Jedidiah Smith Redwoods State Park
On September 11, 1929, the family of the late Frank D. Stout, a former president of the Del Norte Company, Ltd., gave to the State of California 44 acres of redwoods at the confluence of Mill Creek with Smith River. This grove was to be known as the Frank D. Stout Memorial Grove. The Webber tract of 22 acres was purchased in 1931, followed by the J. L. Musick tract of 75 acres in 1932. These three groves were combined for administrative purposes and designated the Hiouchi Redwoods State Park. The name of the area was changed in 1944 to Mill Creek Redwoods State Park. The acquisition of acreage and the establishment of seven additional memorial groves expanded the park boundaries beyond the Mill Creek watershed. It was accordingly redesignated in 1951 as the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, to honor the first American to see Smith River and to explore the hinterlands of Del Norte and Humboldt Counties in 1828.
The area to be preserved and protected for the benefit of the American people was expanded from 147 acres to 6,919 acres in 1939.
In 1966 the Save-the-Redwoods League contributed $700,000 toward a land exchange which added "a superlative Coast Redwood virgin forest" to Jed Smith Redwoods State Park. This exchange, which the state negotiated with the Simpson Timber Co., provided for an exchange of scattered state-owned timberland outside the park for "vitally necessary Redwood forest holdings within the park." To make up the difference in the appraised valuation, the League had provided $700,000 and the state $50,000.
The acquired lands totaled 815 acres and extended along U.S. 199, and included two miles of frontage on Smith River. With this acquisition the park acreage was increased to more than 10,000 acres.
