Bucksport (also, Buck's Port) was a town in Humboldt County,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. The original location was southwest of downtown

Eureka Eureka (often abbreviated as E!, or Σ!) is an intergovernmental organisation for research and development funding and coordination. Eureka is an open platform for international cooperation in innovation. Organisations and companies applying th ...

, on

Humboldt Bay Humboldt Bay is a natural bay and a multi-basin, bar-built coastal lagoon located on the rugged North Coast of California, entirely within Humboldt County, United States. It is the largest protected body of water on the West Coast between Sa ...

about northeast of entrance. at an elevation of . Prior to American settlement a

Wiyot The Wiyot ( Wiyot: Wíyot, Chetco-Tolowa: Wee-’at xee-she or Wee-yan’ Xee-she’, Euchre Creek Tututni: Wii-yat-dv-ne - "Mad River People“, Yurok: Weyet) are an indigenous people of California living near Humboldt Bay, California and a s ...

village named Kucuwalik stood here. The townsite was laid out in 1850 by David A. Buck who was a member of the

Josiah Gregg Josiah Gregg (19 July 1806 – 25 February 1850) was an American merchant, explorer, naturalist, and author of '' Commerce of the Prairies'', about the American Southwest and parts of northern Mexico. He collected many previously undescribed pla ...

party that explored the bay in 1849.Historic Spots in California
Stanford University Press, 2002 A post office operated at Bucksport from 1855 to 1863.

Fort Humboldt A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

was founded on the bluff over Bucksport in 1853 under the command of Brevet Lieutenant Colonel

Robert C. Buchanan Robert Christie Buchanan (March 1, 1811 – November 29, 1878) was an American military officer who served in the Mexican–American War and then was a Colonel (United States), colonel in the Union Army during the American Civil War. In 1866, ...

. Bucksport was a separate community in the 19th century, before better port facilities and political dominance gave the then northern town of Eureka predominance. The town disappeared by 1870 with the area that once comprised the town remaining only as a neighborhood of southern Eureka.

Bucksport and Elk River Railroad Company

John Dolbeer and

William Carson Sir William Carson (baptised 4 June 1770 – 26 February 1843), often called "The Great Reformer", was a medical doctor and businessman in Newfoundland. Carson's primary contribution to Newfoundland was the application of modern agricultural ...

were among the most successful of the early sawmill operators on Humboldt Bay. Their Dolbeer and Carson partnership built a

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

railroad from Bucksport south along the Elk River in 1885 to bring

redwood Sequoioideae, popularly known as redwoods, is a subfamily of coniferous trees within the family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affini ...

logs from interior forests to a log dump on Humboldt Bay.Robertson, Donald B.
Encyclopedia of Western Railroad History: California
Caxton Press, Caldwell, Idaho, 1986, (OCoLC)570461795 From the log dump, these logs could be floated to bayside sawmills. Three sawmills depended upon railroad deliveries by 1887. Noah Falk established the

company town A company town is a place where practically all stores and housing are owned by the one company that is also the main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schools, markets and re ...

of Falk around his Elk River Mill and Lumber Company sawmill near the inland end of the line. Dolbeer and Carson had cut most of their Elk River timber by 1895, but the railroad remained Falk's primary means of shipping lumber and receiving supplies. Elk River Mill and Lumber Company built some logging branches for operation of two

0-4-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents one of the simplest possible types, that with two axles and four coupled wheels, all of which are driven. The wheels on the earliest four-coupled locomotives were ...

tank locomotive A tank locomotive or tank engine is a steam locomotive that carries its water in one or more on-board water tanks, instead of a more traditional tender. Most tank engines also have bunkers (or fuel tanks) to hold fuel; in a tender-tank locom ...

s built by Marshutz & Cantrell. These locomotives have been preserved at

Fort Humboldt State Historic Park Fort Humboldt State Historic Park is a California state park, located in Eureka, California, United States. Displays interpret the former U.S. Army fort, which was staffed from 1853–1870, the interactions between European Americans and Native ...

. Railroad operations at Falk were improved by purchase of 24-ton

Heisler locomotive The Heisler locomotive is one of the three major types of geared steam locomotives and the last to be patented. Charles L. Heisler received a patent for the design in 1892, following the construction of a prototype in 1891. Somewhat similar to ...

#1546 in 1927. When the Falk sawmill ceased operations in 1937, the Heisler was sold to Mutual Plywood Company where it was repowered with a diesel engine, and has been preserved in that form. A branch line built in 1904 north from Bucksport to Holmes Mill in present-day Eureka was another source of revenue; but the railroad was substantially revitalized by construction of a branch to Camp Carson in 1931. The line was incorporated as the Bucksport and Elk River Railroad Company on 14 May 1932, with J.M. Carson as president. The original

Baldwin locomotives Baldwin is a Germanic name, composed of the elements ''bald'' "bold" and ''win'' "friend". People * Baldwin (name) Places Canada * Baldwin, York Regional Municipality, Ontario * Baldwin, Ontario, in Sudbury District * Baldwin's Mills, ...

were retired in 1934 and replaced by the Dolbeer and Carson Lumber Company locomotives listed below. Timberlands containing the railroad were sold to the

Pacific Lumber Company The Pacific Lumber Company, officially abbreviated PALCO, and also commonly known as PL, was one of California's major logging and sawmill operations, located 28 miles (45 km) south of Eureka and 244 miles (393 km) north of San Francisc ...

(PALCO) in 1950. PALCO operated the line until 15 January 1953, when it was replaced by log truck roads feeding PALCO's

Yager Creek Yager Creek is a tributary stream of the Van Duzen River on the north coast of California in Humboldt County, California. It has its source at the confluence of North Fork Yager Creek and Middle Fork Yager Creek Middle or The Middle may refer ...

log deck. The rails were scrapped in April 1953, but locomotive number 5 was placed on display at

Scotia Scotia is a Latin placename derived from ''Scoti'', a Latin name for the Gaels, first attested in the late 3rd century.Duffy, Seán. ''Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopedia''. Routledge, 2005. p.698 The Romans referred to Ireland as "Scotia" around ...

. Locomotive number 3 was sold to the Stockton Terminal and Eastern Railroad, and subsequently preserved by the

California State Railroad Museum The California State Railroad Museum is a museum in the state park system of California, United States, interpreting the role of the "iron horse" in connecting California to the rest of the nation. It is located in Old Sacramento State Historic ...

Bucksport and Elk River Railroad Company

Locomotives

References

Further reading