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The public is invited to the Tehama County Mu- seum in Tehama at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 21 for a spe- cial presentation about his- tory, design and construc- tion of the stagecoach by Lee Dummel, Old West his- torian, a member of Trails West and the Oregon-Cali- fornia Trails Association. It is a free admission, but donations are gratefully ap- preciated by the museum. There will be cameo ap- pearances by such famous drivers as Amy Morrison, Bull Meek, and the "Buck- skin Lady." Unfortunately, they didn't mention Charles Parkhurst, who had come west from New England in 1852 seeking his fortune in the Gold Rush. He spent 15 years running stages, some- times partnering with Hank Monk, the celebrated driver from Carson City. Over the years, Parkhurst's reputa- tion as an expert whip grew. From 20 feet away he could slice open the end of an envelope or cut a ci- gar out of A man's mouth. Parkhurst smoked cigars, chewed wads of tobacco, drank with the best of them, and exuded supreme confidence behind the reins. His judgment was sound and pleasant manners won him many friends. One afternoon as Char- ley drove down from Carson Pass the lead horses veered off the road and a wrench- ing jolt threw him from the rig. He hung on to the reins as the horses dragged him along on his stomach. Amazingly, Parkhurst man- aged to steer the frightened horses back onto the road and save all his grateful passengers. During the 1850s, bands of surly highwaymen stalked the roads. These outlaws would level their shotguns at stage drivers andshout,"Throwdownthe gold box!" Parkhurst had no patience for the crooks de- spite their demands and threatening gestures. The most notorious road agent was nicknamed Sugarfoot. When he and his gang ac- costed Charley's stage, it was the last robbery the thief ever attempted. Char- ley cracked his whip defi- antly, and when his horses bolted, he turned around and fired his revolver at the crooks. Sugarfoot was later found dead with a fatal bul- let wound in his stomach. In appreciation of his bravery, Wells Fargo pre- sented Parkhurst with a large watch and chain made of solid gold. In 1865, Parkhurst grew tired of the demanding job of driv- ing and he opened his own stage station. He later sold the business and retired to a ranch near Soquel. The years slipped by, and Char- ley died on Dec. 29, 1879, at the age of 67. A few days later, the Sac- ramento Daily Bee pub- lished his obituary. It read: "On Sunday last, there died a person known as Charley Parkhurst, aged 67, who was well-known to old res- idents as a stage driver. He was in early days accounted one of the most expert ma- nipulators of the reins who ever sat on the box of a coach. It was discovered when friendly hands were preparing him for his final rest, that Charley Parkhurst was unmistakably a well- developed woman." Once it was discovered that Charley was a woman, there were plenty of peo- ple to say they had always thought he wasn't like other men. Even though he wore leather gloves summer and winter, many noticed that his hands were small and smooth. He slept in the sta- bles with his beloved horses and was never known to have had a girlfriend. Charley never volun- teered clues to her past. Loose fitting clothing hid her femininity and after a horse kicked her, an eye patch over one eye helped conceal her face. She weighed 175 pounds, could handle herself in a fist fight and drank whiskey like one of the boys. It turns out that Charley's real name was Charlotte Parkhurst. Abandoned as a child, she was raised in a New Hampshire orphanage unloved and surrounded by poverty. Charlotte ran away when she was 15 years old and soon discovered that life in the working world was easier for men. So she decided to masquerade as one for the rest of her life. The rest is history. Well, almost. There is one last thing. On November 3, 1868, Charlotte Parkhurst cast her vote in the national election, dressed as a man. She became the first woman to vote in the United States, 52 years before Congress passed the 19th amendment giving American women the right to vote. Charley is buried in the Watsonville Cemetery. It should be an interest- ing afternoon at Tehama County Museum. The information about Charley is from a friend, and she didn't source who wrote the fascinating story of an early stage coach driver. BeefCarcassContest The Tehama District Jr. Livestock Committee presented the Beef Car- cass Contest winners with cash awards donated by Red Bluff Bull & Gelding Sale, Tehama County Cat- tlemen, Tri County Bank, Keith Ellis, Bub Ragan, Ac- cent Properties, Tyler Mar- tinez and Mike Collins at the November meeting. California Beef Cattle Im- provement Association pre- sented Gold and Carcass of Merit certificates to the owners of steers with a hot carcass weight between 600 and 950 lbs.; Choice minus or higher, and Yield Grade (YG) 3 or less. Only one Gold certifi- cate was given this year, and Kayla McGiffin, Red Bluff FFA had a steer with hot carcass weight between 650 and 900 lbs.; Choice or higher, and Yield Grade 2.5 or less. She received a check for $700, and Tehama Co. CattleWomen presented her with a silver buckle and $100. Her steer was 855 lbs.; Choice +, and Yield Grade 1.39. 2nd place, Merit certifi- cate, $400 to Chase Wimer, Corning FFA with 754 lbs, Choice, and 2.65 YG. 3rd place,Meritcertificate,$300 to Melissa Stroing, Westside 4-H with 820 lbs., Choice, 2.81 YG. 4th place, Merit cer- tificate, $200 to Libby Merk- ley, Flournoy/Paskenta 4-H with 864 lbs., Choice, 2.98 YG. 5th place, $100 to Shad Hiller, Flournoy/Paskenta 4-H with 820 lbs., Choice +, and 4.15 YG. Also receiving Carcass of Merit Certificates were: Sage Flournoy, Flournoy/ Paskenta 4-H; Carson Loewen, Red Bluff FFA; Yasmeen Ali, Corning FFA; Marlee Meadows, Red Bluff FFA;AustinFlood,Bowman 4-H; Jacey Pray, Antelope 4-H; Liam Brown, Westside 4-H; Kirsten Exum, Red Bluff FFA; Chelsea Hard- wick, Corning FFA. Of the 47 steers, there were 2 Choice+, 5 Choice, 18 Choice minus, 14 Select +, 8 Select minus as graded by the USDA grader at the packing house. The Rate of Gain winners each received $100. Steer was Liam Brown, Westside 4-H, 4.11 lbs. a day; Swine was Michael Moore, Corn- ing FFA, 2.234 lbs. a day; Market Goats was Saman- tha Serrano, Independent, 0.57 lbs. per day; Lambs was Alison Drury, Antelope 4-H, 0.75 per day. The Helping Hand Award of plaque and $100 was pre- sented to James France, El Camino 4-H. Many years ago this award was known as the Jack Jones Memo- rial Award, in honor of the years he was Barn Superin- tendent during the fair. JeanBartonhasbeen writing her column in the Daily News since the early 1990s. She can be reached by e-mail at jbarton2013@ gmail.com. JEANBARTON ThestoryofCharleyParkhurst COURTESYPHOTO Tehama County Farm Advisor Josh Davy prepared the Carcass Contest Results and explained what each category meant to exhibitors and parents at the TDJLAC meeting. Pictured are the top five winners Kayla McGiffin, Melissa Stroing, Libby Merkley and Shad Hiller. Not present was Chase Wimer. By David Pitt The Associated Press WAUKON, IOWA Alert and curious, hundreds of hens with bright red crowns and faces strolled out of a large chicken house mid- morning into the fresh air and a fenced pasture amid rolling fields of alfalfa, clo- ver, corn and soybeans. They cluck and coo, peck and scratch at the ground. "They're obviously much more comfortable with- out cages," Iowa organic farmer Francis Blake said of his flock of 5,000 hens, which live a cage-free life. This existence, by all appearances a chicken nirvana, is what animal rights groups have sought for years and increasingly what consumers want. Al- ready, large chains like Mc- Donald's,Starbucks,Costco, and, most recently, Panera Bread have begun requir- ingsupplierstogocage-free over the next decade. The $10 billion egg in- dustry in care of 270 mil- lion hens that lay eggs for food is in the process of fig- uring out how to overhaul a deeply entrenched, profit- able model of raising chick- ensincagessmallerthanan 8 ½-by-11-inch sheet of pa- per, despite decades of suc- cessful growth. Yet, it's not completelyclearwhat'sbest for the chickens themselves — animals that, when un- caged but still cooped up, canbeaggressiveandsome- times prone to cannibalism or injuring themselves. It's one of the largest- scale examples of agribusi- ness adapting to consum- ers' growing sensitivities andanxietiesoverhowtheir food is treated before it is on their plates and in their stomachs, following other modifications like the dairy industry ending the prac- tice of removing calves' and cows' tails and some states banning restrictive gesta- tion crates for female pigs. "The change is humon- gous," said Marcus Rust, CEO of Rose Acre Farms, the nation's second-largest egg producer that's build- ing all of its new barns to be cage-free. "When it comes to pure percep- tion you're never going to convince the general pub- lic that we shouldn't treat our chickens the same way they treat their pets." Cage-free doesn't always equate to problem-free liv- ing for chickens, research has shown, and it doesn't mean free-range. In con- trast with federal organic regulations that say cage- free chickens must have outdoor access, commer- cial cage-free operations keep thousands of hens inside a barn with no out- door access, which can lead to a death match when chickens try to fly and smash into either one another or barn fixtures. Plus, farmers get up to 10 percent fewer eggs and sig- nificantly higher produc- tion costs when the hens are freed of the cages. No matter, the top U.S. egg suppliers — Rose Acre Farms, Mississippi-based Cal-Maine Foods and Iowa-based Rembrandt Foods — are gradually moving to cage-free equip- ment over the next decade or so, replacing equipment as it wears out or building new barns. The official egg industry position is that a variety of chicken-housing systems willbeusedsothatconsum- ers have choice of the type of eggs they want to buy, be it cage-free and organic eggs that can cost around $4adozenoradozencaged eggs for about $2. AGRICULTURE By Michael Hill The Associated Press NEW PALTZ, N.Y. Hauling feed, herding pigs, long hours. Farming is hard. And 25-year-old Leanna Mulvihill loves it. Young farmers like Mulvi- hill are bright green shoots in a field full of old growth. Farmers, on average, are getting older, and millenni- als eager to get their finger- nails dirty on sustainable farms are welcome. "You're not going into farming when you're a young person now if you're not idealistic," Mulvihillsaid from the bed of a pickup she had loaded with hay. "It's definitely an uphill battle." The average age of U.S. farmers has been climbing for decades and is now 58. A large concern is that the number of farmers past typ- ical retirement age is grow- ing faster than those under age 35, meaning the pipe- line could be emptying faster than it's filling up. Organic farmers tend to be younger— 53 years old in the latest agricultural cen- sus. There is no hard count on the number of young farmers coming into the field who are either certified organic by the government or simply follow sustainable practices, like Mulvihill. But there is broad anec- dotal evidence that young farmers with an interest in growing healthy, local food are helping keep farmland in production. "They tend to be very in- terested in local, they tend to be very interested in or- ganic as the future path they wanttotravelon,"saidKath- leen Merrigan, who trav- eled extensively when she was deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Agricul- ture."Theytendtobecollege graduates, and from a whole lot of different disciplines." Mulvihill, for instance, was studying environmen- tal engineering in college when she decided farming was a better fit. In her new venture, Four Legs Farm, she raises pigs and lambs for meat shares. Merrigan, who now runs the sustainability program at George Washington Uni- versity, said while there are many young people who want to get into farming, the hard part for many of them is being able to stay in business, given steep costs of land and equipment. Organic farms can actu- ally provide a quicker route to profits because farm- ers can fetch higher prices. Premiums paid to organic farmers can range 29 to 32 percent above conventional prices, according to a study published this summer by Washington State Univer- sity researchers. That means an organic farmer can make a living on fewer acres. AGRICULTURE Young farmers help keep land in production CHARLIE NEIBERGALL — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Cage-free chickens stand in a fenced pasture on the Francis Blake organic farm, near Waukon, Iowa. Consumers behind accelerated shi to cage-free eggs in US MIKE GROLL — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Leanna Mulvihill poses at the Hudson Valley Farm Business Incubator in New Paltz, N.Y. The incubator provides young farmers like Mulvihill with guidance, farm equipment and below-market rents for three years to help them get on their feet. Smog Check (MOST CARS & PICK-UPS) 527-9841 • 195 S. 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