Not the Laytonville Clarkes...

While working yesterday on the ambulance my partner and I began discussing the history of the City. The topic wandered to the Clarkes sitting on a bench at the 1915 Exposition, coming all the way in from Laytonville.

"Not the Clarkes of the Clarke Ranch out there were they?" He asked, suddenly stopping the ambulance.

"Yeah, my Grandmother met my Grandfather on that ranch, why?" I ask, curious if we're long lost cousins.

"My family has been hunting turkey there for years, it's the best little plot of land anywhere around. Really? That was in your family?" He is as floored as me.

"Yeah, we were just up there 2 years ago November, it's beautiful. Got to stay in the little house with a lot of family and hear old stories." I said, trying to avoid the real reason we were there.

"I'd love to hear more about them." He said and pulled over in a bus stop.

So I told what I knew, about the Mormon trip and skipping Utah for California, about the paintings in Grandma's house growing up and the sheep. He soaked up every word and told me he and his family always respected that that area is so beautiful and has a sense of family, with both houses still in working order.

It was then I told him about the pictures of my great great grandfather building the little house and he just shook his head.
"That is so cool." he said staring out the window.

"I think so too."
http://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/memorial/clarke.htm