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by Sherrie Kvamme
of the Hells Canyon Journal
John Webb is a storyteller,
producer, editor and writer.
He started his career in tele-
vision broadcasting in 1984
and has been in the business
since then.
He has covered everything
from pioneering extreme
sports to globally syndicated
productions and documenta-
ries. In 2000 he began expand-
ing his repertoire.
“I love telling stories. One
that especially captured my
attention and that I wanted
to tell was the Cornucopia
story. I love the magic of
Cornucopia. I was there as a
kid in the 197 Os, and I kind of
went through my gold mining
phase back then. My dad got
me a gold pan and I loved that
industry.
“Cornucopia is such a big
mine and had so much history
attached to it for decades. To
hear the stories and meet the
people and wonder What the
. past was like for people and
also what the future looks like
for a little community up in the
middle of nowhere fascinates
me,” said John.
“I went back to ’Copia in
1977, just a couple of years
after Chris Schneider died in
1975. My dad was with me. I
think doing the documentary
we are working on right now
completes a thought I had in
the ’80s, and it honors my dad.
I thought Cornucopia would
make a great story. Cornu-
copia impacted me, and I do
believe that it is a greatstory.
“I started with Larry Bush
in 2012. Producing is kind of
like being a detective in a way.
You start digging around and
getting on the Internet to see
what you can find. I found out
that Larry was basically tak-
ing care of the mine for United
Nuclear, but it [UNC} turned
into General Electric. He gave
me permission to go up there
and told me not to fall into any
holes or mining shafts. He was
really a nice guy.
“Indirectly, Larry;;helped
mewith my first filmrinr20‘1'4
because I happened to get
involved with Raemer Sch-
reiber who was an American
physicist from McMinnville,
Oregon. He served at Los
Alamos National Laboratory
during World War II and par-
ticipatedin the development
of the atomic bomb. Schreiber
helped Dr. J. Robert Oppen-
heimer direct the scientific
team headquartered at Los
Alamos.”
(The events that took
place in a remote area of
New Mexico on July 16, 1945
forever changed the world.
The incredible destructive
powers of the atom were first
unleashed and what had been
merely theoretical became re-
ality. Schreiber also prepared
the Fat Man bomb that was
used in the bombing of Na-
gasaki. Then after the war,
he served at Los Alamos as a
group leader and was involved
in the design of the hydrogen
bomb. In 1955, he became the
head of the Nuclear Rocket
Propulsion Division at Los
Alamos, which developed the
first nuclear-powered rockets.
He served as deputy director
of the laboratory from 1972
until 1974.) '
The test came after three
years of planning and develOp-
ment within the super-secret
Manhattan Project of General
Leslie R. Groves and Dr. J.
Robert Oppenheimer who di-
rected the scientific team. The
Manhattan Project was the
code name for the American-
led effort to develop a func-
tional atomic weapon during
World War II.
John, continued, “I am not
an atomic bomb fan, and I
am not saying bombs are
good, but they have kept the
peace... Anyway, I learned
a lot. I also met and inter-
viewed his daughter, Sarah
Schreiber. She and I worked
for four years from 2014 to
2019 on a two-hour film about
the atomic age. It’s called
The Half of Life of Genius.
This documentary provides
insight into the beginning of
the atomic age. It’s on Amazon
Prime. Schreiber was one of
Oppenheimer’s most brilliant
young physicists Who was
recruited for the Manhattan
DOCUMENTARIAN JOHN WEBB operating a
Page 7 Hells Canyon Journal October 26, 2022
of Cornuc
Photos courtesy of Golden Cornucopia Collection except as noted
camera during an interview with Larry Bush
of Halfway. Bush managed Cornucopia Mines during the era when it was owned
by United
Nuclear Corporation.
Project during World War II.”
Schreiber‘was also trusted
to carry the plutonium core to
Tinian Island where he assem-
bledthe atomic bomb known
to history as Fat Man. In the
mid-19505 he led the effort to
build powerful nuclear rocket
engines. In The Half of Life
of Genius, John interviewed
such celebrities as historian
Roger Meade and Richard
Nodes, a Pulitzer Prize win-
ner, nuclear physicist Taylor
Wilson and a nuclear engineer
Carl Willis. The documentary
features rare footage, histori-
cal artifacts, photographs and
audio recordings.
In 2020 John started get-
ting serious about a documen-
tary about Cornucopia.
“I really glommed onto it,” ,-
he said. “In August of 2021 I
committed to it and started
making contacts with people. I
put the pedal to the metal and
here we are! I was back in the
area last June for a weekend.
We went to Cornucopia and
had an exciting weekend. It
was like a rollercoaster. That’s
how busy it was, and I got
some incredible interviews.
I have 90 minutes of Larry
Bush on camera about open-
ing the mine and his experi-
ences there. I have interview
with Ann Ingalls and Kerry
Gulick, Dale Taylor, Galen
West and Bob Taylor. I have
these people who have lived in
’Copia talking to me on camera
for 30 minutes or longer and
every single one of them adds
something.
“It’s a very different film for
me than my last documentary
as this one is people-based.
It’s a far more personal story,
and I am enjoying telling their
stories. It’s a real challenge
because, like anything you do,
it’s like putting the pieces of a
puzzle together. I do a sound-
bite approach where someone
talks and someone else talks,
and I weave these sound-bites
together, and when I get done,
we have a story. I get their
energy straight onto the video.
“When I was getting down
to business about doing this,
Larry told me that the personI
need to get a hold of is Thomas
Cook. I got hold of Tom he is
helping to produce it in addi-_
tion to several other roles. He
is an expert on Cornucopia.
.He writes with such passion
and he paints a very beautiful
picture of the place.
“I also got hold of Jack My-
ers. He works for the Forest
Service and is a ham radio
operator like I am and we get
along very well. He really is
a mine nerd. He goes around
and learns about the mines,
visits with people about them,
. and I think that even outside
of this documentary, that he
will go back and. get some
additional footage. He is an
incredibly talented camera
operator and also a drone
operator. Jack has spent a
lot of time working on all of
the aerial footage. We are
working as a group to get
this done. Jack’s work on this
documentary has really made
a difference. He is a pilot as
well. We are so, fortunate to
have him on board.
“Obviously, Thomas Cook
and Jared Brandon—Flande
and my wife, Patti, are all
vital to this production. Patti
is the first person to see what
I am putting together, and I
value her insight. It couldn’t
happen without any of them.
“Our second shoot was re-
ally a pick-up shoot. Larry,
Dale Taylor and Bill Schuhle
are incredibly helpful. Tom
and Larry are all integral
to this project and I feel so
blessed— so blessed that doors
have been opening up and
people have been so kind and
generous about sharing their
stories and what they know.
All that they have contributed
will show in the end product.
I think people are going to
like it.
“We have acquired a fairly
good history and we get into
a little of the geekiness of it,
opia Film
too. I love the technical stuff
about the mining process. We
have learned so much and how
difficult it was to mine so much
ore, the people involved and
the dangers involved.
“Cornucopia is an amaz-
ing place, and it deserves a
multi-million-dollar story
with actors, but I can’t really
do that. I can do the budget
documentary version but
there are a lot of characters
in this place. Doc Pollock and
Chris Schneider and all of the
people who made up this town.
It is a much larger story. I
don’t have the multi-millions
of dollars that it would take
to get it on Netflix that way,
but hopefully in another few
years someone will catch wind
of this and do something with
it. We’ll see,” smiled John.
“Our most recent visit up
there was last week. We went
to ’Copia on Saturday. I am
not much of a hiker. I am
pretty sedentary, but I hiked
back a few miles and it was a
beautiful and a very fun‘day.
Then‘on Sunday we went up
to Carmelita Holland’s cabin.
She has a place way up in the
hills, and it took us 90 minutes
to get there. You almost have
to have a four-wheel drive. It
was the most beautiful cabin
I have ever seen in my life. I,
believe it was in the ’60s she
and her husband built it. We
were up there for about 90
minutes or two hours, and
she was a delight. She smiled
and laughed as she told her
stories,” said John.
“One was her leaverite sto-
ry. She said she wanted to get
into mining in the early ’605.
She had a pit there where she
found something that looked
interesting. So she took some
pieces to a local miner and he
told her it was leaverite. She
asked what that was. And
he told her to leave ’er right
where she found it. That it
wasn’t worth anything.
“She had made us potato
salad; we brought pizza with
us and she reheated it on her
Continued on page 12
ANN INGALLS AND KERRY GULICK being interviewed by author and co-producer
Tom
Cook for the Golden Cornucopia documentary at the Cornucopia townsite.
Photo by Sherrie Kvamme
AUTHOR TOM COOK, who is co-producing Golden Cornucopia along with
filmmaker John Webb, giving a presentation on
the mine’s history at Cornucopia Lodge. 7 ‘