News Release

Peacock Bar Renamed and Given New Signage

Emily Reed

News Release Date: November 10, 2022

Contact: Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation, 707-487-9255 ext. 1182

Del Norte County, CA: Redwood National and State Parks ("Parks") and the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation (“Nation”) have collaborated to rename Peacock Bar. In 2019, the Governor of California established the Truth and Healing Council in an effort to reexamine the historical relationship between the State and Indigenous People. As a result, on Sept. 25, 2020, California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot, State Parks Director Armando Quintero, and Caltrans Director Toks Omishakin announced a series of actions to identify and redress discriminatory names of features attached to the state park and transportation systems. With the support of local organizations such as True North Organizing Network, the Nation and the Parks are installing new signage to acknowledge the original Tolowa name of Peacock bar, See-tr’ee-ghin-dvm-dvn. See-tr’ee-ghin-dvm-dvntranslates to, at the stones where the trail descends downward.  

See-tr’ee-ghin-dvm-dvn (formerly Peacock Bar) is a well-known day use area in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, located just off Highway 197 in Del Norte County. Tolowa people inhabited three villages: See-tr'ee-ghin-dvm, Mvn-sray-me' and Datlh-t’uu-k'wvt, along this landscape. These villages were in an area known for some of where the largest redwoods in Del Norte County were later be fallen, those trees were also roosting places of the Pacific Northwest Condor.   

In the 1850's, a man by the name of George Peacock immigrated to the area and took over the village of See-tr'ee-ghin-dvm. Mr. Peacock gained control of the critical Smith River ferry crossing and attempted to evict the Tolowa families who inhabited See-tr'ee-ghin-dvm; when the Tolowa refused to leave they were executed and their orphaned children were kept as indentured servants. The acknowledgement and use of the original name for the site, See-tr’ee-ghin-dvm-dvn, reflects the first inhabitants, the Tolowa Dee-ni', and a first step in correcting the historical narrative. 

See-tr’ee-ghin-dvm-dvn is a beautiful place on the river with natural and cultural resources. We invite the community to see the newly installed sign and continue to recreate responsibly in this pristine landscape.