Mr. Ackerman reached out to the new publisher and a connection was established, leading to a weekly column under the heading ‘Here Back East.’ Topics focus on the outdoors on fishing the lakes and waterways of Maine and farther afield, in search of the perfect catch. He reflects on growing up in Rochester, New York, in the 1950s, about his law school years and his family’s immigrant history. He also writes about the impact of COVID 19, about New York City, Wyoming, and Florida, and touches on the political. Whatever the topic, his essays are characterized by warmth and wry humor that have earned him a devoted following at the paper and a new legion of readers with the publication of Here Back East: Collected Columns from The Mountain Messenger
It was in early 2020 that Carl Butz and I first had a conversation about his acquisition of The Mountain Messenger– the oldest, continually published local newspaper in the state of California, with origins in the Gold Rush and an initial readership of prospectors, settlers, and pioneers. Carl and I had never met, I simply called him out of the blue to offer my congratulations, as he had been the white knight who rescued the paper from certain closure.
His story was the subject of a feel good, multi page feature in the New York Times, which was how he and his paper had come to my attention. Carl and I quickly hit it off. Before we hung up, he enlisted me to write a weekly column. He was looking for fresh content, and the musings of a peripatetic east coaster might have some exotic appeal, though he was certain my fishing stories would resonate. We would call it Here Back East”—a broad
heading for a wide range of topics.
Three years and over 100 columns later, I look back on what has happened during that span of time, to me personally and in the wider world. I attempted to put so much of it into words on a page as I experienced it maybe I was being ambitious, but it was always from the heart. There have been concerns expressed, from friends and colleagues who thought I might say too much, that it might harm my business—I am an attorney and discretion is paramount. But my political columns are few and readers looking for gossip or muckraking will be disappointed. Most of the topics are purposeful and personal about ordinary people I encounter in the course of my day, about interesting events and how they affect me, my family and friends.
Given the time period when these were written, the myriad ways in which Covid altered the ordinary is threaded through the collection. I go back in time, excavating the memories of growing up in Rochester, New York in the 1940s and 1950s, the child of immigrant parents from Ukraine. And of course, I write a lot about fishing writing about it is the next best thing to doing it.
Carl traversed the country by train to attend my surprise 82nd birthday party. The following spring, I visited him in the Sierras for a VIP tour of The Mountain Messenger
offices and to fish the Truckee River. That first phone call led to an unexpected and rewarding cross continental friendship. Though I am mostly here, back east, I feel a great and constant connection to a certain few square miles of northern California, thanks to Carl and The Mountain Messenger.
