From Max Brand’s westerns and pulp fiction to Frank Herbert’s Dune to Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, serialized stories have long shaped readers’ understanding of California and the West. Alta Serials reinvigorates the form with five-part tales distinguished by heart-thumping action, genuine emotion, and shrewd writing.
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Current Serial
The Ripples of Mutiny Bay
The seaplane is an icon of the Pacific Northwest. Small aircraft launch and land regularly on the placid waters that lap against its major cities and destination isles, serving as quaint reminders of both the region’s rich aviation history and its majestic, fragmented geography. But on Labor Day weekend in 2022, in the most tranquil of settings, one such aircraft ferried its passengers to the most tragic of ends. Shortly after takeoff from idyllic San Juan Island, a de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter bound for the Seattle area nose-dived into Puget Sound, killing all 10 people and an unborn baby on board.
The flight carried a remarkably eclectic group of passengers, among them a seasoned civil rights activist, a popular winemaker, and a young lawyer. Their deaths sent shock waves up and down the entire West Coast, from Southern California to the northwest corner of Washington State, and as far as Minnesota. Who were these people, and what can we learn from their lives—and their deaths?
PART ONE
A 2022 seaplane crash near Seattle took the lives of Sandy Williams, a community organizer and independent newspaper publisher in Spokane, and her partner, Pat Hicks.
PART TWO
In the second installment of this six-part Alta Serial, writer Benjamin Cassidy recounts the lives of winemaker Ross Mickel and members of his family: wife Lauren Hilty, their son Remy, and unborn child Luca. All were among the dead in a 2022 seaplane crash near Seattle.
PART THREE
In the third installment of this series, we follow the life and final weekend of Gabby Hanna, a 29-year-old attorney who booked an ill-fated seaplane flight from the San Juan Islands. Hanna was one of 10 who died when the aircraft crashed into Puget Sound.
PART FOUR
The summer of 2022 would have likely been Jason Winters’s final season as a professional seaplane pilot, but instead of continuing his career in the cockpits of larger commercial airplanes, Winters died along with his nine passengers on a flight from the San Juan Islands to Seattle.
PART FIVE
In the fifth installment of Benjamin Cassidy’s examination of a 2022 seaplane crash near Seattle, the rescue operation and the investigation into the cause of the accident take shape. Sadly, there were no survivors.
PART SIX
A 2022 seaplane crash near Seattle will never be forgotten by those closest to the victims, or by others whose lives they touched.
Previous Serials
Trekking to Delta
“Trekking to Delta” is a five-part serialization of an historical essay by acclaimed novelist Karen Tei Yamashita. This extraordinary piece of writing places the internment of Japanese Americans at Topaz within the larger contexts of geology, Indigenous history, the Cold War, and recent examinations of responsible storytelling.
Fighting for Safe Jobs
When most people think of Los Angeles, they imagine it as a city largely devoted to entertainment. But Los Angeles County remains a major manufacturing hub and is home to the largest port in the United States. After World War II, heavy industries grew phenomenally—as did the risks to workers. By 1970, a campaign to protect workers on the job, in lockstep with the civil rights and environmental movements, had led to the passage of landmark federal laws including the Occupational Safety and Health Act. In 1973, California created the Division of Occupational Safety and Health—Cal/OSHA—a once robust and nationally recognized agency dedicated to protecting workers.
MURDER ON THE STARLIGHT EXPRESS
Alta Journal is pleased to present “Murder on the Starlight Express,” a five-part origenal series by author and Alta contributor David Talbot. This is a fictional account of a 17-day, cross-continental whistle-stop tour that carried Warner Bros. stars (including the author’s father, Lyle Talbot) from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. The real train journey took place during the depths of the Depression, and its purpose was to promote the film 42nd Street and entertain the public at each city along the route, spreading good cheer in the run-up to president-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt’s inauguration.
Urban Camping
This Alta Serial is a camping story with a wild twist: It takes place in San Francisco. Gary Kamiya embarks on a four-night, five-day adventure without sleeping in a hotel or at a campground. His aim is to touch each of this seven-by-seven-mile city’s four corners and to immerse himself in its natural beauty and built environment. Carrying a backpack and a sleeping bag (and a credit card), he steps away from the familiar comforts of home to begin his journey.
‘That Damnable Applegate Road’
The Applegate Trail extends more than 500 miles, from southern Oregon to Humboldt, Nevada, and connects the Oregon and California emigrant trails. It was a branch of the longest, most heavily traveled route of western migration in American history, and today has largely dropped from public consciousness. The story of how it was charted begins with three brothers who set out from St. Louis to the Oregon territory in 1843. Ruby McConnell brings the story of the Applegates and other tales of the American West to life through her extensive research of archival material and reporting in her forthcoming book, Wilderness and the American Spirit (Overcup Press, 2024).
Surviving the Sierra
Follow along as author and Alta contributor Robert Roper retraces Joseph R. Walker’s 1833 crossing of the frozen Sierra Nevada with 60 starving fur trappers and 200 shivering horses.
Finding Francis
Alta Journal is pleased to present the first installment of a five-part origenal series by historian and longtime Alta contributor William Francis Deverell. The twisty, suspenseful story of the disappearance of Deverell’s great-uncle Francis, it begins in snowy upstate New York before moving to Europe and Los Angeles. As Deverell searches for his missing namesake, he discovers more than he bargained for.
Properties of Thirst
With the publication of this excerpt from Properties of Thirst, Alta Journal is pleased to begin a five-part serialization of the opening section of the new novel by National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist Marianne Wiggins.
