Biography: Hooter Scooter Prairie

by Edith Wakeman Jones, Constantine Smith & Reinhold Rissio

Constantine Smith was the first homesteader in the area near the headwaters of Indian Creek. He and Reinhold Riissio homesteaded the adjoining property to the north and the east. Smith had trouble pronouncing Riissio’s name, so he dubbed him “Hooter Scooter” and the name has endured.

Anna Riissio died in childbirth and was buried in the old Gold Beach cemetary. Riissio returned to San Francisco. When he remarried, he brought his second wife to the homestead, but she only stayed six months.