Description
Lynwood ("Links") Carranco (April 2, 1921–July 1, 1987) was born in Samoa, California, a company town owned by Hammond Lumber,
and worked in the mills as a young man. He became a teacher, historian and meticulous researcher, writing on the history of
his native Humboldt County and northwestern California, especially logging history. His papers reflect the subject matter
of his historical writings. For an introductory guide to the content of Carranco's papers, see the two bibliographies of his
published works.
Background
Lynwood ("Links") Carranco (April 2, 1921–July 1, 1987) was born in Samoa, California, a company town owned by Hammond Lumber,
and worked in the mills as a young man. He served as a radio operator in the U.S. Naval Air Corps during World War II, returning
to Humboldt County to complete his BA (Education and Secondary teaching credential) at Humboldt State College in 1948. Carranco
attended Teachers College, Columbia University, receiving both his MA (English) in 1951 and encouragement from Professor Allen
Walker Read to continue for a PhD, with a dissertation topic exploring the history of men and mills and logger lingo in the
redwood country. This dissertation, with the title The Redwood Country: A History of Logging and Logger Language, was finally
completed in 1973, after combined graduate work at University of Southern California (1959-1964), Ball State University (1967-1969),
and Laurence University in Sarasota, Florida (1972-1973); circumstances had prevented Carranco from returning to Columbia.
Although there is not a copy of the dissertation in this collection, it is clear that it was integrally related to many of
his publications.
Carranco taught English at Arcata High School (1951-1956), and then at Humboldt State College (1956-1964; leave without pay
1959-1960), before becoming head of the English Department at the newly established College of the Redwoods in 1964. At College
of the Redwoods he also taught a local history course, History 13, for a number of terms. By 1975, when Carranco became president
of the Humboldt County Historical Society, he had published The Redwood Country: History, Language, Folklore (1971), a compilation
of articles he had previously published in scholarly journals, as well as Logging the Redwoods with co-author John T. Labbe
(1975). The next period saw the publication of a number of articles in Humboldt Historian, reflecting Carranco's heavy involvement
with its parent organization, the Humboldt County Historical Society. Genocide and Vendetta: The Round Valley Wars of Northern
California, by Carranco and Estle Beard, his Mendocino County friend and collaborator, appeared from University of Oklahoma
Press in 1981; the earlier, working title of the manuscript was Yolla Bolly Country. Two more books, Redwood Lumber Industry
(1982) and the commissioned College of the Redwoods: The First Nineteen Years (1985), followed, as well as a second edition
of The Redwood Country (1986) that included several of his more recently published scholarly articles.
Carranco was diagnosed with cancer in 1986 and he died on July 1, 1987. He had retired from teaching in 1982 in order to pursue
his historical writing and publishing. Steam in the Redwoods, in collaboration with Henry Sorensen, was close to completion
and he and John Labbe were continuing to work on Logger's Lexicon. He had been working on a major book on Lumber Barons, focusing
on Vance, Hammond and Merlo; he also had a long-standing interest in publishing a book on ships and shipping in northwestern
California as well as an updated work on Samoa, the town of his childhood. Further, he had been compiling notes for some form
of writing about his father's time spent with Pancho Villa in Mexico.