History of Columbia College / KAAD-LP Radio Interview—Ross Carkeet
Recording opens playing “California Here I Come” by Al Jolson:
“California, here I come
Right back where I started from
Where bowers are flowers bloom in the spring
Each morning at dawning
Birdies sing and everything”
*Music Fades out*
Kris Osward: It's time for “Speaking of the Motherlode: A nostalgic look at
the history of the Gold Country”, hosted by Shelley and Kris. These recorded
interviews are part of Columbia College Library’s Oral History series.
Shelley Muniz: This program is presented by your community Radio KAAD-LP 103.5 FM Sonora,
California streaming online at KAAD-LP.org.
Kris Osward: Please, join us as we experience history through the eyes of those who lived it.
*Music begins again*
“California, here I come
Right back where I started from
Where bowers are flowers bloom in the spring…”
*Music Fades out*
Shelley Muniz: This is Shelley Muniz and Kris Osward. We're recording this interview for the Columbia College Oral History Series. Today's date is Monday, January 30th, 2017. We're here at the Columbia College Library, with professor emeritus Ross Carkeet. We're thrilled to have Ross with us today. Thank you so much for coming.
Ross Carkeet: Thank you.
Shelley Muniz: So, Ross, we know that your family has quite a history here in Tuolumne County. Can you tell us a little bit about that? When did they arrive here? And...and all that, just your family history?
Ross Carkeet: Well, my mom and dad moved up here in the mid-1930s from Oakland, he was an attorney down there starving to death and he had a friend up here with a practice, and he invited him up to.. to join him. And it worked out. It was [nip and tuck] for a while and a few years later, he ran for District Attorney and got elected and did that for a number of years and then practiced law for...another 10 or so years, 10 or 15 years and then ran for Superior Court Judge in 1957. He was judge for oh...16-17 years. And uh... I grew up here and went to Sonora High School Sonora Elementary. Loved it. Great childhood and I came back home to teach at Columbia College.
Shelley Muniz: What—tell us about—so how many were in your family? How many kids?
Ross Carkeet: I have a brother who’s three years younger than me, and he’s back in Vermont and a sister who’s five years older and she's back in Vermont too.
Shelley Muniz: So when you moved here—when your dad moved here, the whole family moved together or.. were some of you born here or...
Ross Carkeet: Let's see, when they moved up here, it was just with my sister. She was a little girl, and my brother and I were born here.
Shelley Muniz: Oh that’s great.
Ross Carkeet: Yeah, I was born in ‘43 and my brother was born in ‘46, and let's see Kara was born in..in ‘38. So I guess she was born here too. Yeah, they came up here shortly after they’d been married all three of us were born here looking back on it.
Shelley Muniz: So what was it like being the son of the judge?
Ross Carkeet: Well, you kinda lived in a fishbowl. Um... you had to be careful, and keep your nose clean. I remember dad said to me once, “It's not easy being the judge's son.” and that made me feel better because at times it wasn't but… he—he was pretty good about it and uh...we had a lot of freedom and he taught us responsibility and to try and uh..to do what you're supposed to do and so it—all in all, it was a good childhood. Very good.
Shelley Muniz: What’s a good memory that you have of back then when you were a kid?
Ross Carkeet: Oh, see there’s so many... uh... hiking up on Bald Mountain above Sonora.
Shelley Muniz: Mmm.
Ross Carkeet: We lived up on the hill there, and going up on the mountain with Dad on weekends with a .22 to shoot beer cans and going up in the High Country hiking and fishing and riding my bicycle up to the Old Phoenix Lake Powerhouse, which is now Apple Valley Estates.
Shelley Muniz: Oh wow.
Ross Carkeet: Yeah I used to go fishing up there all the time and it’s still good fishing on Powerhouse Creek.
Shelley Muniz: Mhm.
Ross Carkeet: Those are good opportunities, riding my bicycle and then High School and Grammar School running track and having close relationships with friends in Tuolumne County. It was all—it was all good. I...looking back on it. I was...I was very fortunate my brother and sister felt the same way too pretty much.
Shelley Muniz: Your love of biology obviously started around here then, with those experiences with your dad,
Ross Carkeet: I believe so yeah looking back. That's where it started and then I went down to Modesto Junior College and studied forestry for 2 years and I lived with my grandmother and that was great because she cooked just like my mom,*Shelley Laughing* and so it was a repeat and then from Junior College I transferred to..to Berkeley and got a degree in forestry and I ran track in Junior College too and that kept me going that was..that was a lot of fun, Modesto was a small Community College then. It was on the old campus. Didn’t have the new campus. The west campus didn't exist. So—
Shelley Muniz: Mhm.
Ross Carkeet: —it was pretty intimate, you know kids from Sonora came down and the local Valley schools and I knew some of them because I’d run track with them. It was a good experience that was all , I consider that all part of my childhood.
Shelley Muniz: What year was that when you were at MJC?
Ross Carkeet: I was at Modesto in 1961 till 1963. Right about the time the Cuban Missile Crisis was starting and that was scary. We thought we were all going to get drafted right there. That was...
Shelley Muniz: Tell us a little about that I remember that in Modesto as a..growing up that whole thing that happened. So what was that like at that point in time?
Ross Carkeet: Well, Castro was bringing missiles in from Russia onto Cuba and President Kennedy called the bluff against him and Russia and did a blockade out at Sea so they could no longer bring any more. And then he asked Castro and Fidel Castro and Russia to remove them or else. And we almost thought we're going to go to war over it. Nuclear war. And Russia backed off and went in and pulled the missiles out.
Shelley Muniz: I can remember it being a really scary time.
Ross Carkeet: It was very scary. And we're trying to go to school at the same time. I remember school breaks drinking coffee in between class. Just, that was the topic of conversation. Are we going to War in 1962 or 61 or two somewhere in there? [indistinguishable] Yeah tough times.
Shelley Muniz: Did that affect your...your thinking on...on you know for the future. I mean going through those things that we went through back in the 60’s. Did that have an effect on your...you know, the way you conducted your life for the way you taught would you say? Not so much the way I taught although I respected President Kennedy so much and what he did. It affected me staying in school to finish because of the student deferments.
Shelley Muniz: Right.
Ross Carkeet: People were being drafted like crazy. Particularly when the Vietnam War started—
Shelley Muniz: Yeah.
Ross Carkeet: —and that prompted me to stay in school longer and even go to graduate school, and I'm glad I did that for a number of reasons, but it opened up the door with a master's degree to teach at the community college level. And uh...I took my masters up at Humboldt State University and in Watershed Management and one of the Summers up there I worked as a naturalist in Humboldt Redwood State Park giving nature walks and camp fire programs and it was then that I decided I wanted to teach, it was such fun.
Shelley Muniz: Wow.
Ross Carkeet: I can see I can see results of people walking through the Redwoods pointing out this pointing out that from the jet, you know, the Majestic coastal redwoods the stories with the plants and animals and then the campfire programs and that...that was a turning point where I want to teach so the master's degree in became more important then. And that was a major turning point in my life going to Humboldt and Berkeley was too. Berkeley taught me how to study how to survive. It was very competitive. I can't say that. I had fun at Berkeley. The Free Speech movement was going on [unintelligible] to the Vietnam or it was it was a zoo down there with Mario Savio on everything that was happening. The Plaza there Sproul Plaza, and it was distracting but it's wonderful education. Hard times when President Kennedy was assassinated though I remember the [unintelligible] on the Berkeley campus. The bells were tolling for…all day, people were walking around in shock. Hard times.
Shelley Muniz: It was...it was... um…it’s really something to think back on now. You know the things that— especially the political climate now, you know going back and...and remembering what we saw and what we went through during that period of time what you're talking about what you saw at Berkeley in and all of that it wasn't...it wasn't easy. There was a lot of turmoil going on it at that point in time and in our lives.
Ross Carkeet: The Sixties were tough years. When Dr. King was assassinated, and Bobby Kennedy assassinated. I was up at Humboldt. I had just shaken his hand. He came up to Eureka and was campaigning and I rushed down to Eureka to the old hotel there and heard his speech got a picture of him with my little Kodak instamatic camera. He must have been no more than 10 feet away. And then I followed their car up to the airport up in McKinleyville, which was about 15 miles north ‘cause I thought I might get a chance to shake his hand and I got there in time and rushed up to the fence that was spread by the airplane. It was taking him out and all these little kids were lined up and I kind of pulled my way in there and stuck my hand out. He saw my big hand and he looked up and smiled at me. I shook his hand and said good luck Bobby and I remember he looked at me and smiled and said thank you and he looked so tired. It struck me out particularly was that he had a great smile and a strong handshake. It was wonderful. I'll never forget that. And I... I met his son down in Modesto a few years ago who gave a talk and I told him that story and I gave him a copy of that photo that I had too
Shelley Muniz: Wow
Ross Carkeet: Bobby Junior. So those were wonderful experiences.
Shelley Muniz: That makes me get a little teary that’s pretty special.
Ross Carkeet: Yeah, that was special. Yeah, good times, good memories. I have a lot of good memories like that. I...I was fortunate seemed like I was at the right place at the right time for doing things like that when I was at Berkeley on charter day [unintelligible name] Stevenson was walking in with president Clark Kerr and I stood on this wall to get a picture of Aleli and he stopped and posed and let me take his picture and I thought he was doing it for newspaper paper people behind me. And after I shot the photo I turned around and there was nobody behind me.
Shelley Muniz: Wow.
Ross Carkeet: He actually stopped for me.
Shelley Muniz: Wow.
Ross Carkeet: I told my dad that story and he said, “That’s the kind of man Adeli was.” You know he ran for president, didn't make it but he was UN Ambassador. Very good at that. Well-respected. I have that slide and I made a printout of that too.
Shelley Muniz: I would too, that's great.
Ross Carkeet: But those are my political stories. I think.
Shelley Muniz: Those are good ones.
Ross Carkeet: I’m lucky.
Shelley Muniz: Yeah, you know you are and again just such a part of our history. The nation's history it’s quite extraordinary.. really so there's some good memories of..of those times. What about difficult memories? I guess we’ve kinda gone over that a little bit too because it would be losing those people that you know, we just talked about so.
Ross Carkeet: Those were hard times I remember I was working on my thesis at Humboldt and I... Bobby Kennedy was assassinated I was devastated. He would have made a good president I believe.
Shelley Muniz: I do too.
Ross Carkeet: So that was…that was a tough period. And Dr. King and you wondered if it was ever going to stop. You know, the sixties were traumatic years for young men. They really were. And uh…very hard with the Vietnam War. I had a lot of students after I began teaching here Columbia that came back from the war. Hardly with any exceptions, they struggled. They were just traumatized, and you could see it then. It was...it was difficult to…to see and to work with you try to work with them as students and friends and sometimes you can help them. But other times they just went off the deep end. You know, we had alcoholism and drugs some suicides Vietnam veterans. There were a lot of them out here those were tough times in the early days. The college wasn't too or to our respected in the community. He was called hippie Tech. Other derogatory names like that and...
Shelley Muniz: Tell us about that tells us about the beginning. Like how did you get here and then talk about that whole piece because you were there during that sixties piece when your—those things were happening that you're talking about.
Ross Carkeet: Well again I was lucky in the late sixties when I graduated from Humboldt in ‘68, there were a lot of jobs available in my field. In forestry natural resources even teaching at the community college level and I had three job offers after I graduated one was the National Park Service Ranger full-time. I would have gone directly to Grand Canyon National Park and had the training and become a ranger and that really interested me. And then the city of Carmel offered me a job as City Forester and that was a very enticing offer looking back on it had I accepted that I would ultimately end up working for Clint Eastwood because he came mayor he became mayor later and he would have been by boss, but I didn't I didn't accept either job because Columbia offered me the opportunity to teach here full-time and start the forestry and natural resources program and that just seemed like a sugar plum.And to come back home, that's...that interested me a lot. They say you can't come back home and there's some truth to that, there were some hard times, but looking back, I made the right decision. So I started here in “60 summer of “68. We had a office in downtown Sonora. Just below the red church and I began work in July getting ready to teach, we had a month or two to prepare and we were going to teach in Eagle Cottage in the State Park in Columbia for the first year.
Shelley Muniz: So this was the very beginning.
Ross Carkeet: Very beginning of the school yep. The campus was under construction then, and I remember during the period when uh I’d been offered the job. I came home one time, about half a year early and came out where the college was being constructed. My Mom and Dad brought me out here and the lake was just kind of a mud hole ‘cause they were...weren’t doing anything with it. It was choked with algae. There were no buildings. I have a picture of that and I remember thinking “What a beautiful place for a community college. I want to be here.” And, you know I had applied and I was waiting so the whole time I was up in Humboldt you waiting I visualized this pond and the beautiful setting and it happened and we have our first year at Eagle Cottage in the state park and there were classes mostly in eagle cottage which is right next to the Fallon house and there were classes in the Odd Fellows building down the Main Street a ways, but we started with about 200 students in Eagle Cottage. And we had gotten the full time faculty and administration. We had about 10 people. We had Dusty Rhodes President. We had the Bob Diehl who was Dean of Vocational Education. Bill Haskins was the Dean of General Education all good people.
Kris Osward: You're listening to “Speaking of the Motherlode” with Shelley and Kris on Sonora’s community. Radio KAAD-LP 103.5 FM and streaming online at KAAD-LP.org.
Shelley Muniz: Please stay tuned for more Gold Country history spoken by the people who lived it.
Ross Carkeet: And we had a librarian. The library was in the bottom of basement of the Eagle Cottage. Kinda like a dungeon* Shelley Laughing* it flooded during that Winter.Because the sewer pond that was being constructed on campus the bottom fell out of it because of some limestone collapsing and all the water that had collected in the sewer pond, just plain rain water ‘cause the sewer system wasn't working at that time yet. All that water came down into the parking lot behind the Fallon house about 4 feet deep and it flooded the basement of Eagle Cottage and did a lot of damage to the bookstore. And that shut school down for a couple days. But um...there were only seven of us full-time on the faculty when it first started that first year in ‘68, Fall of ‘68.
Shelley Muniz: So what were the class disciplines at that time? You had the forest ser... the forestry program..
Ross Carkeet: We had Forestry and Natural Resources, we had Biology, we had English, History, Psychology. Let's see what else... we had some other General ED. Some mathematics and we had some physical science. Earth Science, a little Geology, but like I say, they're only seven of us full time—
Shelley Muniz: That’s amazing.
Ross Carkeet: —on the faculty and the deans taught. The dean of science was Dr. Richard Dodge. He was my boss, and he taught biology and botany. He was a good teacher. He was excellent. He was my mentor ‘cause when I came out of grad school, I was green and I emphasize that. I had done some student teaching at Humboldt as a grad student and I had that naturalist experience up at the state park and that was it. You know my teaching experience, you could put in a thimble and have room for your thumb still. So Dr. Dodge mentored me and it worked out. I had good contacts at Humboldt and Berkeley which helped when it came to articulate transfer courses for our students to those schools in natural resources forestry. And I think that's one of the reasons they hired me and I came pretty economical too. My starting salary full-time was $ 8,000 a year.
Shelley Muniz: Oh my gosh that’s amazing.
Ross Carkeet: And that seemed like a lot of money. That was a lot of money coming out of grad school with a..a wife and a little baby boy. So it was all good. But challenging. I think I stayed one chapter ahead of the students.
Shelley Muniz: I always heard that you were a really amazing teacher and that people really loved your classes and your field trips and everything. So what ..what made that so special? What did you …you know, what can you say about that, about your time teaching here ?
Ross Carkeet: I loved the outdoors and I loved my subject matter. I have to say I didn't particularly like college. In fact, I struggled in college. I was not a shining example of a student. I was a little above average student and I worked hard and I had some favorite instructors that motivated me. So I patterned my teaching after them, I think. And...what I thought should be done and always tried to be sensitive to the needs of the struggling student who wasn't a natural or a straight A student, you know, I...’cause I wasn't I think that helped me.. helped me to be a better teacher.
Shelley Muniz: It's interesting because that's kind of the comment that I've heard over the years from different people who were in your classes that you took that time, you know with...those with those kids and I just feel like that so important. I wish that that happened more where you know, there are those kids that for whatever reason are struggling and just to take that little extra.. extra minute you know makes such a difference in their lives and who they become and all of that so.
Ross Carkeet: We had a faculty the first few years, I would say the first five or seven years that were like that here. We were very close with our students, you know? Developed friendships got together with them and I believe most of the faculty were like that for a number of years. Most of us went to Community College as students and some of the faculty had taught high school. So they were familiar with those kinds of kids. I...I spent two summers while I was teaching here, teaching in a youth Conservation Camp down in the mountains east of Fresno for Reedy College and that kind of helped me get acquainted with high school students and younger students too. That was during summers while I was teaching here and that, that gave me some good background. But I would say our early faculty were pretty empathetic toward helping students and our faculty were pretty sharp, but you know maybe they were like me. I can’t honestly say but I don't think they were straight A students when they were in college. I know talking with a few of them. They…they seemed like me.
Shelley Muniz: Hey, that's a really good point, you know, maybe that makes a difference too you know where you’re able to relate a little bit more—
Ross Carkeet: Yeah.
Shelley Muniz: —to those people who were struggling a little bit.
Ross Carkeet: I think the deans that hired us looked for people that were like that. Maybe.
Shelley Muniz: That’s interesting
Ross Carkeet: Instead of lofty eggheads or you know, people that were totally academic. They looked for folks that maybe you had to work a little bit and college knew what it was about. You had to work part-time while going to college like I did I...I worked going to school and you know that makes it challenging but more worthwhile.. more worthy. I think. I...I think a lot of the faculty in the early days were compassionate and very human, including the Deans and Dusty Rhodes. You know? You probably heard Dusty Rhodes had a sign above his office that said “Students may interrupt at any time, visitors will understand.”
Shelley Muniz: Hmm.
Ross Carkeet: —and after he left the sign was unfortunately taken down but he meant it. He would interrupt a meeting and walk out and talk with a student.
Shelley Muniz: Wow that’s incredible.
Ross Carkeet: Yeah, he was special.
Shelley Muniz: You know, it’s interesting isn’t it because just what you said is so important about the founding of Columbia College in the way that the people that were involved in the beginning really wanted it to go. You know, the people that they hired and...and just like you said that kind of the reasons that maybe they pulled a certain type of Faculty together. That's pretty special pretty special history—
Ross Carkeet: Yeah.
Shelley Muniz: —for our campus.
Ross Carkeet: But he always complimented you, even when you messed up. I remember one time, we left some students on a field trip in at hetch hetchy Valley ‘cause they hiked way up the canyon at lunch break and they just had to go to that waterfall. And I had warned them don't..don't try to make it to the waterfall ‘cause it's just too far. You'll never get back in time. Well, we waited and waited and finally...we had to leave so I left them. There were three or four of them. And we rolled out in the bus moving up through the Tuolumne Redwood Grove when we came back to the park entrance. They were there with the ranger. And he got on the bus and said
“Who's in charge here?”
I said “Well I am.”
and he said “You were very irresponsible. You left your students at Hetchy and they could have gotten in trouble and how were they going to get out
and I said “Well, they’re adults and they kept all of us waiting for over an hour and I wanted to teach them a lesson.”
And he said, “Well don't ever do that again, or we won't let you back in the park.”
Shelley Muniz: Wow.
Ross Carkeet: And then he called Dr. Rhodes and told him. And Dusty called...called me in and the bus driver and scolded us. It was humbling, but when I walked out with the bus driver I said to him “What are we going to do if that ever happens again?”
And we both said, “We'll leave them again.”
*Both Laughing* But it never happened again, I think word got out. If we did that today would probably be sued.
Shelley Muniz:*Laughing* Probably.
Ross Carkeet: You know?*Laughing*
Shelley Muniz: It’s a different world out there. Isn’t it?
Ross Carkeet: It is. Yeah.
Shelley Muniz: So what—who would you say were other people then here on this campus that made an impact on you when you got here and started teaching?
Ross Carkeet: Well, I mentioned Dr. Dodge and the next year we hired Bob McDonald in Geology and Earth Science and he became one of my mentors. He was an excellent teacher. Excellent lecturer sharp, student-oriented, good humored. He had uh.. an impact on me. And so did John Hagstrom, our English teacher the first year. John.. John was a real humanitarian. Gentleman, excellent English instructor. He helped me a lot, he taught me some teaching tricks. I would sit on some of these folks lectures, you know when I had a chance or listen through the wall or...it was a family I... there was no hiding if you gave a lecture it reverberated down the hall at Eagle Cottage and the secretary's were listening to you and you know, you're in a fishbowl so....You learn just by watching and listening, but those two come to mind. John Hagstrom and Walt Lineckee taught speech and English another... another Good fellow. He's still in the area. He could be interviewed. I'm sure he...he would have some stories.
Shelley Muniz: Great idea.
Ross Carkeet: Yeah.
Shelley Muniz: What surprised you, what’s something? Is there anything that surprised you about that the new College, about being here in this whole new thing happening out here in Columbia?
Ross Carkeet: I think what really surprised me at first was how much trouble we had gaining acceptance in the community. I wasn't aware of how provincial the county was until I started working here and it opened my eyes and there was a lot of animosity between a lot of our students and the sheriff's department. They would come out here and...they didn't mistreat the students, but there was a...there was a time when during the Vietnam war students swam out to the island and a couple of them had their tops off the women in protest to the war. Well, Dusty Rhodes tried to get us to convince them to come back to Shore and then we couldn't so Dr. Dodge went out in a boat and talked to them and that didn't help. And then Bob McDonald went out and he said, “You know, there's nothing more some of those guys at the sheriff department would rather do than come out here and rough you up a little bit and arrest you and take you into town. He said I recommend you come onto Shore and they did that did it. But uh... we weren’t too popular the Vietnam protests weren’t appreciated by the community and our students dressed casually. A lot of them, a lot of the men had long hair and the women had the long grannie dresses.
Ross Carkeet:*Chuckles* and that’s why we were called hippie tech. Lot of casualness out here, Birkenstock sandals and bare feet
Shelley Muniz: That’s what we did back then.
Ross Carkeet: Yeah, and so that's surprised me. The alienation. I had seen that at Berkeley and I was used to it. I guess that’s why I was shocked. That's kind of a negative thing, but it was reality.
Shelley Muniz: I can remember those comments. So I think it's a really good point to bring up. That's kind of the way it started here.
Ross Carkeet: And I had to be careful ‘cause my dad was judge and I didn't want to say anything about the sheriff's department. I knew a lot of the officers. They knew dad and you know, it was it was kind of a fishbowl situation. Politically I had to...had to be very careful living in the community and teaching out here. It was kind of an unusual situation. I’m trying to think of a...another thing that surprised me, maybe on a positive note and...One thing was the quality of the students. I had some really enjoyable students from the local high schools. You know Summerville, Sonora High School, Calaveras. Those are some questions and they were relatively small classes. Anywhere from 10 to at most 20 students. And uh...every semester you’d get the same students because they were going through the program and uh...It was very satisfying. And I still am in contact with the number of those students—
Shelley Muniz: That’s great.
Ross Carkeet: —who are old friends and it was satisfying to see them go on some of them to get their four-year degrees at Berkeley or Humboldt become Foresters, Park Rangers, and I still communicate and run into a lotta... a lot of my past students. I'm not on Facebook, but I don't have to be. I think if I was on Facebook, I wouldn't have time to—
Shelley Muniz:*Laughing* It keeps you busy.
Ross Carkeet: —to keep in touch with students out in the field at Humboldt. Yellowstone national park I ran into a student once who was working there.
Shelley Muniz: That’s amazing.
Ross Carkeet: “Hey Ross, that you”? You know, people come out of the woodwork and say hi, It’s wonderful. So that...that surprised me. The students. The students were good students that came here, and I think they were very happy to not have to ride the bus down to Modesto Junior College—
Shelley Muniz: Mhm.
Ross Carkeet: —and so they were relieved and that's why I lived in Modesto with my grandma because I didn't want to ride the bus down here to go to college. I would have given my eyeteeth to go to Community College here when I was at that age, but I was a day late and dollar short on that one.
Shelley Muniz: Would you say that the majority of our students here at that point were local kids then the local high schools mostly.
Ross Carkeet: Yeah, pretty much. And like I said the first year at Eagle Cottage, we had at most 200 students and the first year on campus, I don't think we had very many more than that.
Shelley Muniz: Hmm
Ross Carkeet: We didn't have any buildings either. We had the round building over there the Rotunda building can't recall if that's called now the one with the cafeteria and what do we call that now? The big building...
Shelley Muniz: The Manzanita building?
Ross Carkeet: Yeah, the manzanita building. It’s still Manzanita. You’re right.
Shelley Muniz: Mhm.
Ross Carkeet: And we had the science building, which is sugar pine right now, the Toyon building was built later for forestry natural resources, but we only had about four buildings. And uh... we had the firehouse, and the Forum. That was it.
Shelley Muniz: Mmm
Ross Carkeet: Yeah, four or five buildings at the most.
Shelley Muniz: So, what are some memories...do you have any special memories with those students then, you know or a student or students that you remember that... that really made an impact on you?
Ross Carkeet: We had one student my second year. A fellow named Brian Berger who later went on to Berkeley and got a forestry degree. He started the… the Litter Ridder Effort. The first Earth Day.
Shelley Muniz: Wow.
Ross Carkeet: I believe it was Spring of ‘70. And.... he organized community-wide a litter clean-up on all the highways and roads and worked it out at the fairgrounds downtown. Got the Highway Patrol involved, the county road crews, The state Caltrans Department, donating-volunteering their trucks and we had hundreds of people on Earth Day picking up litter on the roads and highways in the county and then everything ended up down at the fairgrounds where it was sorted and awards were given for the teams that had the greatest amount or the most unique stuff and everything was recycled that could possibly be. And we had a barbecue and dinner dance that night and it was wonderful Community celebration basically spearheaded by Brian Berger was living up in Fortuna now, and the college sponsored that but he... he spearheaded it. We did that 2 years 2 years in a row, I would say that's one of the best community efforts we made in early days. I still see Brian. I go up to Humboldt fairly regularly and he is retired now and we talk about the good ol Days.*chuckling*
Shelley Muniz: That's great. I actually do remember those... those litter cleanup days. So yeah, it was pretty amazing the... the effort that went into that and the number of people that were involved clean up the roads-
Ross Carkeet: Yeah.
Shelley Muniz: —up here. Yeah.
Ross Carkeet: Those were special times.
Shelley Muniz: Yeah. They were.
Shelley Muniz: You're listening to “Speaking of the Motherlode” with Shelley and Kris on Sonora’s community. Radio KAAD-LP 103.5 FM and streaming online at KAAD-LP.org.
Kris Osward: Please stay tuned for more Gold Country history spoken by the people who lived it.
Shelley Muniz: Another thing that we wanted to ask you about today was, we heard that you were really involved in The Roundhouse up here and the nature trails here on campus. Were you involved in getting those together?
Ross Carkeet: The nature trails and the Arboretum especially. Yeah, I spearheaded that and we had a Conservation Club for forestry natural resources biology students and we uh... we built that trail down into the... the Arboretum initially. And with... with good help from the grounds crew. And then a year or two later the inmates from the Sierra Conservation Center came in and helped us put in a good set of steps going down.
Shelley Muniz: Mhm.
Ross Carkeet: And we got a lot of use out of that through the years and it’s still being used. The uh...the Roundhouse was mostly being spearheaded by a fellow that taught anthropology, Bob Davis. Bob Davidson, excuse me, and he was...he was a Dynamo. He taught anthropology and archaeology and he spearheaded the resurrection of The Roundhouse with the Native Americans. He knew the right sources.
Shelley Muniz: Mhm.
Ross Carkeet: He did that. I had a peripheral role in that and then I developed a nature trail around the...the Roundhouse with some interpretation with help for my students. But the...the par course along the ditches, Dr. Bob Gibson was the one that spearheaded that when he was instructor of Health and Human Performances as we called it then. He set up the... the par course along the ditches.
Shelley Muniz: Mm-kay
Ross Carkeet: Pete Sullivan was involved in that too. I believe they were working together, but Dr. Gibson I...I tip my hat to him on that he was...was a good-fellow and was my track coach at Sonora high school. That was another jewel about working here. I got to work with a highly respected coach from Sonora High School who ended up teaching here and it was kind of like deja vu. Here he is, you know, we're working together again, and we're both teachers instead of being student-teacher relationships. It was special, that was special. He's retired and living here.
Shelley Muniz: That's a pretty big point to bring out too about coming back to your hometown and... and teaching at the college where you…around where you grew up. So just those relationships that....
Ross Carkeet: Yeah. Yeah, those… those helped I think whenever...I wanted to visit a certain place for a field trip. People knew me or they knew the name and they were real cooperative about, “ Oh sure. You can come across our property to get to the peppermint falls up on Table Mountain.” or “Yeah, just come on up with a bus and we'll let you walk along Table Mountain and look at the wildflowers.” people were really…really charitable. Even in the early days. So there was that aspect it was positive not everybody was down on the…the college. People that I knew, or they knew me, were really helpful. And I had colleagues in the forest service that were helpful. When I first taught the soil science course out here, it wasn't one of my strong points or one of my passions even but a couple soil science friends from the forest service came and they set up a field trip for me and they led it. And I sucked it up like a sponge you know? And I gave that same trip for a decade and couldn’t have done it without them initially setting it up. Ben Smith and Jim Delap. I'm indebted to folks like that. They made it happen and a lot of good cooperation back in the early days with professionals and agencies helping the college.
Shelley Muniz: I hear that a lot.
Ross Carkeet: There was. There was a lot of that yeah. There was animosity but at the flip side, there was a lot of support locally.
Shelley Muniz: Mhm.
Ross Carkeet: People who appreciated the college appreciated advanced education—
Shelley Muniz: Mhm
Ross Carkeet: —supported us. Not just verbally but monetarily and physically and emotionally. I had a number of students that were older. Who had been going to Modesto Junior College. In fact my mom, that’s another story. She ...she had been going to Modesto Junior College. And she had to...take a couple classes to finish up. And so she took them here. So I would see my mom in Eagle Cottage my first year. And she never took a class from me, but when she graduated from Columbia, I handed her her diploma.
Shelley Muniz: Wow. Wow.
Ross Carkeet: Dusty Rhodes, called me up and he said, “We're going to have your son hand you the diploma—
Shelley Muniz: That’s pretty amazing.
Ross Carkeet: —and that was a great moment, yeah. My mom was a great supporter of the college and me. She lived to be almost a hundred and one.
Shelley Muniz: Did she really?
Ross Carkeet: Yeah.
Shelley Muniz: Wow.
Ross Carkeet: On Snowy nights when I couldn't get back home to my place out at Southfork. I would stay at her place in Sonora. And that way I could make my 8:00 lecture the next morning and not have to put chains on and shovel snow. Yeah, the good old days.
Shelley Muniz: The good old days. What's one of the strangest things that you had happened while you were teaching here? Would you say?
Ross Carkeet: Oh boy. One time, we were meeting up at Humboldt and Dr. Dodge was a pilot and he would fly us to some of these meetings and that was fun because we could see the geography we even were able to get photographs out the windows that we could use in our lectures. You know? He’d fly over Yosemite or up the coast and we could get photos of geology and landmarks and whatnot. Anyway, we flew up to Humboldt to meeting and getting out of the plane at the airport there, I ripped my pants from crotch to crotch*Shelley Muniz Laughing* so my whole rear end was virtually hanging out and the only pair of pants I had. I was so embarrassed because I had to go talk to professors at Humboldt about my transferability of classes I was teaching. And we found someone that had some safety pins at the college. I remember I went to the restroom and safety pinned up my pants.*Shelley Muniz Laughing* I think I left my coat on longer than I had to that day too. But that was pretty embarrassing. I got teased a lot about that. That was uncomfortable. There were a few times when I certainly you know didn't rise to the occasion with subject matter and couldn't answer questions that I felt that I I wished I could. There were some embarrassing moments when the student obviously knew more than I did about a certain point, but...
Shelley Muniz: How'd you handle that when that happened?
Ross Carkeet: Oh, tried with humor or....”You got me”...or “Oh, yeah, you know, that's a good point.” You know, there's a whole bag of tricks it worked out. Usually the students would go to my defense. And change the subject or... I remember a couple times students actually…actually after class talked to guys that’d been rough on me.
Shelley Muniz: Wow.
Ross Carkeet: Saying, “That’s not fair.” You know, think of all you are learning from him. You know why...you know “What’d you do, get out of bed on the wrong side this morning”, you know. Students were... were my allies most of the time that I have to say that that worked to my advantage.
Shelley Muniz: Dick Dyer told us that you were the he called it “the last plank holder standing here at the college”. What does that mean? What did he...what was he saying when he said that?
Ross Carkeet: Well, the last of the Mohicans in terms of being the original full-time faculty that were first hired. And there, you know, there was myself Dusty Rhodes, Bill Haskins, Dr.Dodge and Bob Diehl.And Walt Linecki and Joel Barber the art instructor and John Hagstrom. And Bob Davidson was in there. The Originals. And that was about it. And they're all gone, except Bob Diehl, and Walt Leineke and myself. They’ve all passed away.
Shelley Muniz: Wow.
Ross Carkeet: Yeah. The second year we hired four or five faculty. Then it... it grew every year. But that first year was....one of a kind. And I think in today's economy, this College Columbia College would not have been constructed. You know, I have to give credit to Don Brady who was on the Board of Trustees for the Yosemite Community College District representing Tuolumne County and he would go down to the meetings in Modesto all the time, and he stomped for Columbia College. He and Dr. Garcia who was president of MJC and Dusty Rhodes those...those to me were the triumvirate that got this college off the ground. And Don Brady was a local pharmacist--
Shelley Muniz: Mhm.
Ross Carkeet: --and he fought hard for this college to start here and then I think through the years he hasn’t been given the credit that he justly deserves. For spearheading this at least from a local point of view. I don't think Columbia would have existed if it hadn't been for Don Brady
Shelley Muniz: Wow that’s...
Ross Carkeet: Being on the board he had a lot of a lot of clout.
Shelley Muniz: Mhm.
Ross Carkeet: And in today's economy. I don't think Columbia would ...would happen.
Shelley Muniz: Hmm.
Ross Carkeet: We were often referred to by the district down there as the carbuncle on the tail end of the district because of our high expenses up here—
Shelley Muniz: Wow
Ross Carkeet: —and low enrollments. And that was always a sore point and through the years I think that improved. But, that's... that's kind of a crass way of stating it but we... we felt that we were not too appreciated by some of the District staff down there from an economic point of view. Not so much what we're doing academically but that this was a very expensive operation up here and I suspect it was and the early buildings were not constructed with the environment in mind. For example, all the instructor offices, the doors open to the outside. So in the winter whenever a student would come to see us they would open the door and walk in and all the warm air in our cubicle would rush outside and all the windows were single pane. The doors weren't insulated in the initial construction and it was an expensive proposition. Someone told me the Walnut wooden handles on the doors over in the original science building Sugar Pine back in the sixties when they built it cost $ 100 apiece.
Shelley Muniz: Wow. Wow.
Ross Carkeet: That was a lot of money in those days for the door knob.
Shelley Muniz:*Laughing* So tell us what you've been doing, since you retired.
Ross Carkeet: Well, I went up to Humboldt and rented a place, I... I was engaged and I have to say this... this career has been difficult on marriages. My marriages and others. I don't know if the divorce rate at Columbia has been higher than most other professions, but we had our share of…of divorces and I..I think a lot of it was in my case, especially I put so much time and energy into teaching that my family life suffered and I went through two divorces while but working here. And let's see. What was that initial question again?
Shelley Muniz:*Laughing* What have you been doing since you retired?
Ross Carkeet: Okay well, when I went to Humboldt I uh... I was engaged and thought there would be a marriage there, but I helped my…my lady friend get through grad school up there and then it didn't work out but I loved Humboldt so much and I had always planned on going back there at least part-time. I... I stayed another couple years and I did some teaching in the community ed program at Humboldt State University.
Shelley Muniz: Mhm.
Ross Carkeet: And Field Walks much like I'm doing here right now. And those are fun. I did those for a couple years and kept renting a place up there and then I applied to teach dendrology at the University in the forestry program and the department chair offered me that and told me what the specifics were.
And he said “Well, you'll have a hundred students in five Labs. A lab everyday of 20 students. And we can't give you any help.” And he said “You can you can set the salary and I'll see what I can do.” He said “We consider that to be about a 30% workload” and I said “Well 100 students, I said “That sounds like Berkeley”
I said “Why don't you guys offer dendrology”, which is the study of trees. It's a required course in forestry up there. I said, “Why don't you offer that twice a year and make it smaller? So there's more of a one-on-one ?” I said, “It sounds like you're going more toward what Berkeley with a lot of students”.
And anyway, I decided not to do that. I didn't want to go back to teaching to that extent and it was a hard decision, but I wrote a long letter explaining why and I noticed the next year, they hired a full-time Professor to teach Dendrol instead of a part-timer and that was one of my recommendations then. They're offering it more now too. So, I think I think my letter helped, but I was honored that they asked me to teach there.
Shelley Muniz: Mhm.
Ross Carkeet: And there's a part of me really wished I had but I wanted to be more retired and teach just a little bit.
Shelley Muniz: Mhm.
Ross Carkeet: So I spent time up there hiking in the parks, bicycling, developed some friends and my major professor still lives up there and has a place a quarter mile down the road from the house I’m renting up there.
Shelley Muniz: Oh nice
Ross Carkeet: I'm still renting and so I come and go to Humboldt and I teach Community Ed here. Almost a course every semester just that one day Saturday field walk.
Shelley Muniz: Doing what?
Ross Carkeet: Depends. Wildflowers up on Table Mountain—
Shelley Muniz: Oh that’s great
Ross Carkeet: —in the Spring. We go up old highway 108 looking at parts of the Old Highway where there's history and geology and a lot of stories... lot of stories up here. We've done the Quest for Fremont's lost Cannon over in the Sweetwater mountains on the other side of the Sierra. We look for his Cannon and we follow his...his route from the 1840s when he and get Carson came across had to leave their Cannon that they towed for 2,000 miles. They left it in the Sweet Waters and then they eventually crossed the Sierra up by Carson pass in the middle of winter almost died. So we follow that route.
Shelley Muniz: Any luck with that? I've heard this story for years so I love that story.
Ross Carkeet: Well, it’s been narrowed down to where the cannon was left and some folks have found the wheel rims for the case that carried the cannon or the metal rims, but the cannon itself has not been found... the tube. Which is brass and it's a couple hundred pounds, they’ve never found it but they’ve found parts of the case on and the big mystery is what happened to the cannon.
Shelley Muniz: Yeah
Ross Carkeet: But we know where the dig is now. Where they’re looking for it. And so the next time over we're going to go take a look where they've been digging.
Shelley Muniz: I gotta watch out for that one. I want to go.
Ross Carkeet: It'll be coming up.
Shelley Muniz: So tell us, here's the…here's one good last question. 50 years from now what do you want people to remember about Ross Carkeet?
Ross Carkeet: Boy, that's a long time. It's interesting because when people see the park down there that's dedicated to my dad. Not me, but my dad retired he had a retirement party held in the park down there and they dedicated the park to him. But now people think it's named after me ‘cause Dad's long gone.
Shelley Muniz: Mhm
Ross Carkeet: Well, the park I suspect will always be there as Carkeek Park and there's the legacy of my dad and me. Which you're both enduring and I guess if I were to be remembered it would be hopefully, Ross was a good teacher and he helped students find work/careers and excited them about the natural environment. And left a mark at Columbia. But a lot happens in 50 years. That's a long time. I would hope in 50 years. This college is still here. As a community college, I have always felt that it needed to be just a community college not a four-year School. It plays a vital role in the community college system, which is totally different than the four-year system. And I would hope in 50 years it’s still here as a college. Hopefully a Community College and I believe it will be. I think there's enough inertia and impetus and a mark that this will endure. And there's no place like it. The closest place I've seen like this is UC Santa Cruz—
Shelley Muniz: Mhm.
Ross Carkeet: —as far as Beauty and that's University. There's a couple other community colleges that are attractive. Foothill and there's one up in Bend Oregon, College of the Redwoods up in Eureka has a beautiful campus but they don't have what we have. They don't have the lake, the remoteness. The Pines. There's an Ambiance here that is one of a kind. So, to sum it up, I've been a lucky man. And I have to say a lot of people helped me through the years including my two former wives. They stuck with me when I was in those formulative years in college or first few years teaching and we're on good terms. And I have three fine sons from two marriages that one lives here. He's managing a local bicycle shop. And one lives in Mammoth and the other one lives in Scotts Valley near Santa Cruz,
Shelley Muniz: That’s great that’s [unintelligible]
Ross Carkeet: And they all love the outdoors. I think I've left a mark on them. So, I’ve enjoyed this interview.
Shelley Muniz: Good I’m glad we did too. Thank you so much.
Ross Carkeet: You’re welcome.
Shelley Muniz: It’s been a great interview.
Shelley Muniz: We hope you enjoy this segment of : Speaking of the Motherlode. This is Shelley and Kris for your community radio. KAAD-LP 103.5 FM Sonora, California streaming online at KAAD-LP.org.
Kris Osward: Thanks for tuning in.
*Playing “California Here I Come” by Al Jolson:
That's why I can hardly wait
Open up, open up, open up that Golden Gate!
California, here I
California here I
California here I come!
*Music Fades out*
END TAPE
Interviewer(s): Shelley Muniz and Kris Osward
Interviewee: Ross Carkeet
Name of Tape: History of Columbia College
When: January 30 , 2017
Transcriber: Calista Fields-Richardson
Transcribed: April 23, 2020