FS Administrative Sites and History

Transcription

1 Forest Service Administrative Sites and their History Background This section focuses on the information collected during this study on FS administrative sites within the NFERW. See Keter 2011a and 2014 for more information on the TNF MRRD. See Connors (1997) publication A History of Six Rivers National Forest Commemorating the First 50 Years for administrative information on SRNF. There was strong opposition to the creation of Forest reserves throughout much of the west (see Keter 2015 for more on this subject). The creation of the Trinity Forest Reserve and the MRRD encompassing much of the public domain lands within southwestern Trinity County on April 26, 1905, took place despite significant opposition from local residents. The letter (B05 documents and images) below opposing the TFR was signed by James Willburn (Sr.). 1

2 After the creation of the TFR a number of administrative sites were established on the MRRD--including a primitive building used as a ranger station--as well as the maintenance of and the construction of new trails, fire lookouts, and guard stations in the more remote areas of the ranger district. Refer to the Base Map (Layer 7) for FS NF administrative boundaries and the discussion below for specific locations of Forest Service features and guard stations within the NFERW. An article in the TCHS Trinity (1985: 48) noted that in Trinity County:..a large portion of the local population, and some of the new settlers, had little sympathy with the Forest Service and were inclined to be critical of the curtailment of what they believed to be their rights. This observation was made in 1917 by E. V. Jotter Deputy Forest Supervisor. He was also able to report however, that the..."local Forest Service organization has met and overcome, to a degree, the intense hostility engendered in Trinity County and adjoining counties through understanding of local conditions, there gradually developed a somewhat better feeling towards the Forest Service. The Forest Homestead Act of 1906 Mad River, with its many open glades and prairies (at that time) was the location of numerous existing Indian and homestead allotments when the forest was created (see Base Map Layer 8). After its creation, the TNF was the location of numerous entries filed under two new laws that permitted the settlement of national forest lands "chiefly valuable for agriculture" (see Base Map Layer 5). The Mad River Ranger District ranger evaluated TNF MRRD lands and listed as open to entry 7, 877 acres--the NFERW comprised a significant amount (if not the majority) of these lands found on the TNF This information was located in a letter to a local resident by the TNF Assistant Forest Supervisor. For this and additional documents see the Administrative Documents file in the National Forest Administrative folder. 2

3 The following information on the subject of homesteading is summarized from The Peoples Forests: The Creation of America's National Forest System (Keter 2015). With the rapid increase in the number and size of the forest reserves, it was not uncommon for settlers who had declared entry under the 1862 Homestead Act, but had not yet "proved up" and received legal titles to their homesteads, to find themselves located within the boundaries of one of the newly proclaimed forest reserves. In response to their concerns, on June 11, 1906, President Roosevelt signed the Forest Homestead Act. Under a provision of the new law settlers could still acquire title to their homestead claims (referred to at the time as a "June 11th homestead claim"). As with the Homestead Act of 1862, settlers were also free to sell the land once they "proved up." A second objective of the Forest Homestead Act was to increase public support for the creation of additional forest reserves. One provision in the 3

4 new law permitted prospective homesteaders to declare entry on up to 160 acres (a quarter section) of forest reserve lands if the land was determined by the Forest Service to be "chiefly valuable for agriculture." The conservationists, including Pinchot, strongly supported the new law since it was in line with their philosophy of putting every forest reserve acre to its "best use." Over the next two decades, thousands of settlers throughout the Western states filed homestead claims within the boundaries of forest reserves. Despite the initial optimism of the conservationists and congress, when they established this program, it soon became apparent that the program was illadvised and unrealistic. Most of the "June 11th" homestead claims were located in relatively steep mountainous terrain with poor soils and short growing seasons. To make matters worse, the vast majority of these homesteads were also remote and often accessible by only by trail; far from supplies, cash paying jobs, and potential markets for anything the homesteaders produced. In northwestern California for example, dozens of settlers filed homestead entry claims within the boundaries of the Mad River Ranger District on the newly proclaimed Trinity Forest Reserve (April 26, 1905). Not one in ten settlers, however, made it more than a few years before abandoning their homesteads with most selling out to timber speculators or local ranchers (Keter 2014). The marginal nature of the "agricultural lands" that were being opened to settlement did not escape the notice of the Forest Service rangers who were working in the field. In May of 1912, the Forest Supervisor of the Plumas National Forest, L. A. Barrett, along with the Mad River District Ranger, inspected a number of homesteads located on the Mad River Ranger District (Image 9-6). In his report, Barrett noted that: The Trinity [National Forest], especially in the Mad River District, was liberally plastered with Forest Homestead applications. Notwithstanding the fact that most of the old original homesteads were abandoned all thru this region and that these old homesteads were better land than that now applied for, every homestead applicant was dead sure that he could make a success of agriculture here, even if the pioneers had starved out. As a matter of fact, most of the new bunch starved out shortly. "Hope springs eternal."...it would have been a kindness to the perspective entryman if 95 percent of this land had not been listed. The entryman starved out in a short period of time. Not 5 percent of the 340,000 acres [listed in California] was ever placed under cultivation" (Barrett 1977: 11, 1940: 98). [Quoted from the original.] Eventually, 1.8 million acres of forest reserve lands were patented under the Forest Homestead Act of 1906 and like those on the Mad River Ranger District, most of these homesteaded parcels of "agricultural land" ended up in the hands of timber speculators or ranchers. In 1934, congress amended the National Forest Homestead Act to prohibit homesteading on National Forest 4

5 lands within the continental United States. Homesteading on national forest lands in Alaska, however, was still permitted until the law was finally repealed by congress in The veracity of the statement by Forest Supervisor L. A. Barrett is reflected in the history of the homesteads and Indian Allotments that were listed within the NFERW. After a brief fluorescence in the first two decades of the 1900s, by the late 1930s nearly all of these entries had been abandoned and most were bought up by the larger ranching operations like the Travis brothers (F5). National Forest Indian Allotment Act The National Forest Indian Allotment Act was passed on June 25, It basically modified provisions of the General Allotment Act (Dawes Act) of 1877 to permit those lands that had been determined to be open to entry for homesteading to also be open to entry by Native Americans (see Base Map Layer 6). Information Provided by Consultants related to Forest Service Administration Lee Stapp (A6: I#316) indicated that: There used to be telephone lines every place in the forest. There was a lookout and a CCC camp on Hetten Peak in The CCC 's constructed most of the telephone lines strung throughout the forest. The Main CCC Camp was on the Mad River. There were CCC Spike camps on the Van Duzen River, in Hettenshaw Valley, and in Zenia by the present Forest Service Guard Station. There was also a CCC Spike Camp in Kettempom by the Hoaglin-Zenia schoolhouse. Signal Peak (Mt. Lassic) had a lookout on the peak. This was known as Lassic's Lookout and was used during World War II. During the war the lookout was manned year-round by two people who were on twenty-four hour airplane watch. One person took the day shift and one took the night shift. During the winter the men in the lookout were usually snowed in for days at a time. [I recorded the Signal Peak Lookout location-- a site record is on file. No evidence of the lookout remained. This location was used as a triangulation point in local cadastral surveys and has a cement monument erected (if I remember right) in about The site record includes a sketch of the monument and photographs.] Although located just to the west of the NFERW, the following information is important to the history of the TNF. On December 16, 1910, all of the TNF lands to the west of Lake 5

6 Mountain (basically the Zenia-Covelo road that roughly follows the divide between the NFERW and the main Eel River watershed) were eliminated from the TNF by proclamation. Some early maps that have been seen (but unfortunately are not in Appendix 2) showing these isolated tracts of public domain land that extended well to the west of the Zenia- Covelo Road all the way to the main Eel River. As noted in the letter below at some point these tracts were dropped from the TNF and were opened to entry. Dave Martin (A05: ms05) noted that: In 1912 a part of the Trinity National Forest which had been held as a temporary reserve was opened for homesteading. [This area is to the west of the Z-RV road there were a few remaining NF tracts that I surveyed for a land exchange in the 1980s.] Probably 2000 to 4000 acres from about Kettenpom Peak south and eat out toward Haman Ridge. This was the cause of a small influx of settlers in the spring of Among them were the Pearces, Baileys, Gardens, Cranks, and Martins. The CCC Era On April 5, 1933 the President signed Executive Order 101 creating the CCC. The CCC "boys" were active throughout the TNF MRRD including within the NFERW. The following information on the Mad River Ranger District is summarized from A Decade of Change 1933 to 1942: the Civilian Conservation Corps Mad River and Orleans Ranger Districts, Six Rivers National Forest, and Ukonom Ranger District, Klamath National Forest (Keter 2013). This publication includes a description of the Zenia Guard station that was located roughly along the divide between the NFERW and main Eel River watershed. Mad River CCC Camp #1905 The Mad River CCC camp was established May 29, 1933 and less than two years later was closed down on November 3, 1935 (CCC form HOBA-1, located in the CCC files, Heritage Resources, Six Rivers National Forest). Although the army built most of the camps to house enrollees, the Mad River Camp was constructed by the enrollees themselves. One CCC alumni of the Mad River camp, Dal Mansfield, recalled in an interview in 1981 his arrival at the Mad River CCC camp in 1933: We came up [to] Eureka by train [from the Bay Area] and went out to camp. When we got there, there was nothing but brush and trees. We built our own camp at Mad River. [Trentman 1981:14), 6

7 During its existence, the men at the Mad River Camp constructed the buildings on the Mad River Ranger District compound that are the subject of this overview. In addition, like the men working at other CCC camps they also constructed roads and trails, built lookouts at Kettenpom Peak and Horse Mountain, and planted trees and fought wild fires. A temporary camp F-31 was set up in the Zenia area in June of According to records it was used as a "spike camp" and remained in existence until November It is likely that this is the CCC camp that constructed the Zenia Guard Station (1142) and garage (1542) in 1934 (CCC form HOBA-1, located in the CCC files, Heritage Resources, Six Rivers National Forest). It is also likely that the men working at this spike camp were involved in a nearby WPA project: the construction of the Zenia Bluffs county road. When the Mad River camp was abandoned in November of 1935 the materials were salvaged and trucked to other camps and the men working at the camp were transferred to the Burlington-Humboldt State Park CCC camp headquartered at Weott (Trentman 1981:11). The Mad River CCC camp number was also transferred to the new location at that time. In a 1938 reorganization of the CCC nation-wide, the Burlington-Humboldt Camp was transferred from the Redding District to the Sacramento District office. The CCC proved to be one of the most successful programs implemented by President Roosevelt in his efforts to end the Great Depression. In both 1936 and in 1940, Roosevelt attempted to close some of the camps. On both occasions Representatives from Congressional Districts that housed the camps objected and efforts to close them were dropped. In 1940, Robert Fechner who had been director of the CCC and had ably led the agency since its creation died. By that time the Corps was already in a steady decline due to several factors including an improvement in the unemployment situation nation-wide. After the attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941, the nation's attention and that of the President and Congress turned to the war. Congress in a joint session declared that the CCC was not essential to the war effort and provided no further funding as of the end of the fiscal year June Today, the location of the CCC camp at Mad River is on private property and virtually no physical evidence remains of the camp. The Mad River CCC camp was located just to the east of the Mad River Ruth Lake County Road, about eight-tenths of a mile south of its junction with state highway CA 36. The site was visited and recorded in the early 1980s. The Cultural Resources Inventory Report (CRIR) should be on file for a Land Exchange project. The archaeological survey and coverage should also be recorded in the GIS database and in the Heritage Resources files. 7

8 National Forest Administrative Sites within or adjacent to the NFERW See Layer 7 National Forest Administrative sites. Although many of the TNF maps label the following tracts "R.S." for "Ranger Station," they are more accurately classified as a guard stations in most administrative records. NF01 Hoaglin Guard Station (Ranger Station) Map 3: T4S R7E S8 The original boundary for the administrative site placed the entire tract within Section 8 (see Admin. map below). It now extends into the northern part of Section 17. There is a significant amount of paperwork related to this tract of land in the FS administrative files. Garcelon (Appendix 5: ms:01) This was known as the Hoaglin Guard Station. It was located in the south west side of Kettenpom valley in a section of young timber all about 12/16 inches dia. The USFS built a road (where the present County road now is) down from the Haman Ridge-- Covelo Road. The building was a log cabin. The road went in front of the building through the valley. There was a large grassy field to the east of the road where the Forest Guard kept his pack animals used in case of a fire. The Hoaglin cemetery is on this road at the south end of Kettenpom valley. The Hoaglin Guard Station shows up on the 1931 USGS map. (A2: 23) 8

9 The Guard Station still shows up on the 1947 SRNF map. (A2: 20) It is not known when the Guard Station closed but that can probably be found in the NF administrative files at SRNF. The following tract survey map comes from the HR SRNF files. 9

10 NF02 Guard Station Bear Wallow Lake Map 1: T2S, R6E, S 34 The Zenia Guard Station was moved to its present location from Bear Wallow Lake. No date was found for when this took place most likely about the time the CCC constructed the Zenia Guard Station (see NF05). The "R.S." shows up on the 1931 TNF map. It does not show up on the 1934 TNF map (A2: 14) so it may have moved by that date to the Zenia Location. That is when the CCC constructed the building. This location has been recorded as prehistoric site. (A2: 13) NF03 Grizzly Mountain Lookout Map 1: T2S, R6E, S 34 See People and Places--Grizzly Mountain entry. Max Rowley (A6: I#444) indicated that the Grizzly Mountain Lookout was no longer standing in the 1940's but the cement foundation was still there. NF 04 Bluff Creek Ranger Station Administrative Site Map 3: T3S, R7E, S.29 Location of this tract is approximate due to problems with the original GLO survey. It is unlikely that a ranger station was ever built here. It is more likely the parcel was withdrawn for administrative purposes but no improvements were made and later the administrative classification was withdrawn. 10

11 This location shows up on the 1907, 1909 (see below) and 1915 TNF maps as the Bluff Creek Ranger Station. It does not show up on the 1922 TNF map--presumably the administrative site designation was withdrawn at some point after No other information was encountered related to this site; it is identified here for inventory purposes TNF Map A2: north half 1909 TNF Map showing the Bluff Creek RS. (A2: 08a) 1915 TNF map showing the Bluff Creek RS. (A2: 09) 11

12 NF05 Salt Ridge R.S. Map 3: T3S, R7E S 7 The Salt Ridge R.S. tract shows up on a number of FS maps. Like NF04, NF06, and NF07, it is unlikely that a ranger station was ever built here. It is more likely the parcel was withdrawn for administrative purposes but no improvements were made and later the administrative classification was withdrawn. The tract shows up on the 1909 TNF map. (A2: 08) The administrative site still shows up on the 1915 TNF map 1915 TNF map. (A2: 09) It does not show up on the 1927 TNF Map (A2: 12). No other information was encountered related to this site; it is identified here for inventory purposes. 12

13 NF06 Surveyor Springs R.S. Map 2: T3S, R7E, S 2 The Surveyor Springs R.S. tract shows up on a number of FS maps. Like NF04, NF05, and NF07, it is unlikely that a ranger station was ever built here. It is more likely the parcel was withdrawn for administrative purposes but no improvements were made and later the administrative classification was withdrawn. I may have recorded a prehistoric site at this location. The tract shows up on the 1907 TNF map. (A2: 06) The tract also shows up on the 1915 TNF map. (A2: 09) This tract still shows up on the 1934 TNF Map (A2: 12). It does not show up on the later TNF maps that only show Surveyor Spring. No other information was encountered related to this site; it is identified here for inventory purposes. (A2: 14) 13

14 NF07 Soldier Basin R.S. Map 4: T3s, R7E, S 14 The Soldier Basin tract shows up on a number of FS maps. Note that it is located to the east of the Gilman (HA11) and Cox tracts (HA09). Given the problems with the early GLO surveys, it is plotted on the Base Map to conform to the contemporary USGS map. Like NF04, NF05, and NF06, it is unlikely that a ranger station was ever built here. It is more likely the parcel was withdrawn for administrative purposes but no improvements were made and later the administrative classification was withdrawn. The tract shows up on the 1907 TNF map. However, unlike the other FS tracts R.S. administrative tracts discussed above, it does not show up on the 1909 TNF map (A2:8) TNF map. (A2: 06) At some point probably between 1915 when it was still shown on the 1915 TNF (map A2: 09) and when it was no longer shown on the map (A2: 10) the administrative designation of the tract was withdrawn. No other information was encountered related to this site; it is identified here for inventory purposes. NF08 Zenia Guard Station Map 3: T3S, R6E, S 14 Refer to the file directory for complete overviews with color photos of the Zenia Guard Station and garage. The following information is summarized from A Decade of Change 1933 to 1942: the Civilian Conservation Corps Mad River and Orleans Ranger Districts, Six Rivers National Forest, and Ukonom Ranger District, Klamath National Forest (Keter 2013). The Zenia 14

15 Guard Station still remained standing in 2013 and was due for some preventive maintenance and reconstruction. This document was a contract with SRNF engineering to record the still standing CCC buildings on several ranger districts including the MRRD. Residence #1142, an E-type building, and garage #1542, a Plan B-101 ("Combination Car Garage or Tool Storage Room"), are located about 250' to the west of the current Zenia Guard Station compound. It is likely that these buildings were constructed by a CCC "spike camp" (camp F-31) that worked out of the Zenia area in 1934 and The original function of the residence was as a guard station. Of all the CCC structures discussed in this overview for Six Rivers National Forest, these two structures retain the highest degree of integrity for their setting and place and are reminiscent of Hall's directives that called for integrating rustic architecture with the local landscape and environment in order to create an image of the Forest Service identity recognizable by the public. Guard Station Building #1142 Construction Date: 1934; it is likely that the men at a CCC spike camp located in Zenia constructed the Zenia Guard Station (1142) and garage (1542) in 1934 (CCC form HOBA-1, located in the CCC files, Heritage Resources, Six Rivers National Forest). Standardized Plan: B1 Three room floor plan: "Forest Guard dwelling" Blanchard and Maher Region 5 (Kathryn Winthrop 1983, Supernowicz 1989). The plans for this building are on file in the engineering department Six Rivers National Forest The building is known locally as "the Old Zenia Guard Station and personnel stationed here were responsible for responding to wild fires within the southwestern region of the Trinity National Forest and the Six Rivers National Forest after its creation in During the late1970s and early 1980s, updated facilities, including a barracks and two-bay fire station, were constructed uphill and to the east approximately 250 yards. At that time the old guard station was essentially abandoned. The building was still habitable, however, as late as 1996 when the Six River's Cultural Resources personnel used the building to house a number of Wailaki youth from Round Valley working on a Passport in Time (PIT) project related to test excavating a prehistoric site. Other than some rodent damage, the place was still in fair condition (the kitchen was not useable at that time). It is clear, however, given the condition of the interior when we visited the site (July 31, 2013), the residence is no longer habitable. Refer to the March 2002 BCSR for a 15

16 complete description of the structure and a summary of the building's condition. The historic property is situated at about 3,950 feet in elevation. It still retains a strong sense of place since the structure and associated garage (#1542) are situated in a stand of mature Douglas-fir on a small flat near what at one time was the junction of trails leading to Zenia, the Lassics, and Hettenshaw Valley (See Base Map). All photos Keter 2013 View East from County Road 502 East Elevation: note the rot and foundation problems 16

17 Garage #1542 Since the 1970s the garage has been used by personnel working at the Zenia Fires Station to store equipment. About 10 years ago a water tank was installed to the east of the garage about 30 yards to supply water to the fire station. The water filtration system was installed in the main bay of the garage. For a complete description of the structure and a summary of the building's condition refer to the Zenia Guard Station Building Condition Survey Report (BCSR) in the final document. View SW to Garage and Residence South elevation: The foundation is cracked on the south side of the building. 17