Vintage News Articles & Finds

[billycw]

Half-way rock, on Road (now Michigan ave) half-way between the campus of Michigan Agricultural College to Lansing, Michigan early 1900's


Roshambo

A loved ol' time smoke spot seems to have answered the eternal question fought over for centuries...

Many a argument has been settled and started in a good ol' game of 'rock paper scissors'...

None as big as the controversy that surrounds just how in the hell paper beats rock?...

Half-way rock, Michigan early 1900's



Before the turn of the century, the journey between the city of Lansing and the campus of the Michigan Agricultural College was a brutal walk down a long usually muddy dirt path.

Halfway down the dusty road there was a resting spot, one enjoyed at great length by many a tired traveler. A large bolder that became known as the "Half-way Rock" being well, half-way.

The original half-way stone sat right where the modern day eastbound lanes of Michigan Avenue meet Kipling Boulevard.

A sanctuary to sit and rest, the stone became a hangout spot to weary souls traveling the road to recharge but also something much more... An answer...

Half-way stone, Michigan early 1900's


Sometime in the 1800's, a traveler eating a snack of cherries on top of the rock, dropped a single seed down a crevice in the middle of the half-way stone.

A determined cherry tree sprouted from the tiny crack taking root underneath the mighty bolder.

The little cherry tree eventually showed natures power splitting the massive stone in half.

Forever answering the question for all those defeated warriors, paper indeed beats rock...

Half-way stone on the lawn of the Union Building on the Michigan Agricultural College campus


In 1924 Half-way rock made way to modern building during a widening of Michigan Ave. The largest piece was saved and moved on the front lawn of M.A.C's Union Memorial Building.

A cherry tree was planted next to the new resting stone for all to remember the tale of when paper beat rock...


"When half the toilsome way was passed, we rested by the stone
Within whose cleft a cherry pit had taken root and grown;
The cleft was not so very wide; just half an inch or so;
The little tree scarce touched its side some forty years ago."

by Frank Hodgman, in a 1898 poem about Half-way Rock

Half-way stone plaque on the lawn of the Union Building on the Michigan Agricultural College campus

 

[billycw]

"Cannabis sativa "ganja", smoked by Uralis, Penyan Lake, Travancore, Kerala; March 9, 1934"

"Gift from Miss Hazel Bartlett, 1961." Tag attached reads: "Cannabis sativa "ganja", smoked by Uralis, Penyan Lake, Travancore; March 9, 1934, E.W. Erlanson." Probably refers to Eileen W. Erlanson, University of Michigan Ann Arbor Botanical Gardens. Harley Bartlett probably knew Ms. Erlanson through his work as a professor of botany at the University of Michigan.

 

[billycw]

Three mandarin farmers from the area around Hinnen, China 1902


"To the right and left, fields of hemp"

The new motorable road from Hinnen to Thai-lyung-then. To the right and left, fields of hemp. China - before 1932

The merchants of Hinnen fasting and praying in the temple of their patron deity. Xingning, China - between 1913-1929

 

[geneva_sativa]

Ma, the heavenly hemp !

 

[billycw]

Capital journal,
December 22, 1921
Article: Wage Campaign on "Indian Hemp"



"State laws provide heavy penalties for persons convicted of propagating "Indian hemp."" Colorado, 1921



Added style points for the Perfectly Baked... I mean Placed ad.


Capital journal, December 22, 1921

 

[billycw]

School of Adriaen Brouwer, Smokers in a tavern, 1630-40

 

[billycw]

Balinese weaver, 1930s

 

[billycw]

"We underestimated the entrepreneurial spirit of certain members of the community"

Park Ranger Tim Setnicka

Dirtbags -Westbay, Briwell and Long after the first one-day ascent of the Nose, El Cap, Yosemite, CA 1975



The Dirtbags of Dope Lake

An outlaw group of climbers living of the grid on the edge of society, couldn't have wished for anything more spectacular then the sheer faced cliffs looming over camp.

That is until the day Cannabis fell from the sky...

John Glisky, right, pictured in Vietnam where he flew helicopters during the war


During the 1970's a group out of DC calling themselves 'Mota Magic' had a plan to fly cannabis from Mexico to DC. This would need to be done skimming the ground under the cover of darkness to avoid detection...

A ballsy flight would take a crazy pilot, John Glisky was such a man. Having flown helicopters in the Vietnam war under fire, a midnight flight skimming the mountain cliffs of America seemed like a cakewalk.

In December 1976, Glisky flew his 'Howard 500' plane into Mexico landing in Baja California on a makeshift runway. A crew quickly refueled the plane while loading at least 6,000 pounds (some say 10,000) of the popular sticky 'Mexican Redhair' variety...

The Mexican Redhair was bundled in 40 pound burlap bales with a shrink wrap interior. As a joke, some of the obvious cannabis bales were labeled 'frijol', spanish for 'bean', written with a black marker. (Some of the dirtbags report the writting of 'quaalude' on some bales as well.)

Flying in the darkness, Glisky hugged the treeline or the Sierra range pulling up to miss the sharp cliffs of Yosemite.

On this pass in December 1976, the cliffs of Yosemite proved too much, ripping the plane from the sky around 'Lower Merced Pass Lake' deep in Yosemite backcountry...

Yosemite Ranger sign posted on Merced lake raid


"It became a recovery of drudgery because we used chainsaws to cut out these bales of marijuana, which were frozen," remembers Setnicka. "They're heavy, they're broken apart, they're wet. The chainsaws were cutting ice, you know, so the chainsaw blades don't last long. The most obvious ones we cut out, and then we had to fly this marijuana back."

-Yosemite Park Ranger Lee Shackelton

The Yosemite Park Rangers first responded with U.S Customs and the DEA to help recover the contents of the unknown plane.

For over a week, agents of multiple agencies wrestled wet weed from the ice to be airlifted out. The cannabis collected soon filled the Yosemite jail with over 2,000 pounds being salvaged in the initial cleanup effort...

A January winter storm shutdown the recovery operation until a spring salvage mission could be planed...

Yosemite Rangers, Customs agents and the Dea cleanup the "Loadestar crash site" Lower Merced Pass Lake 1977


To get to the frozen cannabis bales left at the crash site seemed impossible to the Rangers... Impossible for all but those already living on the edge...

The outlaw group of climbers that inhibited the makeshift camp 4 in Yosemite valley was such a group... Everyday they risked everything hanging from the massive cliffs that dominated the backdrop of camp.

The group of climbers that lived at Camp 4 were known as 'Valley Rats' or the 'Dirtbags'. They lived outside of society, living in a camp city of tents and shelters always preparing for ascent up the sheer faces above...

When a girlfriend of one of the climbers told them of the crash heard over the ranger radio, the Dirtbags wasted no time...

A friend of Ron Lykins' the day they discovered the plane, in 1977

 

[billycw]

'The Dirtbags of Dope Lake' continued...

The Dirtbags of Camp 4 digging out cannabis bales from Lower Merced Pass Lake 1977


With tales of cannabis raining from the sky, the Dirtbags suited up...

Packing light the group set off further into the white back country to find the crash site. Coming upon Lower Merced Pass Lake, they hit the jackpot!

Ron Lykins, shirtless, and friends holding bales of dope they hauled up from the lake. 1977


"We were pretty scared. We got the hell out of there, just carried it out wet... It was wrapped with, like, three layers of plastic, but the buds were soaking wet. Some parts were more exposed to the airplane fuel than others."

-Chuck Strader


Dawning shovels, picks, axes and chainsaws, the outlaw Dirtbags dug through feet of ice to score cannabis from the sky...

The cannabis recovered had a added smell, airplane fuel had seeped into some of the bales.

The resulting herb would sometimes spark and pop when lit while smelling of fuel giving way to the nickname of 'airplane' or 'crash buds'.

The trek out was nearly impassable. Weighed down now by backpacks full of wet herb. The water seeped from their backs forming icicles numbing the body...

"We didn't have a headlamp, so I was feeling the trail with my feet." -Chuck Strader

Dirtbag with pick sitting next to a pile of the 'airplane' cannabis 1977


"By all reports it was like ants scattering,... The people up there had created this infrastructure kind of like the Vietcong put in some areas of Vietnam — makeshift housing and tents, fire pits, all sorts of tarps. They picked up digging equipment wherever they could. It was really caveman technology."

- Yosemite Ranger Tim Setnicka


With the arrival of spring, the Rangers again made there ascent to the lake. This time armed Rangers flying in a Huey helicopter lead the mission after reports of climbers mining the site for the remaining cannabis...

Only 2 of many 'dirtbags' on scene were arrested, but both later had the cased dropped in court over a due process violation...

No one was ever convicted for their involvement in Dope Lake...

Bale of Mexican Redhair at Lower Merced Pass Lake 1977


“Nobody knew how much money anyone made on the Lodestar crash, But I know a few world-famous climbers who supposedly lived for more than a decade off that money. Duffle bags full of good weed"

- Dirtbag Hoffmeister



The sales of this "airplane" herb went on to fund the Dirtbags party well into the 80's.

Ron Lykins would fund his college education paying his college tutition with the 'airplane' loot...

Vern Clevenger bought his first Nikon camera with the lake take, later becoming a acclaimed nature photographer enjoyed by thousands...

Even the famous climber John Bachar is rumored to have started his climbing gear company with the stash from Merced Lake...

Bachar posted a challenge note to the world in 1981 promising a "$10,000 reward for anyone who can follow me for one full day" climbing...

No one ever took the challenge.

1970's Yosemite t-shirt


A documentary film called 'Valley Uprising' features the climbers of Camp 4, this clip is about the legend of Dope Lake...

https://www.outsideonline.com/1869346/valley-uprisings-drug-plane-crash-scene

 

[billycw]

The Columbian, PA paper
May 20, 1909
Article: The Expectant Hand


Love this tale on so many levels


The Columbian, May 20, 1909

 

[billycw]

Alice O’Leary-Randall inspects the cannabis plants grown at the University of Mississippi during her 1978 visit. On her left is Dr. Bob Willette of NIDA and on her right is Dr. Carlton Turner, former drug abuse advisor to President Ronald Reagan.

 

[billycw]

South Bend, Indiana September 24, 1970

Gather Marijuana

Four Indiana State Police Troopers, from left, Ronald Albright, Det. Sgt. Robert Zack, Edward Galloway and Robert Candler, clear a building near North Liberty, Sunday, of marijuana where three laskens(?) had stored it. The large cache was valued at 250,000.

 

[Jellyfish]

$250K for that pile of shit? Haha, cop math!
p.s.- the civilian in the front looks like he'd gladly shoot a pot smoker.
p.p.s- What's it say in the caption? "Where three ___ had stored it." Alaskans? LOL!

 

[billycw]

$250K for that pile of shit? Haha, cop math!
p.s.- the civilian in the front looks like he'd gladly shoot a pot smoker.
p.p.s- What's it say in the caption? "Where three ___ had stored it." Alaskans? LOL!

I thought Alaskans too, I just didn't think Indiana and Alaska had beef to call them out like that lol


Cop fuzzy math will always be used. On the flip side you see stories like this with a sting over $100...


"Three suspects, arrested in Southland narcotics raid after bullet-blazing police chase, await booking in Burbank jail. Police say they bought drugs from them"

The three men sold $100 worth of marijuana to detectives at Wilshire Boulevard and Gramercy Place. Photograph dated: March 23, 1959.

 

[billycw]

Opium Dealer, Mekong, Laos - 1954

 

[billycw]

Men working in a factory spinning hemp onto spools, Victoria, Australia 1890

 

[billycw]

spinning Switzerland, postcard

 

[billycw]

“A dog weighing 25 pounds received an injection of two ounces of an active U.S.P. fluid extract in the jugular vein with the expectation that it would certainly be sufficient to produce death…"

-A 1907 study 'A Pharmacological study of Cannabis Americana (Cannabis Sativa)' By E.M. Houghton

Actual Parke Davis & Co test Dog


America's Canine Cosmonaut

Long before the Russians could launch dogs into space, the scientist at Parke Davis & Co had American canines flying high...

Soviet space researcher Oleg Gazenko holds Strelka (left) and Belka (right) aloft at the 1960 press conference immediately after their landing.


In the late 1800's American drug companies were looking at ways to cut costs while improving supply. Many shipments of raw drugs like Cannabis Sativa were getting moldy and spoiling on the travel over seas. While other shipments of the drug did not have a consistent potency.

The common belief at the time was the strongest Cannabis Indica drug plants could only be achieved by cultivation in India.

At the turn of the century, American Company's like Parke Davis & Co started planting fields in America of seed obtained from Cannabis Indica stock strait from India.

The Goal was to prove America could grow the same potency cannabis as India...

Parke Davis Cannabis Americana tincture



“Much has been written relative to the comparative activity of Cannabis Sativa grown in different climates (Cannabis Indica, Mexicana, and Americana). It has been generally assumed that the American-grown drug was practically worthless therapeutically, and that Cannabis Sativa grown in India must be used if one would obtain physiologically active preparations.

“Furthermore, it has been claimed that the best Indian drug is that grown especially for medicinal purposes, the part used consisting of the flowering tops of the unfertilized female plants, care being taken during the growing of the drug to weed out the male plants. According to our experience, this is an erroneous notion”

-Parke Davis & Co 1910 pamphlet Cannabis Americana


This new Cannabis grown in America had to be differentiated for marketing reasons, Cannabis Americana was born...

Parke Davis ad about Cannabis Americana

 

[billycw]

America's Canine Cosmonaut continued...


“Before marketing preparations of Cannabis Americana, however, we placed specimens of the fluid and solid extracts in the hands of experienced clinicians for practical test; and from these men, all of whom had used large quantities of Cannabis Indica in practice, we have received reports which affirm they have been unable to determine any therapeutic difference between Cannabis Americana and Cannabis Indica. We are, therefore of the opinion that Cannabis Americana will be found equally as efficient as, and perhaps more uniformly reliable than, Cannabis Indica obtained from abroad, since it is evident that with a source of supply at our very doors proper precautions can be taken to obtain crude drug of the best quality.”

-Parke Davis & Co 1910 pamphlet Cannabis Americana


To prove this new Cannabis Americana was just as good as its old stock, test would need to be done...

In huge vats, raw cannabis was mixed with a Alcohol cutting agent.

Extraction process at Parke Davis & Co 1943



After a soak and mix the mixture was strained of vegetable matter and reduced to form a tincture called USP, much like in some of today's extraction methods.

Parke Davis & Co Tincture Room


After extraction, scientific tests were needed to prove this new Cannabis Americana tincture was just as good as its Indian Hemp parentage.

The researchers at Parke Davis knew just who to turn to... Their best friends...

Parke Davis & Co research laboratory, Detroit

A closeup of above photo showing Cannabis tincture on the table for testing at the Parke Davis & Co research laboratory, Detroit


The method “consists essentially in the careful observation of the physiological effects produced upon dogs from the internal administration of the preparation of the drug under test. It is necessary in selecting the test animals to pick out those that are easily susceptible to the action of cannabis, since dogs as well as human beings vary considerably in their reaction to the drug…"

-E.M. Houghton, Parke Davis researcher in 1907


The test subjects Parke Davis chose to use for this Cannabis Americana study? Dogs...

Beagles and Fox Terriers turned out to be ideal subjects all weighing close to 25 pounds.

To test the strength and effects of cannabis Americana on canines, the researchers devised a system for dosing the dogs...


“In preparing the test, the standard dose (in the form of solid extract for convenience) is administered internally in a small capsule. The dog’s tongue is drawn forward between the teeth with the left hand, and the capsule placed on the back part of the tongue with the right hand. The tongue is then quickly released, and the capsule is swallowed with ease. In order that the drug may be rapidly absorbed, food should be withheld 24 hours before the test and an efficient cathartic given if needed.” In other words, the poor dog would be given a large dose of hash and then starved.

“Within a comparatively short time the dog begins to show the characteristic action of the drug. There are three typical effects to be noticed from active extracts on susceptible animals: first a stage of excitability, then a stage of incoordination, followed by a period of drowsiness. The first of these is so dependent on the characteristics of the dog used that it is of little value for judging the activity of the drug, while with only a few exceptions the second, or the stage of incoordination, invariably follows in one to two hours: the dog loses control of its legs and of the muscles supporting its head, so that when nothing occurs to attract its attention its head will droop, its body sway, and when severely affected, the animal will stagger and fall, the intoxication being peculiarly suggestive and striking.

“Experience is necessary on the part of the observer to determine just when the physiological effects of the drug begin to manifest themselves, since there is always, as in the case of many chemical tests, a personal factor to be guarded against. When an active extract is given to a susceptible animal, in the smallest dose that will produce any perceptible effect, one must watch closely for the slightest trace of incoordination, lack of attention, or drowsiness. It is particularly necessary for the animals to be confined in a room where nothing will excite them, since when their attention is drawn to anything of interest the typical effects of the drug may disappear.”

“The influence of the test dose of the unknown drug is carefully compared with that of the same dose of the standard preparation administered to another test dog at the same time and under the same conditions.

“Finally, when the animals become drowsy, the observations are recorded and the animals are returned to their quarters.

“The second day following, the observations upon the two dogs are reversed, i.e. the animal receiving the test dose of the unknown receives a test dose of the known, and vice versa, and a second observation is made. If one desires to make a very accurate quantitative determination, it is advisable to use, not two dogs, but four or five, and to study the effects of the test dose of the unknown specimen in comparison with the test dose of the known, making several observations on alternate days. If the unknown is below standard activity, the amount should be increased until the effect produced is the same as for the test dose of the standard. If the unknown is above strength, the test dose is diminished accordingly. From the dose of the unknown selected as producing the same action as the test dose of the standard, the amount of dilution or concentration necessary is determined. The degree of accuracy with which the test is carried out will depend largely upon the experience of the observer and the care he exercises.

“Another point to be noted in the use of dogs for standardizing Cannabis is that, although they never appear to lose their susceptibility, the same dog cannot be used indefinitely for accurate testing. After a time they become so accustomed to the effects of the drug that they refuse to stand on their feet, and so do not show the typical incoordination which is its most characteristic and constant action.”

-E.M. Houghton, Parke Davis researcher in 1907


So after multiple tests with cannabis on the same dogs, the dogs would right away get comfortable and sit or lay down when dosed... Even dogs can learn when high...

View of chemical portion of Parke, Davis & Co.'s Pharmacological Laboratory

 

[billycw]

America's Canine Cosmonaut continued...

Parke, Davis & Co. Science Building: Research and Biological Departments, where the Cannabis Americana was conducted in Detroit, Mich.


In 1907, Parke Davis & Co published their Cannabis Americana study Titled 'A Pharmacological study of Cannabis Americana (Cannabis Sativa)' By E.M. Houghton, PH. C.M.D & H.C. Hamilton. This Study was first published in the 'Proceddings of the American Pharmaceutical Association' at the Annual meeting volume 55.


'Proceddings of the American Pharmaceutical Association' at the Annual meeting volume 55 - 1907