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NORTH COAST, Calif. – A young Kelseyville woman was in a vehicle crash on Highway 101 on Monday in an area where traffic had been slowed in the wake of a grass fire.
Elena Goss, 19, was driving one of the two vehicles involved in the rear-end crash on southbound Highway 101 south of Calpella in Mendocino County, according to the Ukiah Area office of the California Highway Patrol.
At about 3 p.m. that day there was a grass fire on the west shoulder of Highway 101 in that area, with Cal Fire responding to put the fire out and the CHP providing traffic control, according to the report.
The CHP said traffic was reduced to one lane for approximately 30 minutes, causing traffic to back up, before the fire was put out and the CHP opened up all lanes of traffic.
At approximately 3:48 p.m., traffic was still slow in the area, the CHP said.
Justin O’Neal, 27, of Redwood Valley was driving his 2001 Toyota Tacoma southbound and had come to a stop behind traffic, south of the Calpella exit, according to the CHP. O’Neal turned on his emergency flashing lights to warn traffic behind him.
Goss was driving her 2009 Ford Focus southbound south of the Calpella exit. The CHP said she looked down to change the music on her phone while driving. When she looked up, she saw traffic had come to a stop ahead of her.
The CHP said Goss applied the brakes and began sliding. The Focus then hit the rear of the Tacoma.
The Tacoma overturned into the median and the Focus came to a stop in the No. 2 lane, blocking traffic, the CHP said.
Multiple bystanders stopped to help the crash victims. The CHP said Goss, Justin O’Neal and his passenger, John O’Neal, also of Redwood Valley, were all taken to Ukiah Valley Medical Center for treatment of minor injuries.
The CHP said all three were wearing their seat belts.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County residents could see a break in the sunny weather later this week, based on the updated forecast.
The National Weather Service reported that a weather system in the eastern Pacific Ocean is anticipated to bring rain to much of Northern California on Thursday and into Friday.
Along with rain, forecasters said the weather system will bring with it a cooling trend lasting into the weekend.
Forecast models show that rainfall levels could range from as little as a quarter of an inch in the south county, to close to an inch in the county’s northern, mountainous areas.
The specific Lake County forecast calls for rain beginning as early as Wednesday night and continuing through Friday morning.
During that time, temperatures are expected to dip into the high 40s at night and the high 60s in the daytime, with light winds of up to 10 miles per hour.
Cooler temperatures in that range are forecast through Saturday, with daytime highs rising into the low 80s by the start of early next week.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A film about Anderson Marsh State Historic Park in Lower Lake has won an Emmy Award.
“A Walk Through Time: The Story of Anderson Marsh” won in the “Historic/Cultural-Program/Special” category in the 46th annual Northern California Emmy Awards, which were presented on Saturday in San Francisco.
The 28-minute film documents 14,000 years of the park’s history and the first people who lived there, the Koi Nation of Northern California.
“Everything was just fantastic,” said Dino Beltran, the Koi Nation’s tribal administrator and treasurer who also was a producer and the narrator for the film.
He was on hand to collect the Emmy and called the experience “pretty exciting.”
Along with Beltran, production team members who attended the Emmy Award ceremony on Saturday included Director Dan Bruns of the Advanced Laboratory for Visual Anthropology at California State University, Chico; archaeologist Dr. John Parker, another of the producers, along with his wife, Cheyanne, who also is an archaeologist; Executive Producer Leslie Steidl, a retired associate state archaeologist with the California Department of Parks and Recreation; and Eduardo Guaracha, the superintendent of the California State Parks Northern Buttes District, which includes Lake County.
“It was an incredible experience to take part in the award ceremony, but even more amazing to be involved in a project that brought together archaeologists, Native Americans, pioneer families, volunteers, State Park representatives, geologists, and media specialists to shine a light on a piece of Lake County’s past,” said Dr. Parker.
The film debuted in 2015, but was nominated for an Emmy for its broadcast in 2016 on Sacramento-based KVIE 6, a Public Broadcasting System member television station.
“A Walk Through Time” was produced through a partnership of the Koi National and the California Department of Parks and Recreation.
Beltran said the film’s production took about two years, between weather and scheduling.
Parker said that during work on the film, the production team established friendships that will last a lifetime. “We learned from each other and many of us continue to work together to protect Lake County’s cultural legacy.”
“We didn’t anticipate winning,” said Beltran.
He said “A Walk Through Time” was just a little film that was the result of a lot of people working together using a small amount of money.
It was in competition with “Emperors' Treasures: from the National Palace Museum,” produced by KGO ABC 7, and “Jimmy Borges - A Life Story,” by KGMB 9, nominees that were backed by big television stations and had name recognition.
“We went there for the experience, and the next thing I know, they announced our film and we were all elated,” Beltran said.
On the stage, the group members were handed facsimile statuettes. Once offstage, they were directed to the interview area. After the award presentation they also exchanged the statuettes given to them during the ceremony for ones with their names on them, which they had to sign for, Beltran said.
“A Walk Through Time” features interviews with archaeologists including Parker and Greg White, geoarchaeologist, Jack Meyer, Koi Nation Chair Darin Beltran and Vice Chair Drake Beltran and retired State Parks Ranger Tom Nixon.
It discusses the Clear Lake Basin’s oak woodlands, riparian habitat, obsidian resources, flora and fauna, archaeology and history.
In particular, it describes the journey over thousands of years of the Koi Nation.
“They lived in Paradise,” Darin Beltran explained in the film.
White said that in most regions of California there are big breaks in the archaeological record that are indications of widespread movement and movement.
However, in the Clear Lake Basin, the evidence shows that there was gradual change among the peoples living there, which indicates the same people were living there throughout the entire 14,000 years of the archaeological record.
“This is unique. It’s unlike any other place in California,” White said.
He added, “We have every reason to believe that the Pomo were the first people. And they are still here.”
By the 1840s, however, the Koi Nation and other local Pomo tribes began to come under pressure from white settlers. Up to one half of the Koi Nation was forcibly resettled for use as slave labor to Gold Rush settlements and Mexico ranchos in areas in current-day Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties.
By the 1950s, they lost complete access to their ancestral lands.
In the 1970s, the effort began to preserve Anderson Marsh as a state park, an effort facilitated by the work of Parker, who has studied Lake County’s natural and human history for 45 years.
He said it was during the first 15 of those years that the uniqueness of Lake County’s prehistoric sites prompted him to lobby locally and in Sacramento to preserve 38 of those sites in Anderson Marsh as a Cultural Preserve State Park.
In 1982, the 1,300-acre Anderson Marsh State Historic Park was created.
“Since then, I have tried to share this amazing history with others, hoping to instill an appreciation that would help preserve those resources,” he said. “I think the documentary ‘A Walk Through Time’ is a giant step in that direction. The honor given to the film by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences brings the value of Lake County’s unique natural and cultural resources to a much wider audience. Those of us who live here should be proud of these resources and strive to protect them.”
The film also won the Governor’s Historic Preservation Award in 2015 and, that same year, was selected for the 40th annual American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco.
With an Emmy now in hand, Beltran and his colleagues are looking forward to more filmmaking endeavors.
“We’ve already started production on another one, without big money,” he said, adding that the Emmy gives them “a head start.”
This new short documentary, which also will be close to 30 minutes long, will focus on sacred site protection efforts here in Lake County, Beltran said.
Beltran said the Koi Nation and Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake are working together to produce the film, which will look at the evolution of Ancestors 1, a consortium formed by the Koi Nation, Robinson Rancheria and the Habematolel Pomo.
Ancestors 1 in turn entered into a memorandum of understanding with the county of Lake in 2015 to increase protections for cultural resources, winning the Governor's Historic Preservation Award for 2016 for those efforts.
“It’s also going to cover our relationship with Sheriff Martin and how he’s been backing us for our sacred site protection and archaeological signs,” he said of the film.
Peter Coyote, the award-winning actor, director and documentary narrator, has agreed to narrate the new film, said Beltran.
The two men became friends after Beltran was asked to narrate “A Walk Through Time.” He reached out to Coyote, who in turn responded with advice and tips on narration and then agreed to work on the newest effort.
Beltran said he’s also gotten Gov. Jerry Brown to agree to make an appearance in the film. He said he met the governor at an event where Brown spoke about sacred site protection, one of his interests.
Chico State’s Advanced Laboratory for Visual Anthropology also has signed on once again to film this newest documentary, Beltran said.
The new film’s outline has just been completed, said Beltran.
He said their target for completion is a year.
“A Walk Through Time” can be seen in its entirety above.
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LAKEPORT, Calif. – A man convicted of a July 2015 Clearlake murder was sentenced on Monday after spending nearly a year seeking a new trial.
Judge Andrew Blum handed down the sentence to Billy Raymond Mount, 37, of Clearlake during a Monday afternoon appearance in Lake County Superior Court.
A jury convicted Mount in August of the shooting death of 40-year-old Steven Galvin of Clearlake.
Mount was found guilty of second-degree murder, assault with a firearm, discharge of a firearm from a vehicle, felon in possession of a firearm, and special allegations including shooting a firearm from a vehicle, discharge of a handgun, personal use of a firearm, inflicting great bodily injury and being a member of a criminal street gang in August, as Lake County News has reported.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Art Grothe said that in his sentencing decision, Judge Blum stayed some of the lesser charges of which Mount was convicted, such as discharge of a handgun and personal use of a firearm.
“He stayed some lesser offenses and allegations that were included in the sentence for some greater and more aggravated counts and allegations,” Grothe said.
Blum gave Mount a determinate sentence of 17 years; after Mount is done serving those 17 years, he will begin to serve the indeterminate part of his sentence, which Grothe said is 45 years to life.
Since his conviction last summer, Mount had been attempting to get a new trial, Grothe said.
Mount hired a new attorney, who Grothe said needed a long time to review the trial record.
Galvin had been walking through a neighborhood on 35th Avenue in Clearlake on the afternoon of July 2, 2015, when a small white pickup pulled up and two shots were fired. He was struck once in the back by a .22-caliber bullet.
Galvin died a short time later, not long after he had told a detective who arrived on scene that “Cyclops” – a Clearlake man named David Cox – was responsible for shooting him.
The defense had argued that Cox had actually been the gunman due to his confrontations with Galvin because Cox believed Galvin had stolen his tablet computer.
Cox received three immunity agreements from local authorities for cooperating with the investigation as well as for testifying both at the preliminary hearing and trial.
At trial, Cox said Mount confessed to him that he shot Galvin.
Another witness who testified at the trial, Sean Whiteman, said Mount had ridden in Whiteman's white Chevy S10 pickup to the shooting scene.
Whiteman also led police to a gun that he said was involved in the shooting, although authorities could not lift prints or DNA from the weapon. However, they were able to find Mount’s print and DNA on a CD case in Whiteman’s pickup.
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CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Habitat for Humanity Lake County is marking the completion of the 20th home it has built in the community and is about to dedicate its 21st home project.
Habitat celebrated the dedication of house No. 20 for the Pantoja family on Saturday, June 3.
Family, friends, staff and volunteers gathered to enjoy a delicious lunch and the fellowship of all of those who made this house possible.
Groundbreaking for this Clearlake house took place just prior to the eruption of last year’s Clayton fire, and experienced delays as a result, but the family feels blessed to have it completed at last.
“We never thought this was possible. We feel blessed and excited and appreciate everyone’s work to get this done. We thank everyone for their help,” said new homeowner Trancito Pantoja when asked how he felt about this day arriving at last.
The dedication of another home at 3592 Toyon St. in Clearlake is scheduled for this Saturday, June 10, at noon.
Everyone is invited to join in welcoming the Gwin family to their new home, to see the work Habitat for Humanity does in Lake County and to talk to staff and volunteers about how you can get involved or might qualify for a home.
If you or someone you know has a housing need and would like to find out if you qualify for help from Habitat for Humanity, visit www.lakehabitat.org , stop by Habitat’s Clearlake office at 15312 Lakeshore Drive or call 707-994-1100 for more information or a preapplication.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The sixth annual Californio Days/Fiesta of the Horse will take place on Sunday, June 11.
This free, family friendly horse show extravaganza will take place from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Rancho de la Fuente, 2290 Soda Bay Road, south of Lakeport. Parking begins at 9:45 a.m.
Two hours of fast-paced fun entertainment include exciting drill teams and beautiful exotic horse breeds, as well as returning favorites like the Hooves and Wheels Quadrille and cowboy mounted shooting.
The fiesta show also includes live fiesta music, family friendly beverages and food sales.
Last year’s Californio Days/Fiesta of the Horse drew more than 500 spectators and participants, organizers reported.
Admission is free.
This years sponsors include Highland Springs Equestrian Center, Hooves & Wheels, Lake County Wine Studio, Balius Farm Miniature Sport Horses and the Lake County Progressives.
Anyone interested in sponsoring, supporting, volunteering, participating, or contributing displays or expertise, please contact Deb Baumann at 707-275-9234 or email
