Charlie... Back in "The Horse and Buggy Days" all inland transportation was by saddle horse, mule train, team wagons, ox trains, or horse and buggy. Stage coaches went everywhere that they could go. The only thing that I can tell you for certain is that the the roads went down the ridges. Nobody was dumb enough to try to build a road down by the river, too many bridges, too many slides, too many river and creek crossings. Newcomers brought us the riverside technology. They reckoned that they would be below the snow level. If they had built the train higher up on the ridge, we would still have one.
Having said my piece, I'll try harder to answer your quetions. The main stage from San Francisco to Eureka, came through Ukiah, Willits, Sherwood, (up on the ridge) Strong Mountain Road into Cahto, Lick Skillet and Spat out, (Laytonville) south through Long Valley, up the Bell Springs Ridge, to Bell Springs, where they had a way-station. They changed horses and lodged there for the night. From there they went to Harris, Alderpoint, Blocksburg, Bridgeville, Carlotta, and then into Springville, near Fortuna. There was a stage that went to ferndale and points west, and another stage that went to Eureka and points north. There were numerous "Feeder" stage routes. Like the "Mud-dobber" that ran from Mina and Covello over the Dos Rios road into Laytonville. A man by the mane of John Snider drove it. John Snider also drove a 6 horse team wagon hauling dynamite from Sherwood to Island Mountain when they were builting the Island Mountain tunnel.
Now for the "bullshistory" part, because I don't really know for sure. But, when I was a wee lad I heard that there was a coach that went from Fort Bragg, Westport, Rockport, Usal, Four Corners, Thorn, Briceland, Garberville, Spuce Grove and Harris. There is still a building that they call "The Stage Stop" on a flat north of Whitethorn. I do know that there was sporadic stage coach operations on the north coast. They were about as consistant as todays coffee shops.
I was told by my uncle Everett that the old building West of Dimmick's mill was a stage stop and it was called Moody, he may have been wrong but us kids used to take that road from Piercy over to Usal. It was, I'm sure one of the horse, buggy trails over to the coast. The railroad tracks to Bear Harbor pretty much followed that road.
ReplyDeleteOregon
I was told the stage that followed the coast and went inland at the mattole ended at a place called Thorn Junction. The road house on the Mazzepa ranch is two story. The house has two sides. One side with eating room and 6 rooms up stairs for travelers. The other half for cook and station master. There's a hole in the wall from the kitchen to the dining room to pass the meals through. Very weird. The stage came up oil creek to the station because they couldn't get around false cape on the beach. After 1865 Wells Fargo stopped hauling gold for people. The US post office took that job over. And guaranteed against theft. So stage lines had to go to every post office I have researched this at the history room at Wells Fargo in SF. Ernie I met an old saw bones that said he rode the stage to Harris. I still want to know if there was a post office in Jet Dry (upper bear river).
ReplyDeleteFile this wherever it fits:
ReplyDeleteThe "History and Business Directory of Humboldt County --1891" advertised:
"San Francisco and North Pacific Railway Company"
"Stages Connect with the Train at Ukiah
FOR
Booneville, Greenwood, Mendocino, Cahto, Willetts, Calpella, Potter Valley, Sherwood Valley, Covelo, Blue Lakes, Saratoga Springs, Upper Lake,
Lakesport, Blocksburg, Hydesville and Eureka
SAN FRANCISCO TO EUREKA IN 30 HOURS
Leave San Francisco at 7:40 A.M. (Sundays excepted), arrive at Ukiah at 12:45 P.M. Stage leaves Ukiah at 1:30 P.M. (stopping at Blocksburg 6 hours), arrive at Hydesville at 11:00 A.M. where connection is made with the Eureka and Eel River Railroad arriving at Eureka at 2:00 P.M.
FARE $15.00
IDAHO STAGE CO.
Overland (Daily) Excepting Sunday.
Lv San Francisco
Ar Ukiah (Dinner)
Lv 1:30 P.M Ukiah
Ar Calpella
Station 4
Willets (Meals)
Sherwood
Cahto
Ar Laytonville
Cummings (Meals)
Blue Rock
Bell Springs
Harris (Meals)
Alder Point
Blocksburg (Meals)
Lanes.
Bridgeville (Meals)
Strongs
Ar 11 A.M Hydesville (Meals)
Connect with Eel R.& E.R.R
Ar 2 P.M Eureka"
In the Humboldt Times, Feb. 11, 1871 this communication from Ferndale will help imagine the route.
ReplyDelete"'I have just returned from a trip down-coast, as far as the south line of Humboldt County, and will give you my idea of a route for a road to Upper Mattole. We have a wagon road now to Upper Mattole. From Upper Mattole to Ross'Defeat by way of Wilder Ridge is fifteen miles, and from Ross' Defeat to Whitethorn is eleven miles. This is a distance that Humboldt County will have to build. It will cost comparatively nothing to make a road to White Thorn Valley. Parties who ought to know assure me that the twenty-six milles in Humboldt can be built for five thousand dollars.
'From White Thorn valley in Mendocino County, to Bear Harbor is eight miles, and from Usal to a junction with Whipples Road is seventeen miles, which lets us out.
'I have traveled over a goodly portion of this route and can say that there is not the least difficulty in making a good road. One advantage of this route will be within eight miles of South Fork of Eel River at Wood's which can be reached by a road over a good grade--there is a good trail over the route now. Shelter Cove will be within eight miles and will be ther shipping point for all that country. A good road can be built from the Cove to the South Fork by way of White Thorn valley. thus the route will accomodate the people on the South Fork better than a road by way of Camp Grant and Long Valley. It is twenty five miles from South Fork and the nearest post office, Camp Grant. To White Thorn there is only eight miles miles an office will be established when mail service is put on the coast route. The other advantage will be no snow and large streams to cross.'"
So this is how they envisioned the stage route in 1871.
The road from Garberville was built in 1878 by McMillan and a Chinese Crew.
ReplyDeleteJean Zachary did a great little article for the Jan-Feb 1986 Humboldt Historian, "Some Glimpses of History from the Moody Road Areas".
A Glance Back, by M. Cook and Diane Hawk, quotes from the article on page 54 of their A Glance Back book.
"If you had wanted to go to Moody, Kenny, Usal, or Fort Bragg from Garberville, you would have need to go south on what is now Camp Kimtu Road for several miles on the east side of the South Fork of the Eel River, until you come to Cobb's Riffle. There you could have forded the river most of the summer and traveled up the hill on the Moody Road which had been built to the coast in 1897-98. The Moody Road met the Coast Wagon Road at Kenny which, in 1888m had been completed (except for 12 miles south of Shelter Cove) so travelers could journey along the coast ridges and valleys from Ferndale to Ft. Bragg."
Oregon- the RR from Andersonia/Dimmicks did go through Moody, but there was no wagon road that I am aware of. The earliest name of the route from Andersonia was Low Gap, so it was a known Indian trail. Once you get east of the 200ft tunnel on the Indian creek track, the RR angles S SW and does very roughly follow the old stage line from Briceland through Moody and Kenny. The road you took was from the logging era, Piercy/Andersonia wasn't worth a stage stop... but Moody would have amounted to something had the Andersonia mill ever oppened.
My editor was away at the time of the previous posts...
ReplyDeleteErnie, A Ernest R. Linser owned the Garberville Mercantile company. He owned and ran two stage lines out of garberville. One line to Dyer ville. And one to Thorn. What can you tell me about these stage lines? Around 1913 and earlier.
ReplyDeleteSPYROCK, What was the Improved Red Man organization? Lots of business men in SO-Hum belonged to this in Hupa and covolo. These business men were not part indian. So what kind of club was this.
I live in Whitethorn and drive past what we now call "The Stagecoach House". I have always wanted to find out the history on it. Anybody got some leads on how to find out? Thank's for the current bit of history.
ReplyDeleteWow, great research Skippy and River! Now, I’ll add what I know to your research, and add some details, I start with Skippy first. Like I said, there were stage coaches that ran everywhere, and there were feeder lines into the main lines. If you look at the places that the stage coaches delivered people to from Ukiah, it will jump out at you that they couldn’t have been on the same route. The Ukiah to Hydesville is a different stage than the one to Lakeport, and there was another different stage to Mendocino. Plus I know that there were many smaller feeder lines like the one from Covelo to Laytonville over the ridge from Dos Rios.
ReplyDeleteRiver,
I know from my family history that the Chinese built Highway One. (strong bullshistory warning on the following) I was told that the original Highway One went from Usal to Four Corners, toward the Sinkyone (Newcomer name, but best description)down Bear Creek and out the Kings Peak road, down to the Matole, and it came out on the Wilder Ridge at Landergen’s. The road from what is now Ettersberg junction down Telegraph Ridge and the one from Four Corners to Whitethorn came later. It doesn’t seem like that would be right. It seems like the road would have followed the telegraph. The road from shelter cove to Garberville went over the old Briceland ridge behind what is now the Garberville airport. The original road to Harris to Spruce Grove to Garberville came down the ridge just south of Garberville on the, now, Tooby Ranch. It was a pack train trail. I’m not sure that Garberville even had a stage from Harris to Garberville.
Un-Bullshistory warning, big word warning, empirical evidence is something that a person witnessed first hand themselves. So, I have empirical evidence of the road to Kenny, and the one to Moody. Eat your hearts out! They became impassable after the 1964 flood. Imagine that! We always called Kenny “Kinny”, like in Poonkinny. You all know where that is don’t you? It’s next to Mina, near Covelo. There was a road into Moody from Sprowl Creek. The famous “Cobbs Riffle”, the sight of the famous Old Man Woods drowning, at the mouth of Sprowl Creek, is still there! That was the ford to go out the Nielson Ranch Ridge to the east of Sprowl Creek. One of the branches of the road came into Moody just to the west of the Moody Flat. It came across a steep slide that went out completely in 1964. The other branch went through the Metcalf ranch and comes out at the old Andersonia Mill (T.M. Dimmick Redwood Company)
The road to Kinny started just after the bridge that crosses the Matole river, just past the Redwoods Monastary in Whitethorn. It turned of at an angle to the east, like it was once the main road. It came out in Kinny, which was between moody and Four Corners. There was still an old tie-makers cabin there when I was a kid.
Both Moody and Kinny were Railroad construction base camps. You could also rent a room in either place.
Ross
If you are still there, the Moody that you thought was a bookkeeper in Garberville was probably David L Moony C.P.A. Then there was a man by the name of George Moody that was Speed Devee’s right hand man, head mechanic, and grease monkey.
I'm kinda waitin' for Oregon to tell us the story about the man he knew that opened gates for the Stagecoach
Mary Ellen
ReplyDeleteErnest McKee's wife was a Branscomb, but you probably knew that.
I was in the old Whitethorn stage house years ago when the Creares (?)owned it. It had rough sawn lumber walls inside. The walls had burlap tacked to the boards, on top of that was cheesecloth that was pasted onto the burlap with what looked like flour paste. not sure. On top of that was some real old wallpaper. It was really interesting to me.
Thanks Ernie,It was David L.Moony,maybe had an office a little east of your store,other side of the street???He did bookeeping for my dad!
ReplyDeleteThinking back 50 years makes my Brain hurt!!!
Black Bart robbed the "Cloverdale & Arcata" stage on Oct. 2, 1878, just south of Willitsville. Legendary Mendocino County Sheriff Jim Moore tracked Bart, who fled all his robberies on foot and seemed to possess super-human endurance, on horseback, but lost the trail in the rough country of the Eel River.
ReplyDeleteTwo days later Bart, the gentlemanly bandit who is infamous for politely demanding drivers throw down the Wells Fargo treasure box, robbed a stage between Covelo and Centerville.
In a book about Black Bart, there is a reproduction of an ad for the "Cloverdale and Arcata Stage Line," dated 1871.
Bart, also infamous for the occasional doggerel he scribbled on the back of waybills to taunt Wells Fargo detectives, returned to Mendocino County in 1882, robbing the down stage from Eureka to Cloverdale on Jan. 26 just north of Cloverdale.
There is another ad reproduction in the book for "W H. Forse's Grand Stage Line through from Cloverdale to Eureka in 72 hours." At the bottom of the ad, which also describes rail service between Cloverdale and Ukiah, it says: "Through tickets to be had at the Dock in San Francisco and at Cloverdale. This is the only overland route to Humboldt Bay." I don't know the date of this ad.
Five months later on June 14, 1882, Bart robbed the stage again just south of Willitsville, almost in the same spot of his first Mendocino County robbery in 1878. It is described in the narrative as "William Forse's Arcata to Cloverdale stage." A son, Tom Forse, was the driver.
Black Bart, who turned out to be Charles Boles, a Union Army Civil War veteran living the good life in San Francisco posing as a mining engineer, is "credited" with robbing 29 stages in his 8-year career (1875-83), the most successful highwayman in Western history. He never robbed passengers, he only wanted the Wells Fargo express boxes...and U.S. mail pouches, which makes him a little less Robin Hood-esque. People used to send a lot of cash through the mail in those days, and it wasn't insured.
Bart robbed two stages in Sonoma County as well. He earned his name in the 4th robbery attributed to him on Aug. 3, 1877. He stopped the "North Coast Stage Line" down stage four miles south of Fort Ross on the Meyer's Grade. It was here that he scribbled his first bit of doggerel:
"I've labored long and hard for bread
For honor and for riches
But on my corns too long you've tred
You fine-haired Sons of Bitches"
He signed it Black Bart, the Po8, and added:
"Driver, give my respects to our friend, the other driver; but I really had a notion to hang my old disguise hat on his weather eye."
A little Postal History:
ReplyDelete1830 First Postal Inspector with agents. The first federal police force.
1855 Registered MaiL is Created.
USPS code 2.3.3 Insurance on registered mail. $0.01-$25,000 is included in the price of registered mail. Item of value have to be declared.
Money------------Face value
Gold,Silver,Gems--market price.
After 1865 Post Offices had small assay offices in the back to help customers de clair the value of the insured items sent by registered mail.
2011-------Every week I send gold ore to a processor on the east coast by Registered Mail.
The Cost is $4.35 for registered mail plus postage.
I get the same Insurance include in my $4.35 as was guaranteed in 1855!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Empirical Evidence:
ReplyDeleteEarly in this post I made a statement; In 1865 Wells Fargo stopped hauling peoples gold.
Let me explain. When Wells Fargo started their express and banking service in SF. The Wells fargo agent would trade your gold for bank scripts in late 1865 and early 1866 the Calif. Banking system failed and Wells fargo closed for one day. In the process they lost 2/3rds of their capital. Customers didn't trust them. People switched to registered mail. And the gold and silver was inter-bank or their own. I researched this at the history room Wells fargo museum in SF while looking for clues to Butter field stage stops of the south west. Thanks
Idle Parker was the guy that opened the gates for the Garberville to Harris mail stage.
ReplyDeleteOregon
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteBlack Bart was also up in the area behind Oroville. Forbestown,La Porte,Etc.
ReplyDeleteThe police found a laundry ticket from SF that he'd dropped. They traced it back to him in SF. Thats how they caught him.
I remember being in a bar in Nevada City - Grass Valley area that belonged to Margi Graham's ( one of my cousins ) dad, I was told Black Bart hid out inside the
ReplyDeletebar counter for 3 days. I believe there was some written history about it on the wall also.
Oregon
Very interesting and informative article indeed. I have to admit that I always follow all news about this, so it was quite interesting to read this your post about this subject. Reading this your entry I have even noticed some new information which I haven’t known before. Thanks a lot for sharing this interesting post and I will be waiting for other great news from you in the nearest future.
ReplyDeleteCheapers Ernie, we're writin' essays for lazy schoolkids with our research.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for that info about where the Kenny road came into the Whitethorn road Ernie. That was a missing piece. I have a slew of older maps and am always studying the old trails and roads.
"Cheap essay" sounds like you get what you pay for.
ReplyDeleteOMR
It's really hard to tell, which are the original roads, and which are the logging roads. We were splitting redwood out in the Andersonia in the winter in the early 60's. Sometimes the old roads with few water crossings were the only way we could get to work.
The Improved Order of Red Men's roots can be traced back to the 1760s, when it was one of several secret groups such as the Sons of Liberty that formed in the years before the American Revolution. (It was members of the Sons of Liberty that dressed up like Native Americans and dumped tea in the harbor at the Boston Tea Party.)
ReplyDeleteAfter a meeting at Fort Mifflin near Philadelphia in 1813, several of the still-functioning patriotic groups came together as the Society of Red Men. The name was changed at an 1834 meeting in Baltimore to the Improved Order of Red Men, the name still used today.
A Grand Council in 1847 in Baltimore united the group nationally, and it continued to grow well into the 20th century. Branches were active in the Los Angeles area in the 1890s, including one in San Pedro. In 1915, Sequoia Tribe No. 140 moved into a former public library building at 543 Shepard Street in San Pedro after converting it into a 3,190-square-foot lodge.
The Red Men drew many of its rituals and terms from the Iroquois Tribe as a sign of respect, not ridicule. Members refer to its American Craftsman-style building overlooking the Pacific Ocean between Gaffey and Pacific streets as a "wigwam." Meetings, called pow-wows, are opened by banging a tomahawk on the podium instead of a gavel. Groups are called tribes, the leaders are named after great chiefs such as Sachem, Saamore and Incohonee and secret passwords and signs are used during meetings.
Though one does not have to be a Native American to join, members in the past had to wear Native American regalia at the time of their adoption into the tribe.
In June of 1915, over 5,000 people attended an Improved Order of Red Men pow-wow at Point Fermin following a parade through the San Pedro business district. The drill team from Sequoia Tribe No. 140 won first prize in the parade. Other events in the two-day festivities included a sacred concert, speeches by various Great Chiefs of the Red Men, a barbecue, and three three-round boxing matches.
The Improved Order of Red Men claimed to have 500,000 members across the country in the 1930s, but, as with many fraternal organizations, membership has dipped in recent years. The entry in the latest version of the reference source Associations Unlimited states the current nationwide membership of the Waco, TX-headquartered Great Council of U.S. Improved Order of Red men at 15,251.
Ebbing membership rolls led to a crisis for the Sequoia Tribe's San Pedro lodge in November 2002.The local chapter had become inactive in the early 1990s, and the unoccupied building nearly was sold for $350,000 to a bidder who wanted to turn it into a private residence.
Local preservationists led by Liz Schindler and Julian Jimenez alerted the state Red Men organization, which blocked the sale. But in order to save the building, it became necessary to re-activate the group's charter, which meant that Schindler, Jimenez and the rest of the 50 new members had to re-learn the Red Men ways and re-establish its female auxiliary group, the Degree of Pocohontas.
According to Daily Breeze reporter Donna Littlejohn's account, the new members drew the line at donning Native American garb and headdresses. "We do have some rituals. But I can't tell you about them," Schindler told Littlejohn at the time.
i'm not sure yet of my indian roots but i am a direct descendent of patrick henry, give me liberty or give me death, the people who dressed up like indians and dumped the tea into the harbor. unlike the current republican tea party which is throwing our treasury bills into the harbor this weekend
ReplyDeleteplaying politics with obama rather than doing the job they were elected to do to help improve our economy. needless to say, i have alreay removed my 401k from the control of these crazy fools on both sides of the issue.
Mr. Spy Rock, Thank you for doing research on the Red Men. I was under the impression they were anti Indian. Thanks for the real story. As for your last blog about the overpaids in Washington DC. Those fools are always tring to get their hands on my Local 3 retirement I get each month. Spy why can't we put them on a bus and take them to the border. Then hire new guys.
ReplyDeleteOMR
ReplyDeleteIt's really hard to tell, which are the original roads, and which are the logging roads. We were splitting redwood out in the Andersonia in the winter in the early 60's.
You and Oregon have been there.
My statement about a stage road through Andersonia on an old road is based on a lot of research in the area. Many local men were going to live at Andersonia to help build the dam and mill and buildings right around 1900. I have never seen a road connecting Andersonia to Moody before the logging period. The bulk of supplies from Garberville took the Moody road fork through the Medcalf Ranch and down to Andersonia.
At a kiosk in the park campground across from the road up Reed Mntn. I read that the Natives traveled to the coast using what they termed the Low Gap. Presumably the
RR track to Moody traveled a similar course through difficult terrain.
By the time I moved nearby the timber companies had fired up operations there, and it had a reputation for not being hiker friendly.
Segueing... I have heard of a suspension bridge over the southfork somewhere downstream of Garberville three or four decades ago? Anyone?
Two Crows
ReplyDeleteI’m not ignoring you. Your question about “Jet Dry” doesn’t jog any memories, I’ve never heard of it, sorry.
Your question about “ The order of Redmen” does ring a bell, but I don’t remember any salient details, just foggy jibbberish. Maybe my mother remembers something. Her father, Bill Rathjens, was a member of “The Independant Order of Oddfellows”. I always thought that The Redmen was a branch of the Oddfellows, like the Shiners is to the Masons. But, they are all secret societies, so if they told you something they would have to kill you to keep it secret. I don't think that they were on the west coast until the early 1900's
They were modeled after the original Boston Tea Party “Redmen” that threw the tea in the harbor. I found a couple of links about Redmen, but nothing local. Clink on links below:
Mill Valley Redmen
Redmen
Wikipedia Redmen:
ReplyDeleteRedmen
I can't make the following into a link for some reason. So just copy and paste it into the URL line. Thanks. Ern
ReplyDeleteen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Improved_Order_of_Red_Men
I can't make the following into a link for some reason. So just copy and paste it into the URL line. Thanks. Ern
ReplyDeleteen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Improved_Order_of_Red_Men
Ernie, Sorry the town jet dry was wrong. The real name was Gas Jet post office 1868-1876,
ReplyDeleteName change to False Cape Post office 1876-1879 name change to Cape Town post office 1879-1937. The name Gas Jet came from natural gas escaping from a well. C2c
Where is the road,that goes up to Reed mountain? I assumed it was private or beloned to Coombs?
ReplyDeleteWhere does the road take off from the 101?
Thanks!
Hey Ross, the primary road up Reed Mntn takes off from old Benbow drive just south of Fish Creek.
ReplyDeleteIt is a locked private road.
The campground whose name escapes me is on the east shore of the bend in the southfork there at Fish Creek, but the access is across from the Reed Mntn. Road.
There are a number of names of stage stops, towns, and Post Offices along the coastal route.
Where Chemise Mntn Road meets the Shelter Cove road was first called Frank, and then McKees. Kenny used to be called Davis, 4 corners was French, there was a town of Wilder on Wilder Ridge.
"that came and went" would fit in nicely at the end of the first sentence of my last paragraph.
ReplyDeleteI knew I was taking a risk typing before coffee (excuse du jour).
OMR,Thanks for the info!!!
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome Ross.
ReplyDelete"Eat your heart out" is right Ernie. I am envious of how many places you and Oregon had access to decades ago.
my daughter is flying to washington to visit the patrick henry memorial and has started researching his history. she said that he was unhappy about washington becoming president because he didn't want another king to deal with. she said that he was a member of the sons of liberty and that the early americans had respect for american indian ways and borrowed from them in crafting the constitution and early government of the united states. obviously, there is a lot more to learn about this.
ReplyDeleteOMR,I couldn't find Fish Crick on Mapquest,but I did find Twin Trees road. Is Reed Mountain acess road kinda across the hiway from there?
ReplyDeleteDid Tetherows live on Twin Trees road?Like I've said before,makes my Brain hurt thinking back 50 years.
I think this is question for Ernie who knows the hood better'n me.
ReplyDeleteRoss
ReplyDeleteTo find fish creek, first find where the East Branch of the South Fork of Eel River comes into the South Fork. You can toss a rock underhand to the north from the Benbow Inn and it will kerplunk into the East branch. Almost exactly 1 mile south you will find Fish Creek, on the west side on the south fork. The Eel River lodge was situated there until the 1964 flood. Goforth and Branscomb Logging logged the entire Fish Creek drainage for the Benbow Sawmill back in the late fifties. The old highway is now called Benbow Drive, that is the access road.
About 1/3rd mile further south a road goes up the hill to the west to Reed Mountain and Coombs Summer home.
Yes, Tetherow lived on Twin Trees Road. That is the road that travels north on the west side of the river from the 2nd Twin Trees Bridge. That is the one below the Freeway Twin Trees bridge. (the 3rd) The original Twin Trees Bridge was located about ¼ mile north of the two that are still there. It is gone now, but the abutment is still there, between the two “twin” schoolmarm redwood trees.
If you continue down Twin Trees Road, past the old bridge, and go up the hill you will come to a stand of redwoods that belonged to Forbee. Goforth and Branscomb logged back them back in the late fifties.
Some might remember that the Twin Trees road was where Chip Nunnemaker shot Tim Mooney in the stomach for pointing a shotgun at him over a right-of-way dispute. We paid Tetherow .50 cents per thousand for a right of way. He didn’t own the right of way, but it was simpler to pay his graft and be done with it. I guess that we set a bad precedent for those to follow.
Yep,I know where East Branch is very well. Speed had property out there. My dad logged out that way as well,also some for Benbow. My Dads payroll records show Branscomb and Roy Goforth working for my dad in the Mid fifties in that area.Guess they went out on their own after that.There was a "beef" between Ray Tetherow and my Dad one time,Mel Byrd tells the story quite well!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the directions and catching up!
Ross
ReplyDeleteDad and Roy first moved to Garberville to log for your dad out sprowel Creek. You will probably find a lot of Payroll checks. They later logged for Western Timber after they bought their own logging equipment. That was also out Sprowel Creek. Then the Logged a bunch of John Benbow Timber. The Road into the Benbow state park campground is one of their old logging roads. Then they Joined with Bud Miller to log the whole Jewett Valley and Jewett Rock Ridge
From there they went to Eel Rock in the early 60's. We provided the timber for a Lot of houses. If you live in a house, thank a logger!
Old Man Tetherow was killed in a logging accident. He was standing behind the cab of a logging truck against the headache board. His son was loading logs, and he turned the loader around too fast, the log slid off the end of the forks and right into him. He was a cranky old bastard, but far to good a man to die like that.
ReplyDeleteWas there also a Gary Tetherow from SFHS who died in a car crash around 1961?
ReplyDeleteBud Miller-CHP?
ReplyDeleteSorry for thr Thread Drift..........
I remember Chip Nunnemaker(gypo) and also had Forty Winks Motel in Redway?Was probably also in cahoots with Bob Main?
ReplyDeleteWho is Tom Mooney?
"Tim" Mooney?? oopps!
ReplyDeleteErnie B'logger--
ReplyDeleteWhich entrance into the Redwood Park was a logging road?
Were you logging redwood and later fir? or not really in that order?
Oregon- I would like to know more about Idle Parker if you got stories, I have a Parker descendant who would appreciate to have a story?
Interrupting, drifting, segueing... we do it all here Ross.
OMR,I know that! I just haven't posted here in awhile!!!
ReplyDeleteNow for some errata. Those that don’t know what “errata” is, it’s the plural of erratum.
ReplyDeleteI talked to Walt Prince this morning. He is a historian of Highway One. He said, and I know that he is right, that the original Highway One came from Fort Brag, Westport, Rockport, Devilbiss, Usal, Four Corners, Whitethorn, Thorn Junction, Ettersburg junction, Telegraph Ridge, Ettersburg, Wilder Ridge, Honeydew, Petrolia, and onto Ferndale. The big white building north of Whitethorn WAS a stage stop. There was two huge barns on the flat there that were the livery stables for the stage line. And the fields were used for pasture. I remember at least one of the barns was still standing when I was a kid. The road through Kings range was an old logging/mining road. Did you know that there is a tungsten mine in Ettersburg?
Errat-two
Chip Nunnemaker and Bob Main were cahoots in logging, and they were also cahoot cowboys. Chip was a big time bull rider in his younger years and Bob was a rodeo cowboy. Together they bought Grey Cliff Acres, and started a rodeo.
Errat-three
I think that you are right about Gary Tetherow. Dewayne Tetherow still lives here. Tim Mooney lived at the old Tetherow house on Twin Trees road, at the time of the shooting. He is one of our local legends that some talk about as a hero. Other are not so sure. I liked him a lot. But, you would have to call him an outlaw. I have some really great, and some humorous stories that he had told me. Some of those are stories that are only told at places like family reunions, and other low places.
Errat-four
OMR
The road into the Benbow Park is right across from the Reed Mountain road. It was our old logging road. It has a low-water concrete bridge on it now. We had a swing-away wood log bridge, that was cabled to a stump. When the water came up it would swing onto the river bank, then next spring we would take the Skid Cat and swing it back. I remember swimming across the river in March to pull ropes and pulleys and cables to put the bridge back in place. It was so cold…Part of my growth was stunted for a month. I remember that all the way across I couldn’t breath out, only in, it’s weird to be that cold.
Errat-five
ReplyDeleteWalt Prince told me that Kinny was pretty close to Four corners, like it was the north east corner. The place that I thought of as Kinny might have been there, or it may have just been a tie-makers cabin. Not sure. Much water has passed underthe bridge since then.
In the late 70's Bruce Van meter was doing a photo history of SO-HUM. And making copies of early family pictures. He had a collection of pre-flood photos of land marks. I met him when he was taking 5x7 plate camara pictures of log decks and saw mills. Anyone know if bruce ever published his work? He had lots of pictures of a place you call Andersonia. I heard he teaches at CR art department. Does anyone know if his work is available. I own 7 of his original pictures of logging operations. Thanks C2c
ReplyDeleteCan someone tell me about (Dooyville)? North of Ettersburg. My Grandfather told me fishing stories about the upper mattole and creeks. My grand father was there in the late 30's.
ReplyDeleteDootyville.
ReplyDeleteIt was a real popular spot for the back-to-the-landers in the '70s.
I don't know much history though.
??? There was a young fellow who lived out by the airport.At the time(early sixties),I think he drove a diesel Landrover???.
ReplyDeleteHis folks may have owned Property in downtown Portland,Or.
I can't remember his name???
Anyone know??
Also,anyone know of a fellow by the name of Hollingshead?He lived north of Miranda,maybe one of those roads that went toward Ft.Seward/McCann???
He had about 600-800 guns,I saw them one time!!
Thanks for letting me ramble!!!
Ross, I never new Mr. Hollingshead. But a man I new (Gene Gallianni)(sp) that had rifles from that collection. The last gun Gene let me see was a model 94 in 40-60. I don't know how much Gene acquired of Hollingshead collection. At Gene's passing in Ferndale, his collection was just shy of 1000. A gun smith friend of mine(Craig Casey) tried to get Gene's wife to broker the collection. But she silently gave them away .Gene had one of every cal. Produced in model 94.
ReplyDeleteCharlie,Thanks for the info!!!
ReplyDeleteSeeing these many guns when I was about 10 years old,Well I just never forgot about it!
Walt Prince??? Did he graduate SFHS about 1959-1960?
Kenny used to be called Davis. That is just wrong omr, please read your sources a bit more carefully.
ReplyDeleteDavis was another name for Gopherville in 1905.
Heading north after leaving the coast at Usal you came to Kenny which was about 1/2 miles due east of Bear Harbor, and by counting sections, about 5 miles south of 4 corners, which was named French in 1905. At Kenny the road forks, the inland wagon road went to the town of Moody, 10 miles up the RR from Bear Harbor.
Now here it gets interesting. At Moody I believe there were two or more forks. One is the old Moody road which, as we have described, arrives at the Southfork Eel a little south of Sproul Creek. Another fork that went to Briceland (more of a happening town in the first few decades of the 1900's). I was talking today to someone who had grown up on Somerville road near Briceland, her mother was told was that this was the old stage route to Briceland. If you were able to go far up Somerville road out of Briceland (and you can't), it would T and to the right is the stage route coming out near the Whitethorn school on Whitethorn Road. My old 1886 map has Whitethorn Station just north of a little creek coming in from the east. Is the station near Whitethorn school Ernie? To the left on Somerville Road would connect up to little Sproul creek. The very gated road up Sproul Creek also connects to the coast road, near Gopherville? as I understand it, using the old Barnum haul road.
How does that last part sound? I just heard it today from some locals.
Oregon, back to your trail to the coast from Dimmicks/Andersonia. As I mentioned, it was called Low Gap and was an Indian trail. In 1865 a winding trail was cut from the Eel River Valley to Bear Harbor wide enough only for a man and a mule. This is from A Glance Back by Diane Hawk.
ReplyDeleteLater she mentions RH Anderson who had a place at Jackass Gulch on the coast had a trail going from his place to the Southfork. In 1879 he showed a traveler that he had worked to shorten the trail by some 3 miles to a 12 mile route.
When Dimmick leased the mill and timber rights around 1950 two main line logging roads were built. One roughly followed the old railroad line up Indian Creek through Moody to close to the coast. The other road follows the ridge between Indian and Piercy Creeks and ended at Kenny on the old coastal road. I am paraphrasing from A Glance Back again. Diane wrote that over 200 miles of main and spur logging roads were constructed in that area in a twenty year period. At one time these road were linked up to those of Georgia Pacific's and you could travel from Piercy to Fort Bragg without using a public road.
OMR
ReplyDeleteI like the whole thing. I’m sure that the railroad went through Low Gap and into bear harbor. I’m not sure exactly where Kinny was, because we took a private road, not the regular road that we use today. So, I’m no expert on Kinny, Four Corners, or Bear Harbor. I was told that a tidal wave took out the wharf there. I dove for abalone , and when I was in high school we hauled a load of sheep from the Bear Harbor Ranch to the Ukiah Auction Yard for a man named Smith. A real odd duck.
The road to Moody sounds dead on. The forks at Moody verify what I said about a road from there to Garberville, and the other road (I believe) followed Sprowel Creek to little Sprowel Creek. The road followed little Sprowel Creek to the headwaters of Stanley Creek (Not sure about name, but it is the 1st creek south of the present Whitethorn School.) Then it follows Stanley creek to the Matole. Seth Johannesen lives out there and his sawmill is out that creek. The road goes all the way from Sprowel Creek to Whitethorn. It is still in use as a private road. Additional information would be that it is also the present location of the power line into Whitethorn.
The other road that I mentioned is the one from the Nielson ranch, down the Metcalf Ranch into The Dimmick (Andersonia Mill)
To answer you question, I think that you found a darn good source of information, It all fits with what I grew up with.
One other trivia that I heard (Bullshistory) is that they scraped the Bear Harbor railroad out for scrap iron during the 2nd World War. I also know from empirical evidence that there was a locomotive that sat on the track at moody. I remember a large railroad trestle near Moody, and a large Redwood Dam on Indian Creek. All casualties of the ‘64 flood.
A lot of this stuff was a long time ago, so I’m not sure of the exact locations. But the locomotive is still pretty fresh in my mind. It was pretty striped down and rusted out, but it was still there. I was told that it is now at The Fort Humboldt Museum.
" At one time these road were linked up to those of Georgia Pacific's and you could travel from Piercy to Fort Bragg without using a public road."
ReplyDeleteAs any old logger that traveled those roads would tell you, they were a hell of a lot better roads than the county roads back then.
Ernie--is it possible that your tie maker cabin memory was a Gopherville? There were a number of 1930's camps for making the split stuff: posts, ties, shakes and stakes. By the 1960's there were only a few mill cabins left standing.
ReplyDeleteAgain, this is from A Glance Back by Diane Hawk and Marguerite Cook.
That Andersonia story is something. Rereading Diane Hawk's book, it is hard not to ramble on. Henry Neff Anderson and his Washington state partners bought out their new Bear Harbor Lumber Company partners in 1903 and
ReplyDeleteAnderson became president of Southern Humboldt Lumber Company. They held 15,000 acres of timber from the southfork to the coast. The mill they built was to be the world's most advanced. The newspapers of the time show many of the area's men moving to Andersonia just to help in the construction. In 1903 160 men were working on building the track to Moody from Andersonia. A townsite on 40 acres was laid out, ten lumber camps were created between Piercy and Bear Harbor, where the wharves were improved. The railroad had 17 1/2 miles of track from wharf to mill, by 1905 it was largely completed except for a few bridges.
As most know, Anderson was killed by a falling beam in the mill a few weeks before the mill opened in 1905. Heirs and litigation prevented the mill from operating, and it became known as the "million dollar mill that never milled." The earthquake of '06 did substantial damage to the tracks, stranding two locomotives at Moody, and the 32 foot high by 80 feet high dam was weakened.
In 1925, twenty years of accumulated logs were swept out to sea when the dam gave way in a flood.
It had never occurred to me that they would build another dam there, as you testified Ernie.
Were there a lot of logs lost again?
I see "Usal" mentioned here a few times. In the early 60's, my dad delivered fuel to a logging operation at Bear Creek in or near Usal. (I sent Ernie a mountaintop picture of it once.) My dad would also mention a nearby delivery stop in "Wheeler" but I can't find it on a map or in any historical references. I'd be curious to learn exactly where it was and how it could've completely disappeared. Thanks to anyone who might know.
ReplyDelete-- Greg Van Hoy
Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defence? Where is the difference between having our arms in our own possession and under our own direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defence be the *real* object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?
ReplyDeletepatrick henry
its pretty obvious that congress is a bunch of terrorists holding america hostage to further their own wealth and oil interests. time to take back the land boys.
dang ross, mention the g word and you turn into chatty cathy
ReplyDeleteLOL!! Spy,as Ernie will attest to,Many of these old Loggers around the area were Gun bugs as well.
ReplyDeleteA Mr. Wheeler bought about 4,000 acres in the Jackass and Little Jackass Creek area in 1908 but because of the poor harbor and bad terrain it wasn't logged until logging equipment improved after WW II.
ReplyDeleteWith the help of additional capital from the Wolf Creek Timber Co. of Pennsylvania a modern steel framed mill was built at Jackass Creek in 1950-1 where the two forks of the creek meet. There a company town with housing for 22 families was built. Lumber was hauled out by truck to Willits when a road was built to Wheeler from the Usal road. There was a little red schoolhouse built that functioned as church, school and social center until late 1959.
After a huge gale blew through the canyon and destroyed many of the buildings and scattered the lumber, the mill was repaired but it did close at the end of the 1959 when it was deemed more economical advantageous to haul the logs to Willits by truck than mill them there. Some men were hired on at Ft. Bragg, some at Willits, and Wheeler became a ghost town.
After numerous property changes, the town was burned down because of liability and vandalism concerns and the site is now part of the Sinkyone Wilderness.
A Glance Back by Diane Hawk-- great book, get it at Radio Shack.
The old Sebbass (or Seabass) ranch house on the Moody road where it passed through the Nielsen Ranch had served as a stage stop. I saw the cubicles and pegs to hang clothing in the loft. Sadly, the building burned way back around 1980. It was all pegged and square nailed. Theoretically, Jack London and his wife Charmian came through there on a buggy trip north. There are various stories about the London's visit, including a stop at th Comb's place at Phillipsville.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteOkay,,,, What causes a blog to be removed by an administrator? Is this a violation of 1st amendment? Is it juicy enough for me to see??
ReplyDeleteOregon
Ha, ha. That's funny! I did a post that said: Quote "please ignore this, I'm showing somebody how you do a comment on this blog."
ReplyDeleteThen I showed her how to delete it, if she was signed up as an "Official Blogger". Then I showed her how to do a post and eliminate it completlely, which you don't know about because it was eliminated completly and you din't know about it... That's the funny part. Ha, ha.
It's not an evil plot, or maybe it was Ha, ha. You'll never know for sure.
Darn, I thought Ernie had pictures of the Moose Woman at the beach and deleated them.
ReplyDelete