A couple of the pictures show some hills that look like the west end of Oahu. You need to remember that this whole little mountain range sits in the middle of the northern end of the Central Valley.

Some call it the Yuba City Buttes, but I think the official name is Sutter Buttes. It is absolutely stunning. Rising up out of the flat plain is this little range of mountains. Well, it is really an extinct volcano that they think last erupted 1.4 million years ago. Local folks also like to say it is the world’s smallest mountain range. It might be.

What can I say? I just had to send this along and let all y’all know that our part of California isn’t the only place with weird rocks and canyons. We don’t have the corner on the neat places in the great state of California. I’m just happy the movie studios haven’t discovered this place yet.

From the road I traveled, I could see the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the east, snow-capped in regal majesty. The mountain range to the north with Mount Lassen and possibly Mount Shasta were also in view. But here I was in the middle of these small mountains that seemed so blessed to have found a spot in the great valley of California.

Cattle were grazing or lying in the warm sunshine. Rock walls and some inexplicable rows of rocks the size of a small compact car defined the hillsides as something to explore another day.

And the hills were green. Vibrant green, like the hills in Ireland or Scotland and yes, Hawaii. I thought for a short time I was in those places again. It was such a sense of comfort to know that my creator did such an awesome job for my eyes to feast upon.

Since this has turned into a travel blog, I have to tell you about a museum I visited on Sunday last. It is on Mare Island in the former Naval Shipyard there. What a wonderful place with so many memories of good times and bad while stationed there.

Not everyone gets a chance to be so old they can chance upon a museum exhibit that features the work they did many years before. That is what I found on Sunday.

Once I was in charge of a little ship and gathered for it a great crew of individuals to modernize and serve on it. This crew was quite adept, as the story goes, at “finding a snowball in the Sahara and convincing a passing camel caravan to pay for the honor of transporting the snowball back to the little ship.” They gathered together parts and pieces from old ships and submarines, forgotten warehouses and yes, even once found a complete, nearly new fire engine.

Pacific Escort

For those of you who saw the movie “Operation Petticoat,” you have to remember the “supply” officer, played by Tony Curtis, who could obtain almost any part or piece needed by the submarine USS Tigerfish (a fictional boat). Imagine a crew of eight of those characters on a real ship with a real job of preparing it to go to sea and escort nuclear submarines during diving, propulsion, electronic and sonar testing following a long overhaul.

It was a requirement that all subs be escorted after overhaul, and instead of using an expensive ship, I was tasked with finding, outfitting and operating an escort and test ship for the Navy.

So there I was in the Mare Island museum, located in the old pipe shop, and what do I see but a model of Research Vessel Pacific Escort 143WB8401. Also there is a description of the little ship that tells the story.

Yep, my ship and name are in that museum. A ship I added to the Navy without congressional approval. It saved the Navy, in fuel and labor costs, about $4 million for each year it served. I can only guess what it would have cost had Congress approved it or, for that matter, even known of it.

If you look at the picture, it even mentions the name of our valley’s own oil field boom town, Mentryville.

I’m proud of what I did in getting that ship but even more proud of the men who actually turned the wrenches and put it to sea.

For all those who think my generation can’t recycle and reuse, just look at what a bunch of old guys did on that little piece of land in northeast San Francisco Bay. We put together a ship which, in the course of its modern service, saved at least $28 million and cost only $585,000 to get ready.

As the story says in the museum, posted next to the model ship, I was schooled in Mentryville…

Darryl Manzer grew up in the Pico Canyon oil town of Mentryville in the 1960s and attended Hart High School. After a career in the U.S. Navy he returned to live in the Santa Clarita Valley. He can be reached at dmanzer@scvhistory.com. His older commentaries are archived at DManzer.com; his newer commentaries can be accessed [here]. Watch his walking tour of Mentryville [here].