Jon Humboldt Gates is the author of five non-fiction books, including his most recent historical work – Before the Dolphins Guild – A Story of Heroic Efforts to Save Two Navy Submarine Crews Trapped Under the Sea in 1915 and 1916 (2022).

Jon got his literary start recording and narrating oral history interviews with older people from his hometown region of Humboldt County, California in the 1970’s and 1980’s as well as chronicling his numerous solo journeys across North America and the USSR. His archives of oral history provided the basis for his first two books; Falk’s Claim – The Life and Death of Redwood Lumber Town (1983), nominated for The Forest History Award in 1984; and Night Crossings – Maritime Stories of Rogue Waves at Night on California’s Notorious Humboldt Bar (1986). Both books are now in their 7th printings.

The author also penned, Firestorm (2018) – A Personal Narrative from the Epicenter of the Tubbs Firestorm, One of the Most Destructive Wildfires in California History; And, It’s Warm in Siberia – Travel Stories and Photographs from a Solo Journey Across the USSR in 1984 (Second Edition 2023).

During his 35-year career as a market journalist, Jon conducted thousands of personal interviews in supply chains around the world.  He eventually became Director of Global Research for the international firm, OTR Global, which he co-founded with friends in San Francisco in 1995.

Jon is a fifth-generation native of Northern California and the Pacific Northwest. His great-great-grandparents came West by wagon train in 1849, and his grandfather was a miner in the Klondike Gold Rush in 1900.

After escaping the Sonoma County wildfires, he and his wife now live near the Columbia River in Oregon.