New Telegraph Line. - Sep. 30, 1886 "Fears are entertained by some of the construction of the new telegraph line by the overland route will not be finished by November 1st, as is contemplated by A. W Finn, superintendent of construction, for the Western Union Telegraph Company. Work is progressing slowly. On the 19th, the construction corps had reached a point one mile this.side of Belle Springs and fourteen miles from Harris. Eureka is living on the pleasing expectancy of having, the coming winter, uninterrupted telegraphic communication with the outside world. If she doesn't get it, there will be disappointment."

Marv Collins, an insulator collector for over forty years now, sent in the above newspaper clipping of a line being built in the 1880's to Eureka, California on the Golden State's northern coastline.

Marv writes, "I'd bet a lot that it used EC&M's (CD 123's). Ferndale is just south of Eureka, and I've had three EC&M's that came from that area."

Although 1886 sounds like a late date for the use of EC&M insulators, other collectors have also told Crown Jewels about EC&M's being found on Redwood trees south of Eureka.

Commenting on an article about CD 260 Californias in the March 2003 issue of Crown Jewels, Marv writes, "The FBI was looking for me and some of those California helmets during the summer of 1964. I am thankful that I was in Greeley, Colorado going to summer school!

"Just for the record, I did not ever recover any insulators from the lumber mill (in Scotia, California). But I managed to buy some of them, including the 1st and 2nd ones removed. That stirred up some activity when the insiders (mill workers) found out what they could get each for them. It also got the company mad!"

According to insulator folklore, the initial discovery of yellow California helmets was at that mill. The insulators were used indoors; were never exposed to solar radiation; and, thus, never turned amethyst.

However, secrecy about the source of the yellow insulators led to suspicion and speculation they had been artificially turned yellow by heating them.

Continuing his story, Marv writes, "None of the helmets were in the public tour part of the mill that I recall, but I do vividly remember what I do recall to be a porcelain "Jumbo". Is there such?"

Mills were an excellent source of insulators thirty years ago. Marv writes that a number of purple California helmets were stealthily removed from a mill in Tacoma, Washington.

Since the individuals are still alive, Crown Jewels will omit their names. But Marv says three collectors entered the mill dressed in Pacific Gas & Electric Company hard hats, tools and climbing gear. Acting as a crew foreman, one of the collectors went to the mill's office and, in Marv's words, "informed them his crew would be changing out all the defective glass and tightening connections for a couple of hours. After rescuing fifty purple helmets, they used up their replacements and left the mill.

"Left behind were some plain old aqua helmets. The men learned later, from another raider, that those insulators were the "narrow groove" or "pinch ear" California helmets. Today, those variants are much rarer than purples."

Thanks, Marv, for sharing some of your favorite stories with CJ subscribers.