"Herk" Shriner was born in Eureka, Ca., and spent the first ten years of his life in Arcata. His parents moved to Burnt Ranch, Trinity County, in 1956, where he grew up to graduate from Trinity High School, in Weaverville. He is married to Lois, a girl he knew of in high school, but married two years after graduation. They have one son and three grandchildren. Herk worked 31 years for the local telephone company, retiring in 1997. He opened a construction company after retirement and has been operating a backhoe ever since.
Herk is an accomplished historian of the Gold Rush, but never felt complete until he started researching "the first settlers" in Trinity County, and the Bridge Gulch Massacre. In this volume, Herk brings to life those who died at the hands of the posse on that fateful day, in a passionate way that can only be told by a storyteller of great empathy.
The second volume is "in the works," as Herk takes a long look back into history and the genocide of the Native Americans in California during the years following the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill, an event heard around the world. The last book in the Ruin River Series will be the end of the long journey taken by White Wolf in search of revenge, but more importantly in search of his destiny. Look for volume two, Chil.
Herk's second series of books is called the Marshal Series. The first volume is The Last Chance, the beginning of the story of U.S. Deputy Marshal Chance Bowie, a terminally ill man desperately in search of family to leave his Colorado ranch and estate. Bowie travels to Weaverville, CA. in 1894, the last known address of his father and brother and sister, and runs into a cousin, Sheriff James Bowie, Jr. of Trinity County.
