The Photograph That Revealed a Chair Above Water
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The Photograph That Revealed a Chair Above Water
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The Photograph That Revealed a Chair Above Water
In this episode, we follow the moment a photograph captures a small wooden chair sitting dry above a submerged lock gate and the unfolding puzzle that draws locals and experts to Sutter's Bend. What does the image expose about the lock house, the river, and a recurring fourteen‑point‑two‑foot measurement?
Person: Donald Erickson
Date: March 4, 2011
Location: Lock No. Seven, Sutter's Bend, Caldwell River, Merritt County
Person: Lauren Farrell
Measurement: 14.2 feet
- At 7:22 a.m. Donald Erickson paused on the towpath and photographed a small wooden child’s chair dry above the lower gate of Lock No. Seven.
- Lock No. Seven had been decommissioned in 1953 and its lower gate had remained submerged while the county kept the lock house on a heritage register.
- Lauren Farrell, a thirty‑eight‑year‑old civil engineer, began caretaking the lock house in January 2011, living there weekdays with her diabetic greyhound Soot.
- The lock house contains physical records: water stains and a mark on the lower hallway wall measured exactly 14.2 feet above the chamber floor, tied to a 1971 flood when the gate failed.
- On March 9 Lauren noted the river gauge at 14.1 feet after Soot froze at the lower hallway threshold-an ordinary reading that later gained significance alongside the photograph.
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