I had the good fortune to be able to read through some of the journals my great-grandfather, Maurice Shutts, kept. In his later years, he gave these particular journals to one of his grandchildren. The majority of the entries mention the weather and what work he did on that particular day. He used several codewords, however. For example, any time he mentioned "cousins" he was referring to deer he shot illegally, which was a means of putting food on the table. He also referred to "aunts" and "uncles," though I'm not exactly sure what they were.

Other interesting entries include once going into the woods to work with his father, but finding a group of Italian men there, cause for them to turn around and head home. At the time, there were several gangs from different ethnic groups in the nearby mining town of Lyon Mountain. One of the most feared were the Italians, known as the "Black Hand." Presumably, these were the Italians Maurice and his father encountered.

I've also learned that Maurice was a bootlegger during the Prohibition Era. He would drive over the border, pick up the booze, then make the trip back to Chateaugay Lake and sell it to the Hollywood restaurant, the local speakeasy. Several times in his journal he mentioned "taking rides to Canada," which leads me to believe that these were his bootlegging trips.

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