65 Year Old Photo of Richardson Grove
For newer arrivals this was taken in the center of the Grove. You can see the building still there behind a fence. Into the Seventies at least, it remained a gift shop but for various reasons the 101 entrance was closed off. It used to attract a lot of visitors but I also remember wide-eyed locals frothing about having almost killed some tourist who had been standing in the road taking pictures.
Here’s another angle on it at the wonderful historical site, Old Photo Guy..
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20 years later that would have been me and my truck rolling thorough there looking at all the pretty girls.
One of my favorite childhood (and girlhood) thing to do was to pump my arm up and down and get the truckers to blow their airhorn. I miss that.
On many occasions I have noticed that tourists still stop in the road, on Avenue of the Giants, to take pictures. But then, the road through the groves of these magnificent trees are still awe inspiring, even to those of us who have grown up here and even been involved at some time of our lives in logging redwoods. I wonder if this was a picture taken by Ray Jerome Baker who has a collection of photos at Humboldt State University? He was a family friend who used to visit when I was a child in Salmon Creek. And the chimney still stands where his house burned down near Philipsville. Neat photo!
The pictures in “Old Photo Guy’s ” ,well preserved are incredible!
Thanks so much for posting this. I love this picture.
they came from the east
and after the indians were genocided
it didn’t take too long for them to
merrily merrily merrily, devastate the forest
–they never asked permission and they never apologized
Harry, this isn’t a Jerome Baker photo as he was in the area decades earlier than this photo. How I wish Baker had written descriptions on his pics, but they just have little numbers in the corner.
Cool pic Kym, great job of digging up an old photo!
Yes, I struggled long and hard to find that picture…Seriously, someone who didn’t want to be named sent it to me.
Harry, I may owe you an apology for my response to your comments about Mr. Baker. That is neat that he was a family friend. He took most of his Shelter Cove/Briceland/G’ville pics before 1920. But I know that he stayed in Miranda after that, and had the nearby Merrifield family do work for him. Did you live in Salmon Creek in the twenties, or thirties, or forties?
The obvious problems with traffic at the snack shop-gift store caused periodic mayhem on the highway out front. Quite a few deaths precipitated the closing of the parking area and a new road in from the Park entrance. I drive cautiously on the Avenue of the Giants when I approach the grove at Fish Creek. Tourists often stop and wander into the road. I once came upon a photographer in the middle of the road with his head under the focusing cloth of a view camera. I was not amused.
Ah, yes, worshipers gathering in the sacred grove for service.