From Trinidad to Klamath

The major mining districts of northern California from 1850-1853, were the Trinity River mines, of which Weaverville was the center, and the Klamath and Salmon River diggings, of which Orleans Bar was the focal point. It was from the diggings on the Trinity that the Gregg party started on the expedition resulting in the rediscovery of Trinidad and Humboldt Bays.

Had the towns of the Humboldt Coast been dependent solely upon the trade with the Trinity River mines, they would have been far less prosperous in the 1850s. Fortunately adventurers in June 1850 discovered gold on Salmon River and two months later made a strike on the Klamath.

Within weeks after the establishment of the towns on the along the coast, trails were cut through the redwoods and across the mountains to the mining regions. Trinidad and Uniontown, now known as Arcata, took the lead, as both were well situated by geography to act as supply stations for the diggings of the Klamath and Salmon River Districts.

The first town established was Trinidad, and was for a few years the leader in the packing trade, because it was located closer to the Klamath diggings than the others. During the summer of 1850, packers, utilizing old Indian trails, opened a route from Trinidad up the coast to Big Lagoon, then across the divide to Redwood Creek.

Redwood Creek was forded at “Tall Trees,” and the trail ascended the Bald Hills to Elk Camp. It then passed along the crest of Bald Hills to French Camp, where the trail forked, one branch leading to the Klamath at Martins Ferry and the other into Hoopa Valley.

The Trinidad trail followed a route dictated by the topography, and intersected the route leading up the Klamath from Klamath City to Martins Ferry. From Uniontown another trail led to Orleans Bar via the Bald Hills intersecting the Trinidad trail near the mouth of the Trinity.

A large number of mules had been driven from Sonoma in May 1850, but the demands of the packing trade made it necessary that more be shipped by sea during the winter. High prices were asked and paid for transporting freight.

Two dollars a pound was asked and received for the trip from Trinidad to the Salmon mines. This raised the price of all imported items to an all-but-prohibitive figure, but such were the times that the miners were prepared to pay the price asked.

John Daggett was one of the adventurers who reached the Klamath diggings, in 1852, via the Trinidad trail. He wrote that they had to “furnish our own transportation, carrying blankets on our own backs, as there were few if any inns on this route to the mining district. We passed first through the grand belt of old redwood trees, a sight long to be remembered, thence over the bald-hill country, abounding at that time in elk.”

During the Red Cap War of 1855, pack trains were attacked and traffic over the trail was cut. Supplies at the Klamath and Salmon River diggings ran short. With the return of peace, traffic improved.

To guard the Trinidad trail and to protect the ranches that had been established on the Bald Hills, troops were posted at Elk Camp in 1862 and 63. These soldiers were supplied by pack trains from Trinidad.

The section of the Trinidad trail leading from Big Lagoon, crossing Redwood Creek at “Tall Trees,” and ascending the Bald Hills to Elk Camp was abandoned after the construction — in the final decade of the 19th century — of the Bald Hills road, connecting Orick with the Bald Hills.