Volume XIV Issue 224 | Thursday, June 9th, 2022
From the Files of the Lassen
Historical Society: Helen Sybil Carkin
by Susan Couso

Curiosity may have caused a decline in the world’s feline population, but it has driven the human race to wonder and create and to excel and fail, all to make new achievements in every aspect of our lives.

Those who are blessed with this magical trait are often great achievers, and one of those amazing people was Helen Sybil Carkin.
Helen was born in Washington state in 1917. Her father, Harry, worked as a traveling auditor for the railroad, so the family moved at the discretion of his employer. When Helen was 6 years old, mom Elizabeth provided a baby sister, named Anita Montana.

At this point, they all lived in Billings, Montana. Shortly after, the family migrated to St. Paul, Minnesota, where Helen attended local schools.

As a young girl, Helen stood out. By the time she was in high school in St. Paul, she was a noted speed skater. But Helen had the idea that she should learn as much as she could, about as many things as she could, whenever she could. This was just the beginning.

After graduating Central High, she attended the University of Minnesota where she received a bachelor’s degree in botany, with a ‘minor’ in art. Always, she excelled in art. This led her into an early career as a scientific illustrator, as one of her instructors, Dr. Earnest Abbe noticed her fine laboratory drawings.

Helen continued to work as a scientific illustrator for several years. This was her first career, and her first love.

After graduation from the University of Minnesota, Helen worked for the university doing scientific research and medical research. Her work in the study of the structure of wool fiber has been greatly studied and admired.

She also worked as a lab and X-ray technician. Her illustrations were in great demand, and she did freelance work for medical books and doctor’s research.

When WWII broke out, Helen gave her art career a back seat to the war effort. She secured a position as a civilian employee at Ford Ord in Monterey, California.

Because she was an excellent markswoman and could expertly repair and maintain firearms, and because she had a college degree, Helen was hired as a gunsmith to oversee 30 employees who worked for the government to refurbish small arms to be returned to combat use. Here, Helen invented a machine which could clean one hundred guns per hour, a great boon to the attempt to efficiently get the weapons back into service.

With the war over, Helen turned again to her art, and to teaching. While at university in Minnesota, in 1940, Helen married Richard P. (Esswein) Wagner. But things didn’t work out for the Wagners, and they went their ‘separate ways’. With the marriage to Wagner and the war behind her, Helen settled in California, where she married Arthur A. Ebert.

Helen had always considered her more significant work to be that of artist and teacher, so, in California, she returned to those efforts. While Arthur worked as a machinist and welder, Helen taught art in Monterey, Pacific Grove and Carmel before moving to Reno, Nevada.

In Reno, she completed her master’s degree at the University of Nevada. While there, she worked to create a film highlighting the importance of teaching art to children with mental disabilities. For this work, she was awarded several honorary doctorate degrees.

Helen Ebert continued teaching elementary through college level courses, creating her art, and working for Carson-Tahoe and Washoe Medical Center as a lab and X-ray technician for several years. She was also an expert watchmaker and repairer, something she had done since childhood.

Unfortunately, her marriage to Arthur Ebert fared no better than her marriage to Richard Wagner. On the heels of her divorce, Helen decided to move to Susanville in about 1955.

She taught at Lassen High School and at Lassen College, and she taught night classes for the community. She could also often be found at the college’s gunsmithing department, where she would blue and repair her own guns. She was an expert shot, but due to her love of animals, she aimed her missiles at paper targets only.

But her other careers tugged at her too. She worked as a lab and X-ray technician at Susanville’s Riverside hospital on weekends, and then drove to Reno, where she continued working for Washoe Medical Center, and taught night classes in art at the university. She was one busy woman.

Back in 1942 Richard and Helen Wagner had a son. At the time, they were living at Camp Lewis, Washington. Here, the tale gets a bit confusing. Helen’s son was called Philip Ebert while they lived in Reno and Susanville, but in 1962, he changed it to Richard Philip Wagner. One can only guess the reasoning, but he remained Richard Wagner for the rest of his life.

In 1958, Lassen County lost its busiest woman when Helen and Philip, a high school junior, moved to Chico. At Chico, Helen began her final career, as an artist and educator, teaching at Chico State University.

Helen’s final attempt at marital bliss occurred in 1969, when she married Robert Edwin Freeman, but alas, by 1973, they divorced.

But Helen Carkin emerged from the marriage fully embracing art. She became a prolific author, penning such works as; The Battle of Fort Ord, a memoir of her years there, and several books on the Javanese method of batik, something at which she became an expert.

She also created many films and videos on art instruction. Art was her passion. She finally retired from Chico State University in 1988, but she continued to promote life and beauty through her enthusiasm for art.

Helen Carkin died in 2002, after many years of showing the world just what might be achieved with curiosity propelling us onward.
If you are a fan of our weekly history stories you should join the Lassen County Historical Society!
It’s a fun way to be a part of our county’s rich history. When you sign up, you’ll receive regular Historical Society newsletters with interesting stories and information. Membership is open to anyone with an interest in area history.

Through your membership you help preserve local history. You can download a membership application by clicking here.
Susanville School District Summer Program Offering Two-Meals a Day for Students

All month long the Susanville School District will be offering two free meals a day to any child between the ages of 1 and 18.

Students will receive lunch and a breakfast for the following day.

McKinley School, at 2005 Fourth Street, will also be open Monday through Friday from 11:15a.m. until 11:45a.m. for meal pick up.

Based on USDA meal requirements the child must be present to receive meals. This means that parents will not be able to pick up meals without their children present.

The program will run until July 29th, 2022.
Elks Lodge Holding Flag Day Program on June 14th
Susanville Elks Lodge 1487 will commemorate the Birth of the American Flag on Flag Day, Tuesday, June 14th.

A program at the Lodge will begin at 11:00a.m., with lunch to follow. Everyone is invited to attend this event on the front lawn.

The program will include a history of the flag with flags presented by Boy Scout Troop 159.
The American Legion Thomas Tucker Post No. 204 Honor Guard, will fire three volleys and play Taps to conclude the program.

Then the lunch, prepared by Greg Sella, will be available.
Arts Council Presenting Words and Music This Evening at the Gallery
The Lassen County Arts Council will be presenting an evening of Words and Music this evening, June 9th, featuring Poet Lara Gularte, with readings by Dianna Henning and June Sanders. Jeremy Couso will be the featured musician.

The program will be held at the Arts Council’s Gallery on Cottage Street from 7:00 until 9:00p.m., with free admission.

There will be an open mic, and refreshments offered, along with a literary quiz where prizes are given out for correct answers.
El Dorado County Poet Laureate Lara Gularte who will read from her new book “Fourth World Woman” and from her 2018 “Kissing the Bee.”

Gularte lives and writes in the Sierra Foothills of California, and she is El Dorado County Poet Laureate 2021-2023. Her book of poetry, Fourth World Woman, was recently published by “Finishing Line Press.”

June Sanders enjoys photographing deer, birds, bears, and bobcats that come to the backyard water fountain. The Lassen County Times and Lake Tahoe Ski magazine have published her wildlife and landscape photography.

She likes reading, writing, playing piano, and camping. Her poems have been included in several small press books, including “What the Elephant Said to the Peacock” and “Poems to Keep” by Dempsey and Windle, UK; Eureka!, a tiny Poems-For-All book published by Robert Hansen, San Diego; and in several online publications including Writing in a Woman’s Voice, Your Daily Poem, Verse-Virtual, and One Sentence Poems. A micro-book published by Ethelzine is due out this summer.

Dianna Henning taught through California Poets in the Schools, received several CAC grants for teaching poetry, and taught poetry workshops through the William James Association’s Prison Arts Program, including Folsom Prison. She holds an MFA from Vermont College.

Some of her publications, in part: MacQueen’s Quinterly; Artemis Journal; The Adirondack Review; Memoir Magazine; The Plague Papers, edited by Robbi Nester; Pacific Poetry and New American Writing. 2021 Nomination by The Adirondack Review for a Pushcart Prize.

MFA in Writing ’89 from Vermont College, Montpelier. Her fourth poetry book “Camaraderie of the Marvelous” published by Kelsay Books Sept. 2021. Six-time Pushcart Nominee. Dianna was awarded a fellowship by Eastern Washington University to the Dublin Writers’ Center.

For more information, call the Lassen County Arts Council at 257-5222.
Fire Burns behind Borghi’s Store on Richmond Rd.
Susanville Battles Fire Which Destroys Buildings And Is Menace to Town
Property Burning at City Limits: Large Loss Reported
Ice Company Plant, Store, Restaurant, Fuel Yard and Homes in Ashes
June 09, 1930

One of the most destructive fires to visit Susanville in several years was raging this afternoon just at the edge of the city limits and a large force of men including the firefighting equipment of the Lassen Lumber & Box Company was trying at two o’clock to check the flames.

Because the fire was outside the city limits, the Susanville fire department did not respond to the alarm.

At two o’clock, the Union Ice company’s plant, the Borghi grocery store, the China restaurant, the lumber yard owned by the late Paul Quigley, the Quigley apartment house with all its contents, the Red River Lumber Company’s sub-station and two dwelling houses, had been destroyed.

The office equipment of Quigley’s lumber company was saved but all the remaining contents of the apartment house in which the office was located was burned.

At two o’clock the fire was confined to a two-story building and if that is saved then it would be expected the fire would be checked on its advance towards the town of Susanville. All the property destroyed is on the Richmond road south of Susanville.

The fire started in a small shed in the rear of the Borghi store. No water was available to fight it and it spread rapidly.

The two houses burned included the Staup residence and the Dr. Cooley residence.
If you are a fan of our daily history stories you should join the Lassen Historical Society! It's a fun way to be a part of our county's rich history. When you sign up you'll receive regular Historical Society newsletters with interesting stories and information. Membership is open to anyone with an interest in area history.

Through your membership you help preserve local history. You can download a membership application by clicking here.
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