Misplaced Pages

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27-556: The region lies roughly between Rockport and Ferndale . At the south end, State Route 1 , which runs very close along the coast for most of its length, turns inland at Rockport before merging with U.S. Route 101 at Leggett . At the north end, State Route 211 begins its journey at Ferndale, heading towards Highway 101 in Fernbridge . Section 511 of the California Streets and Highways Code still says that "Route 211

54-568: A company store , a community town hall , and a company doctor, as well as employee housing. A post office operated at Rockport from 1888 to 1903, from 1926 to 1934, and from 1938 to 1957. The town hall was also used for dances, a movie theatre, and local plays. There was also a grade school that went from grades 1 thru 6. As the school house only had three classrooms, each room had two grades. 1st and 2nd grade in one classroom, 2nd and 3rd in one, and 5th and 6th in another. Seventh graders and higher were bused to Ligget Valley High School. As of 1997

81-583: A newly formed Louisiana-Pacific Corporation with Harry Merlo as its president. Mendocino Redwood Company acquired Rockport from Louisiana-Pacific in 1998. The very first fire station for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection was located at Rockport sometime beginning in the mid-1920s. Its existence was to protect the valuable timber land for the Finkbine-Guild Lumber Company, and this service

108-559: A sawmill and 1,600-foot (490 m) wharf at the mouth of Usal Creek in 1889. The company town of Usal was built around the mill and a railroad for transporting logs extended three miles up Usal Creek. A fire in 1902 destroyed the sawmill, schoolhouse, warehouse, and county bridge over Usal Creek. The railroad was dismantled; but a few structures, including a hotel, survived until destroyed by fire in 1969. Steep terrain and unfavorable coastal mooring conditions delayed timber harvesting of Jackass Creek drainage until internal combustion machinery

135-545: A water supply for the empty town site of Kenny, while the shorter South Fork drains first southwesterly and then northwesterly. The main creek flows southwesterly from the confluence through a gap in the coastal ridge. Tributaries flowing southwesterly off the interior ridge include Julias Creek into the South Fork, and Soldier Creek, Little Bear Creek, Bear Creek, and Chimney Rock Creek into the North Fork. The crest of

162-540: Is from Route 1 near Rockport to Route 101 near Fernbridge", but it is unlikely that the portion of Route 1 south of Ferndale will be built. Most of the region's coastline is now part of either Sinkyone Wilderness State Park or King Range National Conservation Area . The Lost Coast consists of undivided Cretaceous marine metasedimentary and sedimentary rocks of the North American Plate steeply uplifted by Mendocino Triple Junction interactions with

189-726: Is located 7.25 miles (12 km) north-northwest of Westport , at an elevation of 30 feet (9 m). Rockport started as a small company town serving the timber industry on the Pacific Ocean coast among redwood forests in Northern California . Rockport is regarded as the southern end of the Lost Coast region; it is where State Highway 1 , which runs very close along the coast for most of its length, instead turns inland before merging with U.S. Route 101 at Leggett . Around 1877, William R. Miller constructed

216-604: The King Range National Conservation Area . Because of the rugged and remote location, the small towns of Shelter Cove , Whitethorn and Petrolia are popular with those looking for quiet respite. The area is known for its black sand beaches, which get their color from dark colored sandstone called greywacke and an older compressed shale produced by tectonic activity of one continental and two oceanic plates meeting just offshore. Early European settlers of this area began harvesting bark of

243-707: The Pacific Plate and Gorda Plate . The Lost Coast includes Tertiary marine sedimentary formations north of the Mattole River and a portion of the Franciscan Assemblage called Point Delgada at Shelter Cove . The steepness of uplift has created a coastal ridge forming a drainage divide parallel to the coast. The drainage pattern between Usal Creek and the Mattole River is a series of short streams with steep channel gradients. Like

270-500: The tanoak tree for tanning hides into leather . Bark collectors formed the small community of Kenny around springs at the headwaters of the north fork of Usal Creek . A wharf was built at Bear Harbor in 1884 for loading bark onto ships. The Bear Harbor and Eel River Railroad incorporated in 1896 to connect the wharf to a sawmill being built on the South Fork Eel River at Andersonia, California . The location of

297-512: The Lost Coast. Snow can blanket the higher peaks after storms, but melts quickly. From May to September, the mountain areas are mostly warm and dry with temperatures reaching 80 °F (27 °C)–90 °F (32 °C) in mid-summer, but the weather is still highly variable, with some days of fog and light rain. Much of the land in the area is owned by the federal government, and in 1970, more than 60,000 acres (240 km) were designated

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324-458: The Rockport site and Rounds' Cloverdale milling operation in 1967. Harry Merlo was vice president and general manager of the firm of Rounds and Kirkpatrick at the time of purchase. In 1971 Merlo became executive vice president of Georgia-Pacific's western lumber and plywood operations. Federal Trade Commission action initiated in 1972 required Georgia-Pacific to transfer California Assets to

351-507: The first sawmill at Rockport, then called Cottoneva . The mill boasted a double circular saw , edger , and planer , with the mill having a capacity of 20,000 board feet (1,700 cu ft or 50 m ) of lumber per day. An unusual aspect of the site was a 270-foot (80 m) wire suspension bridge , built in 1877 to connect the mainland to a small island in the ocean. Ships bound for San Francisco and other ports would call at this island, sometimes called Pelican Island, to pick up

378-458: The interior ridge parallels the Pacific coast approximately 4 miles (6 km) inland; and the tributaries originate at an elevation of approximately 1,600 feet (490 m). USA Lumber (USAL) Company built a sawmill at the mouth of Usal Creek in 1889 with a 1,600-foot (490 m) wharf for loading lumber onto coastal schooners, and a 3 miles (5 km) railroad up Usal Creek to bring logs to

405-488: The main route connecting Shelter Cove with US 101 to the east. Shelter Cove Airport in Shelter Cove is a small public airport with one runway, making it possible to fly in when weather permits. Communities immediately on the coast are also accessible by boat. Rockport, California Rockport (formerly, Cotineva ) is a former settlement in an unincorporated area of Mendocino County , California . It

432-420: The mill. Robert Dollar purchased Usal Redwood Company in 1894. Dollar Lumber Company was running out of timber for their Guerneville mill at the time. In 1896, Dollar purchased the steamship Newsboy to transport lumber from Usal to San Francisco. A fire in 1902 destroyed the sawmill, a warehouse, a school house, and the county bridge over Usal Creek. The railroad was dismantled, and the rails were used by

459-628: The milled lumber, which would be brought across the bridge from the mainland by train . Miller sold his mill in 1886 to the Cottoneva Lumber Company, who lost the mill to fire in 1900. Around 1907, the New York and Pennsylvania lumber Company acquired Cottoneva and built a new mill destroyed by fire in 1912. Between 1924 and 1926, the Finkbine-Guild Lumber Company from Jackson, Mississippi modernized

486-403: The old school house was still standing. It is the only building left in Rockport. The original old school house, a one room school, was still standing as late as 1975 and possibly later. The older locals referred to the three room school house as the new school long after it was shut down. All other homes and buildings had been bulldozed 30 or 40 years ago. Georgia-Pacific Corporation purchased

513-494: The railroad shops was named Moody for the proprietor (Louis Alton Moody) of a nearby hotel and saloon. The community of Andersonia, Anderson Gulch, and the Anderson Cliffs of the Lost Coast are named for sawmill owner Henry Neff Anderson, who was killed in a construction accident in 1905. Sawmill and railroad operation languished after Anderson's death, and the facilities were dismantled in 1921. Usal Redwood Company built

540-507: The region. In 1984, admitting that such construction was not feasible, Caltrans re-routed the northern segment of Highway 1 from Rockport to Leggett and renumbered the portion that was built from Ferndale to Fernbridge as State Route 211. Without major highways or county thoroughfares in the area, the secluded communities within the Lost Coast are only accessible by land via small mountain roads. Mattole Road runs south from Ferndale to Petrolia, while Shelter Cove Rd. and Briceland Thorn Rd. form

567-501: The sawmill at the mouth of Big River . Several buildings including a hotel survived until destroyed by fire in 1969. The former hotel site near the mouth of Hotel Gulch is now a campground for Sinkyone Wilderness State Park . Ninety-eight percent of the watershed is in private ownership growing forest products. Redwood coniferous forest covers approximately 70 percent of the watershed and montane or riparian hardwood forest covers approximately 20 percent. Only two residences remain in

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594-574: The surrounding coast, the Lost Coast experiences a wet season and a dry season . The wet season ranges from October to April. The King Range mountains collect significant moisture from storms coming from the Pacific Ocean, making it one of the wettest sections of the California coastline. Local weather stations typically record over 100 inches (2.5 m) annually of rainfall, and during wet years, over 200 inches (5.1 m) can fall along

621-699: The town and built a new electric sawmill and a logging railroad. They abandoned operations in 1927 and, facing financial ruin, their assets were acquired by the Great Southern Lumber Company of Bogalusa, Louisiana to form the Southern Redwood Company. After a decade of bankruptcy, the mill reopened in 1938 as the Rockport Redwood Company (a subsidiary of an association of Kansas and Oklahoma lumber retailers headed by Ralph Rounds.) The railroad

648-689: The westernmost ridge line south from the King Range crosses Usal Creek near the Pacific coast, but the bridge may be removed during winter months. Usal Creek, 9.7 miles (15.6 km) long, drains about 28 square miles (73 km ) on the Mendocino Coast and empties into the Pacific Ocean near the former company town of Usal. Usal Creek drains a valley between two ridges of the California Coast Ranges . The longer North Fork drains southeasterly from springs once providing

675-402: Was available for transport. The company town of Wheeler, California , was built for logging operations from 1948 to 1959. Sinkyone Wilderness State Park began acquisition of Lost Coast property in 1975. The geology of the Lost Coast makes it difficult to establish routes through the area. State Route 1, California's Pacific Coast Highway, was originally planned to continue up the coast through

702-646: Was dismantled in 1939. The sawmill burned again in September 1942, but reopened in July 1943. Rough cut lumber was trucked to Fort Bragg, California , for shipment over the California Western Railroad . Rounds built a lumber seasoning yard and finishing plant in Cloverdale, California in 1948. When its sawmill closed for the last time in 1957, Rockport was a town of about 500 people with

729-595: Was paid for by the company to the State of California. The station was deemed surplus by the department by the late 1970s, thanks in part to budget cuts spurred on from passage of Proposition 13, and abandoned. Fire protection from CalFire is still provided by engines staffed in Fort Bragg and Leggett. Usal Creek Usal Creek is the southernmost drainage basin unbridged by California State Route 1 on California's Lost Coast . The unpaved county road following

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