The dry lake beds found throughout Death Valley, called playas, are known for the mystery of its moving rocks. The large rocks, some buried several inches in the lake bed, have left a trail of their movement hundreds of feet long revealing the turns the rocks made. There are no footprints around the rocks to […]

My historical novel, Great Lakes Skipper, is based on the life of my great, great, great, grandfather, Ebenezer Fletcher Stark, who became one of the early settlers of a region south of Lake Erie known as the Western Reserve. Back in 1620, after the establishment of the colonies in North America, the English Crown formed […]

Irving Glick was the creation of my favorite Commanding Officer, Commander John Orrill. CDR Orrill used this fictional character to illustrate his squadron briefings. “Lt Irving might screw up and do this …” or, “I hope you don’t make a mistake like Lt. Glick.” Soon others in the squadron adopted Irving as their own. His […]

  My great, great, great grandfather, Ebenezer Fletcher Stark, was the subject of my historical novel, Great Lakes Skipper. Eben died a hero when saving sailors following a shipwreck. He had three sons, Henry, Lewis, and James. The middle son, Lewis remained in Cleveland his entire life, managing the extensive property left to him by […]

The year 1832 was tumultuous for Capt. Ebenezer Stark. The worldwide Cholera epidemic had killed millions in China and Europe and found its way across the oceans killing thousands more in New York and New Orleans. Cholera stole across the Great Lakes on ships and ravaged the Western Reserve. An early Cleveland settler’s book placed […]