Odd, Old News: Immense Blast, Hundreds of Tons of Earth Thrown Into Eel River
Tunnel at Bryan’s Bluff (near Holmes Flat in the area of Redcrest south of Scotia) [Photo dated 1910 from Humboldt Room at HSU Library in the Palmquist Collection–Local Historian Jerry Rohde believes this is actually the west end of the tunnel]
The construction of the Northwest Pacific Railroad was an economic game changer for both the remote ranching areas that it accessed and for the lumber industry.
It was also a game changer for the Eel River which suffered greatly from the use of dynamite to move rearrange the landscape for railroad beds and tunnels. The stretch of the railroad tracks to Eagle Prairie (Rio Dell) was one of the first stretches to be built. In 1884 construction involved over 225 men who worked on the 100-300 foot high, two mile stretch of sandstone bluffs using about 2,000 pounds of blasting powder a day.
Changes to the Eel River were not reported, but in 1910 when the stretch of the track was being completed to Fort Seward, it was reported that dynamiting in the area east of Holmes dumped huge amounts of earth into the River. As noted later by upriver Eel River residents, this was the beginning of the end of the health of the river. Later dam diversions that reduced seasonal flows only compounded the problem, and haphazard RR repair and maintenance practices over many decades also contributed to the environmental degradation of a once thriving salmon habitat.
IMMENSE BLAST SET OFF ON RAILROAD
Hundreds of Tons of Earth Thrown Into Eel River
Daily Humboldt Standard, February 28, 1910
The immense blast of giant powder which was set off Saturday afternoon on the railroad right of way just east of Holmes summer bridge was an entire success. For weeks past the contractors, Willets & Burr, have been industriously tunneling in the side of the mountain which runs down there to Eel River, storing away thousands of pounds of powerful explosives.These tunnels were all connected up with a system of electric wires and at the signal given by Contractor P.L Burr, the button was pressed. This for several hundred feet lifted itself under the impact of the expanding charge and plunged into the seething river. The waters of the Eel river were displaced by the falling mass and rose in column, forming a wave 12 feet high. The reverberation which followed could be heard for miles and the surrounding country was shaken by the jar.
In placing the powder a tunnel was run lengthwise with the right of way about 30 feet from the edge of the bluff. This tunnel was then intersected by a series of tunnels spaced some 30 feet apart. The inner chambers wee then stored with explosives.
Those who witnessed the operation report that it was without exception the prettiest black they ever saw touched off. Mr. Burr superintended the placing and setting of the blast.
The ground is now ready for the steam shovel to commence work. Owing to inadequate transportation facilities at present the company has not been able to furnish the class of provisions which they have heretofore been giving their employees. This caused some dissatisfaction among a few of the men employed, and they decided to cease work unless a change were made.
More men were sent to Shively this morning to take their places and the company is tending to the defects in the transportation service. No further trouble is anticipated from any source.
John Schotwell, who is in charge of the cook house at Bryan’s Bluff reports that everything is now settled satisfactorily and that no further trouble will arise. The cook house is not operated directly by the company so the company isn’t considered responsible.
Arriving on the City of Topeka yesterday were 60 tons of fish plates to be used at Shively in the construction work.
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🕯🌳 Good morning Kym and thank you David for the nice little nug in the morning. 🖖
I am reposting some excerpts from a book about the degradation of the health of the Eel River from longtime Alderpoint resident Ray Mathiessen, that olmanriver had previously posted. Please excuse the redundancy, but I think it should accompany the storyline.
‘As Ray Mathison shared in The History of Alderpoint: “As they started building along the river, everything was pushed over the bank into the river. This was the beginning of the destruction of the river. Also the beginning of the end of the big salmon runs. By the time the railroad was completed in 1914, a tremendous amount of material had been pushed into the Eel River. A lot of this Eel River canyon had big landslides. When the railroad was built this started the landslides moving. These were also shoved into the river. Then they blew out the falls near Kikawaka slide. This, over a period of years, let a lot of mountain slide into the river.
Most of this material was put into the Eel River in the wintertime when the river was high, and it got carried down river. It was not many years before the river started to fill in and it wasn’t many years before the ships could no longer run up river as far as Scotia.
All of this….plus a few dry years in the early thirties caused the big salmon to congregate in the lower part of the Eel River. There were so many of them and with the water being so low, they ran out of oxygen and died by the thousands….”
Mr. Mathieson describes how when he moved back to Alderpoint in 1940, the largest salmon were gone. Fall runs still brought a salmon run but no more of the six-footers. Fall rains came later and later, the railroad now had bulldozers and shoved material over the banks faster, filling a lot of the big holes, particularly in the lowest part of the river.
Despite warnings about the RR being placed below the historic flood levels of 1885, 1909, and 1935, RR equipment was left on the tracks and the floods of 1955 and 1964 did a lot of damage.
“After the 1964 flood when they built the RR back they blew most of the big rocks out of the river (I’ll never understand why) completely ruining most of the fishing holes.
The holes that are left have been filled to where they are only about 1/3 of the original size.” (as of 1998) “I have a picture of one of these holes taken in 1913; it had three big rocks. Now it has none and is completely in ruins. This was a hole where salmon and steelhead used to school up and rest before going on up the river” He goes on to report casual use of bulldozers by unsupervised RR workers and a look the other way attitude by Fish and Game men: ”I asked the Fish and Game men in 1975 why they allowed this river to be destroyed, they claimed to know nothing about it, and I told them they surely did know. That ended the conversation.” pp. 59-61”
Thank you for this.
Got to sohum in 89. At first thought logging had done all the damage. And it did, 20 yrs later when the stumps rotted and the rivers filled with hillsides. But This is a whole another level. RRs followed rivers cause they carved a path of least resistance over eons. Now the RR gone, the trees try to grow faster than cut, and the rivers are on life support, along with all the lifeforms that depend on their health.
Ships in Scotia? WHAT? 6′ Salmon. WHAT?
let’s not keep making these same mistakes.
Great grandad worked RR, grandad Fished,dad Logged, now I get 15$ hr on a pot farm.
And thanks a lot for blowing my perceptual mind David. Gr8 accounts. Plz keep em coming. Kym rocks too!
And to think this massive assault and destruction of the once magnificent Eel river along with logging and road-building all happened long before a single marijuana garden was planted. Golleee! Doh, Who knew?
”I asked the Fish and Game men in 1975 why they allowed this river to be destroyed, they claimed to know nothing about it, and I told them they surely did know. That ended the conversation.”
California Fish & Game (aka CDFW) at it again. Reminds me how they used to have a policy that removal of downed trees in the river was good for the river and fishes health…. Makes you wonder what other horrible policys they have in place now that will looked back upon as foolish…
Is the tunnel still accessible? I’ve been down there several times just kind of looking from a distance, but it’s hard to see the portals. There is what appears to be a debris dumping hole or large drain hole square in the side of the bluff and easily visible from the river… but access to the tunnel itself seems difficult, if not impossible. I’d like to check out that one and the Shively tunnel… I have been through the Island Mtn tunnel and that was impressive..
Yes, the tunnel is accessible and is still standing. However there is a section in the center that the redwood beams have collapsed. This may be due to thief’s trying to steal the old growth timber. However the ceiling is made of rock and is not collapsing. So yes, the tunnel is accessible minus the fallen pile of timbers in the center. Also its completely dark so you will need your own light.
Really enjoy your posts David…No one EVER talks about all the herbicides sprayed on the right of way from Dos Rios to Eureka..All the creosote ties, and oil products…. anyone have any ides what year herbicides were started?….The railroad literally move MTS in several places to use as grade material and rip -rapp…. And the Keekawaka Slide? Ray says the Keekawaka falls were blown , but they still exist…. were they lowered?….Rays history is Wonderful but the Title ”THE ”History of Alderpoint..This is more a history of Rays Life there, as the NA were there for thousands of years, and still are…….Spent many days talking w/ Ray he would always bring the talk around to logging,and we disagreed , and i would leave …. He was always gracious but set in his ideas. He showed me many photos that unfortunately later burned in a fire., that was heartbreaking to him.He wrote another book.. anyone know what happened to it? A book about his life here at Steelhead , he was born here at the ranch where we live.I miss him and Louise. They were good souls,
and good people.
At least on and close to the tracks steam engines removed most of the vegetation with “track gangs” doing hand work to supplement, into the fifties in most parts of the country. Steam vegetation control was still a specialized option where direct heat (flame) was too risky and herbicides too obviously stupid as recently as the 1990s. Steam is expensive and was little used last I knew but theoretically available. Massive herbicide became the norm in the 50s.
If anyone knows when this route became Diesel that’ll give a pretty good indicator of when pesticides got real heavy.
Off subject, but river related
This is a picture from a swimming hole I grew up using on the Mad River near my grandparents cabin. Approx 5 miles below the Ruth Dam.
Ruth Dam had always been in place during my lifetime so this is how the river always looked to me during the summer months.
I always swam & jumped from the large rock on the left that resembles a sleeping Basset Hound.
My grandmother told me that before the dam was built the water level of the river was as much as 6-8′ higher during the summer, & that she & her friends would jump off of the large rock in the right side of the picture.
The river was always to shallow for me to jump off the rock on the right side.
Then there was the impact to the fishing. I always thought I was doing great when I would catch a half dozen 8″ rainbow trout to pan fry for breakfast.
Then my grandfather & his friends would tell me about catching several foot monsters right down at the same hole I always swam at.
I didn’t believe them at the time. I honestly thought they were trying to scare the shit out of me because I grew up watching Jaws. lol
I cannot speak to what happened before the dam, but during the 70’s, when Jaws was made, both pulp mills were running and using an immense amount of water every day. That water was stored in Ruth and sent downstream each day. So, it stands to reason the river would have been deeper in that time.
I remember that hole! There is a little camp downstream across a creek called “Lennon’s Camp” which you would only know if you looked way way up in a tree and saw an old sign that said (I think) “Forest Service Camp, proprietor George Lennon”. Spent many a Summer night on the river up there, good memories.
I have heard a local who is a constant researcher of the environmental history of the river that there were no records of Cal Trans contracting or paying to have the dirt hauled away in any of the phases of the building or expansion of 101 prior to or even just after the ’64 flood. Where did the excess dirt and rock go? Same place probably.
Does anyone have any direct knowledge or memories?
I’ve spoken to folks that remember both Cal Trans and the Railroad dynamiting the rocks in the river after major flood events, particularly ’64. I suppose they saw the river as an obstructed ditch rather than a complex ecological living system. The purpose of that ditch was to carry water and dirt away from their valuable assets.
Do you treat your creeks and waterways that way? If so, please pause and consider more gentle ways of interacting with them.
Every time the news says that Cal Trans is dealing with a landslide, I think “Cal Trans CAUSED a landslide.
I wish that I could post pictures that I have seen of the streambed of the Southfork of the Eel adjacent to the recently logged DeVoy Grove in Peircy back during the widening of 101. A family who had lived just upstream shared a number of phtoto that showed the riverbed to be a dirt field and parking lot for all the giant equipment being used. Kind of like they did during the destruction of the Benbow dam, the river channel had been pushed over to the side. Unlike the removal of the Benbow dam, no efforts to contain the silt and dirt were made. Obviously pre-EIR.
Piercy, beg pardon.
Imagine all the derailments over the 100 years or so. I remember when a boxcar full of fertilizer went in the river. There were empty white plastic bags lining the shore on both sides for more than a mile. That poor Eel River has been so abused.
Everyone grumbles about annoying environmental laws, but this is what happens when you let people do what they want with no regs. People for the most part aren’t any good at taking care of things on their own without somebody telling them what they can’t do. It’s too bad really.
I have a piece of a small gauge rail track dug up when they did the restoration on Woodman Creek. It was about sixty feet down from the tracks that were laid in the 1940’s and 50’s. There is a stamp in the concrete at the tunnel there. Thank you for the post. So many people embrace the river and help to bring it back to life as it was before the monied white invasion. History is a great reminder of what has happened and the progress we have made.
Hopefully a working class brown invasion with nice cars can bring the eel river back to snuff.
We’ll probably need to decomission101 from willits north, along with all the dirt ranch roads leading to the monied white back to land colonies.
That’s interesting about the small gauge Michael. The RR tracks were laid from Eureka to Ft. Seward in 1910. The final 30 miles south to Dos Rios was the last section to be finished. Here is an article about some Engineers who scouted the route in order to make bids on its construction:RAILROAD ENGINEERS , INSPECT N. W. P. ROUTE
[Special Dispatch It The. Call]
EUREKA,Sept_ 19.— Twenty railroad engineers, representing six big railroad contracting firms, among them the Utah construction’ company, arrived, at Fort. Seward yesterday morning and are now bound north along the route of the Northwestern Pacific railroad extension. “… .
The men left Round valley, a short distance from Covelo bridge, in Mendocino county, last week and have since been working north, making a detailed investigation of the country in order to prepare data to be submitted to the company they represent, in order that the latter, may bid on the contract for the construction of 30 miles of road which the Pacific railroad company has just called for. . It is stated that, the bids for the 30 additional miles will be let shortly, and that the construction work will be carried on throughout, the winter. In the most inclement weather operations will be centered upon the tunnel; work. With the completion of the 30 miles the gap which separates Eureka from San Francisco so far as railroad communication is concerned will be practically closed.
San Francisco Call, Volume 108, Number 112, 20 September 1910
But it wasn’t until the summer of 1912 that a bid of $2 million was accepted with a goal of finishing by the end of 1913, and as is known the Cain Rock spike was driven on 10/23/1914. I don’t know enough about RR construction to know anything about the narrow gauge track– wish we could entice a RR authority to the thread.
The eel is healing itself . It is scouring
The deep holes out that I swam in the
60’s At county line the river bed is 5 feet lower than it was in the 70’S. If
Fish and game would take gravel
Out of the lower Eel the whole system
Would clear it self. Of course they
Can’t rationalize something this easy.
Thanks for that report Keith… the problem of the gravel in the lower Eel has existed for a long time… common sense solutions and Fish and Game rarely belong in the same sentence in my opinion.