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 3
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A SMOOTH HARBOR.
The bay affords tine shelter for vessels from all winds, when once inside, but the breakers are heavy over the shifting sauds of the bar even in moderate weather, and vessels have been known to wait for a month before they could get out. No oue should attempt to enter without a pilot. The shores on both sides of the cutrance are low and sandy.
CONTEMPLATED IMPROVEMENTS.
The engineers, after examining this harbor, came to the con- clusion that the only way to improve this entrance would be by the construction of two parallel jetties of very heavy stone, about five hundred yards apart, from the north and south spits at the entrance. If such jetties were built, the very large area of the inner bay would probably affordI sufficient tidal prism to keep open a deep channel over the bar. But such construction would be attended with great difficulties and enormous expense. It was a question even with the members of the board, whether such construction would be physically possible, and one, too, on which they could not express an opinion without searching examination of all the contingencies upon which the stability or instability of such work would hinge. They did not, there- fore, make any estimate of cost, asif not possible of execution. It is highly improbable that either breakwater or jetties will be attempted.
THE LIGHT-HOUSE.
The light-house at Humboldt is on the north side of the entrance, about three-quarters of a mile from the inlet, and about midway between the sea and bay shores; it is a fixedl white light of the fourth order, on a conical brick tower. There is also a duplicate twelve-inch steam fog whistle here, giving alternate blasts of four and eight seconds, at intervals of twenty-eight seconds.
THE BAY UNKNOWN UNTHI. 1849.
It is a little singular that so large a bay as this should have escaped the closest observations of the early explorers, and have remained unknown until a modern date, but such was the case as we shall hereafter relate.
1792-Vancouver wrote in 1792, as follows :-
"I was thoroughly convinced, as were also most persons of observation on board, that we could not possibly have passed any safe navigable opening, harhor, or place of security for shipping, on this coast, from Cape Mendocino to the promon- tory of Classet, [Cape Flattery, at the entrance of the Strait of Fuca.]
"So minutely has this extensive coast been inspected. that the surf has been constantly seen to break on its shores from the masthead; and it was but in a few small intervals only where our tlistauce precluded its being visible from the deck. When- ever the weather prevented our making free with the shore, or on our hauling off for the night, the return of fine weather and of daylight uuiformily brought us, if not to the identical spot we had departed from, at least within a few miles of it, and never beyond the northern limits of the coast which we had previously seen.
"An examination so directed, and circumstances happily concurring to permit its being so executed, afforded the most complete opportunity of determining its various turnings and windings, as also the position of all its conspicuous points. · ascertained by meridional altitudes for the latitude, and obser- vations for the chronometer, which we had the good fortune to make constantly once, and in general twice, every day, the pre- ceding one only excepted. It must be considered a very singu- lar circumstance, that, in so great an extent of sea coast, we should not have seen the appearance of any opening in its shore which presented any certain prospect of affording a shel- ter, the whole coast forming one compact and nearly straight barrier against the sea."
Having performed acts of diplomacy and justice in the Sandwich Islands, Vancouver proceeded again to the American coasts; and, after examining the portion near Cape Mendocino, including the place called Port Trinidad by the Spaniards, in 1775, so as to counect his surveys north and south of that por- tion, he sailed to Nootka, where he arrived on the 20th of May 1793.
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HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
MAD RIVER DISCOVERED AND NAMED.
Mad River, just above Humboldt Bay, is an important stream, emptying into the ocean over the sand beach, and is fordable at the mouth. A small eanal, however, has been cut from this stream to the northern part of Humboldt Bay, through which lumber is brought; and on this river are impor- tant industries, which we shall consider more fully in another place. The river was so named by a party who left the Trinity River inines and came over to the coast to discover the unknown but heard of Bay of Trinidad. This was in November, 1849.
The discovery party consisted of Dr. Josiah Gregg, L. K. Wood, D. A. Buck, -Van Dusen, J. B. Truesdell, C. C. Southard, Isaae Wilson, and T. Sebring. They followed down the Bald Hills, and then crossed over to the coast, at the mouth of Mad River, which was named by them because " Gregg flew into a passion when some of the party wanted to go down the coast a few miles and examine a bay the Indians reported in that direction," which afterwards proved to be the now noted Hum- holdt Bay. A full aecount of this discovery as told by L. K. Wood will be given hereafter, as also its discovery by sea.
TRINIDAD HIEAD AND HARBOR.
'Trinidad Head and Bay is about seventeen miles above Hum- boldt, and forty miles north of Cape Mendoeino. The bay, or roadstead, is somewhat contracted, but there is deep water, and the dangers are visible. It is a good summer anchorage, but dangerous in winter southeasters, a number of vessels having been lost there.
Trinidad "Head," a bold, pieturesque headland, about 375 feet high, forms the western shore of the anchorland. This " head " is of metamorphie sandstone, covered about the height of eighty or ninety feet above the water with a few feet of earth, which supports a thick growth of scrub bushes. Off the western face, for nearly half a mile out, lie several high rocky islets, with one, balf a mile south, (Pilot Rock,) which has nine fathoms of water close to it. In the northern part of the bay is a sand beach extending about half a mile; thence eastward the shore is rocky.
The town of Trinidad fronts on the northwest part of the roadstead, where there is a wbarf. The best anchorage for a vessel, besides tbe permanent moorings inside of Prisoner's Rock, is on a line of that roek and the "head," in seven fath- oms, muddy bottom. The harbor ean be approached safely from the southeast to the southwest, taking eare in eoming in from the westward, when within half a mile of the head, to keep Prisoner's Rock open to the southward of it, in order to avoid the broken ground to the southward of Blank Roek, which is outside the harbor. It is customary and safe in a northwest wind to hug the land closely. This harbor is in latitude 41º .05', and about 240 nautical miles N.N.W. of San Francisco.
It is about twenty miles south of the middle point of the coast between the entrance to San Francisco Bay and the
mouth of the Columbia River; it is, therefore, geograplrically well situated for a harbor of refuge between these two harbors.
HARBOR IMPROVEMENTS CONTEMPLATED.
The engineers say that the rock here appears to be of better quality than is generally found along the coast. The fact that it is such a bold, projecting headland, with deep water around its southern face, shows that it has been able to resist the denudation of the sea, and would seem to bear out this conclu- sion.
The breakwaters at this place, according to the plans submitted by the Board of Engineers, would run off from the point in a straight line in the direction of Pilot Rock for 2,000 feet, with a short piece at an angle towards the harbor 200 feet long. Between that and Pilot Rock would be an entrance to the harbor. From the other side of Pilot Rock the breakwater comes towards the shore 2,640 fect, leaving an entrance to the harbor between that end and the beach. If built as indicated, this would protect an available anchorage of nearly one square mile, with good holding ground. The cost of this breakwater is estimated at $7,694,500. The rocks outside are from eighty to one hundred feet out of water, and those on the northern part of the harbor are above water also.
THE BOARD FAVORABLY IMPRESSED.
The Board of Engineers was favorably impressed with the advantages of Trinidad for a harbor of refuge, which subject is considered in a separate artiele.
On the head is a light of the fourth order, fixed white, varied by red flashes, at intervals of one minute. It was erected in 1871. If a barbor of refuge were built here, the light-house on Trinidad Head eould be removed to Pilot Rock, and serve as a guide to enter.
TRINIDAD DISCOVERED AND NAMED.
1775 .- Viceroy Bucareli ordered an expedition to examine the eoasts as far as the sixty-fifth degree of latitude. The Santiago was placed under the command of Captain Bruno Heeeta, and a small sehooner called the Sonora, of which Juan de Byala was in command, were fitted out. They sailed from San Blas Mareh 15, 1775, in company with the sehooner San Carlos, bound for Monterey.
The exploring vessels, after parting with the Sun Carlos, at Monterey, doubled Cape Mendoeino, and, on the 10tb of June, 1775, anchored in a small roadstead beyond that pro- montory, in the latitude of 41º 10'. The officers, priests, and a portion of the men, immediately landed and took possession of the country, in the name of their sovereign, with religious soleninities, bestowing upon the harbor the name Port Trinidad; and they then engaged in repairing their vessels and obtaining a supply of water, which afforded them employment for nine days
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GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COAST.
LITTLE RIVER OR PIGEON RIVER
The stream now designated as Little River on our maps is evidently the one they called Pigeon River, for during the nine days they remained in Port Trinidad the Spaniards hell fre- quent comnamientoms with the people of the country, who dwelt principally on the banks of a small stream, named by the navigators Rio de las Tortolus-Pigeon River-from the multitude of those birds in its vicinity. "The Indians con- «Ineted themselves uniformly in the most peaccable manner, aml appeared to be, on the whole, an inoffensive and imlustrions race. They were clothed, for the most part, in skins, and nrmed with bows and arrows, in the use of which they were very expert; their arrows were, in general, tipped with copper or iron, of which metals they had knives and other imple- ments- whence procured the Spaniards could not learn. No signs of religious feelings, or ceremonies of any kind, could be discovered mong them, unless their howling over the bodies of the deal may be considered in that light."
CROSS ERECTED AT PORT TRINIDAD.
1775 -- Having completed their arrangements, Heceta and Bodega sailed from Port Trinidad on the 19th of June, 1775, leaving a cross erected near the shore, with an inscrip- tion setting forth the fact of their having visited the place and taken possession of it for their sovereign. This monument the Indians promised to respect, and they kept their word. for Vancouver found it there untouched in 1793. The Spaniards considered the discovery of the place important, the harbor being, according to their journals, safe and spacious, and pre- senting facilities for communication between vessels and the shore; and the surrounding country fruitful and agreeable.
Vancouver, however, gives a much less favorable view of the harbor, which he pronounces to be in no respect a secure retreat l'or vessels, as it is entirely open to the southwest winds, which blow on that coast with the utmost violence at certain scasons of the year. The other accounts of the Spaniards, re- specting the place and its inhabitants, are, in general, confirmed by those of the British navigator.
The Spaniards, after leaving Port Trinidad, were obliged to keep at a distance from the coast for three weeks, at the end of which time they again came in sight of it, in the latitude of 450 27', being the north part of the coast line of Washing- ton Territory. Fromu that parallel they examined the shore towards the south, in search of the strait said to have been discovered by Juan de Fuca in 1592, the entrance of which was placed, in Bellin's chart, between the forty-seventh and forty-eighth degrees of latitude; and, having satisfied them- selves that no such opening existed there, the two vessels cast anchor near the land, though at some distance from each other, in order to obtain water and trade with the natives.
"Here a severe misfortune befell the schooner on the 14th of July. Seven of her men, who had been sent ashore
in her only boot, though well armed, were attacked and mur- flered, immediately ou landing, by the natives: and the schooner was herself in much danger of being taken by those savages, who surroundel her, during the whole day, in great numbers, in their canoes, and were with difficulty prevented from boarding her.
COLD BLUFFS AND THE KLAMATH.
After leaving Trinidad we shall pass the mouth of Red- wood Creek and see the noted gold bluff's, where the precious inctal is washed out by the action of the waves and deposited in the sands of the sea.
The next important coast opening is a large river called the Klamath. It empties into the ocean over a beach. The stream carries a great deal of water but a sand pit runs from the south point and crowds the entrance close to the rocky bluff to the northward. The bar is extremely unreliable and although small coast vessels have entered it frequently it is gen- erally considered dangerous and impracticable for navigation. The current at the mouth is very strong. Extensive mining operations are conducted on the Trinity River which empties into the Klamath.
CRESCENT CITY BAY.
In summer there is always some swell in this bay, and in winter it rolls fearfully and vessels have always to anchor where they can slip and run to sea. A vessel off this coast and wish- ing to make a harbor in a gale would never venture into Cres- cent City Bay, unless she knew her position accurately and was well acquainted with the coast and all its hidden dangers. The usual anchorage is, on a line between the light-house and the north side of a large inlet three quarters of a mile east of it, in three or four fathoms, hard bottom. Coast steamers run to this place, which is an important shipping point.
The Examiners for Harbor of Refuge reported unfavorably on the harbor, " first, because it is too contracted; second, on account of the many dangers sunken, and likewise both in approaching and inside; third, because of the heavy breakers in southeast and southwest weather, clear across the entrance to the harbor from Steamboat Rock to Round Rock, from Round Rock to Mussle Rock and from that to the shore." The entire harbor is feather-white with breakers in a gale of wind from the southward.
THE PROPOSED BREAKWATER.
Nevertheless, in order to have definite ideas as to the loca- tion and cost of a breakwater, the Engineers included it in the roadsteads examined with a view to improvement. They con- sider the best way to be to build a breakwater from the rock on which the light-house is built, off Battery Point to Steam- boat Rock 1,850 feet, and from there straight ont in the same line 2,640 feet, which is equivalent to extending the point arti- ficially. The estimated cost of carrying it out is $6,022,000.
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HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
CRESENT CITY LIGHT-HOUSE.
The light here is on the scaward extremity of the inland point forming the southern and western sides of the harbor. It is a fixed white varied by white flashes, and was erected in 185G.
POINT ST. GEORGE.
The Cresent City Reefs, or Dragon Rocks, extend some six miles from Point St. George. The passage inside the reef is used by steamers. There are a few ontlying rock and many sunken ones, on one of which the Brother Jonathan was lost, and many lives with her.
SMITH'S RIVER.
Sinithi's River comes into the ocean through the saud heach some fourteen miles above Cresent City. The mouth of the river shifts considerably. Inside there is a narrow channel. The river is small, but the coasting steamers have entered it lately, as have also some schooners. A salmon caunery was started here last year. It has been only of late that there bas been any trade at the place, as it was supposed that the bar at the river's mouth was impracticable. There is a splendid belt of redwood in the vicinity, and the timber resources seem iuex- haustible. This is to the last important feature of the Cali- fornia Coast.
TIDES OF THE COAST.
The tides on the coast of California are of a peculiar and apparently complicated character. The Coast Survey issues, annually a book of tide tables for this coast, and so also does Thomas Tennant, the chronometer maker and regulator. These coast survey tables are given for a few places, and a table of tidal contents is appended by which the stage of the tide at other locations may be computed. There are on this coast, in each twenty-four hours, or rather in each lunar day of twenty- four hours and fifty minutes, two high and two low waters. which are unequal in height, and occur at unequal intervals, differing most from each other when the moon's declination is greatest, and least when the moon is on the equator. The high and low waters generally follow each other thus:
Starting from the lowest low water the tide rises to the lower of the two high waters; then falls slightly to a low water higher than the former, and sometimes merely indicated by a long stand; then rises to the highest high water, whence it falls again to the lowest low water. The range of tide at San Francisco is about six feet. North it is greater, being about nine feet or more at spring tide at Astoria, Washington Terri- tory.
LIFE STATIONS AND FOG SIGNALS.
The Government has established lately on this coast several life-saving stations fully equipped with life-boats and all neces- sary apparatus for giving assistance to shipwrecked mariners.
Those in what is known as the Twelfth District are: First- At Neeah Bay, W. T., at the entrance of the Strait of Fuca. Second-Shoalwater Bay, W. T. Third-Cape Disappoint- ment, at the entrance of Columbia River. Fourth-Cape Arago, at the entrance of Coos Bay. Fifth-Humboldt Bay. Sixth-Bolinas Bay. Seventh-On Beach at Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. Eighth-Point Conception.
On the California Coast there are twenty-four light-houses, including those in San Francisco Bay; there are also eleven fog-whistles and three fog-bells. In the Thirteenth District, embracing Oregon and Washington Territory, there are four- teen lights, three fog-whistles and one bell. The total number of buoys on the coast and in the harbors is 109, exclusive of special buoys put down by interested parties. There are also forty-six day or unlighted beacons.
Formerly heavy guns were stationed at prominent points and could be heard a distance of some eight miles. Now the fog-born, fog-whistle, and siren are used; the latter being most efficient. All the high light-houses like that at Cape Mendocino are useless as mere lights because situated at too great an elevation to be always seen. The light should be lower down under the fog. These light-houses and stations are indi- cated on our chart.
U. S. COAST SURVEY.
The Government has provided maps, charts and sailing di- rections for this coast, the same as it has for other parts of its territory bounding on the sea. The Coast Survey is one of the most efficient branches of the Government Departments, and its work is done thoroughly and practically whenever under- taken. On this coast it has given not only coast-line charts with location of ports, anchorages, lights, fog-bells, etc., but also finely and correctly executed detailed maps of all the prin- cipal harbors with ample sailing directions for entering them, soundings, dlangers, etc., all being plainly and carefully marked.
" Davidson's Coast Pilot " is a Government publication, writ- ten by the accomplished officer who has been surveying and examining this coast for so many years. To it we are indebted for many of the items used in the preceding paragraphs.
It is a book of some 300 pages, carefully written and giving directions for entering all the principal harbors. It also gives a general description of the coast-line, and detailed descriptions of the headlands, reefs, anchorages, liglits, fog signals, etc. It describes an ocean sliore-line of over 3,120 miles, divided as fol- lows: California, including the islands of the Santa Barbara Channel, 1,097 miles; Oregon, 285 miles; Washingtou Territory, including islands in Washington Sound, and shores of Puget Sound, 1,738 miles. The third edition of this work was pub- lished in 1869, since which time the majority of the small chute landings on the coast have been established, so it men- tions few of thesc.
TOWN RESIDENCE OF A. BERDING, FERNDALE, HUMBOLDT COUNTY CALA.
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TOWN RESIDENCE OF R.F.KING, FERNDALE, HUMBOLDT COUNTY CAL!
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A REVIEW OF THE EARLY HISTORY.
A GLANCE AT EARLY HISTORY.
Before entering more fully upou the history of the county it woukt seem appropriate to take a glance at the carly history of the State, and note a little of its progress during a short decade; including the first establishinent, rise and decline of the mis- sions; the rapidity and grandeur of its wonderful rise and pro- gress; the extent of its home and foreign commerce ; the dis- covery and astonishing produce of gold. No county history therefore could be complete unless it included some account of the circumstances which brought each county into existence, and from whence came the men who organized and set the machinery of State and local governments in operation. It would thus be well, then, that posterity should know something of the early history of the State as well as of their own immedi- ate neighborhood; and by placing these scenes upon record they will remain fresh in the minds of the people that otherwise, in the lapse of years, must gradually faile away.
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RAPID SETTLEMENT AND PROGRESS.
One hundred years ago-almost within the memory of men now living-but very little of California's soil had been trodden by the foot of civilized man. Up to the discovery of gold in 1848, it was au afar-off land, even to those on the western bor- der of civilization. School-boys then looked upon their maps and wondered if they might ever be permitted to traverse the " uuexplored region " marked thereon. About that time, when Thomas H. Benton said the child was then born that would see a railroad connecting ocean with ocean, most people smiled and thought that the day-dream of the old man had somewhat unsettled his hitherto stalwart intellect. No dream of forty years ago, no matter how bright the colors that may have been placed before the imagination, ever pictured the California of to-day-our own, our loved California.
PACIFIC OCEAN FIRST SEEN.
1513 .- The Pacific Ocean was given to the world by Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, who looked down from the heights of Pauama upou its placid bosom on the 25tb day of September, 1513 the same year in which Mexico was conquered by Hernaudo Cortez. To Balboa, therefore belongs the credit of first seeing the Pacific Ocean. He, however, supposed it to be the great Sonthern Ocean. In 1520, Fernando Magellan sailed through the straits that bear his name, and finding the waters so little dis- turbed by the storms, he was induced to give it the name of Pacific Ocean.
DISCOVERY OF CALIFORNIA.
1534 .- Cortez fitted out two ships for discovery of the Pacific Coast. Que was commanded by Becarra, who was murdered by his crew, led on by his own pilot Ortun, or Fortuño Zimenes.
Zimenes afterward continued the voyage of discovery, and
appears to have sailed westward across the gulf, and to have tonched the peninsula of California. This was in the year 1534. He therefore was the first discoverer of the country.
DISCOVERY OF CAPE MENDOCINO.
1542 .- On the 27th of June, 1542, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, who had been one of Cortez's pitots, left Navidad, in Mexico, under instructions from Antonio de Meruloza, Viceroy of Spain, on a voyage of discovery. On the 5th of July he landed at Cape St. Lucas, in Lower California, and following the coast, he finally entered the delightful harbor of San Diego, iu Upper California, on September 28th. This place he named San Miguel. which was afterwards changed by Viscaiño to that which it now bears.
1543 .- He passed by the Golden Gate and reached latitude 44° on the 10th of March, 1543. The cold became so intense that he headed his ship again for Navidad. Cabrillo landed at Cape Mendocino, which he called Cabo de Fortunas (Cape of Perils), from the dangers encountered in its vicinity. This was February 26, 1543. Whatever discoveries may have been made by this navigator, were followed by no practical results,
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