Redwood National and State Parks in Northern California was born out of concern for the remaining stands of old-growth coastal redwoods. As you wander through one of these groves, craning your neck in amazement at these tall, tall trees, some of which are 300 feet tall (91 m) or more and may be anywhere from 500 to 2,000 years old, you are looking at a portion of the remaining five percent of redwood forests. Long before Euro-Americans reduced this number to what you see now, there were over 2 million acres of old-growth redwoods.

The Indigenous

According to park staff:

Native Americans in the [North Coast] region belonged to many tribes, although no one tribe dominated. Indeed, the concept of "tribe" does not describe very well the traditional political complexity of the area. There were scores of villages that dotted the coast and lined the major rivers; each of these villages was more or less politically independent, yet linked to one another by intricate networks of economic, social, and religious ties.

These peoples spoke many different languages and possessed distinct identities. They hunted, fished, gathered berries and other vegetation. They lived in houses built of planks split from fallen redwoods and situated over pits they dug beneath the building. Each home was considered a living entity: a Spirit Being comprised of the “bones” of the redwood planks. The indigenous peoples believed Spirit Beings were a divine race which existed before humans in the redwood region, and who taught people the proper way to live there.

As time passed, indigenous California cultures began to merge, with similar beliefs, customs, and ceremonies. But the languages remained distinct and separate, and today, Tolowa, Yurok, Hupa, and Karuk are still spoken.

Gold And Logging

In 1850, gold was discovered and outsiders overwhelmed these forests and its inhabitants.  Predictably, the outcome was not good for the indigenous people, who were hunted, enslaved or killed, and ultimately pushed off the land they called home. Treaties were never ratified in this part of California, and what reservations existed were not established by treaty, but instead by administrative decree.

Falk Lumber Company ca 1897, Redwood National and State Parks / BLM

When the Euro-Americans arrived in droves, swaths of coastal redwoods were logged to create homes, businesses, and other infrastructure. The 1850 gold rush brought in even more people, and by 1853, nine sawmills were at work in Eureka and large stands of redwoods began to disappear by the close of the 19th century. Redwood trees were prized for their size, durability, and workability. Land fraud and swindles were common, as acres of prime redwood forests were transferred from the public domain to private industry.

Concern For The Redwoods

By 1910, concern over the speed at which these ancient old-growth redwood forests disappeared beneath the chainsaw gave birth to Save The Redwoods League. This organization began purchasing large tracts of acreage in an effort to preserve what remained of the redwood forests.  From these purchased lands, the state of California in the 1920s established the three state parks, as well as Humboldt Redwoods State Park to the south.

Of course, this did not stop the clear cutting. By 1960, industrial logging had removed almost ninety percent of all the original redwoods.

According to park staff:

It wasn’t until 1968 that Redwood National Park was established, which secured some stands of uncut old-growth redwoods near Orick, CA. This included protecting ancient redwoods found in what is the Lady Bird Johnson Grove, the Trillium Falls Trail, and a narrow section of Redwood Creek that included the "Tall Trees Grove". But this initial park boundary did not protect the whole watershed, and clear-cut logging around the new national park continued for another ten years.

After legal battles and continued public pressure, in 1978, the US government purchased from logging companies over 10,000 acres more land in the Redwood Creek watershed to add to the national park. This expansion included large sections of recently clear-cut hills along the length of Redwood Creek. Today, these lands and watersheds are undergoing large-scale restoration by the Parks and it partners.

Management and logging of second-growth redwood forests continues on privately-held lands nearby and throughout the redwood region.

In 1994, the National Park Service and California Department of Parks and Recreation agreed to jointly manage the four parks for the best resource protection possible. Redwood National and State Parks today form a World Heritage Site and are part of the California Coast Range Biosphere Reserve.

The indigenous communities originally pushed off their land still exist, and today, Tribal Councils and Park management work together on myriad of government-to-government programs like habitat restoration, the returning of California condors, protection of archeological sites, the use of prescribed fire, and the beneficial sharing of staff and agency resources.

Cultural Landscapes

In addition to general history, Redwood National and State Parks focuses also on the history of cultural landscapes. Cultural landscapes are physical spaces telling a story about the past and the relationship between people and the land.

Orchards

Boyes Prairie Orchard site, ca 1914, Redwood National and State Parks / NPS file

The 1850s gold rush saw an influx not only of prospectors, but also farmers and their families. From this sprang at least nine orchards, along with many individual fruit trees scattered throughout the parks’ landscapes. The largest of these orchards in the park are Lyons Ranches Home Place Orchard in the Bald Hills and the Boyes Prairie Orchard in the Elk Meadow area of Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. These orchards grew peaches, pears, apples, cherries, and walnuts.

These orchards still exist today, and the National Park Service conducts training programs focusing on the preservation of historic orchards as well as providing genetic stock that can be used to cultivate new varieties for future generations.

Prairie Creek Fish Hatchery

What remains of the Prairie Creek Fish Hatchery, Redwood National and State Parks / NPS file

One of only three surviving historic hatcheries in California out of an original 150 hatcheries, Prairie Creek Fish Hatchery was built in the 1936 at the confluence of Prairie Creek and Lost Man Creek, where the water conditions were ideal for hatching fish and the area's steep, forested hillsides gave way to a flat area for building. Redwood trees from the forest provided materials for construction.

According to park staff:

Hatchery employees raised silver and king salmon, cutthroat, rainbow, and steelhead trout. The first step was collecting eggs from wild salmon. Salmon swam up the creek and were trapped by the dam. They were dipped out, examined, and, if ripe, eggs were removed from females and spawned from males in buckets. Harvested carcasses were left for bears, and fresh carcasses were eaten by the staff or given away.

Employees transported the fertilized eggs to the hatchery building troughs, where they set them into specialized baskets with holes. Workers turned the baskets until the eggs hatched. When the "fry" grew to "fingerlings," the workers transferred the fish to outside tanks to keep growing. When the salmon were big enough, workers scooped them into milk cans with aerators, loaded them into trucks, and released them into streams in Humboldt and Del Norte Counties. By 1949, the fish were transported in a special tank truck.¹

Because the hatchery was not modified after 1946, it is a rare example of the period of intensive manual labor. Mechanization became typical in later years. After World War II, intense logging deteriorated Lost Man Creek, which slowed hatchery production. The state determined that the facility was outdated and closed it in 1956.

[The hatchery was reopened in 1958 and operated until 1992.] Redwood National Park was established in 1968, increasing tourism and sightseeing to the area. In addition to operating as a hatchery, employees educated people about the hatchery's history and function. Prairie Creek Fish Hatchery received thousands of visitors and was a regular part of school field trips in Humboldt County. In addition to functioning as a hatchery, employees educated visitors about the hatchery's history and operations.

You can read more about this in the National Park Service’s 2020 Cultural Landscape Report for this fish hatchery.

For a more detailed look at Redwood National and State Parks’ history, click here.

Boy Scout Tree ca 1930. The twin trunks of the tree are 240 ft/73 m tall and 23 ft/7 m in diameter, Redwood National and State Parks/Save The Redwoods League via NPS