100% Humboldt
Humboldt County CA USA is the home of some of the most iconoclastic, genuine, and interesting folks in the world.
We are getting curious about the movers, shakers, and difference makers in Humboldt County CA-Home of the giant redwoods, 6 Rivers, and the vast Pacific Ocean.
We will discover what makes people live/evolve in the beautiful, diverse, isolated, and ever-changing Northcoast of California 100%!
Listen in and learn what it is to be 100% Humboldt!
100% Humboldt
#23. Legacy, Resilience, and Craftsmanship: Eric Hollenbeck's Journey from Vietnam to the Blue Ox Millworks
Meet Eric Hollenbeck, a true legend from Eureka, California. His tale is one that will keep you on the edge of your seat - from growing up in the scenic landscapes of Eureka, serving in the Vietnam War, to creating stunning works of art at the Blue Ox Millworks. Eric has lived a life of courage, resilience, and determination, and his experiences serve as an inspiration for us all. His story isn't just about victories; it's about facing hardships and turning them into stepping stones. Listen as he shares his journey, intertwined with life lessons and an enduring spirit.
Eric’s life takes a dramatic turn when he is drafted into the U.S. army and sent to Vietnam. The remarkable experiences he shares from his service, and particularly his return home, are deeply moving. Post his army stint, Eric ventures into logging only to find himself, unexpectedly, at the helm of the Blue Ox Millworks. His story of revitalizing a condemned building into a thriving hub of craftsmanship is a testament to his never-give-up attitude. The chapter about veterans building a replica of Abraham Lincoln's hearse is particularly captivating. It’s not just a tribute to history but a source of healing for the veterans involved.
This conversation is not just about Eric’s fascinating life journey though, it's also a reminder to slow down, appreciate small acts of kindness, and take time to enjoy the world around us. The episode ends on a poignant note, emphasizing the importance of cherishing life and staying resilient in the face of adversity. Eric’s story is a beautiful blend of history, craftsmanship, life lessons, and an ode to the human spirit. His dedication to preserving and showcasing the beauty of Eureka, especially through restoration projects like the Carson Mansion and Carter House, is truly commendable. Prepare yourself for an hour of inspiration and heartfelt storytelling - you won't want to miss it!
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Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and my good friend Eric Hollenbach, man, the legend. Eric, how are you Good? How are you today? I'm well today, it's good. It's the end of the week and we're racing toward that Christmas holiday. Great, I don't know. Every year it kind of creeps up. I get it. I don't know what that is. I have the same way. I wore my holiday sweater for you. Good for you. Yeah, I had to wear that. So it's fun to have you because you're legendary or you're becoming that. It's kind of like you're Moses. You became famous later in life. Yeah, well, I'm a slow bloomer. Yeah, my dad used to say that he goes. We're from Iowa and we're a little slower than most folks.
Speaker 2:I totally get that. I drove out here, scott. Remember I grew up on Merle Avenue, two blocks away, at the corner of Merle and S.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right down the street.
Speaker 2:And Dennis Manfreda and I, at five o'clock at night, drove our little lawnmower powered go-kart up and down the street On Merle, up and down the street.
Speaker 1:I understand you could get away with that. Today it's four lanes. It's crazy, you get killed.
Speaker 2:You gotta be watching what you're doing in a Mack truck. That's right Today. That's right. It's just not good or bad. Yeah, it's the old days. I never say it's just different.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's the old days, so you got a lot of history in this town. We're gonna talk about your history here. Your service in the Vietnam War, correct Sure. And then the marriage to your better half.
Speaker 1:Yes sir, you like me, married up, yes, and then, as I, my dad goes, I love Jonah I said what about me? And he made a face, what about you? You're part of the Marri Viviana. And then you run the Blue Ox Mill works down in yep Foot of X Street, right on the bay. Right on the bay. We'll talk all about that. And then you have a book yes, and there was a play at Del Arte, written for that Based on the book?
Speaker 2:yeah.
Speaker 1:And then the Academy Award winning craftsman on cable TV.
Speaker 2:It really was. It was an Academy, but it did do really well. It was ranked number one for the two seasons, both years, that it ran.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's incredible. Are you gonna do some more? I don't wanna jump too far ahead of this. Let's get to that. We'll get to that. Tell us about growing up in Eureka. You're 100% Humboldt, right? Yes?
Speaker 2:sir.
Speaker 1:And you're from right over here in Eureka, california, that's in the North Coast, it's way. We're about seven hours north, six hours north of San Francisco, and you grew up in this area. You're what? 80 years young, yes, sir, so you go back into the olden days.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, but your first point is absolutely correct. People think San Francisco is Northern California. No way, there's seven more hours, gang. That's right. Your car goes 60 miles an hour.
Speaker 1:Bay Area is central. Yeah, maybe To you and me. Yeah, everybody goes.
Speaker 2:Oh, you're way up there in Napa, yeah, yeah, and I just think it's a marvelous place to grow up. I mean, you know, it was just. I couldn't have asked for a better grow. Yeah, I couldn't ask for a better life. Amen, but my growing up was superb. If you take school out of it, I did a really hard time. I can't read.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, never have been able to.
Speaker 1:How about that.
Speaker 2:It's not a big deal. You know, viviana reads, my wife reads. She'll be the reader she reads. Yeah, my job is to learn how to do what I do.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And become the best at that. I could be. Oh, legendary and every one of us. That's our job. For young people out there that are listening, I don't play to your bad cards. For God's sake, nobody should do that. Don't play your yeah, play to your good cards All the time. Figure out what you do and then do it the best you can. Not I'm not saying you got to be the best in the world, because I ain't Sure. I'm just saying you got to be the best you can.
Speaker 1:And that's important. They say that in business acumen you play to your strengths. Yeah, and let the weaknesses go, but get good at what you're good at.
Speaker 2:For God's sakes. You know that's. Any poker player is gonna tell you that. Not that I know how to play poker, but I sound like a big time gambler. Yeah right.
Speaker 1:So school was tough on a guy like you. Yeah, his school wasn't good, but it was tough on a lot of people.
Speaker 2:Of course, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I got nine kids and some of them are brilliant learners and others are brilliant learners yeah yeah. And it neither you know. We want to put a value judgment on intelligence as it looks like book learning. That's not. We know better now.
Speaker 2:That's one aspect, and it's a great aspect for those that can do it. Boy, I'm waving the flag and I'm beating the drum for them.
Speaker 1:Heck yeah.
Speaker 2:But for those who can't do it, there's a different way, and I'm waving the flag and beating the drum for them too.
Speaker 1:You would love my son-in-law, matt, who was a brilliant builder and the folks said, hey, when he was young he was dyslexic. He could read. We were troubled, we tested him and he was a buck 50 IQ. So he's smarter than all of us in the room and he's proven it with a life of creative craftsmanship and he serves people. He built our speciality in Sun Gapes home in McKinleyville. Yeah, little, 1,100 square foot, beautiful home. And he hey, matt, how you doing so. He is my example of. To make your point, there's different smarts, there's different giftings.
Speaker 2:We're different folks. We ain't Scott, we're not Coca-Cola cans. Pull them off the shelf.
Speaker 1:Amen.
Speaker 2:And you just fill up the sinks back.
Speaker 1:That's right. That ain't the way it goes. Yeah, it's just a bit spicy in the soup.
Speaker 2:So yeah, let's embrace it, amen.
Speaker 1:So growing up in Eureka was a different town. I was say 60s and 1950s and 60s in Eureka is very different from the 2020s today.
Speaker 2:You had Old.
Speaker 1:Town wasn't developed quite yet. No, oh, no, oh gosh, you know when.
Speaker 2:I just drove up Myrtle Avenue to get here and went through the intersection of Myrtle and S Street and it's a very, very, very busy, busy, busy intersection right now. Well, we're I think they call it CBS Yep, the pharmacy there. That was a feed store. Oh, is that right? Uh-huh, that was a feed store when I was growing up. Then it was.
Speaker 1:Longs Drugs years ago.
Speaker 2:Way before Longs Drugs it was a feed store how about that? And across the street, across S Street, was a little gas station, a little corner gas station, and across Myrtle Avenue was a market, I wanna say Saunders. So Barre Center was not there. Oh no, none of that. That was all just field, that was all just open.
Speaker 1:So the folks that understand. Three of these corners are strip malls.
Speaker 2:It's just full of, but it was just a crossroads is what you're saying, and Dennis and I made a go cart, made our own go cart with a lawn mower engine on it and we would drive it up to the gas station to get 50 cents worth of gas.
Speaker 1:Oh heck 25 cents worth of gas. That's what.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna say and go back to our house, go figure. So those things have changed. Dennis and I built a boat where we were 13 years old. I know that because you could get your hunting license If you could pass the NRHA test national rifle, no, nra, national Rifle Association test you could get your hunting license at 13. He and I hunkered and hunkered down and we passed our test. So we built a boat on a one sheet of plywood. Because we mowed lawns and mowed lawns through we could buy one sheet of plywood, sawed it with a hand saw and hold hand saw in our garage and then, luckily for us, they were building a house next door Scraps no, they tarred the roof, oh. And we went over in the evening, got some of that, got some of the tar and melted it down and painted the boat with tar and that slowed the leaking down enough that we could it was a two man boat.
Speaker 2:Can you stay afloat? One guy rowed and the other guy bailed. It was a two man boat.
Speaker 1:So you go off on the slew out in the bay. Five o'clock in the morning, oh boy Go fishing or shoot.
Speaker 2:No, we go duck hunting. Wow, and to be super honest, scott, I do not remember. I can, never, I can't remember killing one duck, but you went hunting a lot. We shot a box as a shells Cause, we set decoys out, and you know we were 13. And about 10 minutes into it we got bored. Nothing has flown in here, so we'd start shooting Tipton weed roots or we'd see a log plowed in by. We shoot the log. We had to shoot a log, we shoot it.
Speaker 1:They don't taste that good. So you got called up to Vietnam out of high school. Yeah, or were you done with high school?
Speaker 2:I was finished with high school, I was 18, when I got drafted. How about that? Yeah, you know they were. It was the pick of the draw and they took numbers and my number came up 12.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's early, that's pretty, that's pretty darn early, that's pretty early. So you were a US.
Speaker 2:Army. I was Army. I got drafted into the Army and then went through basic training up in Fort Lewis Washington.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:And cold Scott.
Speaker 1:That's Eastern Washington, right I don't know.
Speaker 2:It's at the bottom of this. What the heck is that mountain called.
Speaker 1:Is it rainier? It's not rainier.
Speaker 2:It might be rainier, but colder than you are oh my God, that was a kiss of death. Coming down off of that every day, oh my.
Speaker 1:Lord, that's why we live on the coast, so our coast is 60 degrees a year around. Don't tell anybody it's raining today, it's snow. You'll hate it, but the truth is it's the best weather I think.
Speaker 2:No, not just you. My dad was in real estate and he found a study on it. Fortuna, just south of us, has the smallest swing of high to lows in the continental United States. How about that? We have the smallest swing where our high is 65 and our low is 35. Yeah, maybe, yeah.
Speaker 1:Maybe, yeah. That's our total swing.
Speaker 1:Yes, and somebody said the weather station up in Trinidad is the benchmark air for the rest of the nation because it's the most pure air quality. It comes right over the ocean from Alaska. There's no impediments, impediments, impediments, impediments. There's nothing to impede it and it's just the freshest air in the world. And so when my kids come back traveling, to come back to visit Christmas, whatever man this air smells good here, it smells like the ocean up here in McKinleyville. I go, you got it right, man. I hope you enjoy that.
Speaker 2:It has oxygen in it.
Speaker 1:Oh, and, by the way, for you folks that don't know your geography, that's the Pacific Ocean. It sits off of Humboldt County, right here. It's the biggest ocean in the world, and enough of me being funny. So you went to Vietnam. You became a radio man. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I got to Benoit Air Base in Vietnam and my second morning they lined us all up all the fresh recruits just coming in lined us all up and said Joe Blow and you and you go here, and you and you go there. Eric Hollenbeck, you go up to the I-Corps with the 101st Airborne. That was the only one.
Speaker 2:I flew in the C-140, a cargo plane, to go up to Benoit. I was it. I was the only passenger. You were the guy in the plane. Hahaha, gas was cheaper, it was well, and they picked the right kid. I mean the Army, don't make mistakes. I have come to grips with that. Why I was pushed into that? Because we were the tip of the spear 322 days in combat, straight Jesus, never out, unbelievable, no break, no breaks. And why not me, scott? Hey, I had already worked in the woods for two years. I was 19 years old. I was as rough and tough as they come. Right, I was as stupid as they come. Well, there's that, there's that. But I was as rough and tough, you know. I'm just saying that. Why would I ask somebody else?
Speaker 1:to do it. So did you immediately become a radio guy for the.
Speaker 2:Within four days.
Speaker 1:Now there's that a division, or what did you call it? You call it a Company, my company.
Speaker 2:I was a company of the 327.
Speaker 1:Gotcha Second platoon. How many folks in a company Normally?
Speaker 2:212.
Speaker 1:Gotcha.
Speaker 2:And for our company 68. Wow.
Speaker 1:That's tip. Was it reduced or was it just small by design?
Speaker 2:No, we were the tip of the spear. They couldn't get people out to us. Wow, they couldn't get nothing. Huh, we were that, was it so you?
Speaker 1:saw some of the real crap go down yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so anyway, it's okay. And you know something I would like to tell people.
Speaker 1:Please.
Speaker 2:Stuff that looks really, really bad. Do you mind being centered on your work? Right, whoa, gent Bene, so here you go. Look at that. Make Ernve Lovely. Oh, that was a brave pop-up. I'm living through all this. Here we go. They love us all, and I think that that's what people need to remember.
Speaker 1:That's an amen in Hallelujah twice. I like it. Yeah, and stick around and life gets rough sometimes.
Speaker 2:You know we built the Hearst, so we did the. I did Vietnam and I made it through. I have no idea how. I was a radio man. I had a three-second life expectancy. In a firefight I was a prime target and yet I made it. I've heard lots of bees go by my head, the fast kind. That's what I always called them. Other guys called them mosquitoes. They had a name, but they were. They always sounded to me like bees and you'd want to swat and say get out of here.
Speaker 1:Keep your hands down.
Speaker 2:I'm busy. Thank God both hands were occupied. You didn't do that, that'd be stupid, but lots and lots of bees and never one of those. Go figure, they got to be pretty close for you to hear them. Did you do four years? No, I did one year. You did one year.
Speaker 1:I was a draftee one year and you got back and married your sweetheart.
Speaker 2:And then I got back and when I got out of the army in Oakland one o'clock in the morning, Was there a depot down there of some sort?
Speaker 2:And I am 36 hours out of the jungles 36 hours. And that de-roast through Oakland, that's do all the stuff you got to do to get out. And I get to the last window, the pay master, and he pushes his wad of money at me and it reaches in and pulls it all back. You pay for $6.13 and says we overpaid you in Vietnam. This is your de-roast paying. There's the front door. See you later, kid.
Speaker 1:That'll get you home with a greyhound maybe Probably not Hiked.
Speaker 2:How about that? Hiked home With six bucks, with $6.13. Huh, and five o'clock in the morning a salesman picked me up and Scott, he may not have even been real, he may have been an angel, sure Said just for me and he was going to Eureka, some salesmen are angels, by the way, from the long light of sales guys.
Speaker 1:I love it. I'm in Dress Greens and he takes you all the way to Eureka, california, and I'm in Dress Greens.
Speaker 2:There is no getting around where I just came from. Not any way in the world getting around that, and it ain't a very popular war Right, all of the stuff going down out of it we forget that.
Speaker 1:So I'm 64. But I vaguely remember them ending the war. But I don't remember the. We'll just call it a shabby reception. That doesn't do it right. It's getting spit on. Can't imagine it now?
Speaker 2:Yeah, he never. Once he talked the entire six hour trip.
Speaker 1:Never shut up, that's an angel for sure. He never.
Speaker 2:And it was all. What do you think of them, dodgers? And have you ever fished the Clambath River, boy, the Smith River, I bet you, this time of year is how about it. All I had to do was uh-huh. Not one time Did he mention the war, not once. How about that? And when we got to Pepperwood, I hung my head out the window because we were back in my redwoods, redwood spell. Uh, and those were my trees. Wait, pepperwood.
Speaker 2:Right about right over here there it is Pepperwood, yeah, Um, and my hat blew off. Oh, and he says you want me to go back and get that? And I said no, I don't care about that anymore. And then he said Scott, would you like me to pull over and you could go? It sits on the one of those trees.
Speaker 1:Wow, huh. I said yeah, what a guy, how'd you really like that. He took him up on it and he did how about that For five?
Speaker 2:minutes. I got to go set under my trees, nice and I had dreamed about for a year in the jungle, because the jungle ain't the same, the jungle's timber. But it ain't the same, it's a totally different than my timber.
Speaker 1:So you get. He saw the. You need to take five. Yeah, uh, boy, that's what I'm saying. He took you all the way downtown Eureka. He took me to my mom's store. How about that?
Speaker 2:Huh, that's right, I'm trying to see what was his name.
Speaker 1:That better.
Speaker 2:I don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, angel, angel, bob, bob the angel. How about that? That's a great story. That's a honest to God true story, so that's a great story. So what did you do in the ensuing say, 10, 15 years? I guess you met your wife, and how did you become associated with the now famous Blue Ox Millworks Millworks? Did you do other things first? When I got back.
Speaker 2:I got back at 5.30 in the afternoon on Saturday and went to work Monday morning at five o'clock in the morning for the same company I'd worked for. Before I left, my mom had had my dad died while I was in Vietnam, Wow and my mom had had a nervous breakdown and the house was four months in the arrears and the bank was holding off because they knew I was coming. So I just went to work and hell, I worked in the woods.
Speaker 1:I made good money and in those days the bank would understand that and work with people.
Speaker 2:That's what banks they used to be, that that's what they're for. They need to get back to understanding that.
Speaker 1:I remember it's a wonderful life with James Stewart. We watch it every year. Same idea, the same idea. So you came back and rescued the operation.
Speaker 2:They knew I was coming so within a year, and then I worked another. I want to say I think I worked for the company two more years and then I had a meltdown and I thought it was me. We didn't know nothing about shell shock, ptsd, we didn't know nothing about any of that and I packed it in. I sold all the way. I sold my cork boots, I sold everything, and me and the dog loaded up in the car with About $800 in cash, cash money. I'm talking about. This is cash money. I was going to retire for the rest of my life. We had old Probably could have. We had old cassette, not cassette, no, the 8-track, the 8-track 8-track.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure, yeah. We turned the 8-track up and we went up to Oregon and we're on a road trip. Two weeks into it I ran out of money, I ran out of food. We had to come back, but sure. And then, a year later, in 73, 50 years ago, four of us my brother, me and two friends decided we're going to start a logging company. I went in the bank it was Security National back then and Almost had his name.
Speaker 1:Security National. It's not.
Speaker 2:Arkley no, no, yeah, no, no, this was way, way.
Speaker 1:Anyway, I almost Thought of the loan officers name and so you borrowed a bunch of money for a logging company 300 bucks. That's a big low.
Speaker 2:I said I wanted to borrow $300. I wanted to start a logging company and he started to laugh. And he laughed so loud. The entire bank turned around and looked at me. He just thought it was God. It begins with a D dock on it.
Speaker 1:What was funny to him? The amount or the fact that you, of course, of course, you needed about 3 million, of course.
Speaker 2:Well, we started Blue Ox for $300. Is that right? Is that an old mill site? No, we were renting that building. Oh okay, For $50 a month. Had no windows, no plumbing, no wiring, nothing in it.
Speaker 1:It was just a big empty building and that was the operation center for the logging company.
Speaker 2:That was where we stored our stuff, I see, and then we would go live in the woods, I see, and we logged for two years and then dead and diseased trees, only dead and diseased.
Speaker 1:Is it contracting with other people? No, with the forest service.
Speaker 2:Okay, got it. We would go out in the woods and find dead and diseased trees. If we could find three or four trees in one area, we were going to tall cotton. Money man, we were raking, at the end we could pay for gas maybe.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what a concept.
Speaker 1:How big is Blue Ox mill works now on the big Two acres 20 acres, two acres, two acres. So it appears bigger, but it's about two acres, so then that fell apart.
Speaker 2:The foresters stopped those sales and the other three partners bailed out. It was Viv and I and the bank comes down. That was Charlie Harris, charlie.
Speaker 1:Harris Uh-huh, that's the guy you're trying to remember.
Speaker 2:No, oh no. He was president of the bank deemed dead. It'll come to you tonight, don't?
Speaker 1:call me later. Oh wait, you don't have a cell phone, anyway, oh man, I'm coming close.
Speaker 2:Anyway, and Charlie says we want you to buy this building. Oh, from us we own. I want to say that's easy, I can't do that. 1973, 74.
Speaker 1:74 now.
Speaker 2:We ain't got any money. He says oh no, no money down Uh-huh, uh-huh. $600 a month payments to jurors Wow.
Speaker 1:Two acres into jurors and commercial buildings on there.
Speaker 2:So I said, okay, we'll try it. So I signed the piece of paper. Scott, the ink wasn't dry. I swear to God, the ink wasn't dry. And Charlie says oh shoot, I forgot to tell you. That building's on the condemnation list and it's condemned to be torn down and it's your problem.
Speaker 1:Sorry bro.
Speaker 2:See you signed it.
Speaker 1:We forgot one thing oh, we were running out of time. No, you were doing great on time.
Speaker 2:So, um, so I went to the building department and it was, uh, clint. Clint Swanson was the building department. Clint Swanson, he's the head of the building department in Eureka.
Speaker 1:Swanson okay.
Speaker 2:And I said, uh, uh, we want to fix that building up, but I ain't got no money. And uh, and Clint says look me right in the eye and says, you know, I'll tell you what. I will give you a permit that never expires what? But you have to make some progress every month. Every month, you have to make some progress towards getting that building fixed up. He cut you that deal. Huh and uh, and we did. And then, 25 years later, clint came through on a tour. Is there? Yeah, officials, all of you. I want you to hear this.
Speaker 1:I want you to really hear this and he's retired now, at 25 years later. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:He comes through on a tour and I recognized him and I said Clint, oh my gosh. I took him through on a tour and I said do you remember what you did? And that never expires. And he said of course I do and he said look what you did. Because we cut you some slack, you made an asset to the community. He said if we tried that today, they'd hang us. Oh yeah, I want you to hear that last sentence. You're right there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Because Break it the fourth wall folks.
Speaker 2:That's the important thing. Amen. He cuts some slack. Do you win every time?
Speaker 1:Hell, no, he had discretion, though, and he gave you some.
Speaker 2:But he chose to use the discretion. Scott, Same way with you. When we opened for tours, Larry, he was an insurance Larry, uh, Dake, Dake, Larry Dake. Everybody said you can't do that. You can't open a millwork shop and have people walking through. There's dangerous equipment in there. You can't do that.
Speaker 1:He said yes, we can. Larry said, he made it happen?
Speaker 2:Larry said I will guarantee um that you can walk on water if you make the premium. He said you go up on the roof and you jump off it. I'll guarantee you can fly if you make the premium.
Speaker 1:He took care of it.
Speaker 2:So the first year he had us with Lloyds of London and it was a potload of money, Potload of money, A potload to us. You know, Are they expensive? Uh, today it wouldn't have been, but um to us then it was a potload Um. The next year we, we dropped down a notch, Lloyds dropped us down a notch. The year after that we dropped down another notch. And the fourth year we can get insurance anywhere. We want to get insurance. There you go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because he took a risk. Exercise discretion. Thank you, sir, something we don't do anymore. No, I want. I want to say to the, to the people CYA, we were busy covering up too many times. Yeah, let's get creative and get out of the box and and do it In the right situations. You can't do it for everybody.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, no, I get it, yeah, and I have no idea why. Me Eric walking into to uh date? Uh, how was that his name?
Speaker 1:We've got some more time to get that name we're looking for, so so if you were, if I'm a new guy to Blue OX and you're you're talking to new folks that locals, non-locals, what is Blue OX Mill Works in Eureka, california, and and just a couple of if you were. To sum it up I know it's a lot of things, it's okay.
Speaker 2:It's uh, um, I uh. So once we quit logging um, we started manufacturing um, because that's all I knew to do, and I went around and collected equipment around this county. Now you got to understand. We started with a $300 bank loan, so don't don't tell me how much money you want for that piece of equipment, because that ain't my piece of equipment. I'll just put it on the truck for you.
Speaker 1:So when you say equipment, this is, this is woodworking, specific logging, slash logging equipment, we have a?
Speaker 2:uh, we have a full 8,000 square feet wood shop. Our our tooling ranges from 1948. That's our newest piece back to 1866. How about that? It was the old junk.
Speaker 1:Nobody wanted In a dying industry.
Speaker 2:at the time, the cities were attracting it right, I'll put it on the truck to get it out of here for you. Yeah, I'll take it. Good, Um, and then we have a blacksmith shop. We have a uh, print shop turn of the century print shop how about that? We have a uh, uh, uh uh, a foundry, because all of my stuff is long since out of business. You, there ain't no parts. Right, you have to cast your own part.
Speaker 1:You better be making it. You got to make everything, so machine shop foundry.
Speaker 2:Machine shop, a foundry? Uh, we have, it's a living history museum, it's it's hammered lumber.
Speaker 1:It's got hammered, hammered lumber. It's by great, great great grandfather, the biggest redwood sawmill in the world. It's crossed the crossed, the Samoa right, you know how big hammer was.
Speaker 2:Was it the biggest? It was the biggest. So when, when GP came in Georgia Pacific and they're buying up a couple of sawmills, they bought um, uh for brag and um and then they bought Hammond and, I trust, came swinging in instantly, instantaneously, and said you got to break it up, you have a monopoly in the redwood market. Now that's how big hammer was. Wow, hammer was the biggest in the world About that.
Speaker 1:In the entire world. So Hammond trail, that goes all the way, that was the. That was the rail bed, right, yeah, that was the rail bed. It goes all the way to Cornell. Yeah, actually, there was a rail bed up into West Haven, right, yes, yeah, yeah, they used to pull logs out of there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, hammer was. How about that Huge? We'll talk about Flann.
Speaker 1:I want to know more about the Hammond Lumber Company. Okay, they were that big. Right now no, oh yeah, maybe, maybe we're done, so I want to get to the Lincoln, is it?
Speaker 2:the.
Speaker 1:Lincoln Hurst. So so when Abraham Lincoln was, was uh a more uh a more, uh a more uh, a more assassinated, killed. They put his body in a hearse and they drove it, uh well, around the Nate. Was it around the nation, or did it go in a rail car and then put on display?
Speaker 2:Every town they went in a rail car and then it was horse drawn. Every town had its own hearse and it was beautiful. And, uh, the final one was Springfield. Illinois that's the one everybody recognizes is Lincoln Hurst.
Speaker 1:And how many? How many of these hearses were there out there at the time, as many towns?
Speaker 2:as he stopped at. So they would build one or they were bringing the best that they had out.
Speaker 1:Oh, I see. Okay, so this was the famous ones with the ostrich feathers and the whole nine. Yes, yes, yes, and so I'll let you pick up the story there you were asked to. Could you replicate this?
Speaker 2:So I get a call five o'clock one night, no blueprints, nothing. And this guy says, uh, google this, you got to see it. He says, uh, um, are you uh blue ox millwork? Yes, could you build a reproduction of a hers? Yes, um, do you happen to be a veteran? How about?
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Do you happen to be a combat veteran? Yes, I think I got the perfect job for you. First off, it cannot be done and secondly, there's absolutely no money in it. And I went holy crap, sign, sign me up, sign me up.
Speaker 1:Sounds like a job for me.
Speaker 2:You think I'm kidding, you think I'm exaggerating? Not a penny. Yeah, that is no exaggeration at all. That is exactly the way that laid down.
Speaker 1:But they had constraints to make sure you were a combat vet to work on a subsorter.
Speaker 2:They know the guy who called me was a combat. I got you he was a door gunner, okay, and uh, in a Huey he was, and he knew talking one combat vet to another. He knew how the buttons to push. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And he got you. You're hired, thank you.
Speaker 2:So uh went out to uh CR Viv and I, viviana and I, my wife, uh, went out to college, to Redwoods, and uh, and said we'll do this if you guys will supply veterans. And uh, god bless, I'll get her name in a minute CR. Um, she, um, she got us over the course of the whole thing 23, 23 veterans and CR did um. Can I say, scott, there's three ways to walk. You can walk on the dry sand, you can walk in the water, but you can also walk on that wet sand in between the two. Heck, yeah, that's the place that she went. How about?
Speaker 1:that, and Discretion again. Yeah, okay, that's good.
Speaker 2:So she made it look like they were going to CR and they got the GI bill. So for a year a year and one month it took us to make it. They got paid by the VA, Viv and I didn't. We did it for free, but we did it for the veterans and we did an exact replica. And people are going to say how do you know it's exact? Because I worked with four historians on it every night for the last eight months of that project. I would take pictures with a cell phone and you could send them. And then one of the, Every night I called them five o'clock how about that? And I put me two beers on my desk and call them.
Speaker 1:Is it a two beer? Call yeah.
Speaker 2:And the and one guy that I called would do magic on the phone and all four of them would be on the phone.
Speaker 1:Gotcha, so all five of us.
Speaker 2:So you'd conference and everybody'd collaborate, and he knew how to do that. And they all looked at the pictures and they would say, oh man, you nailed it. You nailed it, kicker, oh God. Or they would say you know, I think that's a quarter of an inch too short, don't you? That was the first beer, because I just watched the days work fly out the window like a butterfly.
Speaker 1:Wow. So on the fly, no plans no.
Speaker 2:The original hers burned up in 1886.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you had photos.
Speaker 2:It was one. There's one photo. You did one photograph in the entire world and the Lincoln Museum has looked for 10 years and they found one One photograph and we knew one dimension the diameter of the rear wheel, and that's it. That's the only dimension known.
Speaker 1:So you had to build a puzzle from one piece. So the story goes. If I remember right, you guys shipped that thing back there with help from the guy from Texas or the benefactor, and then it was well celebrated for Springfield's 200th anniversary.
Speaker 2:No, it wasn't Springfield, it was Lincoln's 150th burial anniversary and they had a. Which was a big deal. At Springfield, 150,000 people showed up, 7,000 of them in costume that went on the parade. How about that A two-day?
Speaker 1:parade and the hers was the center point and it was the feature, the vanguard.
Speaker 2:So the stipulation that Viv and I put on, how about that? Was it? Okay, we'll do it, and we'll do it for free. We get it. There's no money? We totally understand that, that's fine, but at the end you've got to fly all of the veterans back there and they have to be honored.
Speaker 1:These are the guys that worked under you from CR and GALs, from the GAL that made it happen. Whose name is the? Yeah Bertha, yeah, we'll get it. So did they agree to those terms? They flew everybody back.
Speaker 2:They did. How about that? And that was the greatest healing for these guys and GALs that could have possibly happened.
Speaker 1:Did they contribute it to the history of their nation?
Speaker 2:I had a Vietnam veteran tell me they may not like my war, but they'd goddamn well like my, hers. Amen.
Speaker 1:That's all right, that's centerpiece man, that's big, so I move it forward down to the Radio man you wrote a book, you collaborated.
Speaker 2:I went to Radio man came from a book that I'm going to sign this Sunday at Eureka Books Down in Old Town.
Speaker 1:Down in Old Town, that's in Eureka, california. It's right here on the map. So, Flying to Eureka get a book, and Joni and I might come down there. What time are you signing? Uh-huh Great, I will be there Sometime in the afternoon, I bet you 12 to 2 maybe. It's close to Dick Taylor chocolates, by the way.
Speaker 2:It is.
Speaker 1:You know those guys? Yeah, oh God, those guys are great. Yeah, they're almost a knock, just without too much association, because then it wouldn't defend you or them. They have a lot of older equipment that they make their chocolate with. They're little Eric's.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they refurbish and renew and revise and reuse and recycle, and they printed their stuff to begin with. You know they're little Eric's, I get it yeah.
Speaker 1:I love it. They know you probably, of course, yeah, of course, yeah, you're all down in Old Town.
Speaker 2:So, anyway, I can't spell and I can't read, and I've written poetry my whole life. I have no idea, it's just the way my brain works. Sure, it's a different thing. And I got invited back, in fact we got sent back to a place called Colorado, colorado Springs, colorado, and we run out of time.
Speaker 1:No, I'm telling him you're doing a great job. I'm giving him the thumbs up. Colorado.
Speaker 2:Springs, colorado, for the park service.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:We were the first for-profit business ever invited to one of these conferences and they paid for us to come back, but it was cheaper to spend an extra two days. I don't get it, scott, the airfare stuff. Yeah, they well who knows For me to spend two days. So I had two days after the conference and Viviane got me a little tape recorder Remember those little things that I talk into and so you recorded the beginning of a book.
Speaker 2:No, oh, all 16 poems. How about that? There is a town, from Colorado Springs to Manitou Springs, and it's four miles, and I walked for two days back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth. You're setting your poetry recording and I recorded that entire book at one time. How about that? And those people wherever the camera is, god bless you. In Colorado, they got to know me and they would pull up and say, oh, he won't go by, don't worry, he'll be caught in a bit.
Speaker 1:It's okay, he's from California, just let him go.
Speaker 2:Because I was not in Colorado at all. Yeah, I was in the jungles of Vietnam.
Speaker 1:In that zone, huh, in that Creative zone you know, and I would walk out for the cars.
Speaker 2:I just walked, that's what I did, and they never honked. They never. You're respectful.
Speaker 1:They never did nothing. How about that?
Speaker 2:They just oh, it's just him, He'll be caught in a bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's doing something. I imagine that in artists of all sorts, when they get into zone, whether it's Picasso or Eric Hollenbeck or a writer, a creator of any sort, leave me alone. Well, you got to eat dinner? No, I don't, I'm creating something. Dad, I had a nine-year-old that created things cardboard and duct tape and a box cutter. Micah, it's dinner time. No, I'm obsessed in that zone, the creative zone. So the radio man became a play at Del Arte Blue Lake. They adapted that to a screenplay of some or a play.
Speaker 2:A Jim McManus, a playwright, got a hold of those the poem and he came to the shop and interviewed me for, let's say, two weeks. He told another interview one time. He said I looked at this and I read this, and who's this guy bleeding all over the pages? He said this is unbelievable.
Speaker 2:And he created the play Radioman. And now today, so Radioman played at Del Arte. To what are they called Sessions? I guess they're called Nine days each or something. The first one got bumped to the next day because they turned away people every night.
Speaker 1:Every night.
Speaker 2:Every night. It was sold out. It was sold out every day. That was in January, and then in June they did it again. Same exact thing. How about that? Added an extra day because they turned away people every every, every day.
Speaker 1:Did you enjoy it? Was it accurate? To your liking, to your creative. It's hard. From the book to the movie is a tough jump. It's a big jump, it's a big jump.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, what an honor though you know he did. He made something more powerful. No, it's a not everybody's going to read poetry. No, and my poetry is stupid, I get it. There are little words because I talk in 25 and 50 cent words. You got two dollar words.
Speaker 1:I got a couple.
Speaker 2:I got a couple of five dollar ones, but the point being is that that's an Ann audience and theater is a whole different audience. And then movies is a whole different audience and TV is a whole different audience and a book is a different audience. I have learned to play in two of those Good.
Speaker 1:And we're getting to the TV here to send. So, anyway, how long has the book been published by the that you're going to sign? By the way, is it fresh out the press? Uh-huh how about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, don't, don't, don't push on the words, or it's kind of inky still the ink hasn't dried.
Speaker 1:You got any? You got any in the van? Yeah, no, you know that. I wrote a book. It's right here Every day, dead. Oh yeah, yeah, maybe I'll sign it. I should sign it. Yeah, take a look at what we're done here. Well, look, this is about you, not about me. Well, it just became about me, briefly, look at you guys, look at there.
Speaker 1:People go, is that you and your sons at Clam Beach I go? Well, I had more hair, so it's it's no small labor to get a book out. Yeah, so I get it, but I want to bring you full arc and bring everyone into this that maybe in my book, in my book. I'm a video guy, I love watching TV and I love watching good stuff and and the craftsman which is on what's the cable network? Magnolia, magnolia, discovery, magnolia it's discovered, so we could see it on this. You could find those discovery network and HBO, prime.
Speaker 1:Oh, it is Both of them. Is it on Netflix yet?
Speaker 1:I don't know, but it is now on YouTube. Okay, so you could go to YouTube on your big screen TV and find episodes. So I, you know, being a late learner and bloomer, like you said, I just saw this two weeks ago and I'm going. This guy shows amazing and I'm. You guys restored the, the, the old trolley, and and your daughters came in on another project and you know I got through a lot of it, but I was amazed at, you know, the old equipment, and so tell us about that journey, doing the video and how many. There's two seasons. What do you get? 20 episodes, 20, yes, yes.
Speaker 2:Oh, how about that? And so they called Scott. At no five o'clock at night I'm the older one in the office and I answered the phone and this young lady and if you, if you guys, bear with me, I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt she sounded 12. To me, yeah.
Speaker 2:This young lady says we're going to start, we're going to pitch a new TV show to a new network called Bangdolia and it's going to be called American heroes. It could be 50 of them, one for every state. Would blue ox be California? Yeah, fine, I'll think about it. Yes, no, you know we get these calls. Sure, this is not my first rodeo. Yeah.
Speaker 1:You said no, you refused it out of the gate. No, I said fine.
Speaker 2:That's swell as keen, but I didn't think anything about it. And then two weeks later a guy calls, and a man, young man, because they're all young in that field. Oh sure they are, yeah, they are.
Speaker 2:And says you remember the young lady? Yes, I remember the young lady. Well, they didn't like it, they're not going to take it, but when they saw your footage, they go. The network said go to those people right there and see if they would have their own series. There's our boy, and I had Scott. How about that? I had the presence of mind and I have to say it this way because I don't all the time I had the presence of mind to tell them I'm going to have to talk to my wife. There you go. And what that did is it bought us three days for Vivian and I to figure out if we're going to do this. What do we want out of it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, fair question. Yeah, and it made them want it even more because they had to sit on this stuff for three days.
Speaker 2:I don't know about that Maybe you'd say no.
Speaker 2:But so we called them back, said look, if you're looking for an idiot reality show, we are so far down the road you don't even see the dust from our tires. We are gone. No, that's not what we're looking for. Okay, all right. And then we said okay, we'll do it on two things that we want. Number one to be able to preach and I hate that word, but tell to tell the young people of America that being a craftsman is an honorable and noble way to spend the rest of your life. It's cool.
Speaker 2:And you can make a living at it. And number two, to show the country the little gem that Eureka is. I truly believe we are one of the crown jewels in California. We are, we are a gem and they said perfect. And I think they did both of those things and they were able to capture that. I think if you folks watch the craftsmen you'll see how wonderful they painted Eureka.
Speaker 1:I think they did. Yeah, so I haven't seen all the episodes, but are you in the Ingamar and the Carson Mansion and doing some work there? So the Carson Mansion is the. I would say it's the gem of Eureka architecturally and maybe the gem of anything Victorian in America. In America, maybe in the world.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, the Newtzen brothers, they were the top. Oh my gosh, that building. Can I tell you this real quick?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I do.
Speaker 2:Take your time, you guys Is asymmetrical. If you're going to go look at the Carson Mansion, what I want you to do first is turn around, put your back to it and look at the pink lady squared up. The pink lady is a symmetrical, beautiful Victorian. The freeze rail is perfect. Every window detail is the same, they're all. Everything is perfect, everything is great. The onion dough on top, all of that, it's all. It just fits together. Ever so nice like a cake. Now turn around and look at the Carson Mansion. I'll do that. There is no two windows the same. It is weird. There's weird everything. There is no two porches the same.
Speaker 1:There's no two door entries, the same and they designed for that on purpose.
Speaker 2:It's called asymmetric, yeah, and harder than heck to work on it and you cannot. You look at it. Your eye will not encompass the whole building. It won't do it. Yeah, it immediately pulls out a focus your eye does. That's funny, because the brain can't handle it.
Speaker 1:It's got too many moving parts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, too many different pieces Interesting, and then you can focus on any one thing, but your brain will not focus on the old building.
Speaker 1:Can I tell you a quick story? Yes, so we were in there with a Hollywood producer and his wife Friday night private dinner we have. We have some friends that were kind enough to invite. The poor provincial folks from McKinley ville Never got out of the house with nine kids, so we're having dinner with these folks. He's a reality TV guy actor and she's a producer and she leaked as to what that reality thing is. It's terrible, it's a really false world. Yeah, but being inside that mansion you look around and you go oh my gosh, this every, every single detail, every interior cornice and every window. It's like what's going on. And they had a cool light thing. He's got a light show that he's got he does a music at 530.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so when you're in Eureka, carson Mansion. What was his name? Barnum no a Carson Bill Carson Carson, yeah.
Speaker 2:William. Yeah, Bill, you're right.
Speaker 1:And then you helped design the Carter house as well, right?
Speaker 2:No, that was another Newton Brothers. I helped make it.
Speaker 1:Okay, but you designed the other part of the Carson.
Speaker 2:Just just.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry, the the Carter house, the Carter house, yeah yeah, the with Mark, with Mark, yes, yeah, yeah, which is also remarkable, oh, so that's you.
Speaker 2:Do you know, scott, why we're a treasure? So World War II happens, world War II gets over, you get all these doughboys coming home, and by doughboys I mean they got money, they got pockets, a load of it. And you know, the GI builds kicked in, everything's kicked in. They're going to get the nation back going again, or rocking and rolling, so that the developers down south start tearing stuff down and building track homes because the doughboys are going to want home. Yeah, you know, that's the American dream and they do that all the way up. They got to the Redwood Curtain, they leaped up to us and we are a extraction-based economy. Yep, fishing, timber, cannabis, yeah, Okay.
Speaker 2:Now Extraction, extraction, absolutely. And we were in a recession, we couldn't afford this old junk. We were passing around and they leaped over us and went up the coast.
Speaker 1:Went up to Medford or wherever, yeah.
Speaker 2:And you look at the. It sounds like what's the first one. You come into in Oregon Brookings, brookings and look at that town.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Viv and I drove around for two hours and found three old buildings. That was it.
Speaker 1:How about that? And Eureka down to the core of Eureka. We have 68,.
Speaker 2:I've been told 68% of our original structure is still standing. Not too shabby 68, that's unheard of Scott.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Nationwide.
Speaker 1:So the whole town's a heritage site? Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's what I and that's what Viv and I told the TV.
Speaker 1:If you'll show that, Do you feel like they were successful doing that?
Speaker 2:I do. I think that they tried really, really hard. I got my hats off to Chip and Joanna because they fought it uphill struggle that that whole industry is. It's a tough, very difficult. I ain't going to do it anymore. Yeah, that was going to be the next question. Or is it going to be a third season that I've told them no, you're done, I don't care to do that, but I will do one of our specials there. You go To do a whole eight-week season. That's a lot. It's too hard on the business. Maybe you do a full-length movie.
Speaker 2:No, I don't movie.
Speaker 1:What a delight. You know great talking to you. So we're going to wrap it up here and I'm going to ask you, kind of what I ask everybody and you've shared from your heart and I know you will continue what do you want to see for Eureka, for Humboldt County? What's Eric's vision of an ideal future? How do we get there? Take five minutes. What are your thoughts? What are you envisioned, creatively and otherwise, for our little Jim?
Speaker 2:Okay, First off, progress. The amazing thing about progress is it's always progressing. So, whether it's good or bad, it's way beyond me. I'm just Eric, that's all I am. But what I would ask people to do is, as we're driving along, as we're going about our day, as we're doing all of our things, can we drop down one gear? One gear? You know, we drive from Eureka to Arcada. Then we go through the 50-mile-an-hour stretch and instead of looking on both sides and going, oh my God, look at this. We have the bay, we have the salt marsh with these ducks nestled up in it, we have the road and we have the fields here with the cows and the co-op into Timberland, we look at the license plate of the car ahead of us and think you can do 52 miles-an-hour, it's okay. It's okay, nobody's going to stop you from doing 52 miles-an-hour If we can ease back just a little bit, then we can negotiate the progress.
Speaker 2:But we can do it at our pace and we can say, yes, I see it, that's going to be fine, we can ease into it. I ain't running into anything. Oh, slow down, slow down a little bit Great word.
Speaker 1:Hey, what a pleasure. Anything else, any parting shots, no, except I love my wife Viviana, Very, very much, Viviana we missed you today.
Speaker 1:She was going to be with us and she got sick. I'm so sorry. That's all right. Yeah, we understand Now. Thanks for being here. So a couple of things Blue Ox Millworks we could Google that. Google the Craftsman it's on YouTube also, yes, and on the Discovery Network, which is a big, big thing. And then the Radio Men. The book You're going to sign this weekend at Eureka Books we could find that online, probably on Amazon, an hour later, oh yeah, oh yeah, sure, I don't know. Yeah, and if we want to come down to Old Town, eureka, sometime and look up Blue Ox, I bet we'd find yourself hanging out. Yeah, yeah, do you normally come out and hang out with folks in the?
Speaker 2:doors and all At the shop at X Street, foot of X. I take pictures with everybody. Scott, that comes to my because. Can I be real honest, please? I had a really hard time with that at first. I'm just Eric.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's all I am. And then it dawned on me these people are driving a long, long way to get here, europe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, amsterdam.
Speaker 2:Even if they're San Francisco. That's a long run. That's a potlone, I don't want to go there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, get your ass out there and get in the photo. Yeah, exactly, thank you yeah.
Speaker 2:Well said, yeah, move it. Man, look at him, he said it and he is dead on it.
Speaker 1:No, they came all that way to see you and your vision. And, yeah, why not?
Speaker 2:Get up off of your dead ass and get out there and take a photo. Move it, man. It's not that hard. It's not that hard yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the small acts of kindness my dad used to say. Kids recognize them, and kids of all ages.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know those small things, so gear it down one. I like that, slow it down and I would like to Small the flowers.
Speaker 2:I don't know why, Scott. I don't know why my 30 miles an hour is so much slower than everybody else's 30 miles an hour. I had somebody pass me on her left.
Speaker 1:Passed me. Yeah, because they're going 80 on a 25. Yeah, yeah, plus Eureka's not known for the safest traffic in the world.
Speaker 2:All that I'm trying to say is everybody, not just in driving, don't you think it's not just in driving, it's in everything, yeah, in our lives. Can we just pull it back?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you don't have to start your day with your phone. You know it's bad for your brain, where there's a lot of ways, metaphorically and literally, to slow down it. Just pull it back one gear, why not? Yeah, you know Advent, you know Christmas is a great time to do that. Christmas is a great time. Yeah, go outside and look at the Pleiades and the Ryan's Belt. It's right out there. Yeah, and it's clear and go do it, man. Yeah, amen, eric, what a pleasure Appreciate you Get over here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm too old, that's right, I don't want to hurt you.
Speaker 1:Hey, thanks for being here and God bless you. God bless America. God bless America. Yes, thanks again, yep.
