For anyone who reads this column you shouldn’t be surprised by my inability to stay on task for very long. I do have a tendency to wander. Well, this week’s adventure will confirm any suspicions you might have regarding my distractability. Not like Damariscove or Eastern Egg Rock distracted. We’re talking California boys and girls. So set your GPS for the gold rush days and settle in. I hope you will find this interesting.

A few weeks ago on CBS “Sunday Morning,” which we watch when we can, there was a story about a newspaper in Downieville, California, that, on the verge of folding (that’s newspaper lingo) was saved by a chap named Carl Butz. At 71, owning a newspaper wasn't what he had in mind for his retirement and travel plans.

I couldn’t resist a note to Mr. Butz along with a couple issues of the Boothbay Register and one of our 2020 calendars — components of easy distraction and loss of self control.

The town of Downieville was a gold rush town in the 1800s. During boom times the population approached 5,000 — now there are almost 300 residents. I just thought it would be cool to congratulate Mr. Butz and share some Maine with him. Turned out, he agreed. I became a subscriber to “The Mountain Messenger” and am completely fascinated by what goes on in an area of the country I know nothing about. Many Downieville concerns are similar to ours, as you may have noticed by the bold headline re the town’s emergency medical services.

One interesting detail I learned about The Messenger is that Mark Twain once wrote for the paper. It is said that Mr. Twain’s contribution was less than stellar (hungover) and that he was in Downieville hiding out from the law. It takes a village!

Maybe this home quarantining creates more wandering time, I’m not sure. I seem to wander into more projects of unlikely origins. I think Mr. Butz did a good thing, for himself and the town of Downieville. Imagine us without the Boothbay Register? Maybe someday the “Mountain Messenger” can be shared online too. Currently, this is not the case.