Odd, Old News: Humboldt County’s Largest Whale…Tale

public interest

Undated photo of the Scotia Bluffs by Ray Jerome Baker from the HSU Library’s Swanlund-Baker Collection

Nuggets of old news served up once a week by David Heller, one of our local historians.

This week Odd, Old News delves into paleontology with a whale of a story. The first article relates the discovery of large whale ribs “calculated” to be from a 225 foot long whale. Since the longest recorded blue whale was 111 feet long, did Humboldt County have a world record breaking find? Or is this just another “wide of the truth” Odd, Old news account?

Our second article reveals some early whale and mollusk fossil finds from near Blue Slide, where Howe Creek enters the Eel, north of Rio Dell and west of Metropolitan. The sandstone layers of Humboldt County have long been a rich source of fossils for collectors. The earliest grey whale fossil in the eastern North Pacific was found in the “Pleistocene Rio Dell Formation”, agatized whale bones have been discovered in the Scotia Bluffs, and whale fossils are located on private property near Bridgeville. The sandstone cliffs along the South Fork of the Eel near Garberville are known to have an exposed whale fossil as well.

The amateur paleontologist may wish to access HSU’s wonderful fossil collectors guide for more information.

ANTIQUE RELICS

Humboldt Times

Unknown date in February, 1881

.—Mr. S.S. Johnson of the Ocean View house, Cape Mendocino, is the possessor of two ribs, which were excavated from the sand beach, and supposed to be the remains of an enormous whale. The ribs were dug from the sand quite a distance from the highest tide mark known since the advent of man and supposition is that the animal died centuries ago—before the upheaval of the Pacific coast.

The ribs are eighteen feet long and twenty inches in diameter at the end where they connect with the vertebral column, and the estimated weight of each is eight hundred pounds.

Based on authentic knowledge of the zoology of the sperm whale—obtained from the American Encyclopedia—the Enterprise concludes that the total length of the animal was about two hundred and twenty-five feet. The greatest length recorded in the cyclopedia is seventy-five feet, which conclusively proves that Mr. Johnson is the possessor of the remains of the largest whale yet discovered by man. Perhaps these are the remains of Tim’s “whale”.

FOSSILIZED MOLLUSKS

Daily Humboldt Standard

July 10, 1881

Ed. Standard:– Before penning this letter, I expected to visit several points containing mollusks in a petrified form, but time and opportunity did not permit. Blue Slide on Eel river contains myriads of fossilized mollusks of every shape and size imaginable.

This slide’s stratum is talc, of a greenish color. The surface contains rich soil and is covered with a heavy growth of redwood and fir timber. Every new slide brings petrifactions to view. Clams are the most numerous, and can be collected by the bushel. Many are as perfect in outline as they were in the live state. Where the edges of the shells meet, the croppings are sand; but on cracking the enamel, the substance filling the shell is found so hard and compact that a small hammer has no effect on it, and in being exposed to a hot fire breaks into small fragments; these pieces pop out of the fire and are diversified with shining particles, or crystallizations.

The scallops are mostly found in half shells, and are as large as a hand. The corrugations in them are perfect, and the under edges of the grooves show their usual bright tinges.

Half-shell. Cockle shells are also found, and when in the whole state the inner substance is the same as in the clam shells.

The rib of a whale is also embedded in this stratum. About eight feet or the arch of this bone is now exposed. Several fragments of this bone—all vertebrated—have been found here from time to time. Howe creek, which flows into Eel river at this point, has washed out two vertebrated joints, evidently of a whale and perhaps the whole skeleton of the fish is entombed here. None of these bones are petrified, and all are in a good state of preservation.

Many of the slide rocks in the rivers bed are entirely composed of mollusk shells, and are all quite beautiful. Nearly all of the hills in this vicinity are fossiliferous. They are formed of a deep stratum of soft sandstone, and the strata so far as I can see, lay in heavy beds are unstratified.

The Book of Books teaches that the sea shall give up its dead, but does not say if the submerged will appear in a petrified form; if they do, it will take a hot fire to have the desired effect on some of them. E.H.Kraft

Earlier Odd and Old News:

There are many more, but here are the most recent:

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11 Comments
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Willie Caos-mayham
Guest
4 years ago

🕯🌳Good morning Kelley and thank you for those bits of history. ☃️🎅

Dot
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Dot
4 years ago

Thank you, I do love this series

Guest
Guest
Guest
4 years ago
Reply to  Dot

Me too.

Dan F
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Dan F
4 years ago

Me 3 !!! ;^D

local observer
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local observer
4 years ago

the next image by the same guy, different angle, is dated 1907.

Wow
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Wow
4 years ago

The winner of the title of the Largest Ocean Carnivore goes to the Sperm whale – the largest of the toothed whale species in the world. Adult males can grow up to 60 feet long and weigh 40 tons (80,000 pounds!). Males are usually about twice as large as the females.

Perspective
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Perspective
4 years ago

I believe the Natural History Museum that was located in Arcata had a whale bone that was found in Bridgeville.

David Heller
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David Heller
4 years ago

There was an article in the Humboldt Times in 1957 about the discovery of the agatized whale bones found at Rio Dell that I located on microfilm and wanted to add to this….but alas, a technical glitch with the public library machine prevented me from capturing the article.
Supposedly there is a newspaper article about Berkeley professors coming north to see Garberville’s whale fossil in the early 20th century but I have not located the article, yet.
And what do they mean above by “Tim’s whale”?!

Gary Lewis Jr
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Gary Lewis Jr
4 years ago

I found one on bald hill in hoopa ca

David Heller
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David Heller
4 years ago
Reply to  Gary Lewis Jr

Gary– that is cool! Thanks for adding that one to the list of finds.

Wilford Ward
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Wilford Ward
4 years ago

Wow Yes lots of fossils around My family has large fossilised Mussel found inland from Arcata at Maple Creek. One was given to the collection at HSU