Union Gold Bluffs Placer Mine

In 1881 John Chapman and one other party owned and operated the Gold Bluff mines. Chapman and his men watched the beaches closely, and when the "gray sands" began to go out, it constituted a signal to commence operations.

Meanwhile, ...

Prairie Creek Visitor Center

The most impressive achievement of the CCC was the construction of the "concession and recreation building" which is now the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park Visitor Center. With the exception of the window lights, plumbing, and chimney flue, all the ...

Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park

Ranchers and homesteaders pre-empted most of the lands bordering on Prairie Creek, north of Orick, in the 1880s and 1890s, with the rest of the area now included in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park being staked out as mining and ...

Humboldt County

Lumbering commenced in Humboldt County in 1850, but five years were to pass before any attention was paid the redwoods. The pioneer lumbermen were easterners from Maine and the Maritime Provinces of Canada, who were accustomed to the pine, spruce, ...

Crescent City

Crescent City was laid out in 1853, and soon large numbers of settlers arrived, attracted by the nearby mineral and agricultural resources. The Kelsey Trail linked Crescent City with the Salmon and Trinity gold mines in the 19th century.

Moro Rock

Beginning at the 6,500 feet elevation level of the rock (survey point 0), below which point the trail is of recent origin, the stairway follows a natural ledge for nearly 100 feet and then steeply ascends a natural crevice to an observation ...

Crystal Caves

By some accounts Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks could have been set aside solely to protect the amazing caves found in this area of the Southern Sierra Nevada. The two parks protect half of the caves more than a ...

Kern Canyon

On the advice of Clarence King, Langley had selected Mt. Whitney and vicinity as the site for an attempt to determine the amount and quality of the heat being sent to the earth by the sun. There he erected a ...

White Chief Mine

During 1876 the company three times assessed its stockholders. Each time, if the assessment was not paid, the stock was repossessed and resold by the company. The local prospectors who had traded their claims for stock soon found themselves being ...

Kaweah Canyon

The immediate human losers in this influx of white men were the Native Americans. Nearly half a century later, Tharp recalled their fate:  By the spring of 1862 quite a number of whites had settled in the Three Rivers section, ...