Del Norte County - 7/1/2014

It was hard to leave the beach in Oregon, especially when we had such spectacularly nice weather, but we knew we had to begin the drive home.  Our plan was to take three days driving down the 101 and hitting sites in the Northwest part of the state.  Our first stop was in Del Norte County, Camp Lincoln (CHL 545).

We actually drove past this site twice trying to find it.  The overgrowth in front of the sign and the face that the buildings are now a private residence helped to camouflage it quite well.  The military museum has done an excellent job researching the history of California forts-- you can read about Camp Lincoln here.  As a summary-- the fort was established to keep the peace between the settlers and the Native tribes.  The men who staffed this fort came from Fort Ter-Wer (which we will visit tomorrow) after it was destroyed by flood.

Next we found the Crescent City Plank and Turnpike Road (CHL 645).

Here in 1858 the Crescent City Turnpike was built.  It ran from Crescent City to Jacksonville, Oregon through many small gold camps.

This next site was amazing to see up close-- the S.S. Emidio (CHL 497).  The Emidio was the first casualty of the Japanese submarine force on California's coast.

On December 20, 1941, the General Petroleum Corporation tanker on its way from Seattle to San Francisco saw the submarine west of Cape Mendocino.

The entire saga of the story is told here, be sure to read the story of the radio operator W. S. Foote.

The ship drifted up the coast to Crescent City, which is why the piece of the hull in on display in the park here.

Looking at the details you can tell that it was submerged for quite a while (about 9 years).

Our next site was inaccessible to us due to the tide the Battery Point Lighthouse (CHL 951).

This was one of the first lighthouses built on the CA coat built from 1855-1856.  It was automated in 1953 and was turned off for a short time, but it is now in use again.  It's even been in a Tim McGraw music video.

As you can see on the sign that you can only reach the light when it's low tide-- Libi suggested that we swim out to it, but we will have to save that for another time.

A short drive down the coast brings us to Brother Jonathan Cemetery (CHL 541).

The ship known as the Brother Jonathan had a long history-- transporting passengers and goods from New York to Panama, then the Pacific Coast to Cape Horn, giving the news of statehood to Portland, Oregon, and eventually being a sort of a ferry from San Fransisco to Vancouver via Portland.  It had many owners, but had an amazing reputation for being a very fast ship

On its final voyage on July 30, 1865 the ship encountered a storm in Crescent City but pushed ahead north.  The weather continued to get worse so the captain turned the ship back to the city.  At St. George's Reef they struck a rock and the ship began to sink.  Only one lifeboat was able to escape and only 19 (11 crew, 5 women and 3 children) of the 244 passengers and crew survived.  This small cemetery has graves for some of those lost at sea.

A short drive away (which was a bit longer due to some road construction) we came to the Site of the Old Indian Village at Pebble Beach, Crescent City (CHL 649).

This is one of the sites of the Tolowa (actually the Taa-laa-wa Dee-ni’) tribes.  They were located all along the coast in Del Norte County.

While our weather was perfect on the Oregon Coast, it was downright cold and foggy on the California Coast.

However, Ron had promised Libi a game of Frisbee on the beach-- so after dinner in Crescent City he made good on his promise.

I'm amazed that they were able to see the darn thing through all the fog.