Crooked City: The Emerald Triangle

A 10-Part Narrative Podcast Series

Journalist Sam Anderson learns that one of his high school classmates is accused of murder in California, and travels west to find out what happened. Sam becomes immersed in the Emerald Triangle, the legendary home of pot growers, hippies, and outlaws. He discovers that his classmate became drawn into the orbit of a cultish and charismatic pot grower obsessed with psychedelic drugs. Desperation, greed, and a never-ending acid trip create a perfect storm of paranoia that ends in a moment of unspeakable violence.

Point Reyes National Seashore in northern California is one of the most iconic national parks in the region, known for rugged sweeping beaches, lush pastures, and wild animals like the famous Tule Elk. But it’s also one of the only national parks that allows commercial cattle ranching on its land. In 2021, the National Park Service announced over a third of the elk herd at Tomales Point perished, due to starvation and dehydration. A coalition of activists and environmentalists say cattle ranching is the cause of the die-off. In this original audio documentary series, reporter Sam Anderson heads to the Point Reyes Peninsula in northern California to uncover the fate of the tule elk and falls headfirst into a decades-long battle between ranchers, environmentalists, Indigenous groups, and the federal government over who gets to profit from this public land and who controls its future. 

Written and reported by Sam Anderson. Editing by Lucy Kang. Cover art, cinematography, and web design by Anthony Wells. Theme music by Christopher Rose and Robert Quijano.

Originally broadcast on 94.1 KPFA.

Episode 1

The Tule Elk are a protected species native to California. Once on the brink of extinction, they were brought back in a conservation success story. But today, the elk in Point Reyes are dying of starvation and thirst. Environmentalists blame an 8-foot-tall fence penning them in to a small area called Tomales Point. How did this fence get here and what is its purpose?

Episode 2

Before Point Reyes became a national park, it was an intricate coastal prairie teeming with life. This land was inhabited by a local tribe called the Coast Miwok. But when European settlers arrived, everything changed. Theresa Harlan is a Coast Miwok woman with deep roots in Point Reyes. Her family's homestead is a place they call Felix Cove, although the NPS refers to it as Laird's Landing. The story of Theresa's family is intricately related to cattle ranching and how that industry transformed both the landscape and way of life for indigenous peoples.

Episode 3

During my reporting on this series, the people I interviewed kept coming back to one central question: what was the original intention of the founders of Point Reyes National Seashore? Did they intend ranching to be here forever? Or was ranching supposed to be phased out to make room for conservation? In this episode, we dive deep into the formation of the park to discover how Point Reyes National Seashore was created, and what those founders really had in mind for the future of ranching.