Then And Now - Ocean Bounty

Ocean Bounty

Salmon and whales once powered a lucrative and dynamic fishing industry on the North Coast. However, the salmon runs petered out as timber industry practices and dams upstream damaged fragile riparian ecosystems in the spawning waters of the Klamath, Eel, and Smith Rivers. The whaling business came to a halt due to over-fishing, dried-up demand for whale oil, and society’s change of ethical mind about hunting and killing whales.

 

Arcata Wharf - ca. 1883

The two-mile long Arcata Wharf was built by the Union Wharf and Plank Walk Company in 1854 to transport lumber into deep water for loading onto ocean going ships. An early rail system had a white horse named “Spanking Fury” tow a cart out to the ships along wooden rails overlain with strap iron. The horse-drawn rail remained in service until the 1875 when it was replaced by a small steam locomotive named the Black Diamond.

This pair of photos is located outside the boundaries of Redwood National and State Parks.

 

Left image
Credit: Photographer: A.W. Ericson; Palmquist Collection, Humboldt State University Library

Right image
Credit: NPS/Ted Barone

 

Chinook Fishing Klamath River Mouth - 1913

Salmon is an anadromous fish species which means it can live in both fresh river water and salty ocean water. When salmon began their spawning runs each fall up the Klamath, the river’s mouth was full of boats and the boats were full of salmon. Some of the salmon that survived the fishermen made their way up to Klamath Lake in Oregon, some 260 miles upriver.

The Klamath used to have the third largest salmon migration in the continental United States. Today, the historic numbers of salmon have been reduced by 90%.

The completion in 1918 of the Copco 1 dam northeast of Yreka in California (plus three other dams on the Klamath), created an insurmountable obstacle for the salmon as they struggled to reach their natal streams in the marshy uplands near Klamath Lake.

This pair of photos is located outside the boundaries of Redwood National and State Parks.

 

Left image
Credit: "Images of America: Crescent City & Del Norte County" Del Norte County Historical Society 2006 Arcadia Publishing

Right image
Credit: NPS/Ted Barone

 

Del Norte Salmon Cannery in Requa - 1913

Rek-woi, is possibly the only indigenous village site in California continuously inhabited for centuries by the same tribe, the Yurok. Because it sat outside the Klamath River Reservation established by U.S. President Franklin Pierce in 1855, whites were able to fish and establish commercial operations. The cannery between Requa and Hunter Creek, a mile up from the river’s mouth, hired Indians to work the cannery and fish, one cannery owner, John Baumhoff, signed an agreement with 26 Yuroks to provide nets and boats and paid the Indian workers 10 cents for every salmon weighing over ten pounds.

Previous to the arrival of whites in the region, the Klamath River tribes (Yurok, Karuk, Hupa, and Klamath) helped keep order in the balance between humans and the fish by conducting low-level burns to prevent severe fires and promote game and useful plant species.

After the California Gold Rush in 1849, and despite the U.S. signing 18 treaties with 134 Native communities in California, Congress refused to ratify the treaties and instead, California passed the 1850 “Act for the Government and Protection of Indians,. It allowed “any white person” to effectively enslave Native people. Bounties for Native scalps were 50 cents; five dollars for a head. When he signed the law, California Governor, Peter Burnett said that “a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the races until the Indian race becomes extinct must be expected.”

This pair of photos is located outside the boundaries of Redwood National and State Parks.

 

Left image
Credit: Photographer: Hazeltine; Schoenrock Collection, Humboldt State University Library

Right image
Credit: NPS/Ted Barone

 

Trinidad Whaling Station - 1922

The station was built in 1920 by Fredrick Dedrick, head of the California Sea Products Company, for the price of $300,000. At its peak, the station employed between 35 and 60 men, had a fleet of four “killing vessels”, and could capture and process up to nine whales per day. The whales were an average of 50 feet long and produced 50 barrels of oil each. Bone meal, fertilizer, and chicken feed were among the other products that came from the whales.

The number of whales caught began to decline starting in 1924 due to overfishing, but mainly because the price for oil was dropping as companies such as Standard Oil were able to extract oil from the ground in greater quantities.The station closed in 1927 to the relief of Trinidad residents who didn’t care for the stench, but the company retrofitted an oil tanker into a whale processing factory which could follow the “killing boats” and process the whales at sea.

This pair of photos is located outside the boundaries of Redwood National and State Parks.

 

Left image
Credit: Photographer: A.W. Ericson; Boyle Photograph Collection, Humboldt State University Library

Right image
Credit: NPS/Ted Barone

 

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