Humboldt County Historical Society
A Dog's Life: Boomer Jack of the Northwestern Pacific
by Lincoln Kilian
This delightful and well-written booklet tells the adventures of Boomer Jack, a mongrel dog that first appeared about 1914, and had access to NWP trains and premises from Trinidad to Sausalito until his death in 1927. No one owned him but he was fed and cared for by most of the NWP employees up and down the line. Jack rode almost whatever train he wished, usually in the cabs, and often went to San Francisco on the NWP ferries. Once, he made a wrong connection and ended up in South Carolina!
The details of his adventures are wonderfully described. Jack died of old age in 1927 and was buried in the yard at Willits. The last page has a photo of his grave, with a group of NWP employees, dressed in their finest clothes, standing around the grave with their hats in their hands. The booklet contains two photos of Jack himself and many photos of places on the NWP that he frequented.