USA > California > Humboldt County > History of Humboldt County, California : with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, farms, residences, public buildings, factories, hotels, business houses, schools, churches, etc., from original drawings, including biographical sketches > Part 26
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having a "good time " one evening at a gathering in the cabin. Some one proposed the place have a name, and another suggested it be called! " Happy Camp." This was received with clicers and the " drinks" were had over the christening.
RECOLLECTIONS OF HAPPY CAMP.
A late number of the Crescent City Record gives some real- iniscences of life there in 1852, by an "oll inhabitant," and we here make some extracts, as it shows the general character of those early miners' came.
" During the first four months of the year, 1832, we had one express, and one ouly, with newspapers and letters from home. This was in the early part of April. Frauk Rogers, of Cram, Rogers & Co.'s Express, came up the river from Trinidad, bound with the express for Yreka. The Weather had been checkered the numerous streams to be crossed more or less swollen, and the facilities for crossing heing poor, rendered his progress slow and tedious. How long he had been on the road I do not know, nor does it matter. He put up at the ' Pelican Honse,' and it soon spread to every nook and corner of the camp that the long-looked-for express had arrived. We had not seen a newspaper since ' the previous November, in Yreka, and of course we were all anxious to hear from the 'States.' We made a general grand rush for the express office, the ' Pelicau House,' and procured some of the latest dates, One would buy the St. Louis Republicun, another the New York Herald, third man the Tribune, and still another the New Orleans Delta, etc. We would read one through and then exchange with our neighbors. Those who happened to be so fortunate, received letters from anxious parents, brothers and sisters in the far dis- taut East. Those letters and papers cost us $2.50 cach; but notwithstanding the high prices, papers were eagerly sought for and their contents devoured with the avidity of a hungry wolf after a sheep's carcass.
EARLY MINING.
"Winter passed, and spring opened fine and pleasant. The miost of us went to work in the canon, some five miles below, leaving Happy Camp nearly deserted. Each mness or company of two to four partners had a tent, with frying pan, camp ket- tle, tin cup, etc., picks, shovels, pans, and rocker. We strung along the river, up and down the canon, on both sides of the stream, at no great distance from each other-perhaps half a mile between the most distant camps. There was a canoe-a kind of dugout -- at the upper end of the canon for the accommo- dation of those who worked ou the left bank of the river. Tbe water was high in the river, caused by the melting of the snow in the mountains, running with a strong and rapid current, with many sucks, eddies, and whirlpools on either side, render iug the crossing with a canoe, especially with inexperienced and green hands, extremely difficult-in fact, dangerous. But that insatiable appetite for gold, sordid gold, causes mankind to lose sight of danger, however palpable the same may be.
122
PRESENT CONDITION OF THE COUNTY.
"Notwithstanding the higb stage of the water in the river, we did well. Two men with one rocker made on an average about half an ounce ($8) a day cach, and not work very hard at that But those good old days are passed and gone, never more to return. Happy Camp was our base of supplies. We had cab- ins there, with some blankets and cooking utensils, for be it known that we did not move all our plunder to our tempor- ary camp in the canon. We, at least some of us, generally went to Happy Camp on Saturday evening, and the following Sunday returned with sufficient supplies to do us through the week.
" There were at Happy Camp about half a dozen fixtures who remained there all the wbilc. Madam Cochrane (known to the old Crescentonians) and her man were running the 'Pelican House.' She kept some 'chain lightning' (known on Front Strect as 'benzine'). The 'Pelican House' was situated im- mediately on the bank of Indian Creek.
" Then there was Maltese Green, with a shirt-tail load of goods and a keg of 'knock-'em-stiff' -- perhaps of his own ınanu- facturc. He was also familiar with the route to Indian Creek's waters' edge. During Sunday the boys amused themselves in various ways, such as shooting at a target, a social game of eucbre, and sometimes a scrub horse race. I never in all my life knew a happier and more contented people. Everything was merriment and fun, and such a thing as a row was totally unknown amongst them."
The town is built on both sides of Indian Creek, ncar its junction with the Klamath River, and surrounded by mount- ains, the only means of reaching the place being by mountain trails, The country around it is rich in gold; mining being its support. It has quite a thriving trade, there being four stores, three kept by white men and one by Chinese. It is ninety iniles west of Crescent City.
KLAMATH CITY.
A short time after the settlement of Happy Camp, a settle- ment was inade at the mouth of the Klamath River, a stream emptyiug into the ocean some twenty miles south of Crescent City. The Klamatb was visited, in 1850, by a schooner on a voyage of exploration, which anchored off the mouth of the river and sent a small boat with a crew of fifteen or twenty to make au attempt to cross the bar. The har being rough at the time, the boat was swamped, and all the crew were drowned with the exception of one man, who was rescued by the Indians. Afterwards, in the year 1851, another schooner arrived and a settlement was formed.
It was named Klamath City, and it had a rapid growth.
It was supposed tbat Klamathı River was rich in gold, and the new town soon became the headquarters of explorers, pros- pectors and otbers.
The frames of bouses, ready to he put together on arrival, were shipped by sail vessels from San Francisco, and it is said that
one iron house was imported and erected in the town. For what purpose it was intended or used is not known. As the Indians were living there in great numbers, it is supposed that the owner intended to guard against their attacks by erceting a castle which would be proof against shot and fire.
Klamath City had a rapid growth, and soon became a place of considerable importance. But its growth was not more rapid than its decline, and it had but a brief existence. Pros- pectors at the mouth of the river did not meet with the success they had anticipated, and they soou began to seck other min- ing localities. In 1852, the iron house was re-shipped to San Francisco, and a short time afterwards, Klamath City belonged to the list of deserted mining towns.
DEL NORTE VILLAGE.
Del Norte, sometimes called "Smith River Corners," is located sixteen miles northeast of Crescent City. It contains ahout 200 inhabitants. This place is right in the midst of the dairy country, and is more fully described elsewhere.
CONDITION OF THE COUNTY.
The present condition of Del Norte may he partially gatbered from the Assessment Roll for 1880.
Value of land, $285,667; number of acres, 61,139; value of improvements on land, $13,512; town lots and blocks $30,010; improvements on lots and blocks, $99,875; deduction on mort- gages, $55,807; value of personal property, $308,240; money, $22,048; improvements on all property assessed to other than the owner of the land, $1,745 ; amount of deductions, $27,152; total value of all property, $899,738; value after all deductions, SS04,144.
Value of script, $6,893; money, $27,373 ; fourtecn hee-hives, $39; 1,070 gallons liquor, $3,326; 525 gallons, $2,737 ; hcef cat- tle, $75; 770 stock cattle, $7,961; colts, $2,040; 2,311 cows $44,646; 126 utensils, $1,147; 137 goats, $402; 912 hogs, $2,258; 475 horses, $21,788; 135 mules, $4,875; 77 oxen, $2,570; 334 poultry, $808; 1,404 sheep, $2,675; total value $128,827.
The levy of taxes for State purposes for the year 1880, was sixty four cents on each and every $100 of taxable property. Add to the State tax a levy for county purposes of $1.86, and we have a total taxation of $2.50 on each and every $100 of taxahle property.
The principal exports are hutter and lumher, of which 10,000,000 feet of lu mher was shipped to San Francisco in 1880, and 322,000 pounds of hutter. Ahout $200,000 in gold-dust is also exported annually from the mines in the county. The imports are small, probably 3,000 tons of general merchandise per year.
The population of Del Norte in 1860, was 1,993; in 1870, 2,022; in 1880, 2,499, showing an increase in ten years of 628. The voting population is ahout 700.
123
GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES OF HUMBOLDT.
GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES OF HUMBOLDT.
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Its Mountains, Valleys, Rivers, Bays, Capes, Publie Lands, Scenery, Harbor Improvements, Etc.
HUMBOLDT COUNTY contains 3,590 square miles, or 2,297,600 acres of land. Its length from north to south is 108 miles, and its greatest breadth is forty-seven miles. It has more than 175 miles of meander coast line. It is three times as large as the State of Rhode Island, and more than one- half as large as Massachusetts, 'The farming land with few exceptions, lies along the rivers, formed by sedimentary deposits, owing to the constant shifting of the water channel.
For general small farming, dairying, stock-raising and lum- bering, it is not excelled by any county in the State. Perhaps one-tenth of the area might be called waste land, and is the rocky cliffs along the sea-shore, and some of the tallest mount- ains in the eastern part of the county. The balance of the unsurveyed lands are what might be called grazing lands, the most of it being covered with an inferior growth of stunted timber, while some of it may come under the head of minera lands, which are located in the north end of the county, and consisting of gold, silver and quartz ledges. There are no large valleys. The whole consists of rounded ridges, with their prairies on top, and wooded sides and small valleys he- tween.
The largest area of level land is in the vicinity of Humboldt Bay, which is on the coast abont midway between the north and south lines of the county. Between Eureka aud Arcata, there are thousands of acres of swamp and overflowed lands. From Enreka, sonth, are what is known as the Hookton Flats. There is another large tract of land, from the island to Mad River and the marsh south of Eureka to Humboldt Point, and still further south to the mouth of Eel River, all of which would be easy to reclaim, but is yet in a state of nature.
MOUNTAINS AND HILLS.
Twenty miles below Petrolia, on the coast, arises a high inountain known as King's Peak, lying parallel with the beach- Immediately inland, and running six or seven miles in the same direction, is a twin brother, Wilder Ridge.
Below Eel River, down the coast, there are no long streams, and consequently no long ridges till you arrive at Bear River Ridge, a distance of ten or twelve miles. The river and ridge lie at right angles with the coast, consequently their course is east and west, the ridge being on the north side of the river. This ridge preserves a distinct demarkation for twenty-five
miles and terminates at its juncture with the dividing ridge of the South Fork, which point is familiarly known a> the Monument.
On the south side of Bear River and parallel with that stream, are Southmyd and then Rainbow Ridge, being really the same ridge, which extends eastward till it joins the South Fork divide, at the heml of Bull Creek, south of the Monument, and here it also connects, at right angles, with that great grazing region known as Elk Ridge It runs northerly and sontherly, twelve to fifteen miles from the coast, and is the inain dividing ridge between the South Fork and Mattole River.
There seems to be a break in the great redwood helt, The country is in conformation, like the rest of the county, hilly. with rounded ridges nud sloping ravines. It is covered by straggling oaks, ash and spruce. The laud is not rocky, but a soil extends over the whole. This supports a nutritious grass, knowu as inesquite. Being in the fog belt, the growth of herbage is immense, and the country is occupied by dairy farms, producing large quantities of hutter, shipped from Humboldt Bay or Shelter Cove.
The Coast Range counnenecs at the ocean, and falls back from the coast, increasing gradually iu height, until it reaches an elevation of some 4,440 feet, known as the Ball Hills. They retreat slightly from the ocean around Humboldt Bay,
For a long distance from north to south, through the county are the Bald Hills. Seen from the summit of the first range of bills to the cast, or from the valley's at points whence they are visible, the Bald Hills present anything but an inviting appearance. They look bare and withered and comfortless for they lose their verdure far earlier than the regions nearer the sea. Nevertheless they coustitute one of the great reserves of wealth with which this county is so bountifully endowed They are now for the most part devoted to the grazing of flocks and herds.
On the south line of the county is Bell Spring Mountain, on the Overland Road, 4,400 feet elevation, from which a very extended view is obtained of the ocean and a large extent of country. This mountain has here and there peaks formed out of smooth round pebbles and bowlders that were once a river bed, and which have been thrown up by volcanic action, and solidified, but are now loosening from each other. As they fall away they pile around the base of the peak in a loose, shifting heap.
Quartz is seen protruding from the surface and suggests that gold may yet be found in paying quantities in the Coast Range. The stone that marks the line dividing Humboldt from Mendocino, is planted ou this mountain.
The mountains extend near to the coast in the lower part of the county, below Mattole River, and are some 3,000 feet high, and generally covered with chaparral. There are very many peaks scattered about the country of various heights.
124
GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES OF HUMBOLDT.
TABLE BLUFF.
The following descriptiou was furnished us by Jackson Saw- yer, Esq .:-
Tbe Table Bluff, as its name would indicate, is an elevated portion of land some one and a half miles wide and seven in length. It rises in quite a steep bluff from the ocean beach, and with varied elevations and depressions, extending in a southcasterly direction, reaches the redwoods, where it termin- ates at an elevation of 500 or 600 feet. The surface of Table Bluff, is very much broken hy gulehes running in various di- rections, containing an abundance of the best of water and groves of alder trees, with some spruce and fir. The surface of the land as first seen by white men, was covered in some places with grass and hazel hrush, but mostly with a dense growth of fern and myrtle brush. The soil is black and of a light loamy nature, and on the level from two to three feet decp.
LAKES AND LAGOONS.
About nine miles above the town of Trinidad are several lakes-three in number-which are cleep, have well defined shores, are not intruded upon by marshes, abound with all the fish native to this section, and would afford magnificent and safe yacbting. The largest of these, known as Big Lagoon, is six miles long and four miles wide, is completely inelosed from the ocean, and is fed by Maple Creek. On the south side it is hounded by rolling hills, and on the north by a very high hill, commanding a full, grand ocean prospeet from north to south The lake is three-cornered, narrowing to a point where the creek discharges. Warren Creek empties into this lagoon.
Blue Lake is another of the most beautiful sheets of water in the county. It is on the east side of Mad River. A hotel is here kept as a pleasure resort by Clement Chartin. It has a charming situation upon the banks of the beautiful lake from which it takes its name. It is the most enchanting rural resort in Humboldt County.
THE RIVER SYSTEM.
The river system of the county consists of a system of par- allel streams running northwest through the county into the Pacific. Going up these rivers, they pass transversely through the redwoods towards the southeast. The river channels run through canons in places so narrow as toafford only passage way for the winter floods, but widen at intervals, leaving strips of bottom-land from one-quarter of a mile to a mile in width he- tween the edge of the channels and the mountains. In some places the gorges of the streams are absolutely frightful to contemplate.
The large streams have a general course towards the north- west. Tbe Klamath, Mad, Mattole and Eel Rivers have their head-waters outside of the county lines.
None of these rivers will ever be of much service for navi-
gation, for the reason they all have a steep grade; their cañons are free from rocks, and the channels nearly, in every instance, pass over strips of sand, and are hedged in by walls of redwood timber. The eurrent, during the season of floods, is terrific. The canons are then but conduits for a seething flood, beariug on its surface the debris of the forest's huge redwood trees, un- dermined along the banks and swept.along by the flood; old logs, dislodged from the drifts, where they had lain for years, are carried out into the ocean. These rivers rise very suddenly with the heavy rains in winter.
We will give brief descriptions of these rivers, beginning at the north end of the county.
THE GREAT KLAMATH RIVER.
The great Klamath River rises in the lake of the same name, and in its windings through the mountains takes a general westerly course until it pours into the ocean near Crescent City the combined waters of the Klamath, Shasta, Scott, Sal- mon, and Trinity Rivers, with their hundreds of tributaries. The volume of water that goes surging through its rocky gorges and precipitous cañons in the winter season is tremendous, and the slowly melting snows on the mountain peaks keep the stream a rushing torrent till late in the summer.
The name "Klamath" is of Indian origin, and was first applied to the stream near its source by the early trappers, who asked the natives there what they called the stream, and were answered " Klamat," or " Tlamat." It is spelled by Fremont " Tlamath." The tribes that lived along the stream each had its name for the great river, but the name adopted by the whites soon be- came known from the mouth to the source, and was also applied to the lakes from which it springs, though for these the Klamath tribe that inhabited their borders had different and distinet appellations. This stream, as well as its first important tributary, the Shasta, was known to the trappers.
The Klamath drains a large extent of territory, and carries a volume of water truly wonderful. Between its precipitous banks the waters, augmented by the winter's storms, rush and tumble and foam to the sea, falling ten feet to the mnile, and furnishing water-power enough to turu every factory wheel in the world. Through this narrow outlet flows all the water that falls in Upper California, enough, could it be pent up, to make a lake of vast volume and extent. When a heavy rain eontin- ues for several days without abating, the streams are unable to carry the water that runs so rapidly down the mountains into the valleys and cañons. The creeks and rivers overflow their banks, and mountain torrents rush through gulch and cañon to collect and form a lake in every valley towards which they run. The same is true when a warm' rain brings down the melted snow from the mountains faster than the river can carry it away. These floods now do considerable damage to the crops and farms in the valleys and to the mining claims along the river.
WELLS FARGO & COG. XPRESS
RES.OF J.J.DE. HAVEN, EUREKA. HUMBOLDT CP CAL.
DRUG STORE OF W.B. & F.A.ALFORD.FERNDALE.HUMBOLDT CO.
ENTERPRISE OFFICE .
THE FERNDALE ENTERPRISE OFFICE, FERNDALE. HUMBOLDT CO. CAL. F.A.ALFORD, PROP.
MARSH HOTEL
GLIGIAO MASALTIC TURKISH & RUSSIAN BATHS
+
4
MARSH HOTEL. ARCATA, HUMBOLDT CO. CAL.BOARD BY THE DAY, WEEK OR MONTH. HYDROPATHIC INSTITUTION, TREATMENT OF CHRONIC DISEASES A SPECIALTY. SATISFACTION GUARANTEED, CONSULTATION FREE. DR H.W. MARSH, PROPRIETOR.
125
GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES OF HUMBOLDT.
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FIRST TRIP DOWN THE KLAMATHI.
Two parties who had been living at Scott's Bar, on the Kla- math, intending to visit the Frazer River mines, concluded to attempt what had never before been done-the descent of the Klamath River. They accordingly built a boat at Scott's Bar, embarked with their traps and made entire voyage down the Klamath to its mouth. The distance is about 175 mniles. They had to make two portages, and should have made another, but, attempting to come over the rapids, they capsized, and all their plunder was lost, though they sustained no personal injury.
"T'he Klamath enters at the northeastern corner of the county and takes a southwestern course into Humboldt County, for a distance of about forty miles, where the Trinity and several other streams flow into it; theneo taking a north western course for a distance of forty-five miles. The latter twenty-five miles aro within the boundaries of Dol Norte County. The Klamath River, near to the month, is the second largest river in the State. It was declared navigable by the State Legislature for a distance of sixty miles, to Orleans Bar. It has a course of somo eighty or ninety miles in all in Humboldt County. The Klamath is now navigable thirty five miles from the entrance, and flows water enough for navigation at all seasons of the year, and, with some obstruetions removed from the bed of the stream, would be navigable for sixty or eighty miles.
TRINITY RIVER.
The principal tributary of the Klamath is the Trinity, which flows moro than fifty miles in the county, and joins the Kla- math near the middle of the northern houndary of Hoopa Reservation. It received its name from Major P. B. Reading who trapped ou its head-waters in 1845, and named it Trinity because he supposed it to empty into Trinidad Bay, discovered by the early Spauish explorers, an error which misled thou- sands of gold seekers in 1849 and 1850, who sought to reach its famous mines by entering the bay in vessels and passing up the stream from its mouth, as related iu preceding chapter.
Grouse Creek is one of the chief branches of the Trinity in this county, boing some thirty miles long and running about due east. Another branch a little further north is Madden Creek. In this seetion are placer mines along the Trinity and branches.
REDWOOD CREEK.
The stream called Redwood Creek, which from its length could well be styled a river, has a course of more than 100 miles in the county, and empties into the ocean twenty-five miles south of the mouth of the Klamath.
On Redwood Creek there are from 3,000 to 5,000 acres of bottom-land good as any in the country. It was in early times covered with a dense growth of cottonwood, aller and salmon brush, and some spruce. There has been much headway made in clearing np the dense jungles which cover the ground, which
give promise of developing into valuable; ranelus. Prairie Creek is the main large north branch of the Redwood.
Little River cupties into the ocean four miles north of Trin- iral. The course is almost due west and it has a length of forty miles or more, with numerous small branches.
MAD RIVER.
Mad River has a course of over 100 miles in the county. It rises in Trinity County. Its general course is northwest. All its tributaries flow iu from the north side, as it flows on the south elose to a sharp range of hills called, for part of the way, " laqua Bhutf's." It empties into the ocean just above Humboldt Bay. It is one of the most important streams in the county. Its discovery and naming has already been related.
The next stream in order going south is Jacoby Creek, and so named from a pioneer settler, who located on its banks.
Freshwater Creek enters the bay near Eureka. Both these streams are twelve or fifteen miles in lengthi.
ELK RIVER.
Elk River has its origin in the mountains from unnerous springs, forming two distinct streams at its source, divided by a mountain ridge, and forming a junction about four miles from its mouth. These tributaries are commonly known as the North and South Fork of Elk River. The difference in the volume of water flowing in these feeders is hardly distin- guishable; the North Fork, however, is several miles the longest.
In winter, when the rains swell this streamn into a deep, swift body of water, it serves as a medium for conveying the logs from this section to the mills on the bay. But in suminer the stream becomes shrunken to a mere brook, with its crystal waters rippling over gravelly beds from one pool to another. Its cool, clear waters are the home of the speckled aud inount- ain trout, and of the ocean salmon and other fish in winter and spring.
Salınon Creek is of abont the same characteristics as Elk River. It is about midway between Elk River and Eel River.
EEL RIVER.
Eel River has its source in the center of Mendocino County, and along the line of Lake, Colusa and Tehama Counties, which bound Mendoeino on the east. This grand, wild and ever- flowing stream waters but little arable or bottom-land in that county in proportion to the immense area it drains. Hun- dreds of miles of its tributaries flow through rocky gorges or leave the base of steep, open hill-sides of rich grazing-land, with miles npon miles of their length without enough valley for the foundation of a cartway. Having its source in the summit of the Coast Rauge, with the snows of Sanhedrim, Mount Hood, Hull Mountain, Yola Bola, and the Trinity range to feed it, its waters are cold, clear and rapid, flowing freely all summer.
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