever since. At one time, the front part of the bar was divided, with a barber shop open to the street. The barber fixed a light to his door. He sat at the bar and when the light flashed on, he knew he had a customer and would dash out and take care of his customer.  (Hmm. I wonder how sober he was by the end of the day.)
She also told me that a movie scene was filmed in the bar, in the alley behind the bar,  and places around town after a book of the same name.  The movie is  Blood In Winter, based on Native American James Welsh’s life in Montana. The book is available on Amazon, she told me.

Then, she turned on the Neon sign for me to take a picture. Neat.

The Elk Bar was closed, but I shot their sign and learned later, from Jude Shepherd, the Curator of the Blaine Co. Museum, the business was sold and the new owner took the sign to another location. The townspeople were incensed and raised enough money to buy it back, and now they own it and here, by God, it stays!!

At the museum, is the poignant story of the Bears Paw Battle.  Chief Joseph’s four-month run for safety is named the “Forty Miles From Freedom”. He staved off the United States Calvary on the run with women and children for 4 months and was only 40 miles from the Canadian border and freedom when they were finally cornered and nearly annihilated.   East of Chinook is the Bears Paw Battle State Park. Chief Joseph's path took them just a few miles south of Chinook in Blaine County. The museum has a beautiful mural by Lorenzo Ghiglieri, several  bronzes, and a film about the battle and some artifacts, mostly bullets.

Chief Joseph and other tribal members wanted to live in peace, but they were savaged, starved, restricted and their treaties were disregarded. When he surrendered he said, “I will fight no more forever.”

Homesteading on the Montana Plains was hard. This family of 15 lived in a renovated chicken coup because it was bigger than their house.

Life could be lonely, remote. Long winters and cold. This is a one room school-house.

Churches here seemed to spring up on the plains in the middle of nowhere.

Children had to pitch in and help with the endless family chores.

Eight year old Peggy.

This family grew sugar beets.

Sugar was King then.

.The Doctor's car.

The diseases the doctor treated in the old days reminds us of how lucky we are.

Sheep were also a big part of the economy.

Angora sheep chaps.

Among items I’ve never seen before was this sheepherder’s tin dog. I asked Jude how it worked. She explained that sheep are easily frightened. And if the dog wasn’t near by, the herder would shake the cans filled with rocks at them, and throw it in their midst and they’d get moving.

Another item I’d never seen before is a clothes fork. It didn’t take me long to remember how it was used.  My mother never had a clothes fork, but she used a straight wooden stick to the same purpose. To pull sheets out of the boiling hot water and transfer them to a cold rinse tub. Oh, my.

I loved this decorated desk from a photography studio.

And, the matching chair.  How sweet is that!


From that photo studio came this wedding picture, under glass. The glare was such I couldn’t get them both, but I thought his hairstyle was worth working to capture. Wow! I’d marry him in a New York minute. Blaine County has a wonderful museum, Chinook is right on Highway 2. Great place.  Jude took me to another museum in town that is very special. I’ll get to that tomorrow.  Note:  I notice that some of my vertical pictures do not open. If that happens click on them and they will open.