As the demand for redwood lumber grew, particularly in the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, so did the need for overland transportation routes. Railroad companies carved their narrow paths through forests and across rivers. The advent of the automobile gave rise to the need for roads connecting the redwood coast with the markets and transportation hubs of the San Francisco area. Thus, the Redwood Highway, or U.S. 101 was born. Automobile Repair Shop Eureka - 1904The Eureka area was originally populated by the Wiyot people but with the California Gold Rush, white settlers quickly outnumbered the Wiyot. Many conflicts ensued, leading to the establishment of Fort Humboldt by the U.S. Army. The Army was not able to resolve the conflicts peacefully and the majority of the tribe was massacred during the “Wiyot Massacre” of 1860.The lumber boom followed the gold rush and the Eureka waterfront developed rapidly as a business district.
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Trinidad Lighthouse and the Great White Fleet - 1908In May of 1908, the 16 battleships of President Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet passed by Trinidad Head on its way from San Francisco to Puget Sound. With its “peacetime white” hulls, its reported mission was to make friendly courtesy calls to many nations across the world, but at a time of rising tensions with Japan, the voyage also signaled the growth of the United States as a global naval power. It gave the Navy the opportunity to better understand the logistical needs of fleet operations far from home.
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Car at Cape Mendocino - ca. 1915The Mattole Road between Ferndale and Petrolia was built by Chinese workers as a stagecoach road in the late 1800s. This gateway to the Lost Coast of California is a 64-mile, steep and windy, narrow road built on an uplifted sea floor that is seismically very active and prone to landslides. It was built to serve the oil town of Petrolia, the location of the first oil well drilled in California.
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Klamath River Ferry at Requa - 1923The old Redwood Highway linked Crescent City to Eureka and communities to the South. Before the first Klamath River bridge was built, travelers crossed the river by a ferry about ½ mile up from the river’s mouth, pushed along a secured cable by the river’s current. The first white man to operate a toll ferry on the Klamath at Requa was Morgan G. Tucker in 1876. His business was opposed by the Yurok tribe who had been transporting travelers across the river for a fee in their canoes.The ferry operated until late 1926 when the Douglas Memorial Bridge opened to traffic.
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Trinidad Railway Station - ca. 1910The Trinidad Depot was built in 1907 next to the whaling station. The railway had four miles of track to haul lumber, shakes, fence posts, and pickets to the Trinidad Mill Company. Prior to 1907, the company had built a ½ mile long tramway to the wharf for shipping from their mill on the hill overlooking the bay. It was built on trestles over 60 feet high and powered by mules.
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Honeydew Oil Derrick at Hindley Ranch near Petrolia - ca. 1920sUp the Mattole Valley about 15 miles from Petrolia, the Hindley Farm was established in 1872, initially raising sheep and cattle. Over the years, reports emerged of oil seeping from the ground in a variety of locations. In 1865, Petrolia’s Union Well, the first producing oil well in California, produced 30 gallons of crude per day. Farmers and ranchers in the area tried their luck with varying degrees of success.
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Constructing the Redwood Highway - ca. 1922The early Crescent City-Trinidad Road was built on puncheons (short posts), paved with slabs of redwood. When the winter rains came, the dirt was washed away and water collected under the redwood slabs, “forming veritable geysers as vehicles drove over them.” As automobiles arrived on the scene, the old road proved to be inadequate.
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Burning Trolley Car Eureka - 1940As Eureka modernized its transportation in favor of the automobile, the old streetcar system was no longer financially viable. On February 20, 1940, the last day of regular streetcar service, a trolley car was intentionally burned on Fifth Street between E and F Streets to celebrate the new era.
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Last updated: October 12, 2022