By John Wilkens, San Diego Union Tribune, June 23, 2023 In a new biography, author Casey Gauntt tells the story of a self-made construction giant who got his start on dams at Lake Hodges and Lake Henshaw in San Diego.  When Lake Hodges opened last month after a year of repairs on its century-old dam, […]

APPENDIX Acknowledgments and Credits The columns and articles penned by these journalists and writers were invaluable in uncovering the full, unvarnished, and rich story of the life and career of Harvey Slocum. The author owes them a huge debt of gratitude. Hubert Cornelius “Hu” Blonk was born in Holland in 1909 and came to the […]

FOLSOM DAM, LURE OF BHAKRA AND MATTERS OF MONEY At the time of Herndon’s visit to Bull Shoals Dam, construction was nearly complete, and Slocum was being lobbied to take on several projects. One of them was the Folsom Dam in Folsom, California. Near the site of the prison, made famous by Johnny Cash’s hit, […]

THE LONG ROAD TO RECOVERY After losing out on the high dam job, Harvey returned to his home in Alhambra to battle his demons. Over the next year and a half, Harvey was in and out of a sanatorium—what we’d call today a rehab facility— on five different occasions as he battled alcoholism. As Herndon […]

Spreading His Wings and Struggling with Demons San Gabriel Dam Toward the end of 1928, Slocum was hired by Fisher, Ross, McDonald and Kalm as general superintendent to oversee construction of the San Gabriel Dam for the Los Angeles County Flood Control District. As designed, the $25,000,000, 512-foot-high, 2,500-foot-long concrete arch dam would have been, […]

Mankind is the most ornery critter in the world. He comes to a mountain, and he says, ‘You can’t stop me,’ and he drives a tunnel through it. He comes to a deep gorge, and he says, ‘I’ll step over you,’ and he throws a bridge over it. He comes to a great, ugly river, […]

Don’t miss out on the best Summit of 2023 – “Live Your Most Evolved Life!” hosted by the amazing Irene Weinberg of the Grief and Rebirth Podcast. AND IT’S FREE Each day, this FREE SUMMIT will celebrate a unique theme intended to help you heal, evolve, and transform at this exact time in your life […]

I’m a member of one of those Facebook groups, “You know you’re from______when,” and in my case it’s the Chicago suburb of Itasca.  Recently we’ve been sharing photos and comments about our favorite, and least favorite, elementary school teachers.  My junior high science teacher, Mrs. Wolf, was far and away my favorite teacher who instilled […]

I recently had the honor and privilege to once again be a guest on Jane Asher’s wonderful podcast, The Next Room.  We talked about my new book, THE GAUNTT-CASE CLANS-The Stories, The Legend and the Lore.  I was on Jane’s show in August of 2021 and we talked about our first book, Suffering Is the Only Honest […]

We’ve been watching on Paramount + the new TV Series 1883. For those not familiar with it, it’s a prequel to “Yellowstone,” that stars Kevin Costner as present day, big-time Montana rancher John Dutton.   1883 follows John/Kevin’s great-grandparents, James and Margaret Dutton (played by real life couple Faith Hill and Tim McGraw) as they flee […]