Caspar, South Fork And Eastern Railroad
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The Caspar, South Fork & Eastern Railroad provided transportation for the Caspar Lumber Company in
Mendocino County, California Mendocino County (; ''Mendocino'', Spanish for "of Mendoza) is a county located on the North Coast of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 91,601. The county seat is Ukiah. Mendocino County consists whol ...
. The railroad operated the first steam locomotive on the coast of Mendocino County in 1875. Caspar Lumber Company lands became
Jackson Demonstration State Forest Jackson Demonstration State Forest is a public forest in Mendocino County, California managed by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. It is the largest demonstration forest operated by the State of California. The forest la ...
in 1955, named for Caspar Lumber Company founder, Jacob Green Jackson.


Early history

Siegfrid Caspar settled in 1860 at the mouth of a stream on the coast of Mendocino County. The stream and the community which developed at the mouth are named for him. A
sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...
was built at the mouth of Caspar Creek in 1861. In 1864 this sawmill was purchased by Jacob Jackson, who had been born in Vermont in 1817. About 1870, Jackson purchased the schooner ''Cora'' to transport lumber from his sawmill to San Francisco. A second schooner "Elvenia" was built in 1872. When all timber close to the sawmill had been cut, Jackson build a railroad north to Jug Handle Creek in 1874. This "railroad" had ties spaced at 6-foot (2-meter) intervals, and the "rails" were wooden beams. Logs were transported to the sawmill from Jug Handle Creek on small cars towed by a horse and 5 mules. The wooden rails were shortly capped with iron straps to improve durability. The animal power was replaced in 1875 by a geared locomotive formerly used to transport sand fill behind the
Embarcadero (San Francisco) The Embarcadero is the eastern waterfront and roadway of the Port of San Francisco, San Francisco, California, along San Francisco Bay. It was constructed on reclaimed land along a three mile long engineered seawall, from which piers extend int ...
seawall A seawall (or sea wall) is a form of coastal defense constructed where the sea, and associated coastal processes, impact directly upon the landforms of the coast. The purpose of a seawall is to protect areas of human habitation, conservation ...
. The strap rail proved troublesome for the locomotive, and was replaced by French iron rail salvaged from a shipwreck. Two more schooners "Abbie" and "Maxim" were purchased in 1876. Caspar Lumber Company was incorporated in 1880. By that time the railroad had been extended to a length of and equipped with ten railcars available for transporting logs. Sawmill capacity was 45,000 board feet per day. A trestle was built over Jughandle Creek in 1884 to reach logs in Hare Creek to the north. The trestle was long and rails were above Jughandle Creek. During dry weather, locomotives sprayed water onto the trestles as they approached to reduce the possibility of smoldering sparks from the smokestack igniting the trestle. The railway from the sawmill to Hare Creek became known as the Caspar & Hare Creek Railroad. Conventional ungeared locomotive number 2 was purchased for better efficiency on the longer rail line. The locomotive was delivered disassembled on schooners. The largest piece weighed 8 tons. The pieces were transported from San Francisco aboard the schooner "Abbie" in 1885 and transferred to lighters for assembly ashore. The steam schooner "Caspar" was built in 1888. Rails had been extended up Hare Creek for a total distance of from the Caspar sawmill by 1890, and the logging train was making five trips per day. Larger locomotive number 3 was purchased in 1894. Caspar Lumber Company began using
steam donkey A steam donkey or donkey engine is a steam-powered winch once widely used in logging, mining, maritime, and other industrial applications. Steam powered donkeys were commonly found on large metal-hulled multi-masted cargo vessels in the later ...
s in the early 1890s to load logs onto railway cars. The logs were typically long and up to 12 to in diameter. Screw jacks had previously been used to load the logs. Steam Donkeys encouraged laying some branch lines too steep for the locomotives. Cars were lowered or raised over these inclined tramways using steam donkey cables. One steam donkey could do the work of ten oxen skidding logs to railway loading points; and bull teams were replaced by steam donkeys between 1907 and 1915.


Camp One logging headquarters

The railroad was incorporated as the Caspar, South Fork and Eastern in 1903 with authorization to build to a connection with the
Northwestern Pacific Railroad The Northwestern Pacific Railroad is a regional shortline railroad utilizing a stretch of the 271 mile mainline between Schellville and Windsor with freight and Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) commuter trains. Formerly, it was a reg ...
at
Willits, California Willits (formerly Little Lake and Willitsville) is a city in Mendocino County, California, United States. It is located about north-northwest of Ukiah, at an elevation of . The population was 4,988 at the 2020 census. Willits is at the center ...
. A 1000-foot (300) meter tunnel to reach the South Fork
Noyo River The Noyo River (Pomo: ''Chemli-bida'') is a river on the north coast of California in Mendocino County. The river's headwaters are in the steep Mendocino Range, but downstream the river flows through gently sloping marine terraces before drain ...
was completed in 1904 passing under the present alignment of
California State Route 20 State Route 20 (SR 20) is a state highway in the northern-central region of the state of California, running east–west north of Sacramento from the North Coast to the Sierra Nevada. Its west end is at SR 1 in Fort Bragg, from where it heads ...
near milepost MEN 7. Camp 1 was constructed on the South Fork Noyo River in 1904; and became the headquarters of logging operations. In addition to redwood logs, carloads of
tanoak ''Notholithocarpus densiflorus'', commonly known as the tanoak or tanbark-oak, is a broadleaf tree in the family Fagaceae, and the type species of the genus ''Notholithocarpus''. It is native to the far western United States, particularly Oregon ...
tree bark were shipped to Caspar and San Francisco from the Noyo River drainage for
tanning Tanning may refer to: *Tanning (leather), treating animal skins to produce leather *Sun tanning, using the sun to darken pale skin **Indoor tanning, the use of artificial light in place of the sun **Sunless tanning, application of a stain or dye t ...
hides into
leather Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffalo, pigs and hog ...
. By 1904 the railroad had 4 locomotives and 58 cars. A proposed extension of the railway down the South Fork to connect with the
California Western Railroad The California Western Railroad , AKA Mendocino Railway popularly called the Skunk Train, is a rail freight and heritage railway, heritage railroad transport railway in Mendocino County, California, United States, running from the railroad's he ...
at South Fork was never completed; and the railway never reached Willits. Caspar Lumber Company acquired the Redwood Manufacturers Company plant in
Pittsburg, California Pittsburg is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States. It is an industrial suburb located on the southern shore of the Suisun Bay in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, and is part of the Sacramento–San Joaquin R ...
for seasoning and planing lumber milled at Caspar, and preferred to use its own steamships to transport lumber from Caspar to Pittsburg. The Jughandle Creek trestle collapsed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and was rebuilt. The first
Mallet locomotive The Mallet locomotive is a type of articulated steam railway locomotive, invented by the Swiss engineer Anatole Mallet (1837–1919). The front of the locomotive articulated on a bogie. The compound steam system fed steam at boiler pressur ...
in the
Redwood Empire The North Coast of California (also called the Redwood Empire or the Redwood Coast in reference to the dense Sequoia sempervirens, redwood forests throughout the region) is a region in Northern California that lies on the Pacific coast between Sa ...
was delivered in 1910. Like the others, it was assembled in Caspar after arriving in pieces on ships. Wyes were constructed at Caspar and at Camp 1 to turn this large locomotive. Locomotives had previously burned wood, but Mallet number 5 had the capability to burn oil, and locomotives 2, 3 and 4 and the steam donkeys were shortly converted to burn oil. A January, 1914, storm caused a landslide closing the tunnel. The sawmill was closed until the tunnel was reopened that summer. Locomotive number 1 was retired in 1914. Shay locomotive number 6 was purchased to work on an isolated branch line on Three Chop Ridge connected to the remainder of the railway by an inclined tramway. Locomotives 2, 3 and 4 worked on branches out of Camp 1 while Mallet locomotive number 5 pulled trainloads of logs from Camp 1 to the mill at Caspar. On 19 April 1923 locomotive number 5 derailed and wrecked after hitting runaway horses on
Digger Creek Digger Creek is a stream in the U.S. state of California. The stream flows for before it empties into North Fork Battle Creek Battle Creek is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan, in northwest Calhoun County, at the confluence of the Kalamazo ...
trestle. Locomotives 2 and 4 were damaged when the Camp 1
engine house __NOTOC__ An engine house is a building or other structure that holds one or more engines. It is often practical to bring engines together for common maintenance, as when train locomotives are brought together. Types of engine houses include: * m ...
burned two months later. The railroad had grown to a length of 30 miles when the last locomotive (Mallet number 7) was delivered in 1924.


The shift to internal combustion

The branch line up the North Fork of the South Fork of the Noyo River was dismantled in 1927. Caspar Lumber Company began using
gasoline Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organi ...
-powered Caterpillar tractors in 1928, and the Three Chop Ridge branch line was dismantled that year. Logging headquarters shifted from Camp 1 to Camp 19 in 1929. The Great Depression closed the sawmill from 1931 to 1934. Geared locomotives 4 and 6 were seldom used after the mill reopened as Caterpillar tractors were used in preference to building new branch lines. The last of the steam donkeys were retired when the first
Diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engin ...
-powered tractors arrived in 1936. Logging headquarters shifted from Camp 19 to Camp 20 in 1939 when Caspar Lumber Company terminated steamship operations and began trucking lumber from Caspar to Pittsburg. Hare Creek canyon was so narrow the track had been built on cribbing and trestles over the stream. Mallet locomotive number 7 derailed on one of those trestles and rolled into the creek on 30 April 1940. Locomotive number 7 had to be dismantled, and rebuilding at Caspar was not completed until late 1941. All branch lines had been dismantled by 1944. Trucks brought the logs to Camp 20, and Mallet locomotives 5 and 7 pulled trainloads of logs from Camp 20 to the mill at Caspar. The other locomotives rested unused. A labor strike closed the sawmill and railroad in December, 1945. Rail operations were not resumed when the sawmill reopened; although locomotive number 3 would be fired up once a month to move a tank car of fuel oil into the woods from Caspar through 1948. Most of old growth timber on Caspar Lumber Company lands had been cut by 1947. The sawmill operated until 18 November 1955. Dismantling of the sawmill commenced in September 1956 and was completed within a year. Railroad equipment which had been kept in storage was largely scrapped when the mill was dismantled; although the two Mallet locomotives survived until it was determined their unsuitability for ICC interchange service made future use impractical. Caspar Lumber Company land was acquired by the State of
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
for Jackson State Forest. One of the locomotives was preserved for display at Camp 20. Camp 20 was the easternmost extent of the railroad. The locomotive was moved to the
California Western Railroad The California Western Railroad , AKA Mendocino Railway popularly called the Skunk Train, is a rail freight and heritage railway, heritage railroad transport railway in Mendocino County, California, United States, running from the railroad's he ...
depot in
Fort Bragg, California Fort Bragg, officially the City of Fort Bragg, is a city along the Pacific Coast of California along Shoreline Highway in Mendocino County. The city is west of Willits, at an elevation of . Its population was 6,983 at the 2020 census. Fort ...
after being damaged by vandalism at Camp 20. In 1978 the locomotive was moved back to the Parlin Fork Conservation Camp (on the site of Caspar Lumber Company Camp 5) for restoration. The former railroad grade may be observed where it closely parallels
California State Route 20 State Route 20 (SR 20) is a state highway in the northern-central region of the state of California, running east–west north of Sacramento from the North Coast to the Sierra Nevada. Its west end is at SR 1 in Fort Bragg, from where it heads ...
from McGuire Pond at milepost MEN 13.5 to Camp 20 at milepost MEN 17.3.


Locomotives


Ships


Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caspar South Fork And Eastern Railroad Logging railroads in the United States Transportation in Mendocino County, California Defunct California railroads History of Mendocino County, California