Report by Jasper McMurtry
Because of its rough and rocky landscape, traveling on land along the Mendocino
coast was extremely difficult. To deal with this, the operators of the lumber-mills had to think of a way to get their lumber from there mills to ships close to their mills. Even though there were
very few harbors, ships were loaded with lumber all along the coast.
Loading facilities only needed a rocky outcrop for secure footing for a chute. The chute was used to send lumber and cargo to small schooners. Cargo also was sent up the chute on small sleds. To take a schooner into a landing, the crew slipped mooring lines into holes in buoys made of logs and tied them. Other lines were carried ashore by small boats and made fast.
Once it was started, the lumber industry boomed and kept the schooners scurrying back and forth. During the 1860s there were three hundred schooners in service. In the 1880s the schooners propulsion changed to steam, which provided larger and more reliable transport. Steam changed the landings, too. They became wire instead of wood, which allowed them to become larger. They were operated by steam-powered drums, but some used counterweights.
In the 1890s, gasoline powered schooners appeared. But they were smaller and less powerful, so they served the smaller and less accessible harbors. Because of there fumes, they were nick- named "skunks", which loggers later applied to there gasoline- powered engines. The name has stuck to the popular passenger train running from Ft. Bragg to Willits.
1875 was significant in logging history of the north coast. It was the year the steam locomotive appeared. As soon as the locomotive appeared, steps were taken to make the industry as independent from eastern manufacturers as possible. The first lumber company to put the steam locomotive to use in Mendocino county was Casper Lumber Company.
The first railroad operation was around Casper Creek, close to the mill. As the rail line grew, the company became the Casper & Hare Creek RR. It wasnât until 1903 that another major extension was made. As the Hair Creek Basin began to be logged- out, the company began to move to the area drained by the South fork of the Noyo River. To cross this, it was necessary to construct a tunnel nearly a mile in length. That same year the tunnel was complete. It once again changed its name, this time to the Caspar, South fork & Eastern RR., the title it retained to the end of service. In December, 1945, all train operations were switched to trucks.
In 1875, the Mendocino RR. Company went up the Greenwood Creek from the landing at Cuffey's Cove, just north of Elk. In 1884 the railroad became part of the L.E. White Lumber Company. Mr. White opened a line in Point Arena, which gave him a rather large system of lines. The most extensive was the Elk-Greenwood. It was once known as the Elk Creek RR., and it was known most of the time as L.E. White Lumber Company until it was sold to the Goodyear Redwood Company in 1916.
In 1881 construction of a line from Albion began. In 1885 it was switched from a horse railroad to a Steam engine rail, called theAlbion River RR. It was sold and incorporated by the Albion & Southeastern RR. In 1905 it was sold again to the Fort Bragg & Southeastern RR company.