Humboldt County: From the Redwoods to Ferndale - 7/2/2014

After a night in kind of a dud of a hotel in Crescent City (not all websites are accurate depictions of hotels) we continued our drive south to one final Del Norte County site.

The drive was spectacular! We spent miles going through foggy redwood groves.

We decided to pull over onto the side of the road to give Libi a chance to experience the trees first-hand...

she normally looks so tall, but not next to a redwood!

I love this photo of us touching a tree that is likely over 500 years old!

I mentioned Fort Ter-wer (CHL 544) earlier when we visited Camp Lincoln. It should be noted that on many sites it lists the name was Fort Ter-waw-- so I'm not sure what the correct name is.

This was a military post established in 1857 to keep peace between the whites and the Native Americans. In 1861 it flooded and the men moved on to Camp Lincoln.

As we continued down the 101 we saw a bunch of cars pulled over in front of a field-- so being good lemmings, we stopped too.

Boy, were Libi and I glad that we did!!! There were about 25 elk all grazing in the area.

Big ones...

close ones...

momma ones,

family ones....

and even baby ones!!!

So very cute!!

On into Humboldt Country we found the Old Indian Village of Tsurai (CHL 838).

On the cliffs below this plaque was the Yurok village of Tsurai, a prehistoric permanent Indian community. They were first recorded by visitors in 1775 and they lived in this village until 1916-- talk about longevity!

Our next plaque was a few hundred feet down the shore, the Town of Trinidad (CHL 216).

This is the oldest town on the Northern California coast (according to the state) being founded in the 1850's. It was a vital supply link for gold-miners and the county seat for a short time.

Our next site caused us to hit the trails--- despite the fact that Google Maps says you can drive directly to this site, the roads have been closed to foot traffic only-- but Ron and Libi made it all the way to the top to see Trinidad Head (CHL 146).

On this site in 1775 Bruno de Hezeta, his men, and two Franciscan fathers climbed from the shore to the top of the mountain and erected a cross.

The cross has since been replaced from the wooden one originally left to claim the land for Charles !!! of Spain.

On the way back down Libi made some new friends.

I enjoyed by time on a bench about half-way up watching the fishing boats come in to the pier.

Our next site was the Arcata and Mad River Rail Road Company (CHL 842).

The AMR is the oldest railroad line on the north coast founded in 1854. It originally used a horse-drawn car on a unique gauge (before standard gauges were the norm). Locomotives were added later to help move all the large redwood trees until the line closed in 1985 due to a landslide.

Our next site was one of the most unique we've ever seen, The Old Arrow Tree (CHL 164).

This tree was used by Hoopa and Korbel tribes to signify their peace treaty.

As members of the tribes passed the tree they were said to have shot an arrow into the bark to show that they were coming in peace. There are still arrows in the tree, but they look far more modern.

Next we were on to Camp Curtis (CHL 215).

This was another military post established to keep peace between whites and the natives. It was the headquarters of the 1st Battalion California Volunteer Mountaineers for three years.

Our next site was exciting because the building was open as were the shops inside, the Jacoby Building (CHL 783).

The basement and first floor were constructed in 1857 and was used as a supply point for the miners in the area.

On occasions when there were troubles between the settlers and the Native Americans the building was used as refuge.

A short drive away is the City of Eureka (CHL 477). For those of you who don't know Eureka means "I have found" in Greek and it's our state motto.

The town was founded in 1850 and was a major social, political, and economic center in the region.

Fort Humboldt (CHL 154) was next. This was a great site-- a state park with several buildings still on site (only the hospital is still an original building) and some great displays.

The fort was established in 1853 for the purposes of keeping the peace between the whites and the Native Americans (do you see a theme here?).

This site has lots of artifacts from both the Native Americans and settlers in the area.

This is also near the site of a terrible tragedy that was reported on by Bret Harte (someone synonymous with the gold rush sites).

Ulysses S. Grant was stationed here, but didn't like the solitary life. After 6 months here he resigned his commission and returned home to be a farmer.

The grounds were full of cool displays as well-- we will have to return for some of their special events.

The Humboldt Harbor Historical District (CHL 882) plaque can be found on a vista point near Eureka.

The harbor here was first recorded by Captain Jonathan Winship in 1806.

It was a major lumber port and shipbuilding center for northern California.

Our next site was only 33 miles away from our hotel for the night, but due to the windy mountain and coastal roads it took over 1 1/2 hours each way.

However, once we saw this pristine and empty coastline we didn't mind the bad roads and three hours of driving.

Petrolia is the home to California's First Drilled Oil Wells (CHL 543).

The town is tiny, the only public bathroom is in the one restaurant in town, and I nearly stepped on a snake when we got out to get these photos-- so needless to say, we aren't planning a repeat visit anytime soon.

The wells here produced crude oil that was refined and sold at a plant three miles east of here. The first shipment of oil left here in June 1865 and headed to San Francisco.

We stayed the night in a quaint little B&B in Ferndale called the Gingerbread Mansion. While it's not a historical landmark, we enjoyed our night here so much that we decided it needed to be mentioned in the blog.

The room with two beds that we originally reserved was being used by a family of four so we were upgraded to the Rose Suite and Libi got a princess bed.

The bathroom was bigger than the bedroom...

complete with a claw-foot bathtub that we all enjoyed (more on that later)!

For dinner that night we went to the Hotel Ivanhoe-- the restaurant which gave Food Network's Guy Fieri his start.

It was yummy Italian food and it was so nice to be out of the car after the bumpy road to Petrolia.

We decided to hit one final site before sunset, the Centerville Beach Cross (CHL 173).

The cross was high up on a hill and we didn't see any trails leading up to it-- we did see a great deal of barbed wire on the hill which led us to believe that this was the closest we could get.
This cross is anther reminder of a shipwreck and the 17 passengers and 21 crew members who perished in the crash. On January 6, 1860 the S.S. Northerner hit a rock off Cape Mendocino and then drifted to the Centerville Beach.