Show: Insight Station: KNCO File: 10:12.mp3 Air date: 2026-10-12 Source: OpenAI whisper-1 · shrunk from 98.6 MB to 12.3 MB --- transcript --- Welcome to KNCO Insight, Nevada County Action, KNCO's local issue talk show. This is your chance to gain insight into issues affecting Nevada County. Be a part of the show. Call with your questions or comments. The number, 477-5626, that's 477-KNCO. The opinions expressed are those of the hosts and callers and do not reflect the opinions of the advertiser, staff, or ownership of Nevada County Broadcasters. Now here is your host, Tom Fitzsimmons. Just go host today, KNC Newstime, just about 907, 54 degrees, nice blue skies out there. Warming up slowly, gonna warm up a little bit more today, but we'll warm up as we go through the week. It's time for History Unfolded today. Very excited about today's show. Mike Stewart's in the house. Mike Stewart, who is held steady at fire chief of two places. Is that right, Mike? Still two? That's my personal limit, two. All right, just two? Yeah. Unless you need a fire chief out there, just give Mike a call. 110 square miles responsibility is enough. You would think so. You would think. Mike, that's never enough for you. We're excited about today's show, but before I get there, just about the weather forecast that's coming up here. This is the time of year where people start thinking, oh, it's getting cooler, everything's fine. We did get that rock fire that started yesterday off of Rock Creek, Rector Road area above Nevada City. I noticed the forecast tomorrow is supposed to be sunny, warmer, and windy. Well, it's been windy in the river the past two days. It's been really ripping up the river canyon. Is that right? Yeah. Fall's definitely in the air, but this is when everything's kind of really at its driest. We kind of get lulled into that false sense of security, oh, it's cool. This morning it was 35 when I left my place. There you go. And dark, cloudy, gloomy over the Sierras. But let's remember that Paradise burned November 8th. Yeah, exactly right. We've had some just incredibly bad fires. I think even the Oakland Hill fire was in October, right? So everybody just be cautious out there. Nobody more than fire chiefs appreciate defensible space and all that stuff. Make sure you're prepared. Make sure you have things in place if you're going to be trying to do some of that work. If you could postpone it to, well, it's not windy, that would probably be appreciated at this time of year. Right? Yep. Do work early in the morning before the wind comes up. All right. Now, since your fire district includes the ridge up there, there's a place I've always wondered about when I've driven up there. There's a few places that are kind of wandering up there. Yeah. Irita Ranch Road is one of those things. You know, I remember when I first moved up here, it was like one of those signs as you come up that river canyon, going up towards the ridge, and you're going, I wonder what that's all about. Well, today you're going to learn. I am going to learn because the only reader I knew back then was Dr. Reader, who was like a baby doctor, pediatrician, because he was our kid's doctor and stuff. You know, I have no idea if that's part of that Reader family, but you do have part of the Reader family here today. We do. John Reader's in the house. John, thanks. First of all, thanks for coming in today, and I'm sorry you're kind of banged up today as well. You've got a pretty good brace and protection on that right hand. Yep. That's right. Yeah. How are you feeling? I'm good. I'm good. Are you in a lot of pain with that there? No. Actually, I was when it first happened. It was about the most pain I ever suffered, but no, fortunately, it's got pain, but very tolerable. All right. How old are you? I'll be 72 in November. 72. Okay. See, this is what I love about guys out West. You know, 72, most people are kind of kicking back and all that stuff. You got hurt working cattle. It's not a paper cut. No. It's not a paper cut. You got hurt working cattle, which your family's been working cattle for how many years? Well, since the ranch was established not long after it was established in 1854, my great grandfather started a herd of cattle there, so since the 1850s. All right. So, this has been in your blood. It's true and true, right, I guess at this point? It very much is. Very true. Yep. All right. So, this is the thing, Mike. You know, it's almost like your family's becoming firefighters, you know what I mean? There is something to be said about this generational thing, but a historic ranch like that, did you always want to work cattle or it's just something that was expected? How did that all work for you, John? For whatever reason, there were six of us boys. Our parents had six boys, no girls. No girls. No girls. But for whatever reason, whenever there was something to do... Your poor mom. My poor mother. She was exactly right on this, Tom. So, for whatever reason, whenever there was something to do with the cattle, when I was a little, little boy or whatever, my dad would have me in his arms. I don't know why, but that's how it worked, so it just... That's kind of a sweet thing to think about, though. Really, he actually kind of picked you up and did work in the cattle with you. Right. Wow. So, at a very young age, how to love that and the ranch was always and is always my first love. Even though I worked outside of the ranch to make a living and raise my family, I was always ranching. All right. And that's how it worked. What did you do outside the ranch? I was in the lumber business. Lumber business. Wow. Well, we've talked about that a lot, Mikey, haven't we? Oh, yeah. He's good friends with Cindy Anderson, also. Yeah. You know Cindy well, huh? Very well. We graduated together. Yeah. I'm in the first book she did, Out of the Woods, or whatever, she interviewed me and I'm in that one on my lumber side of my life, you know, or whatever, because I had a long distinguished career in lumber, so that's a whole other story in my life, but yeah. How big is the Reeder Ranch? It's right around 1,000 acres. Wow. Just under right now, but my great-grandfather, when he got here and homestead it, he had claimed over 20,000 acres up the South Fork of the Yuba River Canyon, you know. Right. Did he sell it off, or was it taken from him? No, it was one of those deals, I'm sure he was claiming land, and we've still got a lot of the old claims and that kind of stuff, paperwork-wise, and that. I'm sure he was staking them up, figuring he was going to work and mine them, you know, just to have the, you know, ability to be able to have the land and have the claims, but he quickly realized that that wasn't going to happen, so he shrank it back to the 1,000 where we're at now, over time, you know. Why pay taxes on all this land that he was not even going to end up doing anything with? Yeah. Did he do a lot of work in mining and stuff at this time? Well, so when he got here in 1854, that was his first thing, you know, obviously he came out in the Goldworths with gold on his mine, and probably also, hey, California, new challenge, new life, and all of that kind of stuff, but gold's what brought him here, for sure. But he quickly realized that he wasn't going to be able to make that, make a good enough living in there, because when he got here, the creek, Shady Creek, runs through our ranch. Shady Creek, okay. And that's where the Rita Ranch is established, on Shady Creek, and when he got here, he quickly realized and learned that the 49ers, who were here ahead of him from 49, just a short five years earlier, they pretty much had Shady Creek already mined out, and so he wasn't going to be able to fulfill his dreams in the gold, so he quickly diversified into other areas and other things that he did to make a living, and that's how the Rita Ranch really got established. When he got here in 1854, there was a trading post on the ranch, and I can still show you where that sat and everything like that. He went to work for that man, he owned a little piece of property there with this trading post. And right away, within the first year to two years, my great-grandfather bought him out and took a partner on, and they started to establish more, picking up more of the ground around there. And the main occupation of the trading post was they outfitted miners into their claims, onto like rivers, creeks, wherever their claims were, they would mule train them in and outfit them. My great-grandfather, when he got here, that was the first thing he did, went to work at this trading post, outfitted miners into their claims and that kind of stuff, and started to establish the Rita Ranch at that point. What an enterprising guy. Back then, where did he come out from? The Ritas were established in Illinois and Wisconsin. My great-grandfather, he came out of Illinois. I'm pretty sure out of the Gulf of Mexico, took a ship around the Cape and came into San Francisco. And he had already known my great-grandmother, they weren't married at that time. When she left, she went through Panama and came around and they had an agreement, they would meet there and he went and picked her up in San Francisco and they got married here in California. And her name was Almena Judd. Wow, that's a great story in itself. Yeah, so that's how that, the beginning of the Rita family here in California was. And what did he do back there in Illinois? Well they were farmers. Farmers, okay. Yeah, they were doing different things there too as well, but it was a big family. We still have Rita's back there that I've never met, or that kind of stuff. The Rita's were well established back there. Some of them were into ministry and the Protestant religion and that kind of stuff. Yeah, so that's what they did back there. Wow, you have to admire their guts, all these pioneers that came out. I mean, traveling by boat, traveling across Panama, that's amazing stuff, isn't it? It is amazing what they did, and how they did it, and how hard they worked to do what they did. No doubt about it. Yeah, yeah. All right, in an effort, since you're here John, we're going to try to stay on time. And pay the bills. And pay the bills. That's what we're going to do right now. We're going to have history unfolded, talking about the Rita Ranch up there on the ridge. Great having John Rita here. All banged up. It doesn't matter. You ought to see the other guy. He happens to be a big head of cattle. Anyway, we're going to take our first break. We'll be right back. In Nevada County, defensible space is a year-round effort. Whether it's recovering from winter storms or preparing for wildfire season, the Nevada County Office of Emergency Services is here to help. Create defensible space around your home, property, or business to give first responders a chance to protect what matters most. Wildfire resilience takes the whole community. We are all in this together. Learn more about defensible space at readynevadacounty.org forward slash defensible space. There's a fresh chapter in a Nevada City favorite. Now under new management, Sopa House of Thai serves authentic Thai food in the heart of the historic district. Enjoy beautiful indoor dining or their gorgeous patio, plus beer, wine, and mocktails with vegan and vegetarian options available. Open six days a week, closed on Tuesdays. Come taste the tradition at Sopa House of Thai. Call 530-470-0101. Are your floors embarrassed? Do they squeak, sigh, or make that don't look at me face when company comes over? Then it's time for an upgrade from Bob's Discount Carpet. Since 1975, they've been matching floors to homes like a perfect blind date. Carpet, hardwood, vinyl, if it goes on your floor, they've got it. And the team at Bob's Discount Carpet will help you find flooring so stunning, your neighbors will swear you must have won the lottery. And if you're a senior, veteran, or active military, be sure to ask about their special savings just for you. So go ahead, give your floors the makeover they've been secretly begging for. Stop by their showroom today at 995 Golden Gate Terrace in Grass Valley. Bob's Discount Carpet, because floors have feelings too. Ace is the place with the helpful hardware, folks. Need a hand with your next painting project? Your neighbors at B&C Ace Home and Garden Center are always ready to go that extra mile to help. Right now, you'll save $5 on a gallon of Benjamin Moore, Magnolia Home by Joanna Gaines, Clark and Kensington, or Royal Paint when you buy a color sample. Once you've chosen your paint, their experts will make sure you have the primer, applicators, and other supplies you need to get the job done. So you only have to make one trip. B&C Ace Home and Garden Center. All right, KNC News time, 9-20-54 degrees. Welcome back to History Unfolded with Mike Stewart and my co-host today, Mikey, how you doing? I'm well, tell him yourself. All right, how's your shoulder doing? Ah, well, the doctor's happy with it. I mean, that's what I mean, you're the guy that has to work with it or try to. Well, at three months, I saw the surgeon, not one of his assistants, and he says, oh yeah, you're going to have pain for six months. And so last week, I saw one of his assistants again at five months. I go, well, you know, I should be getting better, shouldn't I, at this point? And she goes, well, what did the doctor say? Well, he said six months of pain. Oh, no, no, no, it's 12. It's 12 months of pain. Oh, thank you. All right, that's a year of your life. Yeah. All right, and of course, we have John Reeder here from the Reeder Ranch. His hand had surgery done, UC Davis, that's where I had my hand surgery done. But did he tell you anything, how long it's going to be banged up that way? Well, originally, they told me I'd be in a splint at least six weeks. After therapy session last week, it looks like they've added two weeks into that. There we go. So hopefully, after eight weeks, I get rid of this, and I'm doing therapy pretty religiously every day on these fingers now and that kind of stuff. I think I'm headed in the right direction. But you're right-handed, and it happened to your right hand, so that's kind of tough, isn't it? Yeah, my whole left side has now come to life, and I'm learning how to be a left-hander. How are you doing with that? Yeah, I'm doing all right. Yeah, see? Yeah, I'm doing all right. That's part of the ranching life, I guess, right? You've got to be tough. You've got to be tough and totally adapt. Yeah, yeah. Now, here's the thing, Mike Stewart. I wanted to bring you into this, because if I recall, the Reeder Ranch has been talked about on previous shows. I don't have John B. in here, I think, but wasn't it talked about with Bernie Zimmerman? Yeah, Bernie talked a little bit about it when we were talking about the history of the ridge. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Obviously, the Reeder Ranch is a big part of that history. Yeah. And it's still big up there at the ranch, right? I mean, here you are, the fire chief of that area and stuff. It's a very important piece of property. Oh, yeah. Yeah. All of them are. But yeah, there's a lot going on up there. Right. Back in the good old days, are there some crazy stories up there, if I recall? Because I'm just thinking, is it Black Bart that maybe was hanging out there? Yes. Didn't we bring that up, too? Yes, we did. At one point? Yes. All right. So, what's the story with Black Bart? Because if I recall, Bernie says, there's a story about it. I don't know if it could be proven or something like that. So, we've got the source right here. Yeah. So, I can fill you in on that. Yes. It's a fascinating story. And we can kind of just... What we just talked about, my great-grandfather having to get into other enterprises to make things work and go. So, one of those enterprises was a sawmill. A sawmill. He built a sawmill on the ranch. And so, he had employees. He also started a freighting business, delivering freight with freight wagons and that kind of stuff. Yeah. Yeah. And he also had team workhorses and that kind of stuff. So, he would use those horses to do other projects, lease them sometimes, that kind of stuff. But anyway, the sawmill was one of the main things for probably somewhere in the late 1860s, early 1870s, somewhere in there, he started the sawmill. And that's where Black Bart enters the picture with the Reeder Ranch. Now, before I go too far, can either one of you guys explain exactly who Black Bart was and his reason for being famous? Sure. He was a famous highwayman. He was known as the Gentleman Highwayman, you know. How about that? Gentleman. Yeah. He never fired a gun. He never killed anybody or anything. But he was very successful at robbing stagecoaches. And as I tell you the story about Black Bart, that'll kind of come to life. And of course, you can research Black Bart and read all of this too. Yeah. Okay. So, the way it was found that Black Bart lived and worked at the Reeder Ranch under an alias was kind of interesting. And historians will say, you know what the readers claim probably is true. But there was a letter that our family had that would prove it. And I'll explain what happened to that letter and that kind of stuff. So the historians will say, without the letter, we can't really prove that. But we really believe that that's probably right. And so anyway, so on to how this all worked with Black Bart. So my great-grandfather's running a sawmill there. And they have employees. And he had enough of these enterprises going, the freight business, the sawmill, work teams, and that kind of stuff, doing some mining. He had to have a bookkeeper. So he employed a bookkeeper. And his name was Beard Wooster. And when the sawmill finally was over, when they had logged and cut the timber they could bring in with oxen to the sawmill, the way it worked in those days, the sawmills probably would get sold off. And then they were moved to a new batch of timber somewhere else. So that's what happened. So the sawmill disappeared. Well when that happened, this Beard Wooster, the bookkeeper, he left and went to San Francisco and went to work for one of the famous hotels down there. I don't remember. It could have been St. Francis. One of the big hotels there as the bookkeeper. So lo and behold, Black Bart gets caught finally and arrested. And he's kept in jail when they got him in the Bay Area in San Francisco. So this Beard Wooster, my great-grandfather's friend and bookkeeper, former employee, he writes a letter back to my great-grandfather. And he says my great-grandfather's name was James Reader, Jim Reader. So he writes this letter and says, hey Jim, I'm sure by now you've heard that Black Bart was captured and they've had him in jail down here. And of course in those days it was very common. People wanted to see what these famous outlaws or high or infamous or whatever looked like. So he said I went over to where they were holding Black Bart to see what Black Bart looked like. And he said, you'd never believe who it was. It was our employee, Mr. Martin, at the sawmill. So wow. So then my great-grandfather and my grandfather, who was just a boy then, they started to put it all together. And one of the things Black Bart did, so this is where the stories come in to kind of help put together that this man truly was Black Bart, tie it together. So one of the things Black Bart employed in his outlaw days or robbed these stages was he was a ventriloquist. So he would put guns like maybe in between two rocks or in the crotch of a tree or whatever so the barrels would be sticking out. Well he could move his voice just enough to make it sound like there was more than one person there holding the stage up. So when he would stop the stage, he could make it sound like this was a gang of guys. So the reason they were able to tie that in is apparently the alias that this man worked under with my great-grandfather, they called him Mr. Martin. That's what they called him. So this Mr. Martin apparently was, and my grandfather told us this, as us as children and lots of other people, he was very fond of children. So my grandfather and his four sisters, this Mr. Martin, he would take them down in the cellar where they lived and he'd put them on his lap and he'd throw his voice around to entertain them and they loved it. So they said, ah. So that fit right in there. So there was another story that one day my great-grandfather's hitching up a buggy and a horse and it's just pouring down rain, I guess. And this Mr. Martin comes and says, Jim, what are you doing? And he says, well, tomorrow's payday and I have to go down to the bank of French Corral and pick up the payroll so I can pay you guys, you know. This Mr. Martin probably wasn't thinking about payday or whatever. He says, Jim, you'll catch your death in pneumonia. I'll loan you the money for the payroll and when it clears up or whatever and you get down to the bank, you can pay me back. Well, he didn't think a lot about that at that point. But when this letter comes, well, he says, no wonder how this guy was able to do that. So that was one of the stories. Then one day my grandfather, as a little boy with him, this Mr. Martin comes, evidently maybe the sawmill wasn't running that day or some day and he says, hey, Frank, that was my grandfather's name, he says, Frank, let's take a hike out on the hill here. This was part of the ranch out there. He said, I want to look over the Uber River. We'll just take a look. Okay, yeah, I'll do that with you. So they take this hike and they got on a point on the ranch where it looks right down, you can look right down into Jones Bar, the Jones Bar crossing. My grandfather said, we sat there all day long watching all the activity going on at Jones Bar. Now they're way up. Nobody can see them. They're way up there. Well, after they found that out, he figured, he knew what they were sitting there all day for. Black Bart was casing because they were mining there at Jones Bar at that time. He was casing when, it was probably the day maybe they shipped gold out of there or whatever they had. So he was casing the whole thing out. And of course, as a little boy, he didn't know. But then when this all came to be, these are the kind of things that they put together. So then Black Bart, I think, spent maybe six years in prison for what he did because it wasn't a long time because he didn't murder anybody. So he was basically convicted for just robbery, right? So after the six years, one day at the ranch, one of my grandfather's sisters was home, and she was there alone. Everybody else was gone. This little gray-haired man shows up, walks up to the house, knocks on the door, and says, I used to work for your father here when the sawmill ran, and I lived in a cabin out there. And would you mind if I just go out and look around? It's been quite a few years since I was around. I'm just here. And she goes, oh, no, I guess that'll be all right. So off this little old gray-haired man walks and goes out, and half an hour, hour later, he comes back, knocks on the door, and says, I really want to thank you for letting me do that. And he drops the silver dollar in her hand. And of course, in those days, silver dollar, that was pretty... So that coincided with Black Bart's release from prison. So they just figured, what, he came back, he had stash buried around there or hid around there, and he got that, disappeared. That's when nobody ever heard from him again after that. But they were really sure that that incident was Black Bart coming back, picking up what he'd had hid around there, that kind of thing. So there's other stories in that. Pretty strong stuff. Yeah, pretty strong stuff. And my grandfather lived to be 99 and was very clear-minded. And then, so I was like 15 when he died. But he was a very serious, very honest person. What they told you, we pretty much knew it was gospel. So it's the truth, in our opinion, that Black Bart lived and worked there under an alias. And it made total sense because what he would do when he was working there, he would leave at times for two weeks at a time while he was such a good employee, my great-grandfather would let him go. He'd say, yeah. And then he'd show back up, go back to work at the sawmill and that kind of stuff. So those two weeks that he'd be gone, it makes perfect sense. He would have an establishment in San Francisco. That's what the historians say. He was living in San Francisco, caught through his laundry mark that he tore off to bandage up this wound when he was caught. And that's how they found him. And they traced him to this place in San Francisco. But when you're gone two weeks at a time, you could have established other places or whatever. So it just made sense. That is great. It was there. That's a great story. So that's the story of Black Bart and the Reader Ranch. That is a great story. Yeah. That's a great story. And I think Bernie Zimmerman did have some of that stuff, too. He did. He did. We thought about that. All right. It was worth being late for the news update for that. Yes, it was. Excellent stuff. All right. We're going to get a news update by the forecast. We'll be right back. I'm Chris Gilbert with the KNCL local news update. As the cannabis harvest season peaks, the Nevada County Sheriff's Office has released an update on the number of illegal grows that have been seized in August and September. Public Information Officer Ashley Cuadro says 18 suspected operations were investigated with 12 of the properties in the Grass Valley area, five around Nevada City and one in Smartsville. She says 2,780 plants were eradicated with 43-year-old Christopher Wing arrested at a Grass Valley site. She says that number is lower than what is typically found earlier in the year, but that's because more cannabis has now been processed, and that amounts to around 660 pounds. Also found were 15 pounds of psychedelic mushrooms, and Cuadro says over half had water pollution with trash in or near a waterway, water diversion, among major environmental damage. The grows often also pose safety problems. We see properties that have unsafe makeshift electrical systems. You know, we're in a high fire-prone area, so exposed and loosely routed wiring, improvised electrical cords, often there's just buckets and, you know, propane littered throughout these fields. It's dangerous. It's creating a fire hazard. Cuadros also notes that Wing is a convicted and registered sex offender. And what's described as a long-term plan to help communities in Nevada County prepare for the growing impacts of climate change was approved by the Board of Supervisors at their recent meeting in Truckee. That follows two years of community engagement, technical analysis, and collaboration with local organizations. Ivana Andre, a senior planner for climate action planning and implementation for a consulting firm hired by the county, outlined key measures of what's called the resource resiliency road map. She summarized climate hazards in this area. That includes extreme precipitation, heat, cold, and winter storms, also droughts and reduced snow packs, along with wildfires and public safety power shutoffs. Measures to combat the impacts include maximizing the resilience, safety, and efficiency of new buildings. And retrofitting existing buildings, both residential and commercial, to achieve these same benefits. In the mobility system, we're looking to expand EV charging infrastructure, reduce single occupancy vehicle use where possible, and implement the county's active transportation plan that's already in place. And join us for our next local news update, coming up at the bottom of the hour. And for news and weather anytime, you can always go to knco.com. I'm Chris Gilbert, KNCO News Talk 830. Escape the everyday and enjoy a little more time to relax with a weeknight getaway. Because this year, Stellar Rewards members of every tier can enjoy 50% off all suites and 30% off all standard rooms, Sunday through Thursday. Settle in and relax in our luxurious rooms and enjoy everything the resort has to offer. From casino excitement and free live entertainment, to award-winning craft beer and delicious dining at the brewery. The Lodge at Feather Falls Casino Resort. Your place to stay. Must be 21 or older. Blackout days apply. Management reserves all rights. All you can eat. Prime rib and crab legs? Oh yeah. This is not a drill. Feather Falls Casino Resort's Dream Catcher Buffet is serving up the ultimate surf and turf. Slow-roasted, prime rib, sweet, buttery crab legs. Pile your plate high, then go back for seconds or thirds, maybe fourths. Hey, we don't judge. Join us Friday and Saturday from 4 to 9 p.m., just $34.99 for all-you-can-eat prime rib, crab legs, and all your buffet favorites. Dream Catcher Buffet. Come hungry. Leave impressed. Only at Feather Falls Casino. Your place to feast. Great. Now I'm hungry. This from the KNCO-BNC ACE Home and Garden Center Weather Center. ACE is the place. Here is your forecast on KNCO News Talk 830. Sunny with a high in the low 60s today. A very light southwesterly wind. Clear overnight to a low 42. Then sunny and not as cool on Tuesday with a high 68. Tuesday night's low 45 and the outlook for Wednesday, sunny with a high near 70. For weather anytime, click on the Weather Center at knco.com. I'm meteorologist Ann Holliday on KNCO News Talk 830. All right, KNCO News Time, 930, 855 degrees. Welcome back to History Unfolded. Tom Fitzsimmons here with Mike Stewart. We have John Reeder here from the Reeder Ranch. And we just had a gentleman call, Mike, named George. George was a friend of your older brother, Steve? Cousin. Or cousin, Steve. OK, cousin, all right. And he went to Sierra College with them, I guess, played football at NU. Then they went to Sierra College and all that stuff. He wondered how your cousin Steve is doing, if he's still around, and how he's doing. Yeah, he lives down around Loomis in the Loomis area. And yeah, he's retired, still around, comes up and sees us and plays golf with my brothers. They get together once a month and have lunch. So he's doing great. Oh, man, where do you guys golf at when you guys go golfing? Well, I'm not part of that. But my brothers, they do a lot down, I think, Blackhorse is it, down, you know, and sometimes out to Sierra, you know, and that kind of stuff. So yeah, yeah, yeah. I was going to say, if you normally golf, you're not going to be golfing for a while there. No. Yeah. No. Do you want to explain what happened to your hand? You explained to me off the air. Yeah. I mean, it's just that you guys, I really, it's amazing. 72 years old, you're still working hard at ranching. Well, you know what? I don't feel 72, and it's just crazy when I think about being 72. I just can't believe it, because I still do anything I've always done, right? Right. So yeah, so we're bringing cattle out of the high country, home for the winter. Explain that first, John. Explain? About free range cattle. OK, yeah. So forever, my family would take the cattle from our ranch, which is kind of intermediate elevation, or foothills, or whatever. So it dries out quickly. So if you're going to raise cattle and raise cattle right, you have to have them on green feed. Green feed. So you get up in a higher elevation as the heat comes on, and that kind of stuff. So in 1962, my father got a Forest Service allotment, basically between Camptonville and Allegheny. And I still run it. I still have it. Still use it. Still work with the Forest Service, Sierra Pacific Industries, that kind of stuff. So that's where we run in the summertime. So it takes us, in the fall, a lot of times, anywhere from 7 to 10 days to go up and gather them, because they're up there on free, open range. They're everywhere. I mean, they scatter on maybe 20 square miles. And so you have to go gather them and bring them in. And we have what we call gathering fields. And we've got two different gathering fields where we bring these cattle in in little bunches at a time and hold them during the week. And we keep doing that till we get everything we can gathered. And forever, we drove them home horseback. I'm pretty sure we were the last Nevada County cattle drive still going. And two years ago was the first time I started to truck them. I broke the string of 62 years. It was pretty hard for me to do that. But I was kind of forced to do that through the drought years. My cattle learned how to eat a weed up there that doesn't kill them or whatever. But when you pick them up to gather or go home and you're bringing them in, and so you're driving them along horseback or whatever, and their body temperature starts to rise, this weed affects them. And they want to go down. They kind of get paralyzed in their hind quarter. And they kind of get sick. So they finally go down. They just lay down, and they won't move. Well, anyway, so when we would make the cattle drive home, go down, hit Highway 49, go up through the town of North San Juan, that would take us three days to do that. These cattle would still have some of that, not all of them, but any that had gotten into this fern, this weed, be still in their system. So we'd be going along the highway with them. And out in the middle of the herd, one might get off in a brush and lay down because it was sick from this weed, and we wouldn't know it. And then at night, I'd get these calls. Hey, you've got cattle on the highway. Well, this day and age with the amount of traffic there is, couldn't afford that. And I didn't want anybody to get killed hitting one of my cattle. I didn't want the cattle to get hurt. So I finally had to make the decision because they learned how to eat this during the drought. Now they still eat it. So I said, you know, I got to make a modern day decision here. We're going to start trucking them. So that's what we were doing when I got my hand injured. We had just loaded the first semi-load of cattle, brought them out of our cow camp, got them to the ranch. The truck was at the corral. We're unloading the cattle into the corral, are offloading them. And for whatever reason, and I never saw this happen in all my life, and we truck cattle for years too, those big semi-trucks that you see going up and down the highway hauling cattle, they're double deckers. So you've got cattle on a top deck and cattle on a lower deck. The cattle on the upper deck, they wouldn't unload. And they wouldn't step down on the ramp for whatever reason. So my buddy, my partner, he's on the other side of the truck. He's trying to get them to go. And I just was figuring, pretty soon they'll step and they'll come off. Well, it seemed like about 20 minutes went by. He wouldn't have any luck. I said, man, I'm going to have to get up there and give him a hand. So I went up, but we're on the outside of the truck. We're not on the inside with these cattle. So you're climbing up the holes. So we're climbing up, and those air holes that are alongside those lumen trailers, I'm holding on. I put my hand through one of those holes holding on. So my fingers and my hand are on the inside where the cattle are, but my body and everything is on the outside. And in my left hand, I've got a little poker, a little rod that I'm just trying to push the cattle around, try to get one to step down. And my buddy on the other side, he's doing the same thing. Well, the truck driver's standing on the ground below me. So I don't know what I am, five, eight feet up in the air hanging on, and just a little tiny rail along there. Got my feet there. I'm just hanging on. We're trying to get them, and they're still not doing it. So I asked the truck driver, go, hey, where's your hot shot? And that's a little electric prod that you tap a cow with and jolts them or whatever. He said, oh, I don't have it. Robby, he's got it on the other side. And I said, oh, OK. Well, as soon as I said that, Robby reached through and hit a cow, and she was directly in line with me with her hind end. So her two back legs are facing me. And when he hit her with that electric prod, she knew I was behind him because I'd been poking. So their natural reaction is they're jolting. And she kicked and hit me square on with the hand I'm holding. That's got the fingers on the inside. Yeah, your right hand. Yeah, my right hand. And those holes on the inside, they're indented in. So there's a little sharp edge there, my fingers. And she just hit me square on. I'm just lucky all four fingers weren't laying on the floor. And at that point, I couldn't hold on, and I just fell off, bang, onto the ground from way up there. You got a bloody hand. Got a bloody hand and blood everywhere. And I never was in so much pain. I'll be honest. Even though I say I'm a tough cowboy, I want to ball like a baby. It hurt that bad. So that was the beginning of a long day because I ended up by, that was probably, I don't know, 11 o'clock in the morning or whatever. 8 o'clock at night, I finally end up in UC Davis. Emergency surgery at 8 o'clock. My two daughters are standing there, six and a half hours of surgery. And they put my fingers back together. And I've been rehabbing them ever since. And I think it's going the right way. So that's what happened. Are your daughters used to you having mishaps like that because it's cattle life, ranch life? Well, I mean, mishaps are probably kind of common. But I'll be honest, in all my life, I never broke a bone, never wore a cast, never had anything happen. So this is, for me, first time I've ever had that. So yeah, but my daughters are used to me being kind of stubborn. I'm doing what I want to do. So they're trying to help me get this thing fixed. And I'm out there still trying to work and do that. So they're always after me, always having a feeling, you know, that kind of stuff. Before I take a break, just knowing that you're moving them by trucks now, is the price of fuel and stuff driving you crazy? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, that's got to be tough, right? It's affecting all of us. Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, no, it's not good. Yeah, yeah. I was just thinking of those big trucks just moving cattle that way. All right, we're going to take a break to say semi in time. Semi in time. The interesting thing that was brought up, though, was the cattle drive. Just maybe we can talk about that when we come back. Do you think we have time? What do you think, Mikey? Yeah, well, we could go there, sure. All right, is there some place you wanted to go? We also want to talk about his grandfather, but. All right, yeah, OK, let's do that, too. All right, so quick break down the homestretch here. If history unfolded, we'll be right back. Oh, yeah. Planning for retirement isn't easy. If you don't know where to start, tune in to Bright Lake Wealth Presents Retirement Talks with Ted Thatcher every Sunday morning at 10. Ted shares helpful tips and strategies that just might change the course of your retirement. Listen every Sunday at 10 to Bright Lake Wealth Presents Retirement Talks with Ted Thatcher. Hope in a bright future. Bright Lake Wealth Management offers investment advisory services and is registered with the SEC. Every single day, thousands of distressed cats are sitting alone in shelter cages, forced to endure the intense fear and loneliness of abandonment, as well as the risk of being euthanized. At Golden Paws Society, we are dedicated to the rescue of shelter cats and giving them all they need to be adopted into their forever homes. To find out more about our lifesaving mission, go to GoldenPawsSociety.org. That's GoldenPawsSociety.org. Sponsored by Golden Paws Society. Hey, Nevada County, I'm Lucas Mijares. And I'm Jesse Etlin. We're the founders of Zion Capital right here in your backyard. And if you've listened to Dave Ramsey, you know how important it is to have someone you can trust. That's why we're your local SmartVestor pros. Lucas was named one of eight finalists for Advisor of the Year by Investment News and has been featured in Forbes and The Wall Street Journal. And Jesse's been voted best financial advisor in Nevada County four years in a row. We're backed by firms like Fidelity and Charles Schwab. So you don't have to drive down the hill. You can have Schwab and Fidelity right here in your backyard. That means you get a true hometown relationship with Fortune 500 muscle behind your plan. We work with everyone from entrepreneurs building wealth to retirees focused on maximizing income. And we go beyond the basics, showing you smarter ways to grow your money that most people never knew existed. At the end of the day, we meet you where you're at and help you get where you want to go. Come visit us here in Grass Valley or give us a call today at 530-955-5402. Zion Capital, a mission bigger than money. Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA SIPC, a registered investment advisor and separate entity from LPL Financial. All right, KNC News time, 949.56 degrees down the home stretch here of History Unfolded. John Reeder from the Reeder Ranch. Our guest today talking about the history of his family's ranch. And Mike, let's talk about his family a little bit. And so is it his grandfather? Yeah, John's got a particular story he wants to bring forward. Yeah, OK. Yeah, kind of going forward from the Black Bart story. It's very interesting. I think my grandfather's lifetime. So my grandfather was born there on a ranch in 1870. And alongside with that, the house is still there. My father was born in the same house in 1914. The house is still there. Still there. We have a renter in it and that kind of stuff. But my grandfather at the age of 13 years old, he went to work driving one of the freight wagons for my great grandfather. So at 13 years old, he's delivering freight. His main route is from Wheatland to Graniteville. And hauling freight at 13. He hauled freight. Wow. OK. So he hauled freight through the 1890s, basically. And it's very interesting. A lot of people and a lot of people that are around Graniteville don't even realize this. My grandfather, to put Graniteville kind of into perspective. I don't know if you've ever been there or who has been up there. Many years ago. Yeah. To put it in perspective of what a going concern Graniteville was, my grandfather told us that in the height of his freight hauling into Graniteville, there were 12 saloons running and six houses of ill repute. So think of how many people had to be there. But what was going on at that time? And, you know, to support that. And a 13 year old kid leading a train up there. Yep. So he goes on, my great grandfather, and he lived until 1969. So he was 99 years old when he died. I was born in 1954. So basically I'm 15 years old. And at in 1968, my brothers and I and our grandfather, we're sitting in the living room of our folks place on the ranch. And we watch man walk on the moon. Now, think about that. My grandfather was born in 1870 there. He saw Indians who lived there. He was, you know, saw. Only horse and buggies delivered freight, horse and buggies, saw automobiles come in and saw a man walk on the moon. To me, that is pretty mind boggling. That that life, that lifespan that he lived. No doubt about it. And my grandmother and my grandfather, they never drove an automobile, even though they lived into the 1960s, never once got behind the wheel of an automobile and drove it. Did they want to or they just never wanted to? They never wanted to. How about that? They had nine children. They drove them around wherever they went. So, yeah, yeah. I just think that's pretty mind boggling. That lifespan, you know, that is awesome. That is awesome story. John and I are talking off air about those generations of what they saw. And like my wife, Kim, her grandmother came from Wisconsin to California in a horse and wagon and went home in a jet airliner. Well, there you go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So a couple of things. When he talked about the Native Americans that were here and stuff, were they like peaceful? I mean, did everybody get along the ranch with with them or how'd that work? I never heard a story contrary to that. Yeah, that they did. They got along. Now, how how, you know, there's there's lots of Indian grinding stones. There's lots of evidence the Indians were there. And, you know, and that kind of thing. My grandfather never said to us there was a problem or anything like that. How long they actually lived and survived there once the Europeans got there? That that's hard to tell. I don't know, because as we know, they died off from a lot of the diseases that were brought in and that kind of stuff. But they were definitely there when he was a little boy, you know, still living around there, you know, and that kind of stuff. That was kind of a migratory spot for them, too. They would leave there in the in the spring, just like deer or anything else. And they would migrate with the deer and they would go up into the higher elevation. Then they'd come back and spend the winter there. You know, that's basically in that area kind of what they did. There was probably a few families that might have stayed there for the summer or whatever. But the main tribe would move on up high country, follow the deer herds and that kind of stuff up, you know. So, you know, one thing I wonder, too, just because it's such a rural, self-sustaining place, when the Depression happened, did it affect the ranch at all? Or work was work and it didn't really affect you? No, it didn't affect them very much. It sure did, to a degree. I mean, because there was automobiles, so there was gas stamps, there was all kind of stuff. So people got affected that way. But as far as them making a living, and Nevada County in general is this way, really didn't really know, didn't feel that the recession near as much because of the gold industry, because the mines were running and all of that. And people had work and they were, you know, it was hard. My folks were Depression children. And one thing we learned growing up, my mother never wasted anything. We ate tons of leftover meals and that kind of stuff. They didn't believe in wasting anything because they knew coming out of the Depression what it was to, you know, you just, those things weren't readily available. So you didn't waste them, you know, that kind of stuff. So for sure, you know, that kind of thing. I remember my mom saving like half dozen peas because it was going to go into a soup. If there was any leftovers, it got kind of saved and was going to be used some other way. Some other way. Because we had nine kids in our family. Yeah, for sure. So as a kid, me growing up, almost every night when we sat down and had a meal, it was produced on the ranch. I mean, we were milking cows, our beef, we slaughtered our own beef, we grew a big garden. The only thing that was something that came from the store would be something like sugar or flour or that. My mother made all our butter. We made our own ice cream. We did all, those meals, 90% or more, we raised it. And my mother would can. I mean, everything was put up for the winter. That's the way life was there on our ranch. God bless your mother. All boys and doing that stuff. Yeah, you bet. That is inspiring. Okay, so what's the future of the Reeder Ranch, John, if you don't mind me asking? Do you have like other Reeders that are going to be continuing it on? Yeah, so I have three children. Two of them live on the ranch, and the youngest one lives here in Nevada City. They're all basically very much tied to the Reeder Ranch. They all love the Reeder Ranch. They all are very much ingrained. My brothers and myself, we basically got it set up now to where through our generation, passes on to our children or whatever, it will remain as the Reeder Ranch, even though we each own individual things, but it is the Reeder Ranch. As far as the ranch itself and the activities that go on, the way I'm running cattle from how my father ran cattle and how my grandfather and great-grandfather, I don't think there's any of my children or any of my brother's children that will continue to run the cattle probably in the high country in that allotment because they have their own lives going. They have their own work. They have their own what they're doing. And when you're running cattle like I'm running, that's a full-time job. You have to have somebody on it. So, it's just something that will naturally, I think, disappear, but I believe that they will run whatever the ranch will support, they'll be running cattle there doing that kind of thing. But they won't be going into the high country, bringing the cattle back out and that kind of thing. I seriously doubt. You never know. I mean, maybe a grandchild or somebody else decides, hey, in the last few years, I'd like to learn this or do that. It could happen, but I would say the likelihood is it'll get to where whatever the ranch supports is where the cattle will be run. Do you still long to do a cattle drive like the old-fashioned cattle drive? What about it? Would you like to do one again? Oh, I would. If it wasn't for what I told you happened, I'd still be doing it. I mean, number one, when you truck these cattle, you talked about fuel prices and all that. That takes a big chunk of the calf money that I'm going to make out of my pocket. Absolutely. It was a lot better for us to drive them, a lot cheaper. No, I totally miss it. I'd like to do at least one more and say, hey, this is the last drive. Nevada County, enjoy it. Here we come. It would be really fun to do that. All right. We're down to about the last minute. Millhouse Ranch is up there. That has nothing to do with you guys, right? No, nothing to do with us. They're right across the street from us. Yeah, that's what I mean. It was real close, right? Yeah, right. All right. Yeah. All right. Anything else, Mike, you want to add? And the Browning's on the other side. And the Browning's on the other side. And the Browning's on the other side, yes. And of course, there's been big fires up there, too. So everything's... 49er fire, one of the big first catastrophic fires that affected every around here, started just on the north, just off of our ranch and came through the ranch. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I tell you, John, I appreciate you coming in, especially all banged up and stuff. Well, that's all right. I got time to do this. Look at that. It looks like you went five rounds with some heavyweight or something like that kickboxing. That is a crazy looking hand, but I'm glad you're feeling good and doing well. Thank you. Thanks for having me, too. It's been great. My pleasure having you. 72 years old, you're a stud, without a doubt, man. Very inspiring. And who's our guest in two weeks? I don't have it covered yet, but I'm working on it. All right. Maybe we'll get the Black Bart's family on. Oh, well, if he has a family. Anyway, thank you guys. Great job with History Unfolded today. That does it for us. We got ABC News coming up here at the top of the hour. It's followed by Swap Shop and The Shopping Show here on KNCO News Talk at 830. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. --- end of transcript ---