Falk's Claim

Nominated for the Forest History Award, Falk's Claim chronicles a California north coast redwood lumber community from it's bustling early days in the 1890's though it's decline to a ghost town in the 1950s. Told through personal histories, it is a vivid portrait of a disappearing way of life in small rural communities. Richly illustrated with more than 60 black and white photographs, the daily lives emerge - trusted neighbors, the rough-edged ways of the lumber camps, the town characters, the kids, the fights and the festivities. The author discovered the abandoned ghost town in 1968 while hiking in the Elk River Valley and became fascinated with the scores of vacant structures, including trestles, the mill, shops, the general store, cook house, homes, tools, wood stoves, vehicles and other memorabilia of the times. The author spent 10 years interviewing people who'd lived in the town, collecting photographs and reconstructing the history of the Falk ghost town. Throughout this tale, the sense of change and renewal challenge our notions of permanence, reminding us that our history is but a moment when measured against the enduring cycles of nature.