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 30

Author: W.W. Elliott & Co
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: San Francisco : W.W. Elliott
Number of Pages: 344


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 30


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The tramway from the mill to the wharf is half a mile long, a considerable portion of it running over trestle work sixty feet high. They use twenty-four trucks of massive huild in transporting lumber from the mill to the wharf, and eight still heavier trueks for logging purposes. This is shown in our view of the village of Trinidad.


The mill company own two mills of the respective capacity of thirty-five thousand and thirty thousand per day. Also a shin- gle mill, capacity, thirty thousand per day. They also manufac- ture shakes, fence-posts, pickets, etc. They employ on an aver- age 200 men in the woods and wills Their pay roll averages $8,000 per month for ten months of the year. They use thirty yoke of oxeu and thirty-five mules in the iroperations. They use twenty-four trucks of massive build in transporting lum- ber from the mill to the wharf, and eight still heavier trucks for logging purposes.


The roads above mentioned, exclusive of a number of tram ways, constitute the railroad system of Humboldt County, and its needs and possibilities in this direction.


140


THE LUMBER INDUSTRIES OF HUMBOLDT.


THE LUMBER BUSINESS.


Redwood Forests-Large Logs and Trees- First Saw-Mill-Business of 1881- Future Supply of Redwood- Description of Mills-Ex- ports of Lumber, Etc.


THESE old Muscovites, who settled at Bodega Bay, in 1812, produced the first Ininber with a saw ever made north of San Francisco Bay, for they had both a pit and whip-saw, tbe former of which can be seen to this day. Judging froin the num- ber of stumps still standing, and the extent of territory over which they extended their logging operations, they evidently consumed large quantities of luinber. The timber was only about oue mile distant from the ship-yard and landing, while the stumps of trees cut by them are still standing, and beside them from one to six shoots have sprung up, many of which have now reached a size sufficlent for lumber purposes. Tbis growth has been remarkable, and goes to show that if proper care were taken, cach half century would sce a new crop of redwoods, sufficiently large for all practical purposes, while ten decades would see gigantic trees.


HUMBOLDT REDWOODS.


Humboldt is tho home of the redwood. It grows in dense forests. Where there is timber it is all timber, consist- ing of immense trees, running from 200 to 400 feet high, and varying in circumference from thirty to seventy feet. Near the coast it consists of spruce, fir, Oregon pine, heinlock, and a species of eedar; as the land becomes elevated, redwood takes the place of the otber varieties, and as tbe elevation becomes still greater, a species of the live-oak is found mingled with it.


At a still greater elevation, and near the termination of this belt of timber, it almost entirely displaces the redwood; a dense undergrowth covers it at all places. Surely Humboldt has something of which sbe may justly be proud, and from which she is and will continue to receive an ever-increasing revenue until the last is fallen. But they, like the elk they have sbel- tered, aud the poor Indian whose wigwam they have built, are doomed to fall before the advance of civilization.


VISIT TO A REDWOOD FOREST.


A visitor to one of these forests says: No one can contem- plate the wholesale destruction of these glorious forests without the saddest feelings. Nothing can be more majestic and im- pressive than the land clothed with them, nor more naked, desolate, ragged and uncouth than the land after it is stripped of tbem. It is in tbe one case peace, beauty, plenty, virginity and bounty; in the other rags, fire, destruction, rapine, gbast-


liness and inost unsightly death. There are not, I think, more impressive forests in the world. The land is actually darkened with them. You walk in some of them on a bright, sunsbiuy day as you might in the gloom and darkness of Alaskan forests.


The impression that the atmosphere above is draped in fog, or is overspread with the cloud darkness preceding rain, is con- stant, except where an occasional opening allows the sun to break through. Nowhere in our forests is sunshine more acceptable or beautiful. It comes in long, yellow splinters, or open, clear bars, lighting up tbe dead-gray bark of the red- woods, the luminated cork-like bark of the pines, and shower- ing ineffable beauty on tbe clear, green undergrowth, particu- larly on the fleur-de-lis-shaped eireles of inumense ferns which everywbere in the sbade cover the ground. The effect of this coming out into a break of sunshine from the gloom of tlie forests, is very peculiar. It seems out of place in its sudden- ness-as if one were instantaneously to emerge from the dark- ness and gloom of rain into clear sunshine.


SILENT AND GRAND.


Not a sound of bird, beast or wind disturbs the silence, and even the muost of tlie streams steal quietly seaward. It is a place wbere silence itself might feel the need of going on tip- toe. Fancy going mile after mile through trees 150 to 300 fect high packed as closely, one sometimes thinks, as trees can con- veniently stand, and breathe-wbere deep sbade prevails, and where no noise, not even a leafy rustle or tree-shaken whisper is heard-and it can be imagined how different the feeling is than when in open ground and in full sunshine, After walk- ing for half an hour thus, to have a break of sunsbine slaut in with its yellow light and color illumination, tbe invariable feeling is that the sun is bending to send in a salutation of light peace and glory.


VENERABLE GIANTS.


But the size of these redwood trees, their number, their grandeur, their immovably-rooted bases, their beauty, their litheness, their remarkable straightness-none nor all of these are anything like so impressive as their age. They are 900 to 1,500 years old. Here are trees standing, not in ruins, nor even in the senility, loss of strength and color of age, but with intense exhibition of almost immortal strength, spanning and bridging past centuries. Holy inen of old walked, it is said, with God; these trees have stood with and worsbipped before bim, while almost countless generations have come, gone and passed away. Age and strength, age and beauty, age and straigbtness, age and flexibility, here stand hand in hand, har- monizing the apparently irreconcilable, making apparent im- possibilities possible and natural.


Think of single trees yielding 50,000 feet of redwood, and single acres of land yielding 1,000,000 feet of lumber. Indeed, in a radius of 150 feet, we in one place counted sixty trees, some


CITY RESIDENCE OF ISAAC MINOR.


RESIDENCE AND RANCH OF ISAAC MINOR, ONE


SAW MILL ON MAD RIVER.


E MILE NORTH OF ARCATA, HUMBOLDT CO. CAL.


141


THE LUMBER INDUSTRIES OF HUMBOLDT.


of them 300 feet high, and with a circumference of sixty feet two or three feet from the ground. All of the trees there are large. The acre of land on which those trees stood would yield much more than 1,000,000 feet of lumber,,or say enough to load four of the largest three-mnasted schooners. The size quality and grandeur of the redwood trees of California, and the extent of the redwood forests, have been the theme of many writers and the admiration and wonder of the lovers of nature, until their fame is world- wide.


But a slight conception can be had of their size and height until they are seen. All accounts seem fabulous until one stands amidst a forest of these monsters; stands at the base of a tree sixteen feet in diameter and four hundred feet in height, straight as an arrow, covered with massive layers of bark twelve to twenty inches thick.


WILL THE SUPPLY FAIL?


Tho calamity which will befall the people of Humboldt County by the exhaustion of the forests of redwoodly could be in a great measure averted, if the growth of the young red- woods were fostered.


But no care is taken; and, in fact, it seems that an effort is made to thoroughly eradicate all traces of the forests. The stumps are fired just to see tbem burn, and fire runs over the laad every fall, which serves to completely destroy the young shoots. The prutection of our forests should be a charge of our Legislature; for, while the men of to-day may not rc- inain to suffer for the want of these forest trees, the common- wealth of the State will remain, and its future weal should be cared for by the present generation.


LARGE LOGS AND TREES.


Messrs. W. H. Steymast & Co., of Humboldt Bay, sawed in 1854, a "spruce-pine log," twenty-six feet long, which turned 4,000 feet clear stuff, without knot or wind-shakes. The tree turned out 13,000 feet clear Inmber. There are trees of other woods much larger-for instance the redwood-that are es- timated will turn out upwards of 100,000 feet. Tbat one tree will build two houses, each two stories high and fifty feet square, furnishing all the square timber, planks, shingles, &c., would not be credited in the Atlantic States.


Four redwood logs, containing by actual measurement 26,- 902 feet of lumber, were hauled by a ten-ox team on a lugging claim, a distance of three-quarters of a mile. It is claimed that this is the largest load ever hanled in the county by ten oxen.


To give an idea of the size of the trees we give an account of a tree cut down by a citizen of Arcata in 1855, which stood within two bundred yards of the Times newspaper office. From it a man built a house 24x30 feet, two stories high. The frame, siding, floors, doors, windows and roof were made from lumber split from one tree. Also lumber to build gardeu fence and out-house. He sold lumber enough to build bis brother-


n-law a one-story house. He only used sixty fuet of the body of the redwood. The editor adds: The house is now (1835) occupied by Mr. Stokes The tree was small, and Mr. Under- wood, who cut it down, was troubled to find a smaller onc.


THE BIG TREE


Hutching's Magazine in 1856 says: On the trail from Trin- idad to Salmon River there is a hollow tree measuring thirty- three feet in diameter. The tree is situated between Trinidad and Elk Camp, near Redwood Creek, and about midway in one of the densest forests probably on the continent, and it is unnec- cssary to say that it would be a very choice range for hungry animals. Men have frequently camped in that tree, not from choice, however, but because they were caught by night, whose dark mantle falls upou the wayfarer in those sombre old woods innch sooner than in the open country, or perhaps a suddeu rise in Redwood Creek during a portion of the year would carry away the bridge, consisting of a fallen tree across the stream, with the rough bark on the upper side hewn off.


The old tree would afford a very good shelter to those bound down from the mines until a crossing could be effected. Wo conld quote stories from reliable gentlemen in the county that we scarcely believe ourselves, in reference to the size of trees.


FIRST SAW-MILL AND LOG.


The first mill on Humboldt Bay was the "Tauppoos," which after a two years' trial, was abandoned. The Ryan, Duff & Co.'s mill was made from the old steamer Santa Clara, and was the first successful mill on Humboldt Bay. It had four gangs of saws, one circular, one edger, oue cross-cut saw, two double lath machines, one shingle machine, one planing ma- chine, turning latbes, etc. Its daily capacity with double gangs of men was an average of 60,000 feet of luinber, board measure, and 40,000 laths. The capital invested was $100,000, and the number of men employed in the mill was from thirty-five to forty. Since then improvements have con- tinued until perfection has been nearly attained in modern mills.


The first saw-log cut on Humboldt Bay was felled in No- vember, 1850, by George Carson and Alexander Gilmore. It was a spruce, and measured 140 feet to the first limb.


The amount of lumber exported for year ending June 30, 1854 was 20,567.000 feet. This was at the end of only two years' development.


MILLS AND BUSINESS FOR 1881.


Within the boundaries of Humboldt County there are twenty- two saw-mills. The motive power in seventeen of these is steam and in remaining five, water. The official returns show that during 1880 the lumber sawed was 41,969,766 feet, and the number of shingles made was 19,618,000.


For 1881 the lumber exported from the county amounted


142


THE LUMBER INDUSTRIES OF HUMBOLDT.


to the following, according to E. H. Howard, who carefully collected statistics :----


Lumber in feet. 141.000.000


13,648,000


Shakes.


268,000.


THE LUMBER BUSINESS.


The following facts from the Democratic Standard of May 7, 1881, relative to the lumber business, were prepared by Will- iam Ayers, the Editor, especially for our History.


"Seven or eight months ago the Standard published several articles setting fortli the extent and productiveness of the ter- ritory that was being laid with railroads along the Southern Pacific; the number of railroad connections with Pacific deep- water ports; the marvelous development of lateut wealth, and the consequent activity which must by force of circumstances, be created along the redwood belt of California, and particu- larly around its most eligible shipping points. While some thought our predictions "rose colored" and high flown, yet, they were founded upon careful calculation, and at this carly day they have not only proven to be correct, but we did not toll half the story. Mill men with whom we have conversed within tho last two weeks have told us: " Why, we cannot sup- ply the demand ! If it keeps on this way we cannot fill half the orders!" There is uo mystery about the condition of things, for it is the result of conjunction of eveuts and conditions which have conspired to bring about the fact in a very natural way. Let any ono who is interested in the advancement of Northern California in general, and the redwood lumber inter- ests in particular, consider what has been in the past, and is de- veloping, and will be in the next few years, the market for our redwood lumber. California has been the main consumer, with occasional cargoes to South America and the Islands. Glance over the map of the United States and Mexico and make a comparison of the territory that has required our lumber here- tofore, with what is now coming rapidly in reach by water and rail. The problem is too plain to require any argument that the demaud for lumber of all kinds for the six to ten will be four to six times greater yearly than at any previous time. Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado alone, more than treble the field, and when there is added to this the whole of Mexico aud Central America, which are now throbbing with the march of improvement, and all of which are devoid of everything that can take the place of redwood as a finishing material, the market that is opening to our doors is at once apparent. And yet even this is not all.


FUTURE TIMBER SUPPLY.


" Let us look for a moment at the sources of supply for fin- ishing lumber. We know that the coast redwood belt reach- ing from Del Norte to Sonomua, is the only body of this timber available to commerce. East of the Rocky Mountains-Maine, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin-are the only States that


have a supply of lumber sufficient for export beyond their own borders.


" All the rest are either devoid of lumber or consume all they are able to produce. Michigan, Minnesota and Wiscousin, by the best calculations, are estimated to have 13,000,000,000 of lumber, all told, and of this amount the combination which controls the lumber business in these States cut, last year, 1,564,- 000,000 feet. At this rate it is very certain that the sources of supply to satisfy the demand of the entire Atlantic sea- board and interior States cannot long hold out, and the price has already reached a figure which permits the shipment of redwood lumber and shingles across the continent by rail, and though not generally known, a few manufacturers and dealers are already driving a profitable trade in this direction. All these facts are conspiring to make a wonderful activity in the redwood lumber manufacturing business, and that activity, as a matter of course, will be greatest when the lumber is most available.


" Humboldt Bay is the best shipping point along the entire belt. It is true that the Oregon lumber will enter the same market, but nothing can take the place of redwood as a fin- ishing material, except cedar, and the supply of that timber is too limited to affect the case. At one glance tbere, it will be readily seen that our opportunities are greater than ever be- forc, and that Humboldt Bay and County stand at the head as a supply depot and shipping point. This revival will stimu- late other branches of industry, and we hope, encourage the investment of a great amount of manufacturing capital.


AVAILABLE HUMBOLDT REDWOOD.


"The timber lands of Humboldt are of themselves a mine of incalculable wealth to their owners. Let us for a moment make a calculation of tbe available red wood lands of Humboldt County, which will be as follows :-


Number of acres on Humboldt Bay 125,000


=


=


Eel River. 100,000


Van Duzen & Yager. 75,000


14


Redwood Creek 100,000


Little River


40,000


Mad River. 30,000


=


Around Trinidad. 40,000


Total . 510,000.


" There are what may be termed the available redwood lands of Humboldt County. There are some outside bodies of timber, perhaps 100,000 acres in all, not including the above enumera- tion, which will not be reached for many years. That which can be easily reached is ample to supply all possible demand for a long time to come, but the cutting capacity of our mills is not equal to the demands." W. A.


JOHN VANCE'S MILL.


John Vance's mill, ou Mad River, constructed in 1875, is one of the most important mills of Humboldt, with a cutting capacity of 40,000 feet per day. There is also an extensive shingle mill in operation. The inill is situated at the end of Vance's


Shingles. .


5,644,000


Posty.


143


THE LUMBER INDUSTRIES OF HUMBOLDT.


railroad. A feature of this road which our artist has sketched and which forms a beautiful scene in oue of our views, is the Howe Truss Bridge, nver Mad River, two spans of 120 feet cach, built by the Pacific Bridge Company, at a cost of about $10,000. He has so planned his mill as to obtain the advan- tages of a logging pond of large extent, which holds in reserve a large stock of logs. Ou Mad River he has a large timber tract of 3,000 acres.


Mr. Vance has another large inill in Eureka which euts large amounts of huuber. It would at first thought appear that the supply for these mills would soon be exhausted. Mr. Vance employs a large force of inen, sometimes as many as 150, in his extensive operations. The total amount of lumber cut in 1881 was 11,143,389 fcet; total number of shakes, 508,925, and of shingles, 7,550,250.


For nearly three decades men have been plunging into the depths of these grand old redwood forests, and utilizing those stately trees. Steadily with the growth of California this in- terest has increased until it stands to-day a marvel on the com- mercial catalogue of the State. Millions of feet are cut yearly, and yet the source seems practically inexhaustible. All along the streams putting back from the coast of the old Pacific this industry teems, and many mills have been built, and thousands of men fiud daily employment, and millions of dollars are thus yearly earned and distributed among the laboring classes. 'To the city market it rolls in ono unceasing tide, thence it is distributed to all parts of the State. Day and night the bum of this industry is heard in every mountain glen, and continues in one grand unceasing round, and the sharp ring of tho glist- ening steel as it cleaves the mighty bolt makes mellow music to him whose homo is in tho redwood forests.


REDWOOD LUMBER FOR DOORS.


John Vauce informs us that he is shipping redwood lumber to San Francisco, to bo used in the manufacture of doors. This is a new departure. Doors are usually made from pine, and tbe custom has been so general and so long in vogue that it secmed liko heresy to suggest that redwood be substituted. The principal argument used against redwood in door-making is that it is too soft to hold screws for the hinges. This may be the beginning of a large demand for redwood to be used in the manufacture of doors.


The price of all grades of lumber has advanced at intervals throughout the year, until now it is from two to three dollars higher per thousand feet than it was at the elose of 1880.


When the lumbering business was new here, the cheapest aud casiest means of transporting logs was by water. As a consequence, alt the timber skirting the streams was cut off. Then railroads had to be constructed for hauling logs. These are fully described under the head of railroads. They demon- strated the practicability of transporting logs to tide water at such cost as renders their manufacture into lumber. at living rates, possible.


LOGGING BY STEAM.


Messrs. Dolbeer & Carson have lately employed a logging machine of their own invention or conception which has al- realy more than realized their greatest expectations. It is at work in the woods at Salmou Creek, where it can be seen by any ne who is anxious enough to visit the cainp. It bids fair to change very considerably the system nf logging. The idea of such a " contrivance " was laughed at by practical men, and when the machine was set down amnoug the "crew " at Salinon Creek it was pronouncedl utterly impracticable. But the in- ventors had faith in the new machine, and put it in motion. It has performed its work to perfection from the first, aud is uow a "regular hand " in the Salinon Creek woods.


The machine is designed to be used in blocking nut roads, hauling out of the way all waste material and hauling logs in- to the roads and coupling them together ready for the ox team to take away. It consists of an upright boiler and engine.


To those who are familiar with the logging woods, or who have been accustomed all their lives to see the unwieldy ox- team tugging at the great logs it must seem a great innovatiou. The Millford Mill, at Salinon Creok, manufactured for 1881-


5,207,459


Lumber, ft.


2,391,250


Shingles.


496,000


Shakes


Posts.


5,746


The other mill of Dolbeer & Carson is of the largest capacity of any on the Bay.


ISAAC MINOR & CO'S. MILL.


A new mill has been erected by this firm on Mad River, a view of which is given on another page. The mill building proper, is 130x135 feet with the necessary sbeds and outbuild- ings added. All the modern improvements are placed in the quill, and is considered one of the most compact, complete and easiest working mills on the bay. Besides the mill there are other improvements on an extensive scale. A massive dam has been built across the creek, thus forming a pond or receptacle for logs, and it is built in such a substantial manner that no doubts are entertained but what it will stand the highest water or greatest freshets. The capacity of the pond will be from ten to fifteen million feet of logs. The outlook for the com- pany owning this property is very flattering, as they have al- most every advantage known in logging and milling in tbis eounty.


The mill is located right in the midst of the timber ; the logs for the first year or two can be felled into the pund at a very sinall expense, thus enabling the company to manufacture lum- ber at a cost of several dollars less on a thousand feet than other manufactories. The machinery works very satisfactor- ily. It is claimed that 50,000 feet can be sawed per day and the capacity of the mill was intended to be only 30,000 feet per day. A steam donkey engine is used on the side hills to move the logs.


144


THE LUMBER INDUSTRIES OF HUMBOLDT.


J. RUSS & CO'S. MILL.


This energetie firru have on the "Island " one of the most perfectly constructed mills on the Pacific Coast, called the Ex- celsior Mill The old rigs for sawing lumber have had to give place to the most improved devices that could he found in this country. The logs are hauled into the mill on an improved ear traek and rig. They are then placed on the most perfect double circular saw to be found in any mill on the coast. Here is where the first " Prescott Direct Steam Fced " was used this side of the Rocky Mountains, A perfect machine for shoving the carriage both ways. This machine has many other minor improvements not to be found in other mills, such as saw relief, carriage, trueks, track, guides, etc. From these saws all lum- her six inches thick and less passes through an improved edger, thus ripping and edging it to the proper width in passing it once through the machine, after which the edgings are separa- ted from the good, the waste passing to one side are placed in an elevator, which takes them to the fire outside ; the lumher going to tho other side, passes over or through an ingenious gang trimmer, eutting hoth ends of it at once, making each length exact and alike.


There are two engines, one, cighteen inches bore, hy twenty inches stroke, running 160 revolutious a minute; the other, fourteen inches hore by thirty inches stroke, making 110 revo- lutions. This last one is considered much too small for the work and is soon to be replaced by another considerable larger, of twenty-inch hore and same stroke, thus making the power complete. Tho steam is generated by six flue hoilers, forty- two inches diameter and twenty-four feet long, set in two nests' thus making it essential to havo two smoke-stacks. The fires hurn the wet redwood sawdust placed on the fire hy an ingeni- ous method. Thus it can be seen the fires are kept hurning hy machinery-none of the laborious shoveling to he seen in this mill. Steam is easily kept up at the desirable figure, ahout eighty pounds. In connection with the boiler there is an im- proved heater, it also heing the first in use on this hay. This is peculiar insomuch that it condenses nearly all the steam com- ing from the engines and other machines, to be re-used, and at the same time filters all the new or fresh water wanted to keep the supply good from all wastage. The class of mechanics and workmen engaged in this mill are fully up to the standard of the improved machinery. All . intelligent men, understanding their positions and qualified to fill tbem.




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