Jerry Crew

25 Aug 2014

Fifty six years ago today a road building crew returned from their weekend off to find something unusual. Ray Wallace’s road crew was building road in the vicinity of Bluff Creek, CA in Humboldt County when this happened. On arrival, the crew found a trackway that came off a very steep, 75%+ side grade onto the new, fresh soil of the roadway… around the Cat of the lead catskinner, Jerry Crew and, eventually led down the road to exit into the brush on the downhill side.  The tracks in this trail were very large… like eighteen inches in length and very wide in relationship to the length.  Mr. Crew called in Andrew Genzoli, editor of the Humboldt Times newspaper in Eureka, CA to chronicle the events. Mr. Genzoli’s story went out on the wire service and was picked up across the country and reprinted, including in the Press Democrat, the paper in the home area of a 15 year old boy with vivid imagination and a father who delighted in triggering it… Casts were made of the trackway and an internationally known paleontologist became interested and, after visiting the site and conducting his own investigation, wrote an article for both “True” magazine and “Argosy” magazine. Both of which this 15 year old youth devoured voraciously. I thank Jerry Crew for being the catalyst that feed a 56 year old passion for this wonderful being… All naysayers to the contrary notwithstanding, it’s been a wonderful ride even though it must end soon, I shall never regret it…
Thom Cantrall
25 August, 1958 to 25 August, 2014