Odd Old News: Afloat and Afoot, Travels Through Mendocino County Into Humboldt, Pt. 6—The Conclusion

[Photo by Pliny E. Goddard at UC Berkeley, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology Collection, California Ethnographic Field Photographs]

[Photo by Pliny E. Goddard at UC Berkeley, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology Collection, California Ethnographic Field Photographs]

Nuggets of old news is served up once a week by David Heller, one of our local historians.Eel River Valley, 1906 

And so we come to the last days of the journey of the intrepid travelers who had set out weeks earlier from San Rafael on a quest to boat down the Eel River. After days of traveling downstream, the boulder strewn bed of the Eel River proved to be too great a challenge and “afoot” became the only means of travel through the rugged hiking country. The men arrived exhausted at Alderpoint and were taken in by Captain H.H. Tichnor, a local hotelier. Declining the option of taking the stage from Alderpoint to Eureka, they procured another boat for the last leg of their float to the end of the river.

Their planned float downstream to accommodations at Rio Dell ran into a particularly potent appearance of the Eel River’s notorious upriver winds that are the bane of many a canoe paddler and kayaker in modern times. Rev. McDonald’s journey that “was taken for recreation and pleasure” became the exhausting work of conquering the progress-killing northwesterly winds by towing the boat downstream. Their weariness likely motivated the expedition’s decision to stop their Eel River journey shy of its original goal to float “the whole of its length”. The amenities and comfort of civilization called loudly, their journey down Eel River, afloat and afoot, continued “astage” from Rohnerville to Eureka.

Though published in newspapers in October, the journey had taken place in early May of 1881. After a much needed rest, our story’s narrator, Reverend Jas. S. McDonald eschewed travel home by water on a steamer ship, and took the stage route back to San Rafael.

DOWN EEL RIVER Afloat and Afoot
By Reverend Jas. S. McDonald
Humboldt Times
October 5, 1881
At half past seven we were safely housed from the rain that had already begun to fall, and that would have made another night on the river bank exceedingly uncomfortable. We were treated in the most hospitable manner by the captain and his niece and nephew. It is not for me to say how the Commodore broke that long fast at the loaded table to which he sat down. A bowl of bread and milk, one of the greatest luxuries in the way of food, was all one of the party craved after a thirty-six hours fast. With a comfortable bed, a good night’s rest, and a sweet, delightful Sabbath, a day of rest, of thanksgiving to God for all His mercies, and we began to feel decidedly revived.

So far we had found the river exceedingly crooked and rocky. Rocks larger than San Rafael’s cottages were often encountered. Where they tumbled from into the river was often a mystery. It required much hard climbing to get around or over the great masses of rock in our path. Drift wood on rocks and trees thirty, forty and fifty feet above the bed of the stream, told the story of a mighty volume of water, gathered from the vast water-shed above, and poured with impetuous fury through the narrow gorges. At no one point in the distance traversed afloat or afoot did it widen out into a valley. Its slopes, of varying height and steepness, where not covered with brush and a group of small timber, afforded fine pasturage for stock. On some ranges we saw large flocks of sheep; on others no signs of life were visible.

From Alder Point we could have taken the stage road and reached Humboldt bay without much difficulty. But as already indicated, our leader was bound to navigate that river, explore it to tide water. And so the captain’s boat was purchased, and before noon on Monday, we were again under way with a strong, capacious boat, long oars that officer and crew could expend all their strength upon. One of them, at least, blistered his hands in the effort to speed on the way. With our new boat we run rapids in the most reckless manner. Every now and then as a rock showed itself in the channel, with the current dashing over it, threatening wreck and ruin, the commodore would lend all his energies, as pilot, and sing out to one of the other of his aids, pull, pull, pull! And then, “steady, now all clear, the way we go.”

Again and again these exciting runs were made. Then we would have long reaches of smooth water, sometimes but little current, where the oarsmen would have to pull with steady stroke to make good headway. Now and then bold, precipitous bluffs closed down upon the river. The scenery was forever varying, and always interesting. Deer were often visible, feeding on the grassy slopes.

The character of the country began to change towards evening. We came to the first of many laurel groves that lie along the river with the richest of soil and large amounts of valuable timber. Here we would see small rude houses, and clearings, and signs of civilization and life. And as night came on we reached the first of the grand redwoods that make lower Eel river famous. We closed a busy day with a newly married couple, who lived in one room, on the bank of the river. They were exceedingly kind and hospitable. We slept in a cabin that had been the home of the host before he married and built a new nest for the bright plumaged bird that had captivated and won him.

At nine o’clock the next morning we reached Camp Grant, an old military post in the days of the bitter Indian feuds and wars, now fortunately over. Here kind friends of former days insisted on our remaining to dinner. This they gave us early, and by eleven o’clock we started, to meet and surmount difficulties of a different kind from any yet experienced.
[TO BE CONTINUED]

And more..

https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/16011#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&r=0&xywh=226%2C611%2C705%2C378

Looking up South Fork of the Eel River from Eel River, 1956 [Photo by Pliny E. Goddard at Berkeley Library, Emanuel Fritz-Metcalf Photograph Collection]

Humboldt Times
October 6, 1881

The gale that blew from the Pacific drove the steamer Los Angeles into Trinidad heads for shelter; made the oldest inhabitants on the coast say, “They never saw it blow harder,” swept up Eel river and caught and held our boat in the swiftest current, in spite of all our efforts with our oars. We wanted to reach a hotel thirteen miles below Camp Grant, but at noon it looked as though we would not make three miles. The river had been receiving constant accessions from numerous rills and beautiful mountain streams. A short distance below Camp Grant the South Fork poured its transparent waters into the main river, coming apparently out of a dense forest of redwoods. Boatmen make their way from the tide water up this stream, several miles, to Garberville. But the question that just now troubled us was how to get on in the teeth of a tempest.

Fortunately again, our commodore came to the rescue. He had built a railroad along the Lackawana canal boat—how to keep it off shore when the tow horses were tugging away at the end of a long line. The man who could hack a willow tree down with a carving knife was not going to tie up for an Eel river wind. The traveler who once wanted to “work his passage” on a canal boat, was sent to lead the horses on the tow path. But our only tow path was the rough banks of the river. We had no horses and no tramp so energetic as to want to work his passage. The only hope was to do our own towing, and so, now in the water, but mostly on dry land, we started and held on until we could all get in and pull in the shelter of the timber, or during a lull in the wind, or in a very swift current, and so press on. About five different times, perhaps a half mile or a mile at a stretch, we would tow, till at length weary and wet, we reached our destination at six o’clock in the evening.

Preachers are supposed to be exceedingly fond of chicken. But it was not the preacher in this case that appealed to the landlandy for chicken on the plea that bacon and beans had become monotonous. The chicken was served up for breakfast. A large bowl of bread and milk sufficed for one of the party for the evening meal.

Passing down through magnificent redwoods that lined either bank of the river as it carved gracefully and thus formed the grandest avenues we have ever seen, and emerging by 10 o’clock into the widening valley of lower Eel river, with its rich farming lands, passing the mouth of the Van Duzen fork on one hand and Grizzly Bluff on the other; we pulled the last stretch of our weary way, and at 12 o’clock Wednesday, we reached Rhonerville ferry, and ended our voyage afloat, our journey afoot, down Eel river.

We had spent seventeen days on the expedition, a much longer time than we anticipated, and were decidedly rough, sunburnt, and in need of fresh linen. We were within eight or ten miles of the mouth of the river, that makes its way through a level country, and there was no need to follow it further. The boat was left in the charge of the ferryman, we found a team bound for Rohnerville, two miles distant, where another team was hired to take us to Eureka, twenty-two miles distant, that we reached at five o’clock in the evening. Boot and clothing stores, bath houses and barber shops were in demand, and in due time we assumed something of a normal appearance, and again mingled freely in pleasant intercourse with old and new friends.
O. I. C.

Earlier Odd and Old News:

There are many, but here are the most recent:

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cu2morrow
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cu2morrow
3 years ago

travel on the Eel, a risky business in October 81′

Mary Ann Machi
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Mary Ann Machi
3 years ago

What a saga!!! A great first hand account of life back then. Thanks David, for sharing it all with us.

Doc
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Doc
3 years ago

Excellent account, enviable adventure. Would’ve loved to see this country back then, when my great, great granddad was learning our ranch trade from his pioneer dad. Easy to see why people made the arduous journey to the West back then.

Ernie Branscomb
Guest
3 years ago

In the early ’60’s I lived in Eel Rock while my fathers logging company logged Coleman Creek canyon. I made a link below about the Eel Rock post office. I own the large safe that was in that post office. The safe came into Humboldt county on a team-drawn wagon in the late 1800’s. The Eel Rock post office bought the safe from a store in Redway. It was in Eel Rock until we bought the safe for the Briceland Bar and Cafe, also in the early ’60’s. I knew the last three postmasters of Eel Rock. Bill and Sadie Nunnemaker, and Myrtle Hanson.

But enough about me!

I saw the Eel Rock before it became rip-rap to repair the railroad after the 1964 flood. In was a large round rock about 40-50ft in diameter. The river would wash around it at high-water. The wash would form a half circle moat around the rock. When the river went back down it would have fish in the moat. It had blue-gill, suckers, trout and eels, and a little yellow perch-like fish that a local person (me) called a “sunfish” because it looked like a little round sun ball. I can’t find a photo of Eel Rock, but I know that there must be many, it was pretty impressive.

The bullshistory from the old-timers told me that many of the large rocks had Indian writing on them. That, of course, disappeared with the large rocks being made into railbed. I have seen many petroglyphs when I was a kid and thought nothing about them. I know that many rocks in Mendocino and Southern Humboldt had writing on them. Much of it was destroyed by people trying to chip it off to take home… with disastrous results.

My cousin tells a made-up story about and Indian man coming home from a hard day hunting and his woman tells him that he has to lecture the darn kids because they have been scratching up the rocks again. That’s his story of where the writings came from.

A little history on the Eel rock post office.
http://historyandhappenings.squarespace.com/humboldt-county/2016/12/12/eel-rock.html

Canyon oak
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Canyon oak
3 years ago

Unfortunate that we crushed up Eel Rock.
I didn’t know that, wished it was still there..

James dean
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James dean
3 years ago

There are tons of native American rocks around. I know of at least ernie doesnt!

gunther
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gunther
3 years ago

Yes, very interesting read. I suppose now if you wanted to float the Eel River in October you’d have to start at Fernbridge at high tide.

geoffrey davis
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geoffrey davis
3 years ago

T. hanks David…. fighting rapids Oct 8th… hmmmmmmm.he must have been i Any idea where and when the first photo… mouth of the North fork Eel?…. Ernie……. the big rock @ Eel rock w/ all the carvings is still there, they are all made of a type of schist… they collected the dust apparently…Any photos of the Eel rock before it was blasted? i just found one of the Rock in Alderpoint before they blew it to hell……..Notice in the article Alder Point was 2 words? had to change to 1 word to be able to have P.O. ……1915 i think

David Heller
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David Heller
3 years ago

May of 1881–As I wrote in the intro to the first part of this long journey, the float actually occurred in early May, when waters would have been higher. I repeated that in my last paragraph of this intro… and edited it out at the last minute– my bad in assuming that people would have read that already. Makes much more sense of the higher water flows encountered.
Geoff– most of the photos were from Pliny Goddard’s work with the Wailacki in 1908. Good tidbit about the PO forcing Alder Point to become Alderpoint.
Great pieces of the Eel Rock history to know Ernie! I got very excited to see a bluegill in the South Fork some years back, it felt like seeing an endangered species, ha.

Ernie Branscomb
Guest
3 years ago

I would bet that the local people thought that the boaters were darn fools. They would have probably died without the help of the locals. Apparently they were able to buy their way out of all their problems. I really don’t get the thrill of their great adventure. If they are going to risk their life, and risk the life of their livestock with their darn-foolery there should have been a good reason. But. That is just me I guess…

By 1881 there was a well established path from Willits to Eureka. Up what is now Brooktrails to Sherwood Valley, down Strong Mountain to Cahto valley, up long Valley, up Bell Springs Ridge, Alder Point, Blocksberg, Bridgeville, into Springville. The Old-Timers were smart enough to stick to the ridges where the roads didn’t wash away. If you noticed, everytime the Highway 101 was closed between Garberville and Laytonville, the Bell Springs road was open.

David Heller
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David Heller
3 years ago

The Surveyor General had just surveyed the Eel River valley in the mid-1870’s, and their map shows the line of a nice blue river…without any boulders. I was thinking perhaps that first PLAT map of the river, with its surveyor notes, was what prompted the journey. Just guessing. And how did the Commodore convince the Reverend, who does not strike me as an outdoorsman, to come along on a journey and ride a boat down a river that no one else has ever done before? The Reverend undoubtedly had the ride of his life but must have been so sore. He did a good job of keeping on the sunny side with his attitude. In an ideal world, we would continue on with his three part account of the stage ride home, but alas, the newspaper with part two was not on microfilm.

geoffrey davis
Guest
geoffrey davis
3 years ago

Ernie, how would you get across the Eel river from AP to BB in 1881? In high water?…….Any idea what year the fist bridge crossing Eel in AP?
I tried to correct my last comments. didnt go through… confusing. thanks David!

Ernie Branscomb
Guest
3 years ago
Reply to  geoffrey davis

There were many river crossings, but the roads didn’t slide and wash away. Maybe they had crude ferries. Not sure. All that I know is that it was the established route. I am sure that it wasn’t always passable.

Ernie Branscomb
Guest
3 years ago

Geoffrey
I feel your pain, I tried to correct “was” to “were” and failed miserably.

Ernie Branscomb
Guest
3 years ago

And now it corrected…….

David Heller
Guest
David Heller
3 years ago

That’s three of us, I couldn’t correct my befuddled comment apologizing for taking out the identifying date, once I noticed that kym had used my first article version that had the date! lol…
There was a cable across the Eel there first, then the Alderpoint bridge was built in 1890-91, it was the longest combination truss bridge in the state, and was viewed as an expensive boondoggle that cost $30,000, a chunk of money back then. Rather quickly the east approach slid out, and the only way to cross the bridge was to use a 65 foot ladder to climb up or down to access it. Repairs to the bridge were needed at times, and it was replaced in 1918. It prompted folks to wonder why that route to Alderpoint/Blocksburg was used for a stage with all its altitude climbing and descending when the Mail Ridge route to Camp Grant was faster and easier.