Kelsey Trail
East of Crescent City in the Little Bald Hills is Murphy’s Ranch and outlying barn site, which dates circa 1884 to the 1920s. The ranch was established along the historic Kelsey Trail, a pack route linking Crescent City with the Salmon and Trinity gold mines in the 19th century.
To facilitate travel to the mining camps on the middle Klamath, Ben Kelsey was hired to cut a trail from Crescent City to the Klamath. The people of Yreka raised the money to complete their end of the road. The Kelsey Trail was used for almost a quarter century to supply the mining camps of the middle Klamath, and western Del Norte and Siskiyou Counties. Kelsey was paid $4,200 for this project.
The Kelsey trail on leaving Crescent City crossed Howland Hill and Mill Creek. Two miles beyond Mill Creek, the Kelsey Trail was joined by the Bense Trail from Crescent City. It then ascended Bald Hill and bore away to the southeast, following the ridge paralleling South Fork of Smith River.
