Ernie...
I am forwarding this E-mail to you. Maybe you know of "Tracker" The letter explains my reason for trying to contact him. I have not had any reply to my query. Both Joe and I thank you for your blog. I have really enjoyed reading it.
Naoma
PS. I called Bull Creek in error Butte Creek. That was a creek I lived close to in Siskiyou Co.
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:01:32 -0500
Tracker
Subject: Panther Gap
Hello...i saw your e-mail site as I was trying to go down "Memory Lane" to Panther Gap and the road that came from Butts Store at Butte (now BULL) Creek & up the mountain to Panther Gap. And then down into Honey Dew . Yes, a map is hard to find. There was a time....that the mail from South Forkw was in Leather pouches, and hung on a post at the side of the dirt and gravel road at Panther Gap. The mail carrier, if one made the long walk in time to catch the carrier on the way back to South Fork, was kind enough to give a person a ride on into the store to get supplies. The original trail went from Panther Gap across Panther Opening and then down into the Mattole River. I understood the trail was made ( with blazes ) to guide the trappers. At Panther Gap, a Widow woman was living alone....about dusk she was looking out her window and below her a deer was feeding. As she watched it, a mountain lion crept to the rise of the gulch....and leaped down onto the deer and killed it. She had been very content at the cabin there, until she saw how close the cougars were. The reason for the name as it was a regular route for the animals. She had heard them scream often,but it had not bothered her. She sold her place shortly after that. Thank you for the animal track information. I am still searching for the roads running West from Panther Gap.
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18 comments:
Naoma, I have a humboldt County map by Harry Freese. It is very detailed and according to the price on the cover it cost a dollar. I gave it a glance and it has the Bull Creek School on there along with Panther Gap. I will send it to Ernie so he can decipher all the usable information on it. Hopefully it has something of interest to you and Ernie alike. I don't know when this map was printed, I don't see a date on it but I bought it almost 50 years ago. It also has trails marked. A gold mine in the the right hands. ^v^
All I need Naoma is for Ernie to send me a mailing address.
Oregon
Naoma,
Do you remember the "Schellmans" or "Shellmans?" Their house and barn and the corrals where we kept pack mules were right at Panther Gap. The house was fallen down and maybe partly burned when I was little. Wasn't the man name "Lyle?" I seem to remember you and Becky and Jay and me--and maybe Bruce or James--going through a Victrola cabinet and taking some old one-sided 78 RPM phonograph records that had been left behind. In my memory, they were things like Harry Lauder singing "I love to be a sailor," and such as that. But I would have been very young at the time, and the memories are foggy and vague.
HEY jOE..i REMEMBER A TRAIL,sorta "road" into that area. And tumbled down lumber. I do remember the flying squirrels in that area. What fun to see them glide from tree to tree. I was Priveleged to have the boys put up with a younger cousin and kid sister. They took me fishing, camping, and hikes. A lot of teasing but such a loving family we had!! Cuz'Naoma P.S. Oregon , please send the map to Ernie!!
I will send the map as soon as I get an address to send it to.
Oregon
Oregon
Send it to:
Attn: Ernie
Branscomb Center
429 Maple Lane
Garberville Calif. 95542
Erie... The 1921 Belcher Land Title map is available online. A little old but it should be interesting as it has property owners. Go to Humboldt State University Library. Then to the Humboldt Room and request Belcher Maps. The map displays in sections and you can enlarge by using Option-+ or - commands. You'll love it. I still spend lots of time looking at it.
The Belcher link.
Thanks Ben for the tip. Thanks OMR for the link.
The maps that you want to click on to start would be #2 & #4.
Thanks OMR and Ben.....the Belcher map shows the trail past Arthur Clark's place and the place he had his land cross the road. He had two gates that had to be opened to cross his land and the keep the sheep from getting past the fences. I did a comment, and it got "eaten" too. so I hope I'm not repeating myself. The gates were beautiful workmanship...with a sliding bar..made of heavy lumber and swinging forward towand the road. My brother always had the prevelage to open the gates but one day I was told I could go open the gate. I had to climb up on the gate to slide the heavy bar and let the gate swing back for dad to drive through. I pushed the gate back into position, climbed on it and locked it. To my amazement I was on the wrong side of the gate. I had climb up to open it and close it again before I was able to get to the car, amid adult laughter and a teasing older brother's remarks about how well I was able to open and close a gate.Naoma
Naoma
You aren't the only one that has problems with blogsites, even seasoned professionals have them. The blogs do quirky things to comments. When they disappear there is nothing that you can do to get them back.
One thing that I recommend, is to do all of your writing in a word processor. Then cut and paste it into the comment place, that way if something goes wrong you can just re-paste it.
That might just add another layer of complications for you, and it might just be simpler to fight it the way that you have been. Anyway we enjoy reading your history.
Ernie, your mother has a jewel!! Such a patient fellow you are. I don't know if I can learn to cut and paste but maybe it is about time I learned. Thank you. Tell your mom "Happy Mother's Day" from me to her. Naoma
Off blog, Naoma and I were reminiscing about the ranch and environs as shown on that map. There is an irregular shaped block of land for which ownership is not shown, and that appears to be pretty much what was acquired by the Erwin clan. Some of the surrounding land for which ownership is shown was added to the homesteaded land and that acquired directly from the government. I think what was bought from the government cost $5 and acre. Dad paid as much as $20 per acre for some of the privately owned property. And he later built a fireplace for a Mr. Kopf (who owned what is shown as Johnson property next to Clark) in exchange for 40 acres. It was beautiful piece of property, with a 360 degree view, from the ocean and King Range to the Yolla Bolly wilderness. I remember that we used to pick apples at the "Old Johnson Place."
In 1967 I went to Clark's place. I think he had died not long before that. I remember that his shed/garage was still there and that his old Hupmobile (sp?) was still there. He had bought licenses for it for many years, but driving it home when it was new had scared him so badly that he supposedly had never driven it again. He sometimes rode a bicycle (Schwinn, knee-action). If he rode with us to the Bull Creek store, he held the car door ajar so he could jump out if he needed to.
I think Millie Pollard told me that Art Clark had moved there from back east (maybe New York) in 1913, and that he had once ordered a "mail order bride." She had arrive, spent one night, and left, or so the story went. Millie had an old Sears or Wards catalogue that she or Lloyd had gotten out of Mr. Clarks cabin after he was gone, that had an order form filled out and dated, that seemed to provide evidence that he was already living there quite early (maybe 1916, if memory can be trusted--which it cannot, in this case, so why did I mention it).
Naoma mentioned that Mr. Clark's cabin was built over a spring. It was so cool! You could just walk out his back door and be right there at the spring. Our cousin James liked to visit Mr. Clark, at least in part because Mr. Clark seemed always to have cold beer that he freely offered. Once brother Jay and I went with James to visit Mr. Clark. Art Clark was cleaning the floor of his house--with a flat barn shovel. The floor was caked with "stuff" (probably, a fair amount of sheep stuff, as he seemed to regularly allow sheep in the house). I'm guessing that the depth of "stuff" on the floor was between a half inch and and inch. I wonder if it was like that when the mail order bride arrived.
When I went there again, in May of 1973, the garage and vehicle were no longer there and the cabin had burned down. The fireplace was there, next to the spring, but the wooden mantle had burned. There was a rusty old axe head there where the mantle would have been. That axe head is now on my fireplace mantle in Pennsylvania. There were two big apple trees near where the cabin has stood. Both appeared to be very healthy. I wonder if they are still alive and could be one of the Etter heirloom varieties. I should get Ram to go check those out, but I do not know who owns that place now. It probably is not wise to go poking around springs in the Panther Gap area during ripe apple season. Ah well....
Yuck, sheep in the house! I had a friend in Alaska that had ducks, geese and rabbits and they would go through the house from the back yard to the front and like you said, the trail was messy.
Oregon
You asked about "Big Foot".....LOL....yes, there were tales. The
Siskiyous are wild country...and a lot not explored. I came to the Butte
Valley area ( High mountain desert) as a bride in 1948. I loved the sage
brush, Lodge pole pines and Ponderosa and the mountains and Beautiful Mt.
Shasta. There was so much to learn. As I have told you Joe was the one
that lived at the Circle E area year round. I was a city girl. As I
look back on those days, I was so very blessed. We lived in the Oakland,
Berkeley Ca. area. San Jose before that. We had electricity, etc. It
was in the late 1920's when my Grandparents moved from the Eureka area to
the Panther Gap area. I was born in 1928 & must have been just walking
good when they all built and moved up there. My mom would speak of the
James Ranch and I have pictures of her and the pack train..(.I need to
send those to Joe ) Please edit this conversation if you are thinking of
posting it , thanks...as I have sorta started to ramble. Anyway, dad was
a traveling advertising salesman , money was lean and Mom was , with my
brother and I, were left at the Circle E with her parents and her nephews
( Joe spoke of James and Fred) James was born in 1918 so they were quite
older than I. Any way, as I grew up it was city life and very old
fashioned country life. The outhouse, lamps, "coolers" and utter
freedom. I can remember the wood sidewalks in Eureka....Oakland had
pavement and cement sidewalks! When we moved up to the Circle E area we
built our cabin out of selected fir logs...most close to the same size.
Cut by the cross saw...one man on each end of the saw...I loved to go for
wood as the trees were cut, the birds would still be singing and the
rhythm of the sawing and then the shout "Timber"!! I got to help carry
the logs for the cabin...the limbs still on. I got to hold thelight,
very tip end that jumped up and down as the boys carried the heavy part.
It still seemed as if I was helping a little bit. After the Cabin was
built we had to carry all the furniture in by hand and follow the trail
in. Dad and mom gave me a light weight night table to carry. It was as
tall as I was ( not real heavy) but if I put it in front of me I kept
hitting my ankles on it as I walked. If I tried it sideways it caught on
the bushes at the side of the trail. I began to get very frustrated and
my ankles hurt. I started to cry. My big brother ( carrying his load
easily, it seemed) called out from in front of me " If at first you don't
succeed, cry, cry again". Naoma
i think maybe andy bowman is your tracker. i enjoyed your story. i was in my own younger age category back in my mendocino days. my cousins and my sisters all being girls and 5 years older sort of made them not trust me, since 3 of them were smoking cigaretes before they were 12 and me being raised with the clean conscious, it was all i could do to keep my mouth shut. i did have a great time whenever they allowed me into their world and from it i created my own fantastic world in those days and i would share it with whomever lucky kid happened to visit the ranch. i had a whole routine that didn't end. you were just so worn out from having so much fun that you showed up for dinner at just the right time.
Andy Bowman could not have written an email in 2010 Spyrock.
Unless I am wrong and owe Spyrock an apology.
I didn't read the comment about Andy Bowman 2010, but Bud Bowman has a son named Andy.... think?
Cousin
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