Odd Old News: Afloat and Afoot, Travels Through Mendocino County Into Humboldt, Pt. 2

1859 PLAT survey map of Ukiah to Little Lake stage route up Walker Valley. [Image from BLM records]

We resume our journey from San Rafael to Eureka with Rev. McDonald, a pastor from San Rafael traveling in the company of a group of men planning to go down the Eel River in a boat.

Climbing out of the Ukiah Valley, his route through Walker Valley followed the stage route as seen in the first PLAT survey map of the area. This stage route is further down the hill from today’s Highway 101, and confirms Frank Asbill’s “revisionist” correction of the location of the legendary Black Bart rock. (The conversation about the real location of Black Bart rock may be found in the comment section of a previous article).

Entering Little Lake Valley, the travelers stay with Martin Baechtel, who with his brother Harry, had brought a herd of cattle to the area in 1855 and stayed to live on the land of the Mitom Pomo. A party of travelers who stayed at their home at the head of the valley in 1857 described them as

The brothers Paechtel, three in number, are of German descent…By dint of industry and economy, they have built up quite a snug establishment. A comfortable, spacious log-house, surrounded by several out-houses, serves as a dwelling for themselves and accommodation for their help. Although devoting considerable attention to agriculture, their main object is the raising of cattle. Have the advantage of an extensive range and abundant pasturage all the year, their stock, of which they several hundred, is in excellent condition.” (Hutchings California Magazine, Number 28, October, 1858:149).

The area was first known to Euro-Americans as Baechtels, and then as Willetsville (a mispelling of settler Hiram Willits last name), then Little Lake and finally, Willits in 1874.

If the Reverend were more of a historian he would have mentioned the infamous Coates-Frost feud that had erupted on the porch of Baechtel’s store in 1867.

The explorers left the valley likely following the Sherwood Valley trail, the first name for the same Brooktrails route leading to Sherwood Valley that has been so impacted by recent fire.

Carpenter’s 1880 History of Mendocino and Lake Counties tells us that Alfred Sherwood took up residence in the territory of the Mahto Pomo in 1853 where he started a family with local Native women. In 1888 he built the valley’s iconic Octagon House for Nell, the white woman he married who helped to raise his Native family.

As has been stated previously, stockmen moved heavily into sheep-raising in the 1880’s in Northern California. The annual production of wool in Mendocino county in 1881 was 1.5 million pounds. Rev. McDonald gives his views on the wool industry as he passes through Sherwood Valley where the party of travelers hire guides and horses for the coming adventure.

1859 PLAT SURVEY MAP OF WALKER VALLEY

DOWN EEL RIVER
Humboldt Times 9/20/1881
(Continued)
Early in the afternoon of the second day we left Ukiah and followed up the Humboldt Bay road along Forsyth and Walker creeks, tributaries of Russian river. We encamped near the source of the latter, on the fine ranch of one of the pioneer settlers of that region, the owner also of an extensive sheep range. We drank of his milk, ate of his apples and slept in his barn.

We did not carry a tent, and for the most part slept, or tossed about in the open air.

The next morning the chief and his assistant walked through what they were informed was the lowest depression in the divide between the head waters of Russian and Eel rivers; and the cook and commissary with his thermometer followed the road with the team and the ham, meeting our companions on the northern side of the range. Subsequent measurement decided that we crossed at a point nearly one hundred feet lower than the footmen. They drank by the way from a delicious mineral spring, where some enterprising individual had better not build a hotel, to overlook the beautiful Walker valley, and hand his name down as another bankrupt owner of a California pleasure resort, noted for its pure air, grand and picturesque scenery, and table laden with all the delicacies of trout stream and deer range.

With our passage of the divide began our trip down Eel river, though we were as yet only upon the rill that helps to feed the grand river. Having caught some trout early in the morning in Walker creek, my first attempt, while waiting for the footman, was to add to my catch from a small brushy creek that went murmuring, “But I flow on forever,” down through Little Lake valley to the river which we were to follow for several days to come.

The town of Willits about 1890 in the Little Lake Valley. [Image from the Sonoma County Digital Collections]

After our lunch, we pushed on through the valley situated at an elevation of fifteen hundred feet above the water. It takes its title from a small shallow lake that we did not see. It is a magnificent amphitheatre in the mountains, rich in its resources, but singularly subject to fogs in the morning, detracting somewhat from its delightful climate.Mr. Martin Baechtel, one of its most intelligent and enterprising citizens, who has lived and prospered there for twenty live years, showed us great kindness, and accompanied us two days on our explorations.Leaving the valley, we passed on five miles, and camped on a beautiful creek, among the grand redwoods that form the advance-guard of the famous Eel river forests, but it was a long stretch, after leaving that point, before we came to similar timber. Here we found a mill that manufactures the lumber for a large extent of surrounding country. But a sawmill is not an absolute necessity in a redwood region. Large and very respectable looking houses and barns are built of boards split from this most excellent limber. For building and fencing purposes it is invaluable, and is one of the principal sources of wealth and prosperity of the northern coast line of California.

We were now within the limits of the great sheep grazing region that embraces large portions of Mendocino and Humboldt counties. We found the country more open, attractive and richly clothed with grass than we anticipated. The season was one of more than ordinary productiveness and we traversed a country unsurpassed in excellence us a home for sheep. It is well watered, which is an advantage for any kind of stock during our long dry term. The decided preference for sheep by owners of these mountain pastures in part arises from the fact that some of the ranges are too rough and steep for cattle to thrive well upon them; but more especially for the reason that sheep yield quicker and more frequent returns to their owners will multiply with rapidity. They are productive, clipped twice a year, and their wool commands the highest price of the market, being fine of texture and very free from burs. One important advantage of clipping twice in the year arises from the fact that a full year’s growth, when sheep are not in good condition during the rainy season, is not uniformly excellent in texture. There is a weak place in its fibre and hence it is better if clipped in the spring and fall. [TO BE CONTINUED]

And, then…

Humboldt Times
September 21, 1881

Herd of sheep in a large pasture next to a barn. [From the Humboldt Room Photograph Collections]

(Continued)
The ranges that have winter pasture along the rivers where but little snow falls, and slimmer grazing along the higher slopes and summits, insure a less per cent of losses than those of equal excellence in other respects. The long severe winter storms are the great foes to this vast and important industry. Comparatively few sheep owners have feed for their stock when most needed and no shelter. In the absence of protection from the long continued storm, even a supply of food is not always sufficient to save the flock.A friend who owns a fine range on Mad River, Humboldt county, informed me that during a recent winter he met with a heavy loss, though he had three seasons of hay, an abundant supply, on hand for his flock. The storms were so long and severe that large numbers of his sheep perished.Notwithstanding these drawbacks, the whole country drained by the waters of Russian, Eel and Mad Rivers affords superior advantages for sheep. According to the estimate of the editor of the Ukiah City Press, there were two hundred and fifty thousand sheep from in Mendocino county last year. The average yield per head was six and a half pounds; or a total of one million six hundred and twenty five thousand pounds. The price per pound was twenty-five cents, amounting to $406,250.

From our redwood camp we followed the stage road, and up stream for the most part, to the upper end of Sherwood Valley. While lunching, two men who were repairing the road near by, joined us for a friendly chat. One of them, though a young man, filled the responsible offices of husband, road overseer and postmaster, his office being located at the lower end of the valley. The other, in one respect unfortunate, if not in both, had neither wife nor office, and was known simply as “Billy.” It was not long before our chief made a bargain with these Sherwood valley citizens to furnish an outfit of saddle and pack animals for a trip directly down Eel River. We returned to the post-office, and by nine o’clock next morning were mounted and ready to branch off from civilization, roads, and even trails.

Our Ukiah friend returned home with the team, but not with the ham and the cooking utensils. These, with blankets, were packed on two venerable horses which were selected because of their experience in that line of business. Experience, it proved, was “Charley’s” chief merit; but old “Bill,” white, strong and independent, was a splendid pack horse. My companions were mounted on respectable horses that had picked up a living for months past, and were not in first-rate condition for the rough trip ahead of them. The little, unshod, bluish-gray mustang assigned to the chief of the commissary department, (who also carried the thermometer,) to whom he gave the poetic name of ” Dew-drop, ” not because she was transparent or ephemeral, was indeed a prize, sure-footed, gentle and willing.

With our friend from Little Lake Valley, and ‘Billy’ ahead with the ax, and the postmaster behind to manage old Bill and his experienced companion, we struck out down the watershed to the junction of the beautiful streams that drain Little Lake and Long Valleys, and form the ‘Little Lake Outlet.’ We found but little difficulty in following down this stream. The hills close in upon either side closely, as is the case with nearly all these mountain streams.

In one of our fording ventures our chief’s assistant—a nephew of one of the ex-Presidents of the U. S.—met with his first misfortune, as horse and rider plunged into depths that suddenly left them afloat. But they came safely out, wet and dripping.

Along this stream we began to get views that would have gladdened the hearts of the Nimrods of our sporting clubs. In spite of the merciless, reckless, unlawful slaughter of deer, they abound in great numbers throughout; those splendid mountain retreats. We saw one man in Sherwood Valley who claims that be has killed 3,000 deer. If game laws are not a dead letter, such a transgressor ought to feel the full weight of their penalty. At all seasons, for the trifling price of a pelt, he continues to shoot down deer.

Our “Billy”- slight, with sandy hair, and freckled face, active, good natured, like mountaineers generally, something of a cook, but 21 years old, has killed 268 deer, 10 panthers and 8 bears. He is not always hungry for venison when he kills deer. On one occasion he caught two hundred trout in five hours. These achievements prove that he has an eye for game. He also confessed that like most of his sex, whether found in mountain, valley, or crowded city, or beautiful village, there was a maiden precious to his soul. In one of his favorite hunting regions there dwelt a lovely lass, who was dearer to his heart than all the deer his unerring rifle had ever checked in their swift career. From the fact that assisting bashful young men in the most interesting event in their lives is somewhat in my line of business, I ventured to suggest that he had better give me a call when the happy day came to ring the marriage bell. But we have followed the deer on a long trail from Outlet Creek, and must return and hasten on to Eel River. [CONTINUED NEXT WEEK]

The Eel River, Mendocino County, Calif [Image from Eastman’s Originals Collection at UC Davis]

Earlier Odd and Old News:

There are many, but here are the most recent:

• Odd Old News: The Tragic Wreck of the Columbia Near Shelter Cove in 1907
• Crusade Against Blind Pigs in Humboldt County
• Back to Nature Man in Trinity County
• Building the Northwestern Pacific Tracks South to Ft. Seward
• The Bug Catcher Lady
• Holy Rollers Take Garberville
• Odd Old News: The 1890’s Opiate Epidemic in Humboldt County
• The Herstory of Two Women Sheep Ranchers in Mendocino County
• Odd Old News: Afloat and Afoot, Travels Through Mendocino County Into Humboldt, Pt. 1