Dock Explores Cheatham Grove’s Old-Growth Redwoods, Star Wars History and a Hidden Highway 36 Bridge

The Humboldt Axe YouTube channel’s latest video takes viewers on a spring day trip along Highway 36, stopping at two spots that don’t get nearly enough attention: Cheatham Grove and the Lower Blackburn Grade Bridge.

Cheatham Grove, a small pocket of old-growth redwoods near Carlotta that’s part of Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park, survived the logging era of the late 1800s and early 1900s largely because of its steep terrain. In the early 1940s, landowner Owen Robertson Cheatham donated the grove, helping establish the state park in 1943 in partnership with the Save the Redwoods League.

The grove also has a Hollywood footnote: the speeder bike chase scenes from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi were filmed there among the towering redwoods.

The video also covers the Lower Blackburn Grade Bridge, a 258-foot reinforced concrete bridge completed in 1925 and designed by engineer John B. Leonard, who also designed Fernbridge. Easy to miss from the road, the bridge sits along what was originally called the Fortuna-Red Bluff Highway.

The video also features Mekko the dog, who made the most of the Van Duzen River.

Watch the full video on the Humboldt Axe YouTube channel.