ODD,OLD NEWS: Coal in Humboldt County

Turner Blacksmith Shop in Garberville, circa 1900, Sam McCush at Anvil [Photo courtesy of Diane Hawk from the book In The Early Days by Magarite Cook and Diane Hawk]

This week Odd Old News takes a look at a time when the development of a coal industry in Humboldt County seemed promising.  Once again, Gus Schumacher of Garberville made the news with his discovery of a coal seam near Eagle Prairie (Rio Dell). Like a number of Humboldt County locales mentioned in the article, the Garberville area has coal deposits. Three coal deposits between Garberville and Redway were revealed on the 1865 Doolittle map of Humboldt County, the first official map for the county.

In 1872 it was reported that coal had been found near Garberville, and that it was good enough to be used by local blacksmiths.  A coal seam that runs uphill towards Harris is cut by some of creeks on the that drain into the East Branch of the South Fork of the Eel River from the north. Gus Schumacher was no stranger to coal, having substituted a map of a coal mine in 1880 in order to discourage a Government surveyor from finding the legendary (non)Cave of Bear Butte. Unlike some of the stories associated with Mr. Schumacher, he did indeed find coal.

THE COAL DEPOSITS OF HUMBOLDT

Daily Humboldt Standard

April 19th, 1881

Whether or not the existing coal body of Humboldt is composed of a valuable quality of coal, or whether they are available as a commercial value, is a problem which we believe will be solved in the very near future. That such deposits do exist in a very extensive veins, may not be generally known to the Pacific public, although the fact has been well understood in this immediate section for some years. What the real quality and character of the coal is we are not expert enough to pass upon, but it is certain that there is more than one class, and some of it has the appearance of being the best character of fuel, and it burns freely, leaving no cinder. The evidences of the immediate presence of coal deposits are scattered over a considerable portion of Humboldt county. One vein, and which we think contains the best quality of fuel, crops out plainly not far from the Mendocino line, between main Eel river and South Fork. This vein evidently runs northward, keeping with the divide between the two rivers, until in the vicinity of the Forks, when it crosses to the east side of the main river, the most northerly cropping that we know of, being on the Van Duzen about twenty miles from Hydesville.

While to our knowledge no coal has been found to the northward of this point, yet the geological formations are in every respect as favorable superficially as those of the section to the southward. From the croppings on Van Duzen southward to the most southerly point where the coal has been discovered is a distance of 40 or 50 miles, the whole of which is undoubtedly underlaid with one unbroken strata of coal. In speaking of the above facts were are not merely repeating hearsay, but as we have seen and examined them with our own eyes and there fore we assert that we know to be facts, having dug the coal with our own hands, and burned the same frequently. This deposit we should judge is the most extensive we have in the county, and formation is regular. It lies east of the South Fork of Eel river about half the above named distance, when it crosses to the east side of the main river. South of both branches of Eel river, we are informed, is another clearly defined coal bed, and which crops out near the head of Bear river.

More recently Mr. G. E. Schumaker has discovered good indications of what would seem to be the same vein near Eagle Prairie, a few miles from Rohnerville. Mr. Schumaker informs us that his discovery is about seventy feet above the bed of the river, and at a good point for shipment in flat boats. It is about fifteen miles from the coast. This position would seem to solve the question of availability. It could find transportation at Port Kenyon, and the river afford the means of placing it at that point at a nominal coast and in any quantity that commerce might require. Mr. S. has not developed his discovery beyond sinking a few feet, which showed improved indications as he went down. It now remains to be tested if coal of a valuable quality can be obtained at this point, and if capital can be interested in its development.

The deposit that lies between the two rivers is immediately on the proposed railroad up the coast through Mendocino, and can also be tapped by a short line of railroad from Shelter Cove. Both of these deposits are eminently worthy the attention of active capitalists. The fact that coal exists without practical limit in this county can be easily and cheaply demonstrated to any one desirous of inventing time, labor, experience or money. Come and see!

Coal, East Branch of Eel River [Photo by David Heller]

    

This enthused report of coal deposits in the southern portion of Humboldt County and its potential economic value ultimately failed to drum up interest in exploiting the county’s coal resources. Its appeal for a railroad connection to Shelter Cove went unheeded by financiers, staving off the first, but not last, major economic development proposal for the Cove.