• Posted on 06/17 at 02:13 PM
The Trophy
In celebration of the upcoming showings in Jenner by the Sea and Humboldt County, we thought we’d share a little something we found in the Clarke Historical Museum in downtown Eureka. It was on one of our last trips to Eureka; we were near the end and putting the finishing touches on our final edits. We had traveled back to Eureka on the rumor that we’d be able to find some old newspaper headlines and photos from the ‘64 and ‘55 flood. Luckily, the rumor was true and the museum maintained hardcopies of the Humboldt Beacon, Eureka Times and Eureka Standard.
They set us up in a small backroom. There was one open table that we quickly invaded with a laptop, scanner, a small omni light and a D-SLR on a tripod. Most of the articles had already been cut out of the original papers and mounted on card stock so things were moving quickly (which was rarely the case).
As the day went on and the librarians learned more about our project, they brought us more and more photos, brochures, articles and miscellaneous materials relating to steelhead and salmon fishing in Humboldt County. Some were interesting, many we had seen before. This was the sixth different historical society or library we’d been to in Humboldt, and there’s a decent amount of redundancy at most of them.
When I say we were in a small room, I really mean a closet. A big closet with shelves and shelves loaded full of old blue-prints, street signs, paintings, dresses, old telephone books and menus of forgotten restaurants from forgotten eras. Tucked away on the highest shelf in the most crowded corner was the remnant sparkle of a giant trophy covered in dust. It was Tennis style, something they’d award at Wimbledon, an enormous silver cup.
Trying not to make the entire closet implode upon us, we gingerly worked our hands around the massive piece of metal and slowly worked it towards the edge. It was heavy and we could see it was engraved. In the poor light couldn’t read the text. It was going to need to come all the way down. The shelves rattled with each tug. If things started to go, they were gonna go; it’d be weeks to claw our way out.
Eventually we had it within reason and went for the quick sweep. Another loud rattle and everything settled.
The metal had begin to turn, oxidizing circles, spotty ash black, an invading green tint. We cleaned it with our shirts and when we held the engravings up to the light we realized we had stumbled across something only we could fully appreciate.
Years earlier, during the research for Rivers of a Lost Coast we heard a lot of stories. Old stories, many of them from old memories. They were chronically vague. The early years were always second-hand. Stories of Ben Anderson and Harry Hornbrook. A rumor about the youthful and womanizing Art Dedini. Stories of Joe Dickerson and the stars of the Early Eel; stars of a river that was known nationally as the River of Giants. And then there were rumors of a cup. A trophy. Each year a winner. The biggest Steelhead caught in Humboldt county.
And as someone of the older generation had mentioned, the names were engraved. Harris, Wells, Silvius, Hornbrook. And then of course we saw the name Walter Thoresen, an Eel River Angler whose famous story of 1936 has always been a favorite of ours. To most the Trophy isn’t much, representative of the silly things silly fishermen used to do when there wasn’t anything better to do than fish. A worthless token, whose dumpster salvation lay in its sheer size if nothing else.
But on this day, in this closet, this Trophy represented a physical connection to a time and era when Steelhead fishing on the Eel River was world famous. A time when men and women went fishing, not because there was nothing else to do, but because there was nothing they wanted to do that was better.
To hear the story of the Thor click here: STORY
To see a photo of the trophy click here: The Trophy
