THE MYSTERY MAN

Recently one of my neighbors sent out an email to all of us living on this hillside, which is 11 residents, about a tall man wearing a hood walking along Wildflower Lane and not waving or showing any sign of recognition.   On the subject line of the email it was titled, 'Mystery Man'.  Soon afterward there was an exchange of emails speculating on where this person was going, including myself thinking he might be camped out on a 10 acre home site that has not been developed yet.  Another neighbor thought he might be squatting in the old cabin on my lower 10 acres.   The next day I checked out the cabin and found no evidence of anybody squatting there.   One afternoon last week, as I was driving back home, there was a tall man walking up Wildflower Lane just above my driveway.   He never looked back to see me and I assumed he had some kind of listening devise plugged into his ears.  I can't remember if he was wearing a hood.   One neighbor to my east is a tall man and occasionally walks the road, but does not wear a hood and usually waves as I have driven by him.   It could have been him.  My neighbor below me said he should check in their unused horse barn to see if that is where he might be,  Other neighbors report seeing no such person.   This mountain side covers much area, including large acreages to the west with old roads no longer used for vehicle traffic since they have become grown over with vegetation and could be inviting to a vagrant to set up a camp.   With the increasing homeless situation some of these people might be seeking refuge in the rural areas of the county.   On some of my drives into town I have noticed some people with backs on them walking along highway 138 going toward Sutherlin and some were wearing a hood.   Now the common question when neighbors pass each other or meet up at the mail boxes is:  "have you seen The Mystery Man?"

FRED & ORVILLE

In the spring of 1972 the Orleans Ranger District (RD) hired two seasonal employees, Fred and Orville, to work on the timber sale preparation crew.  They had previously worked on the Stonyford RD of the Mendocino National Forest together doing timber work.  Orville had a four year degree in forestry, but was hired on as a forestry technician as most of us working on that crew were.   Fred was a refined hippie, who had family in Napa, preferred good food, fine wine and marijuana,   Orville was an old Kanas farm boy, who would eat anything, chewed tobacco and drank cheap beer and wine.   Orville had a small dog, named Charlie and a horse.   Fred and Orville rented a single wide trailer in one of the nearby trailer parks.   They were not gay, but it was better to split the rent in order to save money, plus there was a shortage of places to rent around the community of Orleans with a scattered population of about 600 people.   They were definitely the odd couple as Orville was more laid back and Fred tried to keep some sort of order in their housekeeping.   There were mornings when Fred came to work in a grumpy mood, probably from smoking too much Humboldt tobacco and complaining how Orville was a Neanderthal man.    If I remember correctly Orville kept his horse tied to a tree near the trailer and used his horse trailer as a barn.   After a couple of years at Orleans they went their separate ways.   Fred went back to school at Lassen College in Susanville to get a two year forestry degree and Orville got a foresters position on the Gasquet RD, north of the Orleans RD, planning and writing environmental analysis for proposed timber sales.   While at Gasquet, Orville met a woman by the name of  Toni at the Rusty Nail Tavern, they eventually married and lived in a trailer on her parent's property along the Smith River.   After a year or two of doing paper work Orville quit his forester job and did odd jobs around Gasquet cutting firewood, garden work, etc.   Orville and Toni did visit me and my family when I was working on the Gold Beach RD from 1979 to 1988.  Orville was hired again on the Mad River RD as a technician doing field work which he preferred more than office work.   Fred met a woman also studying forestry at Lassen College, they eventually married and he got a job on the Rogue River National Forest doing timber sale contract administration.   While I was working on the Gold Beach Ranger District in the 1980's, I met Fred at a training session near Medford and he invited me to his house in Central Point for dinner with his wife and two young daughters.  

After I left the Forest Service in 1995 I lost track of these two characters.   Sometime in the late 1990's, I found out that Orville had been working as a wilderness ranger on the Toiyabe National Forest out of Carson City, Nevada.   He had suffered a heart attacked on a tour of duty in a wilderness area and was brought out for triple bypass surgery.  After that he was put on limited duty until he was forced to retire.   I met up with  him and his wife, while visiting my sister Ann living in Yerington, Nevada.  Orville and Toni were living on high desert acreage near Silver Springs, Nevada where they had horses.   Orville no longer had his dog Charlie and told me he ran off one day when they lived near Ruth Lake on the Mad River RD and never returned.  

A couple years later I received a call from Toni that Orville died at home from a heart attack at the age of 72 or 73.   I found a phone number for Fred and called to tell him of Orville passing away.   Fred had not been in contact with Orville for years.   He had left the Forest Service and took a job delivering mail for the post office out of Medford until he retired.