Lynwood Carranco Papers

Title: Lynwood Carranco Papers

Dates: 1850s-2006

Collection Number: 2013.02

Creator/Collector: Lynwood Carranco Ruth (Carranco) Cox

Extent: 10.5 cubic feet (11 boxes)

Repository: Humboldt State University Library

Abstract: 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.

Language of Material: English

Processed materials are available by appointment

Copyright has not been assigned to Humboldt State University. To obtain permission to publish or reproduce in any format please contact the Special Collections Librarian.

Lynwood Carranco Papers. Humboldt State University Library

Collection received from Jack Irvine in 2013. Prior to that, in 2007, one box of Carranco materials had been deaccessioned from the American Heritage Center (University of Wyoming) to the HSU Library Special Collections who in May 2012 further transferred it to Jack Irvine to keep all the known Carranco materials together. In 2013, he compiled the papers, integrating the Wyoming segment, and gifted it to HSU.

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.

Carranco was a historian and a writer. His papers reflect the subject matter of his historical writings, primarily the history of Humboldt County and northwestern California with emphasis on logging and lumbering in redwood country. For an introductory guide to the content of Carranco’s papers, see the two bibliographies of his published works, one including articles published in the local history magazine, Humboldt Historian, and the other including all other publications. Of particular note are the publisher correspondence files for the major publications and the correspondence with John T. Labbe, Carranco's co-author on Logging the Redwoods and Logger's Lexicon. Labbe died in 2001 and his papers are located at the Oregon Historical Society.