Odd Old News: An 1884 Look at Dogholes, Lumber Loading Chutes, and the Rockport Suspension Bridge

Rockport suspension bridge circa 1896, courtesy of Diane Hawk, from the Robert J. Lee/Carpenter)Rockport suspension bridge circa 1896, courtesy of Diane Hawk, from the Robert J. Lee/Carpenter collection

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

The early development of the logging industry along the rugged and beautiful Northern California coastline is a well documented topic that has been covered by a number of authors.

This week’s Odd Old News article will look at lumbering prospects along the coast in 1884, how lumber loading chutes operated, the Rockport suspension bridge chute, and the hazards faced by lumber schooners from the relentlessly turbulent weather of the North Coast.

In the last half of the 19th century, the long Mendocino County coastline had a mill and loading chute at nearly every small cove. These coves were aptly nicknamed “dogholes” as they were so small that a dog could hardly turn around. There were huge challenges getting cut lumber loaded onto the lumber schooners who worked the tiny doghole ports at some great peril.

Where Highway 1 turns inland after following the coastline north, the Rockport area marks the beginning of the Lost Coast as. Located on Cottoneva creek, the Rockport has a storied history. Logging enthusiasts will appreciate the coverage of the topic on the linked website operated by the Mendocino Coast Model Railroad and History Society.

This Cottoneva/Rockport cove was first known to early settlers as Summer Cove, because in summer, shielded by the cove’s rock-lined northwest side, schooners could unload supplies and take on settlers’ goods. In 1876 W. R. Miller built a mill and the Pacific coast’s first steel wire suspension bridge, remarkable technology for the time. It extended 275 feet from the shore to a small island offshore. The mill operated until 1887, was sold to the Cottoneva Lumber Company, and burnt down in 1889. Once rebuilt, the Rockport mill became one of the larger mill operations in northern California. It burnt down again in 1900, and some 130 workers were thrown out of work. In 1925, the Mississippi based lumber giant Finkbane and Guild bought up 30,000 acres of timber rights and built an electric mill and company town at Rockport. Despite grandiose plans, and a large capital investment, the mill was unsuccessful. After a hiatus in operations, the Rockport Redwood Company was formed in 1938, and ran the mill until it burnt down once again in 1942. It was rebuilt, but only ran until 1957 when timber demand subsided, and 300 workers and locals were forced to move elsewhere for employment.

Decades after the area’s mills shut down, the land has swallowed all signs of how busy the area had been. Each year, thousands of tourists pass through the Hollow Tree region on Highway 1 unaware of its once thriving, but now invisible, logging history.

Shipping Lumber on the Coast
Pacific Rural Press
September 20, 1884

The shore line of the west coast of the United States has very few good harbors. Between San Francisco and the straits of Fuca, some 700 miles, there is really not a single harbor which is always accessible during gales. There are a number of open roadsteads, giving partial shelter from the summer northwest winds, and several bar harbors, all of which are dangerous of access and utterly impracticable in heavy or even moderately bad weather. There are only four places on our 1,300 miles of coast line where it is broken by rivers or inlets of any magnitude, or where there are harbors of any importance. These are San Diego, near our southern frontier; San Francisco, 500 miles north of San Diego; the Columbia river, 620 miles north of San Francisco; and the strait of Fuca, 160 miles north of the Columbia, separating us from British territory. San Francisco and San Diego are the only two good harbors on this long line of coast.

For nearly the whole length of the northern coast the immense forests, extending back for miles from the shore, furnish employment for labor and investment for capital. At every available point for shipment stands a saw-mill, turning trees into lumber which is sent here by sea and thence distributed. Every little river has its fisheries and canneries, and all the valleys and bottom lands their agricultural population. The produce is mainly shipped by sea and under the peculiar existing conditions the people have had to devise means to overcome the natural disadvantages of the coast line, from these necessities has grown up the chute system of loading and discharging vessels, which it is the purpose of this article to describe.

As stated, the rugged character of the coast line is such that there are few harbors or landing places where it is possible to maintain a wharf, so that chutes have to be constructed. Most of these chutes are on the coast north of San Francisco, although there are a few on the south coast also. These chutes consist of a long incline of wood in the form of a shallow trough, extending from a headland of a shipping point or from a high wharf or pier, out to a point where water is deep enough to allow vessels to come under and load. Of course, no average can be given of their length, size, cost of construction, or length of shears. These items all depend on the location and conformation of the coast. In some cases they are 60 feet long, as when used from a wharf or pier, and in others 600 feet or more. The length depends entirely upon the vertical height from sea level to the point from which the lumber is started. There must be inclination enough for lumber to slide by its own weight, and yet not so much that its impetus will be too great. In practice the angle is about 30 degrees, though in very long chutes it is common to give them much more pitch at the start, and have the lower end nearly level, or even ascending a little to check the force or speed of the sliding lumber. This is done for several reasons. First—In a long chute it would be nearly impossible, except at great expense, to preserve a true line of incline, and there is always more or less sag on account of the lightness of construction. Secondly—lf the headland was high it would often be impossible to obtain the correct inclination without great expense and a very long chute, perhaps too long for service, and extending clear across the harbor. It is usual, therefore, to pitch them sharp at first and then graduate them to suit.

No part of the structure ever touches the vessel, except by accident, but the whole thing is suspended from the various shears or supports, and the outer end or apron is raised or lowered to suit the stage of the tide, height of vessel, and weight of lumber, according as it is light or heavy. In stormy weather they are, of course, hoisted high in the shears. At the lower end and close to it, say within ten or twenty feet, is a break, or “clapper,” as it is usually called, which consists of a heavy flap of planks, faced smoothly with iron on its lower underneath edge. This is hinged to the top edges of chute, and the lower edge rests on the bottom. A lever handle is fastened to a frame on one side connected to the clapper in the center with an iron bar and extends through a similar frame on the other side, allowing the clapper to be raised on its hinges.

When shipping lumber, a man is stationed at the clapper and a couple of boards at a time are shoved down the chute. They slide down rapidly at first, and the impetus given carries them to the clapper. As they reach it the man there raises it enough to allow them to go under, and, as they slide, puts his weight on the lever, slowing them down or stopping them with their ends sticking over the vessel. The vessel is moored directly under this end, with the chute about breast high above the deck, and the boards are seized by the men and passed below or stowed on deck, as the case may be; the apron being raised as the load is put on or tide rises. This is for boards or small timber.

In shipping large timber, another brake is put on higher up, consisting of several long planks held together by cross pieces on top, and hinged at the top the same as the clapper, with a rope running from the lower end through a block overhead to the upper end of the chute. As the timber runs down it goes under this flap, and its force is checked by the weight and friction, a man at the rope regulating the same, so as not to stop it altogether. When it reaches the clapper its force is so spent that the man can then stop it.

It is a very nice job, all this brake business, to apply just the required amount of check at the right time, and can only be learned by experience.

In shipping material by this means, no more is started down the chute until the preceding lot has been taken out. In loading railroad ties or posts, of which great quantities are shipped to this port, the practice is to send down enough carefully to cover the deck of the schooner, and a row is then stood up against the outside rail. The clapper is then lifted, and the tics or pouts are allowed to run down, one after the other, a carload at a time each lot being stowed before the next car-load is sent down. In loading shingles, the chute is filled, one bunch behind the other, from clapper to top, and one bunch at a time let pass; the chute being lowered or raised so that the clapper man can control them as stated, and be sure of their not getting away from him. If they should, the bunches, by striking the deck and each other, would be broken up.

These chutes are, with few exceptions, placed on the north sides of the landings or coves, that side being usually the highest, with a reef extending out, which affords pretty smooth water during the prevailing northwest winds of the shipping season. The peculiar formation of the coast brings nearly all the chutes on the north side of the landings.
Engraving Pacific Rural Press September 20, 1884
The engraving which we have made to accompany this article shows a typical chute. Some are much wider and some more elaborate. The engraving was made from a photograph of Rockport chute, Mendocino county, formerly known as Cottonueve, a landing only considered available for six months in the year, and by no means the best on the coast at any time.

Nevertheless, considerable money has been spent here in improving it as a shipping point. An isolated rock off the beach, which was so precipitous and pointed as to have a foothold at its pinnacle for only one man to work at first, has been cut down until it presents a surface available for storing over 200,000 feet of lumber. From this rock to another nearer shore has been stretched a wire suspension bridge, costing over $13,000, and the horse-cars bringing lumber from the mill come on trestle-work to the bridge, and across it to the other rock. Everything is of the most substantial character in the work done. The chute consists down from the outer rock, where the lumber is piled. There are guys, stays and braces to steady the chute and to regulate the inclination as well. The winter gales, like winter gales elsewhere, are the cause of great damage on the coast line. The vessels which are out must take it as they can, for they have no little small coves to run into for a shelter. The greatest losses occur from the schooners being caught in the landings or coves in which it is impossible to ride out a gale. Sometimes they cannot get out, and have to ride it out at the moorings, and in case anything gives way they go on the rocks. Frequently in trying to get to sea they come to drift on the rocks or shoals at the entrance. Once clear of the land, however, they are generally all right.

Most of our coasting schooners are centerboard vessels so as to insure large carrying capacity with comparatively light draught of water. They are mainly built on this coast from native lumber, and are as fine a class of vessels as there are in the world. To the Puget sound ports, of course, a number of square rigged “lumber droghers” ply, and they are principally used in the coal trade as well, but the main coast carrying trade is done by the schooner.

These conditions are peculiar to the California coast, there being no other part of the world where this chute system is in vogue. They are built on all sorts of places along the coast. The extreme edge of a headland or point is often selected on account of depth of water. It must be remembered that the ocean surf is constantly rolling in, and even behind many of the small points or headlands here is a heavy swell, in many places the insurance men refuse to take risks on the coast, on account of the danger of loss.

Earlier Odd and Old News:

There are many, but here are the most recent:

Facebooktwitterpinterestmail

Join the discussion! For rules visit: https://kymkemp.com/commenting-rules

Comments system how-to: https://wpdiscuz.com/community/postid/10599/

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

46 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Pike Mortar
Guest
Pike Mortar
3 years ago

Always interesting.

Oddly, no mention of Humboldt Bay as a place of refuge or a port for goods… surely by the late 1800s it was thriving.

Ernie Branscomb
Guest
3 years ago
Reply to  Pike Mortar

Crossing the bar in a storm with a sailing ship is not as easy as it might sound. There was no jetties or dredging then.

Angela Robinson
Guest
Angela Robinson
3 years ago

It’s still notorious coast wide to this day, even with the jetties and dredging.

David Heller
Guest
David Heller
3 years ago
Reply to  Pike Mortar

Good catch Pike Mortar! A rather large omission. Arcata had that 11,000 long wharf out into the Bay in 1855, and mills were operating all around the east side of the Bay. Consulting Ray Raphael’s great Two People-One Place.. he said that by 1890, lumber made up 80% of Humboldt counties exports…so, obviously, mills were busy and they were doing a lot of shipping. Not sure what the criterion for “harbor of importance” was in 1884?

Ernie Branscomb
Guest
3 years ago

Great story!
My family has deep history along the coast from Westport to Usal. The town of Rockport did not get “swallowed up” in 1957, but was bought up by Georgia Pacific corporation and they operated a first class mill there well through the 60’s and into the 70’s. There was a store that sat on the northwest corner of Rockport Creek and “Highway” 1. The store was a stopping point for us on our travels to Fort Bragg.

I don’t know when the doghole was abandoned, but they trucked most of their product in and out of Rockport. They had just built a new school when the timber industry started to change, and the town was abandoned. The school was still there for many years after the mill left.

Some of the company housing was built along the side of Highway 1 just north of Rockport. My grandmother Ruby (Middleton) Branscomb’s sister and her husband lived there. He worked for the Rockport lumber company.

Hales Grove was the location of The Hollow Tree Lumber company, which was located between Leggett and Rockport. I lived there as a wee tad of about 4 years old. While I was playing in the snow in the front yard I discovered the the neighbors shingle roof was on fire by the chimney. I ran into the house and told my mother. She ran to the neighbors and they put the fire out with a garden hose. That was the first of my volunteer firefighting career.

David Heller
Guest
David Heller
3 years ago

THANKS for the correction about when the area closed down Ernie! The Mendorails site has a series of articles about Rockport, and I used the link below for my closing in 1957 comment, without seeing that Mr. Hough said that selective harvest continued after the closing, he gave no more mill info to back up the statement.comment image

Mendocino Redwood Company also has a good website for Rockport, where I found this… “The Rockport mill finally fell to competition and closed its doors in 1957.Following Rounds death in 1960, the mill was dismantled and auctioned off. That same year, the Rockport Redwood Company certified the timberlands as the Ralph M. Rounds Tree Farm, selling timber to neighboring companies. The term “tree farm” originated two decades earlier in the 1940s, as the timber industry introduced the concept of sustainable forestry and continual stewardship. Farming implies continuous nurturing and commitment to a “crop” year after year. Tree farming was the polar opposite of the “cut-out and get-out” strategy of some timber industrialist.

Ralph C. Round, the elder’s heir, sold the Ralph M. Rounds Tree Farm and the town of Rockport to Georgia-Pacific on July 30, 1968. In 1973 the Rounds Tree Farm, the Georgia-Pacific timberlands throughout northern California, and the former town of Rockport was spun off into Louisiana-Pacific. MRC purchased the Louisiana-Pacific lands, including the Rockport townsite, in 1998.”
https://www.hrcllc.com/history_project/stories/company_town.htm

Ernie Branscomb
Guest
3 years ago
Reply to  David Heller

David, after conversations with my cousins in the timber industry, there may NOT have been a mill in Rockport after 1957. I know that Georgia Pacific had a very nice office building east of the highway there. The town existed up until @1971 at least. They may have just done some extensive logging that kept the town alive.

I will do some further research. If anyone knows about a mill there after 1957, chime in.

David Heller
Guest
David Heller
3 years ago

Good to know when the little town disappeared Ernie, thanks for your @1971 date.

David Heller
Guest
David Heller
3 years ago
Reply to  David Heller

Usal wharf, date and attribution unknown.

Chris Braga
Guest
Chris Braga
3 years ago
Reply to  David Heller

Fairbanks & DeBuhr photographers 1897/1898

David Heller
Guest
David Heller
3 years ago
Reply to  Chris Braga

Thanks Chris, someone sent it to me from a facebook page without attributions, it is important to give credit.

Thirdeye
Guest
Thirdeye
3 years ago
Reply to  David Heller

That’s one epic model railroad set up in Fort Bragg!

Trashman
Guest
Trashman
3 years ago

Hope you write a book Ernie, what is the name of the creek just south of Rockport that had great surf netting before Caltrans wrecked it with the new bridge?

Guest
Guest
Guest
3 years ago
Reply to  Trashman

Juan Creek

Mary Ann Machi
Guest
Mary Ann Machi
3 years ago

Postcard by Ray Baker. Chute for loading ships at Needle Rock. I don’t have a date on this but he was photographing in the Humboldt area 1904-1910.

Mary Ann Machi
Guest
Mary Ann Machi
3 years ago

Bear Harbor chute 1893.

Ernie Branscomb
Guest
3 years ago

How many people know that Usal was named after the U.S.A. Lumber co. (U.S.A.L)?

My great grandfather had a redwood split-stuff camp on Usal Creek and shipped off of a pier that was located there. (sorry, No Photo) Maybe Mary Ann has one. As I recall my Bullshistory the wharf was 1/4 mile long. The Old Timers didn’t know much about the nature of the north coast. Many sacrifices were made trying to ship products off the coast. Many Doghole ships were lost, and many piers were washed away.

Also, Westport had a large pier. My great grandmother worked there as a maid in a boarding house. Westport was a major shipping point, and parts of the pier were still there in the 1960’s.

David Heller is the one to write the book. My knowledge is not necessarily that accurate. There is a reason that I label my stories as “bullshistory”. You would be amazed at the stories that were faithfully passed down to me through the years that ended up only having a glimmer of truth to them. However, I loved and treasured them all, truth or not.

When visiting the British Isles I was remind how far stories can turn into fairy tales by word of mouth. One of my favorite stories was about a giant named Bran. ( you can Google him) He was so large that he could wade the sea between England and Ireland. He Played a major influence on my family history. The ravens were named after him. The Welch word for Raven is Bran. The valley That my ancestors were from in the south of England was named “Bran’s Coombe” (Bran’s Valley) … Branscomb. Ireland had the Salmon of Wisdom that could talk. I must have got some of my stories from him.

Ernie Branscomb
Guest
3 years ago

Bullshistory link to “Bran” https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bran-Celtic-god

David Heller
Guest
David Heller
3 years ago

But your book would be more fun to read!

Talked to someone else today whose family lived in some of the remaining worker cabins at Rockport, anyone know when all those buildings were taken down?

Lynn H
Guest
Lynn H
3 years ago
Reply to  David Heller

Some of the ones on the east side of 101 are still there. Short paved road with a mowed lawn and several houses. There is an elderly couple who live there in one of them and care take the larger land holding. Very nice people, friendly and easy to talk to David. I ran into them while photographing elk one day. I bet they have a lot of stories. I’d guess you could drive out there on a nice sunny day, maybe when covid calms down and they’d be glad to have a historian for company. I’ll ask a friend out there if anyone knows who they are if you’d like.

& thanks for such an interesting story. Ingenuity in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s was so interesting, hands on, and dangerous.

Lynn H
Guest
Lynn H
3 years ago
Reply to  David Heller

Also, from google earth it looks like some shacks or ruins are still on the rocks off the shore.

BTW, do you know the history of the pink house in the Juan creek drainage that you can see from 101? Have always been curious about that house.

Lynn H
Guest
Lynn H
3 years ago
Reply to  Lynn H

oops, meant rt 1, not 101

Mary Ann Machi
Guest
Mary Ann Machi
3 years ago

Checking for Usal photos Ernie. Have none. Wish I did. Here’s what Wikipedia says:

USA Lumber (USAL) Company built a sawmill at the mouth of Usal Creek in 1889 with a 1,600-foot wharf for loading lumber onto coastal schooners, and a 3 miles railroad up Usal Creek to bring logs to the mill. Robert Dollar purchased Usal Redwood Company in 1894. Dollar Lumber Company was running out of timber for their Guerneville mill at the time. In 1896, Dollar purchased the steamship Newsboy to transport lumber from Usal to San Francisco. A fire in 1902 destroyed the sawmill, a warehouse, a school house, and the county bridge over Usal Creek. The railroad was dismantled, and the rails were used by the sawmill at the mouth of Big River. Several buildings including a hotel survived until destroyed by fire in 1969. The former hotel site near the mouth of Hotel Gulch is now a campground for Sinkyone Wilderness State Park.

I also have an article from 1902, The Ft. Bragg Advocate that says: “This season promises to be a busy one at Usal. The mill will not run, but vast quantities of ties and tan bark will be shipped from that place.”

Link to Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usal_Creek

Also a link to a website devoted to Usal. http://usalcalifornia.tripod.com/

Check out the Photos tab on the left.

Mary Ann Machi
Guest
Mary Ann Machi
3 years ago
Reply to  Mary Ann Machi

Usal was second only to Ft. Bragg in lumber shipments in 1900.

Ernie Branscomb
Guest
3 years ago
Reply to  Mary Ann Machi

I have some very good photos of Robert VanHoy delivering fuel to the the mill in Usal in the 1950’s. Some of the buildings were there in 1970, because we would go fish for surf fish and night fish there.

My wife Janis and I would go fishing there on some of our first dates. I knew she was a keeper when I discovered she wanted to go fishing with me! Some of that glory disappeared when she out-fished me at Lake Pillsbury.

Van Hoy was a local businessman, he was a good friend of Harold Mendes, (as who was not?) VanHoy was the owner of the Union Oil plant located by the Caltrans yard. Larry Renner was one of his drivers. Larry later bought the plant from Van Hoy. It now belongs to Valley Pacific.

Now, all I have to do find the photos… I will share if…..

David Heller
Guest
David Heller
3 years ago
Reply to  Mary Ann Machi

Those photo’s of Usal when the Etter’s lived there are priceless. There is a good history of post-WWII Usal summer in the reminiscences of a descendant of the Thomas family (the family that had caretaken the place for three decades). It is a good read! http://usalcalifornia.tripod.com/usalstoryline.htm

Lynn H
Guest
Lynn H
3 years ago
Reply to  Mary Ann Machi

The text at http://usalcalifornia.tripod.com/ is somehow invisible. At least with firefox.. If you use your mouse and select down the page you can read it. I’ll email the person who wrote it and let them know. Lovely story there.

Jeffersonian
Guest
Jeffersonian
3 years ago

Now that’s an Irish tale!

David Heller
Guest
David Heller
3 years ago

Good additions Mary Ann, thanks. The Usal Wharf got destroyed three times by the weather, they only had about a quarter mile built in 1890 before it got ruined(likely what Ernie was remembering), and was rebuilt out to 900-1200 feet from the different accounts that I have read. A Healdsburg newspaper wrote: “It had been predicted several times that no wharf at that point could stand the heavy seas found there every winter”.
The quality of the redwood timer was very low around Usal, Carpenter wrote in his 1914 History of Mendocino and Lake Counties: ““The Usal Timber was the largest in the county, but of poor quality. It seemed to belong to an earlier era than other timber along the coast, and it was so full of doted places and windcracks that it did not yield more than half the lumber its size indicated”… But at this time, there was a lot more high-quality old growth to choose from.

David Heller
Guest
David Heller
3 years ago

timber-beg pardon.

Gordon Green
Guest
Gordon Green
3 years ago
Reply to  David Heller

Great Article. This is a little further up the coast, the Mattole Lumber Company Wharf at the mouth of the Mattole River. Given to me by Dave Stockton.

Mary Ann Machi
Guest
Mary Ann Machi
3 years ago
Reply to  Gordon Green

Another view from 1909. McClaskey postcard.

cu2morrow
Guest
cu2morrow
3 years ago

man that’s some real engineering and architecture . Look at that span from bird rock to pelican island

Lynn
Guest
Lynn
3 years ago

Does anyone know the history of the pink house in the Juan creek drainage that you can see from 101? Have always been curious about that house. Looks pretty old.

David Heller
Guest
David Heller
3 years ago
Reply to  Lynn

I personally don’t know about it, a quick google search found a real estate add with some good photos, just said historic…. which might not mean that old, the last mill there burned down in 1944.

Ernie Branscomb
Guest
3 years ago
Reply to  David Heller

Lynn
Yes, I can tell you all about it. It was the Juan Creek Inn. It was a bar and hotel. When I was a kid we would buy gas there for our trip home from Juan Creek. I remember the gas pump was one that had a pump handle on the side. There was a glass tank on the top were you could see the gas you pumped. You would pump as much gas as you wanted, then drain it by gravity into your tank.

Juan Creek was the most popular campground on the coast north of Fort Bragg. It was like a summer long party there. I think that the convenience of the bar had something to do with it. It was a place that you could almost always catch surf fish.

The local Indians would catch surf fish there and you could buy salted smoked surf fish for next to nothing from them. My dad would always buy a big paper bag full. I would eat so many that I couldn’t eat dinner.

Then… there was the two cute little blond twin girls that were in my Grammar school class who would often be there… A lot of the people from Laytonville and Branscomb would go there on week ends to get away from the summer heat.

The highway 1 used to go to the east of the pink building It was right on the side of the road. When the highway road department built the new Juan Creek bridge it ruined the surf fishing and destroyed the Campground and the access to the bar was lost to traffic. Now all that is left is some great memories of a carefree youth.

Lynn H
Guest
Lynn H
3 years ago

Thank you so much Ernie! That explains it. Every time I pass it I want to go there. Feels like it used to be a welcoming and happy place.

I wonder if the fish came back after the highway disruption or if the piled rocks shelter too many predators? There looks like a steep footpath from the north western side of the bridge, and several paths- possibly deer paths on the eastern side. Place may be abandoned- the road from the building to the creek outlet is still overgrown.

Lynn H
Guest
Lynn H
3 years ago
Reply to  David Heller

Can you find it again easily David? Or the address? I’m curious when it was built, although it’s such a likely spot (before we knew about tsunamis) it may have had a building or village there before that one.

David Heller
Guest
David Heller
3 years ago
Reply to  Lynn H

Lynn, I don’t see the real estate ad up anymore, but it didn’t have any more historic information about the place. That great Mendorails site had this to say about the place: “The Juan Creek area (it was never really a town) had a store, a saloon and a few overnight accommodations”. https://www.mendorailhistory.org/1_towns/towns/juan_creek.htm

Lynn
Guest
Lynn
3 years ago

Does anyone know the history of the pink house in the Juan creek drainage that you can see from rt1? Have always been curious about that house. Looks pretty old.

Steve Koch
Guest
Steve Koch
3 years ago

Absolutely fascinating!

its real
Guest
its real
3 years ago

Hands down the best column, thank you. Living breathing history, have reintroduced the word crick to the vocab for you Ernie, you guys should write a book together. Humboldt County history and personal rememberances they are the same thing after all.

OrleansNative
Guest
OrleansNative
3 years ago

good stuff! Thank you all. Really enjoy these history stories.

Margaret
Guest
Margaret
3 years ago

I’m interested in Doghole ports and lumber loading chutes on the N. CA coast in the mid 19 C. We bought a tiny house on a bit of land north of Gualala at Bourns Landing a few years ago. The title search got me interested in the history of the Bourns family but there are so many holes in the story I have been able to piece together. I decided I’d write a piece of fiction (never done it before) about the family so my children and grandchildren would have a sense of the history of the area we love. Long story to get to my current questions.
How did people who built the chutes finance them? What did they cost to build? Bourn’s landing was built about 2 mos after the Robinson’s built one a few miles south, what kind of conflict would that stir in a logging community? Any ideas? Can you refer me to a place to find this kind of information? Thanks

Margaret
Guest
Margaret
3 years ago
Reply to  Margaret

Ah ha! I found a newspaper article that says the shute at Bourn’s landing cost $5,000 (Daily Alta California, Volume 25, Number 8500, 7 July 1873) Still wondering how it was financed. Maybe he brokered a deal with the mill in advance of building the chute — I’m working on that.

David Heller
Guest
David Heller
2 years ago
Reply to  Margaret

Margaret, I didn’t see this til now, scuse me…. there is Mendocino County facebook page that might be a good resource for you. To get the flavor of those dogholes may I recommend Dogholes and Donkey Engines by Martha Sullenger, A historical resources study of Six State Park System Units on the Mendocino Coast, published by Parks and Recreation, 1980, 1992. If you can find it.