BROOKIKGS-HARBOR PILOT -
PAGE T EN
Thursday, March I, 1Q56
BROOKINGS, OREGON
THE HISTORY OF DEL NORTE COUNTY
about
.round
th e cam p fire., ] N o rth w ert." th e foU «»ta«,notM
w ith or w ithout the benefit of a have been taken. I t
E X C E R P T S FROM
roof. T h ere is no printed record I have titled his w ork «o^M to
RA RE V O L F MES
•
'a n d all we have to go by a re 1 focus it on extrenv- N o itb w w t-
| th e recollections of some of th e te rn California, otherw ise tin
Com piled by M. K. H k h m ini
m ore articu la te and educated, title is n u n - misleading. Lo„n
-------------
1 One such was the late A nthony ‘ his topic the early days ot P el
T hings happening around h ere Joseph BI'dsne. from w hOM ver; N
11 m ’
“ '
in the early days w<re ta lk e d ^ ra re book, ‘Indian W ars of th«i #
1
NOTICE
Brookings Residents
For Demonstration or Information regarding a
New 1956 Cadillac, write or call collect, Mr. Eck
at Lou Btonc, Inc., 2nd and Anderson, Coos Bay,
Oregon — Phone Congress 7-2153.
Now is the time to place ycur order from the
Curry County allotm ent for early delivery.
strea m which they named ‘‘T rin George about the middle of Apiil
thorough. He is also credited its stream , w .th one Van Duzen
ity,” supposing it to em pty into These five men w alked south
w ith having w ritte n a still ra re r scouting ahead tor a crossing. a coastal depression m arked on
and cam e to a river which they
Coming
u[xm
a
stream
entering
volum e The H istory ot Del N orte
the old Spanish m; ps as T rinity supposed to be the T rin ity —but
the
Eel
from
the
left
and
tinding
County.”
Bay. But the party worked up it was the K lam ath the main
D uring the stam pede of '49, a suitabk* ford there, they re- , stream , discovering gold, re tu rn
stream They tram ped up some
ferred
to
this
trib
u
ta
ry
ot
the
parse se ttle rs and prospectors
ing to the S acram ento Valley, littje ways, picked out some lik
Eel
as
Van
Duzen’s
River,
and
crept fu rth e r and fu rth e r up the
and a “ R ush” w as on.
ely-looking hom esites for them
S acram en to Valley. As the tia il so it rem ains.
C onfronted with a dem and for selves, then on down to T rinidad
H
aving
gotten
across,
another
w as broken, they sent back down
b e tte r tran sp o rtatio n , a wild w here the story of their discov
it for supplies. T he fu rth e r they and more serious arguem ent search w as m ade for this "T rin
ery caused quite a to-do, and a
broke
out
am
ong
the
men.
part
»ushed. so much fu rth e r down
ity Bay” as set down by the ra th e r large party w ent back to
of
them
w
an
tin
g
to
follow
the
th - back trail they had to negot-
Sj.anish, and the supposition was
a te for the bringing up of the Eel and cross over in the S ac th a t w a te rg ra d e route could be the stre a m ’s m outh to settle.
They w ere s«x>n joined by others,
ram
ento
Valley,
while
p
art
w
ish
needful things, and for the most
layed from the bay up to the
»ail. the scarcer these supplies ed to continue down the coast m ining area, along the T rin ity everyone sure, because of the
e ra m e . Kingers of m iners ex* to San Francisco Bay. A fter River. The opportunists lelt strikes on th e 'T rin ity , th at every
ilored every trickle, seeking as- terrible h ar lships. during that nothing to time, for in D ecem ber har along the stream m ust he
ured w ealth a t the sources, high first w in ter of ’50, both parties of 1849, th«’ ‘ ailing ship CAMEO rich in gold sluiced down through
in th e hills, including the T rin- finally reached th e ir determ ined m ade an exp iato ry cruise north the ages, from the deposits
above. Houses, fram ed in San
all except Dr.
ties, w here they discovered the destinations
from San Fransisco, retu rn in g
Trinity River which they figured Gregg, w'ho died on his way to report no such ¡dace as T rin - Francisco, w ere shipped in and
erected and it is said one iron-
•mptied d irectly into the Pac- along the coast.
Despite th eir m em orable trip ! ity Bay, and in March, of 1850, house was in the lot, probably
lic. W eaverville, in the T rinity
driven N orth in a storm , some
Valley, was th e estab lish ed m et- it was some years before word of her passengers w ho had had consigned to some fraidy-cat-of-
'ot
around
about
it
and
every-
the-Indians.
lopolis. beyond an easy pass
enough, landed at Point St.
.(C ontinued N e x t W eek)
from th e S acram en t Valley s e t’ >ne still believed th e T rinity
emptied directly into th e sea
tlemjyit at Redding.
In O ctober of ’49, Beldsoe and th at a trail from its m outh
w rites, ;• party of forty m iners to the mines would lx* a bonanza
iced a rugged w inter in their for both m erchants and [»ackers.
From this story we pick out
•amp at Ricn Bar. on the Trin-
> Indians told them it was hut the nam es of some of th ? rivers
n eight-day hike to a large w ith which we are all m ore or
•iy, surrounded by line prairies, less fam iliar, especially since
■ht on the ocean. It m eant the recent disastrous flooding,
• Iy eight days to contact a and strangely in this story so
i silde settlem en t w ith com far. there is no m ention of e ith
m unications to San Francisco, er the K lam ath or S m ith Rivers
’d a possible source of supplies Incident Iy, as the m outh of the
• it iced them Rain, sleet, and Sm ith River had been seen from
the ocean, it was not associated
io w w as already u[x»n them.
Among the [»arty was Dr. Jos- with its trib u ta ry th r T rinity,
ie.h Gregg, a Missourian, and he but was thought to be th e m outh
was chosen to head tw enty-four of w hat was then called “Sm ith
>. th e h u n g ry and ragged crew River”, la ter called the Illinois.
Going backw ard, som ew hat, in
t( strik e out for the coast. They
8 6 PROOF
1« f t cam p on N ovem ber 5. 1849, June of th«* year 1849, M ajor
K e n tu c k y S traight Bourbon W hiskey |
T i t on th e ir lirst day's climbing Pearson B. Reading, who had
iut of the valley and into a been ranching in the S h asta
v i
U ^ X r -D
.> P T
t S / sq t .
snow storm , th e ir two Indian V’alley for some four years, o r
guides and sixteen of the men ganizer! a sm all p a rty to explore
tu rn ed hack, leaving the doctor, to the w estw ard. C rossing a
OLD CROW DISTILLERY CO , DIV. OF NATIONAL DIST. PROD CORP.. FRANKFORT, K1
one of the eight men who in sist “backbone,” they cam e ujxm a
ed upon proceeding.
T h eir h eartb reak in g b attle w ith
the raw elem ents, raw country,
uid raw er Indians, the account
of which Bledsoe apparently
g ath ered from some of the men,
is alm ost unlxdieveahle. In eight
days th e ir scant rations of flour,
1 m ins and pork w ere all gone
and th e ir horses w ere rapidly
becom ing w eaker. T heir sparse
and w orn equipm ent becam e
useless. At one point they m an
aged to shoot a few deer .laying
over to smoke th e m eat, which
they loaded U|K>n th eir poor
horses, but the horses dropped,
one by one, as th e re w as no feed
for them . W hen they cam e to
heavy down tim ber, th e men had
to slab off logs to m ake a ram p
for th e stock to get up on and
then they jum ped th em down the
I o th er side. Since leaving the
I T rin ity th ere was, a t no place,
j an y th in g resem bling a trail.
Standard
A fte r over a m onth on the
way, the [»arty finally reached
I the sea at the m outh of a stream
I nov known as L ittle River, just
south of Trinidad. W hile they
1 canijx'd there, th e [»arty alm ost
broke up but fea r of w hat the
Indians might do. held them to
gether. Headed for S an Fran*
rise i. the [»arty travelled along
| th«' beach Coming to a stream ,
i Dr. Gregg w anted to set up his
in stru m en ts to d eterm in e the
! i , t t'.d e while the others w ere
crossing m canoes they had
J from the Indians hut the rest of
the crew were in a h u rry to get
d o n g , and had an argeum ent
w ith the doctor and his faction.
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ABC
Be« h im ' o f th is , th e s tn e a m w a s
a lw a y s la te r r e fe r r e d to as ‘ M a d
R iver.”
On D ecem ber 20th coming up
on a large Ixxiy of w ate r near
I nightfall .and in bad w eather,
’ tlvey set about to cam p and two
ot th«' men w ent different d ir
ections looking tor potable w ater
| One retu rn ed w ith brackish and
a n o th er man, D avid A Buck, a
n ative ot N «w York, cam e back
w ith a bucket of fresh, sweet
w a te r He h id gotten it front a
creek w hile his companion bad
go tten his from w hat, on la ter
discovery, p oved to be a huge
bay from which they forthw ith
nam ed “T rin ity ” and which is
now known as Humbolt Bay.
Th«> p arty having passed, w ith
i ueh difficulty, aro u n d th e bay
t l v m e t up w ith tw o «»Id Indians
« h w ith a heavy burden. In
vestigation proved loads of eels,
a welcome !rom th e jerky diet
th«' trav e lle rs had long endured,
and :rom then on. th at stream
w here they met th e change of
d ie t w as referred to as the ‘»Eel
River.”
T h e s tre a m was far t«x» wide
and dangerous to cross, near the
beach so the n a rtv iourneved un
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