#101. From Cabinet Maker to Bay Keeper: How Leroy Zerlang Helped Save Humboldt’s Maritime Soul

Scott Hammond: Ladies and gentlemen, uh, friends and neighbors and all of you out to sea, uh, this is Scott Hammond and the 100% Humboldt podcast with my newest best friend, Leroy Zerlang.

Scott Hammond: Hey, Leroy.

Leroy Zerlang: Good afternoon. Nice to be here.

Scott Hammond: Great to have you. You're the man, the myth, the legend in some ways I guess around

Scott Hammond: here.

Leroy Zerlang: Sometimes they say that.

Scott Hammond: They say that. We- You're not sure what that might mean, but

Scott Hammond: that's-

Leroy Zerlang: No

Scott Hammond: … that's good. Uh, y- I was reading you're fifth generation Humboldt.

Leroy Zerlang: Fifth generation of-

Scott Hammond: How about that?

Leroy Zerlang: … my great, great, great grandfather's the third one buried in the Ocean View Cemetery. So we've been here for a long, long time. We've never made enough money to rent that U-Haul van to get out of

Leroy Zerlang: here.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Number three at Ocean View. That's going back a ways.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, goes way back.

Scott Hammond: How about, what kind of name is Zerlang?

Leroy Zerlang: Zerlang is Prussian.

Scott Hammond: Prussian, okay. Wow.

Leroy Zerlang: Prussian. Uh, my dad's side is Prussian, and my mom was 100% French.

Scott Hammond: How about that?

Leroy Zerlang: So.

Scott Hammond: So tell, l- how about the arc of your, uh, your youth? Were you… Did you go to our Eureka High and the whole nine?

Leroy Zerlang: I went through all Eureka City Schools from Lincoln Elementary to Jacobs Junior High, and graduated from, uh, Eureka Senior High.

Scott Hammond: I play with my-

Leroy Zerlang: '76

Scott Hammond: … play with my props over here. Got, you gotta win this Dick Taylor- … before we're gone. I got all, I got all my stuff and it's falling apart over here. So Eureka High and then, uh, what'd you do after high school?

Leroy Zerlang: After high school I went to College of the Redwoods a little bit.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Sure.

Leroy Zerlang: And then I joined in with my father, Bill, who was a cabinet maker.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Leroy Zerlang: And I worked in the cabinet industry with him for many, many

Leroy Zerlang: years. And then, uh, we got more and more involved in the

Leroy Zerlang: waterfront, and I moved on to the Madaket, ran the Madaket for many, many

Leroy Zerlang: years-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Leroy Zerlang: … and still do. That's my baby, my joy.

Scott Hammond: Want to talk about that a little bit, yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: And, uh, then into Tug's. Then we ran Tug's.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Leroy Zerlang: And then in 2008, my wife and I and my son, uh, purchased the old boatyard on the peninsula where-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Leroy Zerlang: … the Madaket was built.

Scott Hammond: Is that in the Finntown?

Leroy Zerlang: That's in Finntown.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: The little unknown community of Finntown.

Scott Hammond: Let, let me show you where Finntown is on my map over here, folks. It's right there on Humboldt Bay.

Scott Hammond: It's on the, I guess you'd say the… It's on the west side of the pen-

Leroy Zerlang: It's on the west side

Scott Hammond: … yeah, on the peninsula.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, it's between Samoa and Finntown.

Scott Hammond: Finntown. How'd that get named for- for Finns?

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah. The, the, the Johansens and all those people lived there.

Scott Hammond: The, the-

Leroy Zerlang: And there's-

Scott Hammond: … Josangs are those-

Leroy Zerlang: Yep, yep, yep, yep

Scott Hammond: … that's Norwegian, but yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: That's all because of the old Ben Dixon Shipyard. The famous Finns were boat builders, ship builders.

Scott Hammond: Is that right? Okay.

Leroy Zerlang: And Ben Dixon was right down the road from where we, we're at.

Scott Hammond: So much history on this bay. We'll, we'll get to every bit of it.

Leroy Zerlang: Incredible.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: Very incredible.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, so you worked for the old man and you were a cabinet maker.

Leroy Zerlang: Cabinet maker. Dad was a cabinet maker-

Scott Hammond: I remember that

Leroy Zerlang: … and then I was, uh, with him for many, many years.

Scott Hammond: Where were you guys, down in, uh, over by Leon's, over that way?

Leroy Zerlang: Yep, we were by Leon's for years.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Okay. Hey, shout out to Dale and Leon.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, yeah. Uh, we still have our shop, but, uh-

Scott Hammond: Uh-huh

Leroy Zerlang: … Willie, my nephew, uses it quite a bit, but-

Scott Hammond: Okay

Leroy Zerlang: … we don't do much of that anymore.

Scott Hammond: So you branched out and became a more of a maritime-

Leroy Zerlang: Raised in Finntown.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: My dad's cabin, my mom and dad's cabin-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … uh, where the Zerlang family have been there since 1872.

Scott Hammond: Is that right?

Leroy Zerlang: The Zerlangs are now the oldest original family living on the

Leroy Zerlang: peninsula.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Leroy Zerlang: It's kinda unique.

Scott Hammond: That's cool.

Leroy Zerlang: And, uh, so Finntown, uh, Dad loved it over there. We had a little cabin, which we still have.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Uh, my brother and my sister and I, and we have Thanksgiving and Christmas and-

Scott Hammond: That's great

Leroy Zerlang: … weddings and funerals and everything over there.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Leroy Zerlang: And I live right down the road. In the old days, to get there, you had to drive around the bay.

Scott Hammond: Up to Arcata and, uh-

Leroy Zerlang: Up Arc- on the old Arcata Road before the Burns Freeway was built.

Scott Hammond: So that was a good hour.

Leroy Zerlang: That was, yeah, 45 minutes for an hour, and my dad would go over on Fridays. He wouldn't work Fridays, and go to the cabin. I mean, when I was a kid, it started out there, you still pumped water with a pump and

Leroy Zerlang: everything-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Leroy Zerlang: … it was all wood stove. And my buddy Kenny and I, after school on Friday, we would take the Madaket-

Scott Hammond: Okay

Leroy Zerlang: … over to Samoa then ride our bikes down to Finntown.

Scott Hammond: This is pre-bridge.

Leroy Zerlang: This is all pre-bridge.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Leroy Zerlang: And, um, m- and that's when I started getting affiliated with the Madaket. They would use the Madaket on Friday at 3:30 because it was the easiest one to get the bikes on.

Scott Hammond: Makes sense.

Leroy Zerlang: And, and my dad's good dear friend and my mentor was Carl Christensen that ran the Madaket.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Leroy Zerlang: And as just a kid I started running around on the Madaket, and then when the bridge put the Madaket out of service-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … then, uh, my dad was hired as a cabinet maker to refurbish it for Bob Imperial that once lived on the island-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Leroy Zerlang: … where my son lives now.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: And, um, then I started hanging out on the Madaket and I've been with it ever since.

Scott Hammond: How about that? Yeah, Bob's l- kind of legend, right?

Scott Hammond: Hears-

Leroy Zerlang: Bob's a legend.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Now is his daughter Renee?

Leroy Zerlang: Renee, yes.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. I haven't seen her in a minute, over-

Leroy Zerlang: I've seen, I thought, I talked about her the other day when I was driving by her old

Leroy Zerlang: office.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: But yeah, no, Bob was, Bob was-

Scott Hammond: Sh- she's a sweet lady, yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, she is.

Scott Hammond: Pretty nice gal.

Leroy Zerlang: Bob was a character. He was-

Scott Hammond: Well, that's old school there

Leroy Zerlang: … s- s- cigar smoking character.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, there's-

Leroy Zerlang: And then Evo Fanuki. We just lost Evo.

Scott Hammond: Yep. Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: They were great, uh, great Old Town people. They were the ones that really helped start Old Town.

Scott Hammond: Different generation back then.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, it was a little different.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Boy, oh boy.

Leroy Zerlang: Lot of fun.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, you have a wealthy history. Boy, I don't know where to start yet. So the Madaket, um, would shuttle people back and forth to Woodley Island or to Samoa or Finntown or

Scott Hammond: wherever?

Leroy Zerlang: The ferry system here on Humboldt Bay is more than most people realize. I mean, when you th- when you say ferry boats, you think of San Francisco and the big car ferries going back and forth.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Leroy Zerlang: There were seven boats that operated here. It started in 1872. The first ran from Eureka to the old Arcata Long Wharf-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Leroy Zerlang: … the original Long Wharf.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Leroy Zerlang: And then seven boats ran from F Street To Samoa, to the plywood plant-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … to Fairhaven, and then Del Norte Street and back to Eureka.

Scott Hammond: So they're ferrying workers too, to the mills.

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Leroy Zerlang: Constantly, 24 hours a day.

Scott Hammond: How about that?

Leroy Zerlang: Seven boats, they carried up to 2,500 people a day across the waters.

Scott Hammond: How about that? Was that the Madaket part of that fleet?

Leroy Zerlang: And Madaket was the oldest and the last one-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Leroy Zerlang: … of the original Cousins fleet.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Leroy Zerlang: She was built by Cousins-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … and then Coggeshall bought them out-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … in 1934.

Scott Hammond: And y'all retrofitted the whole darn thing, right?

Leroy Zerlang: The boat, in 1989-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … the Maritime Museum, which my dad started in

Leroy Zerlang: 1977-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … uh, bought the Madaket from Humboldt's Future, another non-profit-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … that was having problems. And the Maritime Museum took it over in 1983.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: And we ran it, I ran it, and a bunch of us ran it, uh, for, until 1989 when the Coast Guard said, "Leroy, she's getting pretty tired."

Scott Hammond: Ah.

Leroy Zerlang: "We're gonna have to do something."

Scott Hammond: What's that mean?

Leroy Zerlang: That means that fix it or get rid of it. I mean- … there was, it, the boat, the boat was tired.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Madaket was tired.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Uh, but she's in protected waters. She's not more than a mile from land.

Scott Hammond: Anything, yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: So they were letting us slide a little bit.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Leroy Zerlang: Uh, not much, but times changed.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Leroy Zerlang: And they said, "Fix it or take her out of service." Two very, very dear friends of mine, uh, Kathy Weber and Diane

Leroy Zerlang: George-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … um, were with me, and we sat at their house drinking, drinking some whiskey.

Scott Hammond: What are you looking over there for?

Leroy Zerlang: Well, because I see the bottle of whiskey.

Scott Hammond: Oh, maybe Nick's drinking on the job. No, he's good.

Leroy Zerlang: And we'd started, decided that we would start the Madaket Restoration

Leroy Zerlang: Project.

Scott Hammond: Oh, that's cool.

Leroy Zerlang: And it was gonna take us six months and

Leroy Zerlang: $65,000.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Leroy Zerlang: We hired a shipwright, Ed Frey, who did a tremendous

Leroy Zerlang: job on it.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: And two years later and $350,000- … we put the Madaket back in the water.

Scott Hammond: Just a little over, over budget.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Kathy Web-

Leroy Zerlang: But we, but we did it. Most of those boats that start out getting restored-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Leroy Zerlang: … it never gets done. And-

Scott Hammond: They never finish it

Leroy Zerlang: … we came to the, we decided when we started that would we, we would finish it and-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Leroy Zerlang: … she's here now

Scott Hammond: … Kathy's name sounds familiar, Kathy Webb.

Leroy Zerlang: She was a nurse for many years.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Uh, ER nurse.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Leroy Zerlang: And then her and Diane had doggy daycare on Myrtle Avenue.

Scott Hammond: Sure. Okay. Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, for a long time.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, yeah. And she worked on the boat, and Diane was on the board of the-

Scott Hammond: How about that?

Leroy Zerlang: … Maritime Museum.

Scott Hammond: Huh, takes a-

Leroy Zerlang: So-

Scott Hammond: … takes a team.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, very successful. Very successful restoration.

Leroy Zerlang: And-

Scott Hammond: Is the new motor, did you retrofit the motor or?

Leroy Zerlang: The, this is, the Madaket's got her fifth engine in her.

Scott Hammond: How about that?

Leroy Zerlang: She started out with, uh, gasoline. She missed the day of steam.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: She was modern.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: She had a gas, she had a Buddha, she had a Cummins, she had a Cat, she had a-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Leroy Zerlang: … a Jimmy, and she now runs on a little Isuzu, a little turbocharged Isuzu-

Scott Hammond: Yep

Leroy Zerlang: … that we're hope to replace next year.

Scott Hammond: Does your daughter, is she a ca- a cap on the, on the boat?

Leroy Zerlang: I have no daughter.

Scott Hammond: There's some, some woman that was related to you. Daughter-in-law or is it… I thought somebody had a, a connection.

Leroy Zerlang: My wife Dalene is very, very involved in the

Leroy Zerlang: Madaket.

Scott Hammond: And she, was she ever captain of the ship?

Leroy Zerlang: No, she wasn't a captain. She was smart enough not to be a captain.

Leroy Zerlang: My son Cody-

Scott Hammond: Okay

Leroy Zerlang: … worked on the boat. Madaket is famous for two things, putting couples

Leroy Zerlang: together.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: A lot of people have met their wife. I met Dalene on it.

Scott Hammond: How about that?

Leroy Zerlang: Um, there's a list of us that go back that have met on the Madaket. And the other thing that's very, that Madaket's very proud of is a lot of people made enough money running the Madaket, captains and deckhands during the summer-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … and it put them through school.

Scott Hammond: Oh, okay.

Leroy Zerlang: Um, I think we have 12 captains that started out on Madaket with me-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Leroy Zerlang: … and Dalene-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … running it, graduating from Humboldt State.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: And six of them-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Leroy Zerlang: … six of those are now, uh, masters on tugboats offshore.

Scott Hammond: How about that?

Leroy Zerlang: So it's, uh, it's very unique.

Scott Hammond: Wow, that's really cool.

Leroy Zerlang: And the other thing that I'll say that we're very proud of is that when we bought the Madaket, when the Maritime Museum bought the Madaket in '83, we charged, they charged, Humboldt's Future at the time, charged $140 for a school group.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Leroy Zerlang: And to this day, we charge $140 for a school group.

Scott Hammond: Which is a bargain.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, yeah, it's a break at-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … it's, yeah. My dad, who was a great man, uh, that started the Maritime Museum, said, "Charge the tourist and give it to the kids." And- … we've continued with that. We've carried-

Scott Hammond: That's fair

Leroy Zerlang: … hundred… Oh yeah, sure. Uh-

Scott Hammond: It's a local thing.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, we, uh, we carry hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of school kids.

Scott Hammond: I like that.

Leroy Zerlang: I'm carrying school kids on board now that I carried their grandparents on board-

Scott Hammond: That's great

Leroy Zerlang: … years ago, so it's kinda cool.

Scott Hammond: Welcome to Humboldt, yeah. I love it.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, we're very, we're very proud of what the community and the Maritime

Leroy Zerlang: Museum-

Scott Hammond: That's great

Leroy Zerlang: … have done with Madaket.

Scott Hammond: Hey, if you're just joining us, it's, uh, Scott Hammond, 100% Humboldt podcast, with the very new best friend, Leroy Zerlang, from, from, from Hu- You're from Humboldt, right?

Leroy Zerlang: From Humboldt, yep.

Scott Hammond: We're talking about the Madaket boat and, uh, how ma- what… So this ship you can, as a tourist, you get on board at the foot of, uh, E Street.

Leroy Zerlang: C Street.

Scott Hammond: C, oh my bad, C.

Leroy Zerlang: Madaket Plaza.

Scott Hammond: And it's affordable, and it takes you around the bay. And, uh, what I like about it, it's the whole perspective of the city I s- I work in five days a week, and I'm looking around going-

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … "Jeez, I've never seen it from this angle."

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, yeah. It's, uh-

Scott Hammond: And it's, it's such a great-

Leroy Zerlang: It's incredible

Scott Hammond: … tour.

Leroy Zerlang: It's incredible. We have different trips on board that we offer.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, talk about that.

Leroy Zerlang: We have, um, the regular harbor cruise, which is 75 minutes. It's a eight-mile trip. It covers, um, a little bit into Arcata Bay, the

Leroy Zerlang: oysters.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: The, uh, the tribal history, the island history. Samoa, Finntown, Fairhaven, the entrance-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … up to Eureka side and Woodley Island.

Leroy Zerlang: That's-

Scott Hammond: All the lumber history too, right?

Leroy Zerlang: All the lumber and fishing-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … and the little-

Scott Hammond: How many mills were on the bay at one time?

Leroy Zerlang: Through history, not at any given time, but through history-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … there were over 400 mills along the shores-

Scott Hammond: That's, that's-

Leroy Zerlang: … of Humboldt Bay.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Leroy Zerlang: And how many mills? When I was a kid, we'd, we could easily have 12 ships in port at one time.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Leroy Zerlang: And we had six operating mills, and today we only have the Schmidbauer Lumber Company.

Scott Hammond: Just Schmid-

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … just, just George, yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: Just George. George-

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, pretty incredible. Big change.

Scott Hammond: Big shift, yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: Big, big change and something that you'd never see, you'd never think you'd see how it would go, go away.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: Sunday mornings is one of our most popular trips.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: And that's the Arcata Bay Eco Trip, and that's a two-hour

Leroy Zerlang: trip.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Leroy Zerlang: And it goes way into Arcata Bay.

Leroy Zerlang: It goes, goes beyond where people have ever gone before. It goes up to- … the old Arcata Long Wharf.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Leroy Zerlang: Deep into the heart of the oyster company.

Leroy Zerlang: Uh-

Scott Hammond: Okay

Leroy Zerlang: … sturgeon are jumping. Wildlife-

Scott Hammond: Cool

Leroy Zerlang: … is tremendous. It's a-

Scott Hammond: I'd like to do that one

Leroy Zerlang: … it's a very, very popular trip.

Scott Hammond: Is there still the pylons from the Long-

Leroy Zerlang: Yep

Scott Hammond: … the Long Bay?

Leroy Zerlang: Still there.

Scott Hammond: Long Bay?

Leroy Zerlang: You can still see the pylon.

Scott Hammond: What'd you call it? Long Bay?

Leroy Zerlang: Long Wharf.

Scott Hammond: Long Wharf.

Leroy Zerlang: The Arcata Long Wharf.

Scott Hammond: How long was that? It's a mile.

Leroy Zerlang: Two and a quarter miles.

Scott Hammond: 'Cause it went way out from Union Town all the way into the bay, right?

Leroy Zerlang: All the way from, yeah, the Arcata Marsh. It made a big circle and went out there.

Scott Hammond: And all that, all those goods went up Jacoby Storehouse for the miners-

Leroy Zerlang: Yep

Scott Hammond: … up in Trinity?

Leroy Zerlang: That's how it started is-

Scott Hammond: Oh, that's that

Leroy Zerlang: … to bring supplies in to the miners.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Then, of course, it didn't take them too long to figure out that gold was growing up in the form of redwood.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: And then they would ship the redwood out from there.

Scott Hammond: So they could bring logs or they could bring lumber out on the, on the pylons.

Leroy Zerlang: They would bring the logs out, and it was the first operating railroad in the state of California.

Scott Hammond: How about that?

Leroy Zerlang: And it was pulled by a big white horse called Spanky Furry. Yeah, you can still see the ballast rocks where the ships would discharge the ballast overboard before-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Leroy Zerlang: … taking the lumber cargo.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Leroy Zerlang: Hundreds of harbor seals, sea lions. It's a incredible trip.

Scott Hammond: So it's a two-hour trip.

Leroy Zerlang: It's a two-hour trip.

Scott Hammond: How do we get ahold of the Madaket?

Leroy Zerlang: You can go to humboldtbaymaritimemuseum.com, or you can go to madaket.com-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Leroy Zerlang: … or you can call the boat at, the 445-1910, the year, month and year she was built.

Scott Hammond: That's pretty good.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: I thought you were gonna say 444-Madaket.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: 44-

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, no.

Scott Hammond: 1-800-Madaket.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Um-

Leroy Zerlang: But then the newest one they just put on last year that's, is they have a Bloody Mary cruise on-

Scott Hammond: Right

Leroy Zerlang: … Saturday mornings.

Scott Hammond: Oh, that sounds like fun.

Leroy Zerlang: That's pretty cool. Smallest licensed bar in the state of California.

Scott Hammond: Heard that. Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: It's, uh, it's well worth it.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: Beautifully maintained. The Maritime Museum-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Leroy Zerlang: … is very proud.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: 115 years old.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Leroy Zerlang: Not many of her style of boats still left in, uh, in

Leroy Zerlang: service.

Scott Hammond: What's the capacity?

Leroy Zerlang: Capacity is 41.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Leroy Zerlang: It used to be 49, but the Americans put on too much weight-

Scott Hammond: So-

Leroy Zerlang: … so they dropped it down to 40, 49. And during the war, she actually carried 64.

Scott Hammond: Is that right?

Leroy Zerlang: So, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Leroy Zerlang: And she's the last of them. There's no more of the original Cousins boats.

Scott Hammond: Wow, love it.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Let's talk, let's talk about the museum for a second.

Leroy Zerlang: Okay.

Scott Hammond: How, how, so your dad started it. It's on the bay. Is that, is that in Bob's property there on First, uh, by Hell's Port?

Leroy Zerlang: No, it was.

Scott Hammond: It was there.

Leroy Zerlang: We moved to, uh, we moved next to the Cook House.

Scott Hammond: Oh, you're right. Okay.

Leroy Zerlang: We're over there, and we're working with Danco and the Timber Heritage

Leroy Zerlang: Society-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … on starting up the historic area of Samoa.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Um, we're working on a whole new field of work, uh, for this coming summer of what we're gonna do.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Leroy Zerlang: We got crippled a little bit when the Cook House closed, but we just got, had a meeting with Dan Johnson-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Leroy Zerlang: … and that's gonna start construction again in 2026.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Leroy Zerlang: Um, it's a great museum. Don Hofacker, he's, uh, uh, umpire around here in town. He runs it for us.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: And it's jammed full of history.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Leroy Zerlang: Everything from shipwrecks to the Coast Guard station to the Milwaukee to-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Leroy Zerlang: … commercial fishing. It's well worth the while.

Scott Hammond: So is it open?

Leroy Zerlang: It's opened on Wednesdays, Thursday, Friday, and Saturdays.

Scott Hammond: And is, is it by the Railhouse where they do the-

Leroy Zerlang: It's right above the Railhouse. It's right next to the Cook House.

Scott Hammond: Same complex. Okay.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah. Yeah, and we work in conjunction with them.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, great guys.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And they have the speeder train, or-

Leroy Zerlang: They have the speeder train-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Leroy Zerlang: … that runs there. They just re-layered all their tracks, and it'll be in Eureka too, in Old Town Eureka this year also.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Could the speeder now go around Arcata Bay or where they made

Scott Hammond: the trail?

Leroy Zerlang: Not yet.

Scott Hammond: Not yet.

Leroy Zerlang: Not yet.

Scott Hammond: But they're, they're working towards that, right?

Leroy Zerlang: That's, that's, that's the long-term goal.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Leroy Zerlang: But right now they can go from Manila to the other, the south end of Samoa.

Scott Hammond: Will it go across the, the, uh, that bridge there where the, uh, where Target is by Hollenbeck's Blue Ox?

Leroy Zerlang: Someday.

Scott Hammond: It's got, it's got tracks embedded.

Leroy Zerlang: The tracks are still there.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: They're still in the negotiation fee and, of course, fundraising and

Leroy Zerlang: money-

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Well, there's that

Leroy Zerlang: … to go all the, to go around the whole bay.

Scott Hammond: But you guys got a whole vision for this as being a historical-

Leroy Zerlang: We have a great vision

Scott Hammond: … destination, do you?

Leroy Zerlang: A great vision of what could happen here.

Scott Hammond: Wow. That's a cool legacy. So you have-

Leroy Zerlang: It is

Scott Hammond: … this, the, the Cook House, which has its own little museum.

Leroy Zerlang: It's a great little, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Little stuff in there, and then you got your museum, and then the, the Railhouse.

Leroy Zerlang: And then Timber Heritage, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Huh.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah. It'd be a nice little package.

Scott Hammond: That's a lot of stuff.

Leroy Zerlang: The goal someday is, you know, the Madaket would have a dock there and, and come back and forth. Uh-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Leroy Zerlang: … I mean, we're, uh-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Leroy Zerlang: … very happy and thankful and appreciate the citizens and Eureka.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: You know, it took us a long time to get it called Madaket Plaza.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: But it's Madaket Plaza. I mean, as everybody knows, the boat's known.

Leroy Zerlang: I mean, it's known everywhere.

Scott Hammond: Where'd you get the Madaket, uh, name? Where, where did they find that?

Scott Hammond: Is it-

Leroy Zerlang: Madaket name is-

Scott Hammond: … is it native?

Leroy Zerlang: No, nope. That's, um, the Madaket is, uh, East Coast.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Leroy Zerlang: Nantucket Island.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Leroy Zerlang: Um, Madaket, Squam,

Leroy Zerlang: um, Tuckernuck To, to Quiddnet, uh, Wanna Win It, Wanna Comet

Scott Hammond: Wow

Leroy Zerlang: … Walter Cogshell that started here at the same time as Cousins, who originally had it. Her name originally was the Nellie C.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: He bought out Cousins in the Depression-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … and renamed them after Indian tribes-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Leroy Zerlang: … tribal names from the, uh, the East Coast.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Leroy Zerlang: I had a guy on board years ago, little H- H- Harvey Young, a little short guy wearing a plaid shirt and striped pants, and he looked up at the name Madaket on the side of the house and goes, "How'd you get that name?" And I went through the same story as I just did right now. And he goes, "My name's Harry Young and I'm the mayor of

Leroy Zerlang: Madaket."

Scott Hammond: How about that?

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, it was pretty cool. I stayed in touch with him for years.

Scott Hammond: That's funny.

Leroy Zerlang: That's-

Scott Hammond: He just came-

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … came from back east.

Leroy Zerlang: Back east, yeah, a little tiny place.

Scott Hammond: That's funny. So I'm gonna, I was gonna try to pull a fast one on you and tell you that I was related to Andrew Hammond, Hammond Lumber, uh, who started, you know, the biggest-

Leroy Zerlang: A.B. Hammond

Scott Hammond: … they, they had the, uh, uh, they had the lock on, on old growth

Scott Hammond: for-

Leroy Zerlang: For years

Scott Hammond: … a long time, right? Then the government did a, uh, trust, what do they call it when they bust up a monopoly?

Leroy Zerlang: Right, right.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, but he was quite a guy, was, was he?

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, it went from Vance Lumber Company.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Leroy Zerlang: It started as Vance, and then it went to A.B. Hammond, and then Hammond-

Scott Hammond: Okay

Leroy Zerlang: … sold out to Georgia-Pacific.

Scott Hammond: And then they broke it up.

Leroy Zerlang: And then they broke it up into Louisiana-Pacific

Scott Hammond: But that was a heck of a lot of redwood back in the day.

Leroy Zerlang: Oh, yeah. Gosh, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Was that in Samoa?

Leroy Zerlang: That was Samoa. I mean, Samoa was a company town-

Scott Hammond: Okay

Leroy Zerlang: … that was owned by Vance Hammond, GP, and Louisiana-Pacific. They had their own scrip at one time.

Scott Hammond: Oh, is that right?

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, yeah, and that's what the cookhouse was built for. It was the f- uh-

Scott Hammond: And great-grandpa Hammond went up to Oregon afterwards.

Leroy Zerlang: Right.

Scott Hammond: He went up to-

Leroy Zerlang: Yes

Scott Hammond: … buy a story, and there's a small town called Hammond, Oregon.

Leroy Zerlang: Yep, there is. There definitely is.

Scott Hammond: They said he was a mixed bag. He was kind of a jerk and kind of a-

Leroy Zerlang: Oh, really?

Scott Hammond: … success. Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: I, what are they gonna write about us?

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: I don't know.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah. There's a lot of history in the Maritime Museum, and at the cookhouse-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … and at Timber Heritage.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: I mean, they have the old Hammond locomotives and-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … pretty impressive.

Scott Hammond: You said you have the Milwaukee ship, too? Or pieces of it?

Leroy Zerlang: We have a few pieces of the Milwaukee.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Tell, tell us the story of the Milwaukee real quick.

Leroy Zerlang: So in December of 1916, the submarine H3, submarines were new-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … was southbound going down the coast, and she was in heavy fog.

Scott Hammond: Ah.

Leroy Zerlang: And the captain looked up and saw the smokestack from the Hammond Lumber Company-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … and thought it was her mother ship. They had mother ships that ran with them.

Scott Hammond: I see.

Leroy Zerlang: 'Cause they, they, they had to surface at night, the Issaquah, I believe it was, the

Leroy Zerlang: Issaquah.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: And thought it was the stack of the Issaquah and followed it-

Scott Hammond: Went west

Leroy Zerlang: … and went in-

Scott Hammond: East

Leroy Zerlang: … east.

Scott Hammond: Right i-

Leroy Zerlang: Excuse me

Scott Hammond: … right into the peninsula.

Leroy Zerlang: And put it right on the beach.

Scott Hammond: Crap.

Scott Hammond: Did-

Leroy Zerlang: Oh, excuse me. So they, um-

Scott Hammond: Did they ever rescue those guys?

Leroy Zerlang: Coast Guard rescued all those guys. There's many pictures of it, with breach buoys. We have it at the museum-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … where they shot a line to the submarine, and then with horses, pulled the men off.

Scott Hammond: How about that?

Leroy Zerlang: They put it out to bid to save it.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: One company from San Francisco came in at 110,000.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: And a local company, Justin Zables, Mercer and Frazier-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … came in at a, a price of 17,000.

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Leroy Zerlang: And the Navy goes, "Well, 17,000, that's way too cheap, and 110,000, that's impossible. No, we're not doing it." So in San Francisco at the time was the four-year-old heavy cruiser, the USS Milwaukee. Uh, four stacks, combined horsepower of all the tugs on the Pacific Coast combined.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Leroy Zerlang: In January, they sent her up here. On a high tide, they stuck her stern on the beach. They ran a great big hawser out. They had the Issaquah, the, the mother ship, and a tug on her starboard bow 'cause of the current, and they hooked her all up. Well, they didn't have any sense on tow boating.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: It's a whole different world. And they tied the line directly to the stern of the

Leroy Zerlang: Milwaukee-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … and they started pulling. Well, as soon as you tie the stern up of a tugboat, it can't turn. That's why if you ever notice on a tugboat, the tow bit's halfway up the middle of the boat.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, they're part, partway through.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, so it can pivot.

Scott Hammond: Well-

Leroy Zerlang: They didn't do that. One line broke on the Issaquah. The tugboat goes, "I'm getting the hell out of here." They let go, and the Milwaukee just came over and put herself on the beach.

Scott Hammond: Just like that.

Leroy Zerlang: F- yeah, four boilers underneath of them, all of them sucking in a amount, a large amount of water to cool it.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: Filled it up with sand.

Scott Hammond: It's over.

Leroy Zerlang: And to this day, the Milwaukee is still sitting on the beach.

Scott Hammond: Good story.

Leroy Zerlang: Minus tides, you can still see it. The submarine, Mercer and Frazier, came back in and said-

Scott Hammond: They got it, right?

Leroy Zerlang: … "17,000, we'll pull it across the beach."

Scott Hammond: We'll help you.

Leroy Zerlang: And they handled it like they would a log. They just built a skid underneath of it. Cap Milwaukee.

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Leroy Zerlang: Um, you can still see the piling there.

Scott Hammond: How about that?

Leroy Zerlang: She launched and served in the First World War.

Scott Hammond: How about that? So it looked good on paper.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, it was a good idea. Bad planning.

Scott Hammond: How many things wor- look great on paper? The planning just looks like it's-

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, gonna work fine

Scott Hammond: … this is gonna be fine.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And it's a faux pas.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Beyond belief.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: Seems like everything in the maritime world's like that, but

Scott Hammond: Yeah, well, I get it. There's technique to all of it.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Hey, well, if, if you're just joining us, Scott Hammond, 100% Humboldt podcast with my, uh, new best friend, Leroy Zerlang, and the amazing producer of 101 of my podcasts. You're 101, by the way, so-

Leroy Zerlang: Oh, wow, cool

Scott Hammond: … seems kind of appropriate.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, very much.

Scott Hammond: The Highway 101.

Leroy Zerlang: I like that.

Scott Hammond: Uh, Nick Flores. Thanks, Nick, for all you do. You're amazing, dude. Appreciate you.

Leroy Zerlang: Cool.

Scott Hammond: Never called out Nick quite like that in the show. Hey, so, hey, Nick. So, uh, hey, let's do the game show part of this. This is what I'm talking about. This is where it's fun. This is where you can earn that- And I'm not calling it a candy bar. I've called that and I get in trouble.

Leroy Zerlang: Okay.

Scott Hammond: Jody goes, "It's not a candy bar." That's like, that's the equivalent of a $500 bottle of scotch-

Leroy Zerlang: I agree

Scott Hammond: … in the form of a chocolate bar.

Leroy Zerlang: Dick Taylor's is great.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, we love those guys.

Leroy Zerlang: You bet.

Scott Hammond: We also love Quality Body. These guys are-

Leroy Zerlang: Yep

Scott Hammond: … sponsors, and Kim Kemp, and, uh, Red Headed Black Belt, and, uh, and Dutch Brothers too. But you don't get a Dutch Brothers. You're gonna get a chocolate bar.

Leroy Zerlang: Chocolate bar. We love chocolate.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. I almost said candy again.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: I'm glad you, I'm glad you appreciate these guys so-

Leroy Zerlang: Dick Taylor has made a remarkable difference in the whole

Leroy Zerlang: atmosphere-

Scott Hammond: Yes

Leroy Zerlang: … and the ambiance of Old Town.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: And we're proud to be their neighbors.

Scott Hammond: That's g- great word. And-

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … and they, uh… We just went in and saw their tree the other night.

Leroy Zerlang: Oh, yeah.

Scott Hammond: And my wife, that's her go-to after a Costco run, and she's killing herself at Costco, and she gets in there and gets that, whatever she drinks for-

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, yeah, yeah

Scott Hammond: … 150 bucks.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: I don't know what… All I know is there's a lot of credit card charges for Dick Taylor-

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: … Dustin,

Scott Hammond: Adam.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, yeah. Cool.

Scott Hammond: We're gonna go see them play at Ferndale Friday night.

Leroy Zerlang: Oh, wow. Cool.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: Nice.

Scott Hammond: Huckleberry Flint does a thing down at The Steeple every year.

Leroy Zerlang: Oh, nice.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, they, they do a great show. Everybody said, "Hey, gotta see these guys," you know, and you could never get a darn ticket, and we finally figured out you, you get 'em early, and we figured that out about five years ago.

Leroy Zerlang: Oh, there you go.

Scott Hammond: Try not to miss those guys.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Hey, question number one on the quiz, and you're gonna earn this, by the way.

Leroy Zerlang: Okay.

Scott Hammond: Hey, Leroy, what's your best day you've ever had?

Leroy Zerlang: Best day I ever had, on the Waterfront Day?

Scott Hammond: Any one, any o- maybe one of the best days.

Leroy Zerlang: One of the best days I ever had, probably the day I put the Madaket back in the

Leroy Zerlang: water.

Scott Hammond: How about that? What year was that?

Leroy Zerlang: We did, we did what they said couldn't be done.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Leroy Zerlang: 1990.

Scott Hammond: '90. And she's still sailing.

Leroy Zerlang: Still sailing.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Pride of the West Coast.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Iconic, right?

Leroy Zerlang: The Coast, the Coast Guard, uh, the Coast Guard, we do such a good job on maintenance, the Coast Guard now uses it for training.

Scott Hammond: How about that?

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: That's cool.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. What a legend.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Is there anything like it on the East Coast or West?

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, there's quite a few.

Scott Hammond: Is there the-

Leroy Zerlang: Uh, nothing that old-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … and nothing that's been in continuous service.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Leroy Zerlang: I mean, she started out in 1910 as a certified boat, and she's still a certified boat today.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Leroy Zerlang: Her whole life, and she's never left Humboldt Bay. Kind of like me. She's never left the bay.

Scott Hammond: Stayed on the bay.

Leroy Zerlang: Stayed on the bay.

Scott Hammond: You're tie- you're tied together in some ways.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Your other wife.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Fair enough. Hey, what's, uh, question two. What's one of your worst days you've had?

Leroy Zerlang: Ooh, that's a tough one. Um, the worst day that I probably ever had is the day my mom died.

Scott Hammond: Okay. What year was that?

Leroy Zerlang: That was, uh, in

Leroy Zerlang: 2002.

Scott Hammond: How about that?

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: You guys were pretty close?

Leroy Zerlang: Pretty close, yeah.

Scott Hammond: How long were the folks married?

Leroy Zerlang: Uh, forever.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: My mom, my mom was, don't say that in front of her, was a war bride.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: My dad, Bill, was General Patton's cook-

Scott Hammond: How about that?

Leroy Zerlang: … d- all through, uh, Europe.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: And he met her in Strasbourg, France.

Scott Hammond: After the war or during?

Leroy Zerlang: During the war. They got married during the war, and then of course, he was, stayed there, and then she came over-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … on the, um, uh, USS American-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … and then to Humboldt County.

Scott Hammond: Now, Patton died during the war, did he not?

Leroy Zerlang: He died after the war.

Scott Hammond: It was right after?

Leroy Zerlang: Right after the war in a car wreck, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Car accident, right?

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: In a Jeep.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Something, yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: How about that?

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: There's living history. Yeah, my, uh, my pappy was a P-51

Scott Hammond: pilot-

Leroy Zerlang: Oh, really? Okay

Scott Hammond: … down in Okinawa.

Leroy Zerlang: Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Li- lived to tell about it. And, uh-

Leroy Zerlang: Yep. Yeah. Yeah

Scott Hammond: … he'd come to McKinleyville, and, uh, he'd been sober 30 years, and he'd done all, he'd made his peace with God and Japan and everything, but he

Scott Hammond: could r- just roll out the stories, baby. They saw the Hiroshima cloud the morning of.

Scott Hammond: Nobody-

Leroy Zerlang: Wow

Scott Hammond: … they go, "What?" They literally said, "What the hell is that?" They didn't know 'cause top secret.

Leroy Zerlang: Wow.

Scott Hammond: His Bata- Bataan Death March when they pulled those Marines out.

Leroy Zerlang: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: 'Cause a P-51 could get pretty low on the deck.

Leroy Zerlang: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: And he could, you know, could see those guys waving at him and-

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, yeah, yeah

Scott Hammond: … so, you know, living history.

Scott Hammond: And he'd-

Leroy Zerlang: Wow

Scott Hammond: … he'd tell the story and then he'd start it again maybe s- next day or next visit. We'd just go, "Wow. Tell it aga- that's… " You know.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: "Tell it again like you did."

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: So-

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, yeah

Scott Hammond: … we never corrected him. Question number three. What do you find fulfilling in, in your life?

Leroy Zerlang: Um, fulfilling in my life, besides having a wonderful w- wife, Dalene, is the amount of work that my family and I have put into Humboldt Bay-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … um, with the Madaket and what we do with, with the shipping-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … and trying to keep Humboldt Bay alive.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: It's very frustrating, but it's very rewarding.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Uh, we serve on a lot of committees. We do a lot of work.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Uh, do a lot of meetings just to, uh… But it, that's very, very fulfilling.

Scott Hammond: Sure. I imagine they listen to you when you talk.

Leroy Zerlang: We, uh, we either get loved or we're yelled at, one or the other.

Scott Hammond: Well, there's…

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah. And we're, I'm very proud of the work that we do on the peninsula. We're very heavily involved with the Samoa Fire

Leroy Zerlang: Department.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: We're involved, I'm, uh, the chairman of the Peninsula Community Service

Leroy Zerlang: District.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: And keeping the peninsula, as we say, safe and clean.

Scott Hammond: Good. Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: That's, that's very rewarding.

Scott Hammond: And Dan Johnson's doing a heck of a project up there.

Leroy Zerlang: Dan Johnson is amazing. Uh, meet with him.

Scott Hammond: So you're a big fan of Dan.

Leroy Zerlang: Big fan of Dan.

Scott Hammond: Hey, Dan.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, big fan of Dan, big fan of Danco.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Um, very ni- drive through Samoa

Scott Hammond: They re-

Leroy Zerlang: I mean, just drive through Samoa and look at what he's done in there

Scott Hammond: He restored a bunch of houses, right?

Leroy Zerlang: 87 houses restored and 22 to go.

Scott Hammond: How about that?

Leroy Zerlang: And-

Scott Hammond: So they'll go north of 100

Leroy Zerlang: … and the overall plan is phenomenal.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Leroy Zerlang: Just phenomenal.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Leroy Zerlang: And he's a very big supporter of the Maritime Museum.

Scott Hammond: That's great.

Leroy Zerlang: And his f- his dad and my dad were very good friends.

Leroy Zerlang: It's-

Scott Hammond: Wow. Great connection

Leroy Zerlang: … it's very, very, very impressive.

Scott Hammond: That's a lot of homes.

Leroy Zerlang: Ways to go, but I mean, it's-

Scott Hammond: Well

Leroy Zerlang: … it's very impressive.

Scott Hammond: I love it, man.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: That's good c- c- c-

Leroy Zerlang: Very impressive

Scott Hammond: … combining.

Leroy Zerlang: My goal, my bucket list is working with Dan and others is to get the new Maritime Museum built, a, a bigger-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … bigger Maritime Museum.

Scott Hammond: You gonna k- keep it the same spot or are you gonna move it?

Leroy Zerlang: We're gonna keep it the same spot.

Scott Hammond: So you're gonna retrofit the building?

Leroy Zerlang: Retrofit part of the building-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … and then we'll build a, a concrete building-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Leroy Zerlang: … next to it.

Scott Hammond: So it's gonna be a destination r- deal.

Leroy Zerlang: That's the goal. The destination-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Leroy Zerlang: … is historic Samoa.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: You know, to come visit the-

Scott Hammond: Well, the, uh, the Skywalk is now international destination. They, they-

Leroy Zerlang: Another, another beautiful thing.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Campbell Spickler was on and he told-

Leroy Zerlang: Oh, yeah

Scott Hammond: … us the story.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Hey, Jim, what's up? It's great.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, you know, the, the whole area, it's, it's, it's a blessing and it's frustrating.

Leroy Zerlang: I mean, there's, we have problems. Of course, we always have problems. There's lots of problems.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: But the amount of people that we carry on the boat, 26,000 last summer-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … most people just love this area.

Leroy Zerlang: I mean-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Leroy Zerlang: … they love everything about it. They love the cl- skywalk. They love the Madaket, the Carson

Leroy Zerlang: Mansion.

Scott Hammond: You got a great point. I've never heard anybody-

Leroy Zerlang: It's-

Scott Hammond: … on the boat or anywhere else go, "You know, this, this Humboldt thing's a real disappointment to me. Why did it all-

Leroy Zerlang: No, no, no

Scott Hammond: … why did we have to come here?" You know, n- you don't ever get that.

Leroy Zerlang: Um, uh, we're, my wife and I are very, very involved in the cruise ships.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Uh, mainly because we're the ship agents.

Leroy Zerlang: We take, we take care of the ships when they get here.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: And we s- we help the city of Eureka, Miles and the Harbor

Leroy Zerlang: District.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Uh, Mindy and those guys, they set all this up.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Swan, they set up all this program and so forth. And I sit there most the day-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … uh, to answer questions and stuff. And people come here on the cruise ships, and they're just astonished. They love Dick Taylor's.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: They ab- every ba- every person comes back as Dick Taylor.

Scott Hammond: Buying bags.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, yeah. They, uh, but there's, uh, uh, you get a few of problems with a few, you know, what's in Old Town that you see-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Leroy Zerlang: … around and stuff like that. Miles does a great job clean, and the city of Eureka and-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … his staff, the Wharfingers. Everything's cleaned up real good.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: But they love it. They absolutely love it.

Scott Hammond: It's cool.

Leroy Zerlang: The trip to the Redwoods, the, the Skywalk through Old Town.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Leroy Zerlang: It's, it's not negative at all.

Leroy Zerlang: I mean-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Leroy Zerlang: … a lot of them say, "Hey, we're coming back. We're coming back."

Scott Hammond: I love it. And they'll drive-

Leroy Zerlang: You know

Scott Hammond: … back, some of them.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Sure. Hey, last question. You're not out of this quiz yet.

Leroy Zerlang: Oh, okay.

Scott Hammond: This, this bar does not belong to you yet. Last question. H- Leroy, who are you a- and what do you want? Who's Leroy Zerlang, what does he want?

Leroy Zerlang: Um, what do I want? I wanna retire is what I want- … for starters.

Scott Hammond: Good, good luck on that.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah. Uh-

Leroy Zerlang: … I would like, um, I would like to, uh, I would like to see Humboldt Bay become something. Um, I'm, I'm in, I'm in a different type of world than most people. I'm very, very involved in the industrial

Leroy Zerlang: part of it.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: My wife, my son, and I own the two harbor tugs here. We do all the ship assist work. We run the pilot boats.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Uh, we're very pro shipping. We're very pro all of that, and then on the other hat, I'm in the tourist business-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … 'cause I'm Madaket.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Leroy Zerlang: Um, so I would like to see a common ground of something on Humboldt Bay-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … that's gonna work. We've looked for niches-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … for 50 years I've been involved in it-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Leroy Zerlang: … since I was a kid-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … looking for a niche of how we're gonna save this, how we're gonna save

Leroy Zerlang: this.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: We haven't found it yet.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: And you think you're getting somewhere and you lose.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: Um, I mean, wind energy, that's a mixed feeling there, but-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … wind energy probably not gonna happen. We've lo- lost Nordic's, uh, um, fish farm on the peninsula.

Scott Hammond: That came and left, yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah. What are we gonna do?

Scott Hammond: Is that no for now or is, are both those no for-

Leroy Zerlang: It's a very slow no. I mean, it's over for now. It might pull out. I doubt it.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: I doubt if it's gonna pull out.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: We have a lot of beautiful property that a lot of things can be done.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: My thought the other day driving around, um, I do a patrol for the fire department every morning-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … just to make sure everybody's good and there's no fires and pick up trash and stuff like that-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Leroy Zerlang: … is maybe we ought to start focusing on the two things that this bay has that's kinda working.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: One, it's time that we take a little bit better care of the fishermen.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: They've, uh, they've been beat up a little bit.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Leroy Zerlang: They've been, uh, beat to hell by the state of California.

Scott Hammond: Yep.

Leroy Zerlang: Uh, crab season's another bad one this year. I mean, we don't know what's going on. They don't even know if they should spend any money. Am I going in the right direction on this or am I losing you?

Scott Hammond: Yeah, you're fine. Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: Um, they don't even know if they can fish.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: So the focus should, uh, my focus would change to let's take care of them. Let's build them their ice house.

Leroy Zerlang: Let's build-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … them their cold storage. Let's build them a dock.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Leroy Zerlang: Let's give them a work area, a work area where they can work. We're losing boats. Two weeks ago, my boat yard broke up five commercial fishing boats-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … because there's no value left to them because there's no, there's nothing they

Leroy Zerlang: could do.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Boats are leaving here as constantly-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Leroy Zerlang: … getting out of California.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: That's one of them. The other one I want is what's popular here, like I just said, is tourism.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: I mean, the cruise ship people love it here. We have Schneider Dock.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Um, we have the Madaket, we have Dick Taylor's, we have the

Leroy Zerlang: Blue Ox.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: We have the Sky, the Skywalk.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: We have the redwoods, and we have beautiful beaches.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Let's encourage that. Let's build.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: I had to work in Fort Bragg the other day.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: And there's seven waterfront motels.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Eureka doesn't have any.

Scott Hammond: Not even one.

Leroy Zerlang: Not even one.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: Let's build a motel on the waterfront that you can see the bay on one side and the ocean.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Let's build a restaurant on the waterfront somewhere.

Scott Hammond: Hmm. Why not?

Leroy Zerlang: Let's, and let's build a, a RV park that's on the waterfront.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: I mean, we don't have salmon anymore. Thank you, State of California.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: We don't have salmon anymore- … but there's still plenty of sports fishing here.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Leroy Zerlang: Uh, the Samoa Peninsula, this is hard to believe, we have BLM at the end.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: BLM gets 250,000 visitors a year.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Leroy Zerlang: Incredible on that peninsula. That, the Samoa Fire Department, of course, takes care of.

Scott Hammond: That's down by the Coast Guard base down-

Leroy Zerlang: The Coast Guard station, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: So that would be my vision.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: My vision would be, my whole goal is to have something for my son to do.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: I mean, my son is very talented. Uh, we, we have the tugboats.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: He's very talented on the tugboats. And I would like to be… And just not my son, but other children, too.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Something here that'll keep them here.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: And the Humboldt Bay, Bonnie Gull.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Bonnie Gull. Do you know who Bonnie Gull is?

Scott Hammond: Sure, absolutely.

Leroy Zerlang: Of course. Uh, Bonnie G- my mom was a dear, dear friend of Bonnie Gull.

Scott Hammond: How about that?

Leroy Zerlang: And, uh-

Scott Hammond: She's legend, right?

Leroy Zerlang: She's a legend.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: And it was a little bit of a, a little bit of a fight. But M- Bonnie, uh, my mom always said, down there… Well, she had a French accent. She would say, "You should have a star in the dock down here for Bonnie Gull." 'Cause Bonnie Gull's famous quote is, "Humboldt Bay should be our front door, not our back door."

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Leroy Zerlang: And I fought the city, and Mike Jones was on the city council, a dear

Leroy Zerlang: friend.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Leroy Zerlang: And I said, "I wanna name that the Bonnie Gull Dock."

Scott Hammond: They got it done.

Leroy Zerlang: And Mike pushed it through to the Bonnie Gull Dock.

Scott Hammond: Shout out to Mike Jones.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah. Mike, yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: We used to call him Jonesy.

Leroy Zerlang: That was good.

Scott Hammond: We used to work together.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Another great guy.

Leroy Zerlang: So those are, those are my visions.

Scott Hammond: Great.

Leroy Zerlang: That's my vision.

Scott Hammond: Great.

Leroy Zerlang: And who am I?

Leroy Zerlang: Um, born and raised.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Spent most of my time on the peninsula-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … in Finntown. Uh, fifth generation, uh, cabinet maker. Supposed to be a cabinet maker by trade.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Uh, my dad did a lot of cabinet work in this area. Um, I got involved in the Madaket as a, as a young boy, as I told you earlier.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Uh, today, uh,

Leroy Zerlang: I'm the, um, chairman of the Humboldt Bay Harbor Safety Committee.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: I'm the past chairman of the old Eureka, um, the old Eureka Harbor, Harbor

Leroy Zerlang: Commission.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Um-

Scott Hammond: Is there a new harbor commission?

Leroy Zerlang: No, the city got rid of it.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Leroy Zerlang: They, they fired me, shut it down.

Scott Hammond: But is there-

Leroy Zerlang: Totally

Scott Hammond: … but there is a harbor commission.

Leroy Zerlang: The Humboldt Bay Harbor District, yeah.

Scott Hammond: That's the district.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: That's with Chris Mickelsen and those guys.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, Chris Mickelsen and Aaron.

Scott Hammond: Do you work with Chris much?

Leroy Zerlang: Chris and I are very, very dear, old friends.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: His family's been here almost as long as mine.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Great guy.

Leroy Zerlang: We work very tightly with the-

Scott Hammond: He was our, my guest. He's a great guy.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, yeah, with the Harbor District.

Scott Hammond: Friend of, friend of mine.

Leroy Zerlang: Um, I'm chairman of the Peninsula Community Service District. Madaket's our baby. My wife-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … and Cody and my baby.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Um, Maritime Museum. We're very… Of course, it was my father started out as… It's a community.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: All of its… Kids come down, one of the questions on the Madaket on our, we call them our sit down and shut up cruise. So we don't lose. You gotta, you'll lose their attention in seconds if you're not

Leroy Zerlang: careful.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: So we have all these routines. And one of the questions I ask, and we have this big safety thing before they get on board, is, uh, "Who owns this boat?"

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: And they all point to me and say, "You do."

Scott Hammond: Right.

Leroy Zerlang: And I go, "No."

Scott Hammond: Nope.

Leroy Zerlang: "You own it."

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Leroy Zerlang: But we got stuck taking care of it for you. Because the boat does belong to the community.

Scott Hammond: Gotcha.

Leroy Zerlang: Um-

Scott Hammond: Is it in a trust or some sort of-

Leroy Zerlang: It's, uh, 5013C.

Scott Hammond: Gotcha.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: That's great.

Leroy Zerlang: Um, the, um, fire department, uh, born and raised on the bay.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Uh, been licensed master for almost 50 years.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Taught many kids to get licenses.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: My son's a, a master also now. Um, pretty much, uh, a, a good trip for me is going to

Leroy Zerlang: Rio Dell.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: Oh, now, now a good trip for me is going to Lolita Jerzees.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, you go to Jerzee.

Leroy Zerlang: So, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Jerzee's scoop.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Speaking of food and sweets, congratulations.

Leroy Zerlang: Oh, I won?

Scott Hammond: Nick, Nick, we have a winner. Winner, winner, chicken dinner, Leroy. I'm getting you a, uh, Dick Taylor craft chocolate fleur de

Scott Hammond: sel. Uh, this is a 73% Belize, and, uh, handcrafted in Eureka, which is in California.

Leroy Zerlang: That is correct.

Scott Hammond: Congratulations.

Leroy Zerlang: We love Dick Taylor's.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: Thank you very, very much.

Scott Hammond: We love those guys, man.

Leroy Zerlang: I appreciate that.

Scott Hammond: So quick pivot to a story. Um, you, uh, I was reading that you, you picked up this, uh-

Leroy Zerlang: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … uh, project and you rescued a boat out of the bay, The Golden

Scott Hammond: Rule. What's the, what's the, what's the, what's that story, Leroy?

Leroy Zerlang: Okay. So years ago, uh, 10 years ago, just about, uh, there was a local doctor, I won't mention his name. He was a, a good doctor. He saved me. He was kind of a nutcase.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: And I'd go to him, and he had three boats. Uh, the Yankee Girl that he bought from the Harbor District, it was a-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … derelict. He bought it at auction and had a little tug. And he had this boat called The Golden Rule.

Scott Hammond: Hmm. Never heard about The Golden Rule.

Leroy Zerlang: Uh, he never talked about the Golden Rule.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: The other two we talked about a lot because they were always sinking or they were breaking loose or he was in trouble with the city or the harbor

Leroy Zerlang: district. Both of them sank. We raised them both and I got– I was so mad at him that I chopped one up with Ryan Schneider, put it in a dump truck and parked it and dumped it in his front yard.

Leroy Zerlang: I was- So this Golden Rule.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: He owned the property that we called Nickerson's down on the peninsula.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: I believe it's now known as Oyster Beach.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Leroy Zerlang: Uh, he owned that.

Leroy Zerlang: And one day, here's, uh, I'm on the Madaket-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … and I see the Golden Rule coming up the bay being towed by this little junky boat and it's anchored in front of his prop Nickerson's. And I call him up and I go, "That's not gonna work. This is not gonna work." I mean, it's, you can't anchor it there. It's not gonna work.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: And blah, blah. He's a doctor so he knew everything.

Leroy Zerlang: Um-

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: And two days later, Cody, my son and I took one of the tugs-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … and we went down and we pulled it off the beach.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: We weren't busy at the boatyard, so we took it up to the boatyard and, uh, we hauled it out of the water. And honestly what I did is I got it ready for the next time it would sink. We pulled the engine out of it, we pulled the fuel tanks out of it, took everything out of it-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Leroy Zerlang: … got all the, the oil and so forth and it sat there. And I'd call him and say, "Hey, I gotta put this Golden Rule back in the water. I mean, I gotta go back to work. I need the yard." And he'd say, "Okay, okay, okay."

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Well, we needed it. So we couldn't take it to Woodley Island because it got kicked out of Woodley

Leroy Zerlang: Island. So we took it down, we tied it up to a dock across the bay at the end of a pier and we watched it and watched it and I'd call him and I'd go, "You gotta do something with this boat." And he never did. Well, one m- miserable Northwest March mo-

Leroy Zerlang: morning-

Leroy Zerlang: … I look out and the Golden Rule's gone.

Scott Hammond: It's gone.

Leroy Zerlang: So I call Cody and I go, "Grab one of the boats, go look for it."

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: "And I'll drive around."

Leroy Zerlang: You know? So we went down to the dock and here's the Golden Rule on the bottom.

Scott Hammond: There, there she was.

Leroy Zerlang: She's on the bottom. And the dock sat on top of it.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Leroy Zerlang: I wasn't gonna leave it there, uh, because I'm not that type of person. We, we cons- we raise boats all the time.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: It's one of the things we do. So we porpoised it. We went over with one of the tugs, we hooked onto it. You pull on them, she comes up, then she sinks again and we pulled her up on the beach-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … at our place, the boatyard in Finntown. Pulled it up on the beach and here's this beat up poor old Golden Rule sitting on the beach and Badgerly can't… The doctor's not around. So I'm sitting there looking at it and I do weather every morning for the tugs offshore.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: And between them calling me, I look up and I put in this Golden

Leroy Zerlang: Rule.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Well, this Golden Rule is famous. He always said it was famous, that it was the, one of the p- it was a peace boat.

Scott Hammond: It was a protest boat, yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: A pro- we call it a peace boat, not a protest boat.

Scott Hammond: Okay. There's a big difference.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah. Yeah. A peace boat's welcome into port. It's a protest boat. It, it was going to the Marshall Islands. It got seized.

Scott Hammond: How about that?

Leroy Zerlang: Um, it made it back to San Diego.

Scott Hammond: So it was anti-whaling or anti-drilling boat or?

Leroy Zerlang: Anti-nuclear.

Scott Hammond: Nuc- okay.

Leroy Zerlang: Anti-nuclear. I can't think of the-

Scott Hammond: Marshalls, yeah

Leroy Zerlang: … I can't think of the guy's name right off the top of my head. So it's sitting there and I go, "Well geez, this thing is famous."

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: "I'm gonna sell it." And it's beat, it's beat bad.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: So I put it on Craigslist and Facebook that I've got this famous boat, the Golden Rule and it's in Eureka and-

Scott Hammond: Come get it.

Leroy Zerlang: I, yeah, I started getting phone calls.

Scott Hammond: Is that right?

Leroy Zerlang: The Smithsonian calls me going, "What are you gonna do with it?" My famous quote is, "I'm gonna get drunk tonight and burn it." You know? Um, Hiroshima Museum calls me. I mean, I had all these phone calls and I go, so I said the same thing, "I'm gonna get drunk tonight and burn it."

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: And I wasn't going, I didn't know what to do with it. So one day a very, very dear friend of mine, Chuck

Leroy Zerlang: DeWitt, lives in Fairhaven.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Leroy Zerlang: We used to keep our horses there. He's a Veterans for Peace.

Scott Hammond: Ah.

Leroy Zerlang: Big member. And, uh, him and I, we, we were known to get into the Maker's Mark when I'd go down and visit the horses and stuff at night once in a while.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Leroy Zerlang: He came a… He was a pyro. He'd help with the fireworks and so forth that I was involved with and still am involved with 45 years.

Scott Hammond: It's the Fourth of July fireworks.

Leroy Zerlang: I've been putting that barge out there for 45 years.

Scott Hammond: That's you.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Hear that, kids?

Leroy Zerlang: 45 years.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: Um, just the barge and, uh… But anyway, so s- a truck comes walking into the yard, smoking his cigarette and goes, "Where the hell's the Golden Rule?" And I go, it's, "Right there on the beach. Come down tonight, we'll get drunk and burn it." So he goes, "Well, the Veterans for Peace wanna s-" Oh, I'll go fast. "The Veterans for Peace wanna save it." And I go, "Chuck, the Veterans for Peace? You mean those nuts that stand in the rain on the corner of-

Scott Hammond: Court, the courthouse

Leroy Zerlang: … courthouse on Friday nights? Those guys wanna save this boat?"

Scott Hammond: They got any money?

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah. And he goes, "Well, they wanna save it." And I go, "Well, here it is. I mean, you're looking at 50, 60, $70,000 to save it." And he goes, "Well, the president of Chapter 22 from Garberville's coming up tomorrow. Are you gonna be here?"

Leroy Zerlang: And I go-

Scott Hammond: How about that

Leroy Zerlang: … "Bring him up."

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Leroy Zerlang: "Bring him up." So he comes up, him and his wife Sherry come up and they're walking around it and, uh, they go, "Well, we wanna save it." And I go, "You're looking at a lot of

Leroy Zerlang: money."

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: And he goes, "We can raise the money." Well, I looked him up on the internet and he did. I mean, they raised-

Scott Hammond: He found the money

Leroy Zerlang: … they raised money. They raised a lot of money. Moto, uh, Moto Hospitals of Vietnam and-

Scott Hammond: Is that right?

Leroy Zerlang: And I go, "Well, if you guys wanna play, I'll play with you."

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Leroy Zerlang: "I will give you the yard for five year, for a year." For a year and you raise the money-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … and I'll help you and I'll put my crew on it a little bit and save this poor old Golden Rule.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: So Schmidbauer donated a bunch of stuff. Bob Figas came over.

Scott Hammond: Figas, yep.

Leroy Zerlang: We built a building. You know.

Scott Hammond: Hey, Bob.

Leroy Zerlang: We, uh, we built a building around it.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: And, uh, they did. Took 'em five years.

Scott Hammond: And they restored it.

Leroy Zerlang: They restored it. It's down at the boat basin right now.

Scott Hammond: Is that right?

Leroy Zerlang: They restored it. About 900 people came to the launching.

Scott Hammond: Is that right?

Leroy Zerlang: Still a bunch of… They're a bunch of nutcases, God bless 'em, but they're-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Leroy Zerlang: … a, a bunch of nutcases.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: Um, they all got in a fight.

Scott Hammond: At the launch?

Leroy Zerlang: No, um, um, during the restoration.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Leroy Zerlang: There was chapter 22 and chapter 61, and they had all these different plans, and they stopped… I put a big sign up on the side of the building that said, "Veterans for peace

Leroy Zerlang: at war." They got all back together and they launched it.

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Leroy Zerlang: Um, Chuck passed away last year. There was a committee. I finally got off the committee. I don't really believe in the Veterans For Peace and what they do, but I love the

Leroy Zerlang: boat-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Leroy Zerlang: … and I love what it did.

Scott Hammond: Well, we all love vets too.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, yeah. Uh, it was, uh, uh, sh- they took her to Hawaii against my wish.

Scott Hammond: And made it.

Leroy Zerlang: We did the weather for 'em to get to Hawaii, so she actually completed her goal of going to the Marshall Islands to-

Scott Hammond: From Hawaii

Leroy Zerlang: … protest. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: How about that?

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah. Uh, then they brought her back here, then she sailed the West Coast. They took her to the East Coast.

Scott Hammond: I'll go look for that. I wanna head out to the bay-

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, it's at the Eureka-

Scott Hammond: … and see that

Leroy Zerlang: … Boat Basin right now.

Scott Hammond: So, uh, part of the conclusion of the story, if you're just… By the way, if you're just joining us, new best friend Leroy Zer- Zerlang, the, the legendary, uh, man, the myth, the legend of Humboldt Bay. Um, there's a lotta cool stuff around the bay. I just wanna touch on real quick, then I wanna touch on your legacy, and what we're gonna say at your funeral, that kinda stuff. But we'll get there. Um, just real quick, the, uh, the old Humboldt State, uh, schooner that sits sideways.

Leroy Zerlang: Mm, the Fuma.

Scott Hammond: The Fuma? That's kind of… It's not go- that ain't going

Scott Hammond: anywhere.

Leroy Zerlang: Um, poor Fuma.

Scott Hammond: It's intact.

Leroy Zerlang: Fuma was built by Dr. James Gast.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, I remember. He was a professor.

Leroy Zerlang: He was a professor.

Scott Hammond: The head of her class.

Leroy Zerlang: Uh, he-

Scott Hammond: Little guy

Leroy Zerlang: … yep, yeah. Looked like Elmer Fudd and talked like Elmer Fudd.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: "Well, good morning. Well, why, how are you?"

Scott Hammond: A pretty brilliant dude, right?

Leroy Zerlang: Smarter than hell.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: Smarter than hell. It was built right below the cookhouse.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Leroy Zerlang: It's, um, 16 feet wide and 70 feet long. We hauled it out of the water.

Scott Hammond: Is that right?

Leroy Zerlang: And his goal was to make it the Humboldt State research vessel.

Scott Hammond: Right, and now we have the other boat.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, now we have the, um, the new one, the North- North Wind, the old-

Scott Hammond: Yeah, that's a cool boat

Leroy Zerlang: … that's… Yeah, the old one, the Coral Sea. It, uh, never made it. Um-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Leroy Zerlang: … and he died.

Scott Hammond: But it still sits there.

Leroy Zerlang: Still sits there.

Scott Hammond: Isn't there a famous boat down in, um-

Leroy Zerlang: Excuse me

Scott Hammond: … King, King Salmon? King Salmon somewhere that's, uh, legendary, that's still… Maybe it's at Fields Landing somewhere.

Leroy Zerlang: Excuse me. Um-

Scott Hammond: Here

Leroy Zerlang: … yeah, please.

Scott Hammond: Let me get you some water.

Leroy Zerlang: You're probably talking about the Dennis Gail.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, maybe.

Leroy Zerlang: The, the last whaler.

Scott Hammond: Is it still there or-

Leroy Zerlang: It sunk. Yeah, it sunk, it sunk-

Scott Hammond: It sunk, okay

Leroy Zerlang: … it's still there, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: Another, another r- very famous boat that-

Scott Hammond: We're doing live water here on, on the air

Leroy Zerlang: … live water, sorry.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, no, that's good. I mean, let's drink up. Cheers. Um, so there's a lotta stuff to see around the bay that just… And then they had the, uh- … the resort out there on the, on Woodley Island, was it?

Leroy Zerlang: The yacht club? Yes.

Scott Hammond: The yacht club-

Leroy Zerlang: Famous

Scott Hammond: … was very short-lived, was it?

Leroy Zerlang: Yep. Um, it, uh, it made it for probably 20 years. The yacht club was very, very famous. The, uh… They had the, um, Humboldt Bay Yacht Club.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: And the Sir Francis Yacht Club used to have races.

Scott Hammond: Oh, is that right?

Leroy Zerlang: Where the yachts, small sailboats, small, would be shipped down by steam schooner, and they'd race around Alcatraz.

Scott Hammond: Oh, how about that?

Leroy Zerlang: And then the next year, they would, all their boats would be shipped up here by steam schooner, and they'd, they'd race around Gunther Island, Indian Island-

Scott Hammond: Gotcha

Leroy Zerlang: … Tuluwat Island. The trophies are still at the Maritime Museum.

Scott Hammond: We'll go look for those.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: The, uh… That resort had to be really nice in the summer. I bet it was 54 degrees in fall.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, yeah. It was, uh… It had a outdoor saltwater he- uh, sea- heated swimming pool. It's still there.

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Leroy Zerlang: Um, the boiler's still there.

Scott Hammond: It's part of the tour, right, the

Leroy Zerlang: Part of the tour-

Scott Hammond: Yep

Leroy Zerlang: … you bet.

Scott Hammond: Yep. So I always have an AI section in this. Let's, let's see what AI, let's see what AI, AI has to say about Leroy before we, uh-

Leroy Zerlang: Uh-oh

Scott Hammond: … close out here. "Leroy Zerlang stands out not only as a creative force, but also as a committed community advocate who understands the power of art and history to connect people and place." That's a nice comment. "His work with the Madaket ship exemplifies his vision, making him a vital contributor to Eureka's cultural identity." I like that. I, I, uh, that'll work.

Leroy Zerlang: Cool.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, that's cool. I, you know, thanks… It's like, almost like a military deal. Thanks for your service. I mean, all the- … all the stuff that you do for the bay and for the, the folks of Humboldt, man, to keep this thing-

Leroy Zerlang: It's fun

Scott Hammond: … alive.

Leroy Zerlang: We enjoy it. I enjoy it. It's frustrating.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: It's very frustrating. The Maritime Museum is in the spot now with the Madaket. When we started this, I mean, it started in 1972, you have to remember that tourism really wasn't even wanted up here.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Leroy Zerlang: I mean, your chamber of commerce and really wasn't promoting tourism 'cause they didn't wanna see what we were really doing. That's the way I put it.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: When we got the Madaket with the two, uh, the rebuild, I mean, we begged, borrowed, and stoled-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … to get it done, and help from great people. I mean, Kay Johnson or the Johnsons or-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … Schmidbauers.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Um, we pulled it off. Uh, so we're very, very proud of that.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: Old town, I mean, there's, it's- So close to being so ripe and perfect-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Leroy Zerlang: … with just a little bit more loving.

Scott Hammond: There's still a little bit more to do there.

Leroy Zerlang: Little bit more loving. I'm very happy working with the Harbor District. I'm very happy now working with the city of Eureka.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: The city of Eureka and I fought for years and years.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: We fought to keep the Madaket in Eureka.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Leroy Zerlang: And, uh, now the plaza's named after her.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Sounds like you like… You're a fan of Miles.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, I'm a… Me and Miles, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Hey, Miles. What's up?

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, we, we like going after each other.

Scott Hammond: He's a great guy. So what are we gonna say at your, uh, your funeral, your legacy, your, your tombstone? What, what are they, what are they, what would you like folks

Scott Hammond: to, uh-

Leroy Zerlang: Oh.

Scott Hammond: What do you imagine or like them t- would like them to say?

Leroy Zerlang: Holy Toledo, am I that close? Oh. Boy, I have no idea.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Leroy Zerlang: Um, I have one wish. Somebody please take care of the Madaket.

Scott Hammond: Okay. That's a great w- I'd say that.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: That- that's a good tombstone.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: So, uh, buried at sea, would you be, be sprinkled?

Leroy Zerlang: Um, pr- no, I'd, I'd have to go in the bay.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Leroy Zerlang: Um, um, Carl Christensen, that I talked about earlier-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Leroy Zerlang: … pretty much said that we're mud flat sailors, and that's what I

Leroy Zerlang: am.

Scott Hammond: Gotcha.

Leroy Zerlang: I have s- uh, I have gone offshore. I'm licensed to go offshore.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Leroy Zerlang: I've towed offshore.

Scott Hammond: But mud flat-

Leroy Zerlang: But we're, we're pretty much mud flat sailors.

Scott Hammond: I like that.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: You know, we go up to Trinidad and see all those guys lost at sea, and-

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … I mean, there's a whole nother-

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … arbor with a story-

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, yeah

Scott Hammond: … and we don't have time for that.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: But, uh, I like that. Mud, um, a mud what sailor?

Leroy Zerlang: Mud flat sailor.

Scott Hammond: I like it.

Leroy Zerlang: Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Hey, thanks for coming.

Leroy Zerlang: My pleasure. It's always a pleasure.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, no, it's great, man, and I'd love to have you back. Hey, uh, Scott Hammond, 100% Humboldt, uh, podcast signing off. I'd like you, invite you to like us, love us, uh, make comments that are good. You can make comments that are not good. I don't care. You're fine. Um, we're on all the podcast platforms. We're on, uh, uh, uh, we're on Cable. We're on, um, K- uh, Kim Kemp's, uh, uh, Redheaded Blackbelt. We're on Loco. I don't know what we're not on, Lee, right? We kind of find something. But, uh, thanks again for being here.

Leroy Zerlang: My pleasure.

Scott Hammond: All right. Have a great day.

Leroy Zerlang: You too. Thank you.