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Northcoast Life Hey Ranger: False Klamath Cove
Hey Ranger: False Klamath Cove
Yurok village, ranch, hostel: Scenic coast a place of change
As the son of a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot, change was nothing new to me because my family moved around quite a bit. Wherever we lived, I obsessively learned as much as possible about the area’s natural and cultural history. That didn’t change when I settled in California’s North Coast, where I’ve lived and worked since 1983. I’m endlessly fascinated by how people adapt to and are influenced by their environment. As an American of mixed heritage — my ancestors were natives of Europe, Africa, and North America — the meeting of, and interactions among, different human cultures throughout history also intrigues me. While the natural beauty of Del Norte County is undeniable, the area’s human stories interest me most. For all these reasons, I think False Klamath Cove is particularly special. This easily accessible section of coastline may be the most stunning in all of Redwood National and State Parks, but it’s also rich in human history. Above all, it is a place of change.
 “Old John and Jennie” lived in the Yurok village and later did domestic work for the DeMartin family after it started ranching near Wilson Creek. Submitted Since time immemorial, False Klamath Cove has marked the meeting place of Yurok and Tolowa ancestral territories. Near Wilson Creek is the Yurok village site of O men hee-pur, while south near Lagoon Creek is O men proper. The Tolowa of the Crescent City and Smith River area also claim ancestral ties to these village sites and call them Daa-gheslh-ts’a’. The people who lived in these villages were bilingual, though they tended to speak Yurok among themselves due to their proximity to the mouth of the Klamath River. The last traditional headman of the Yurok village Rek’ woy (modern Requa) was Captain Spott, born in 1844 of mixed Yurok and Tolowa heritage at O men hee-pur. His adopted son, Robert Spott, referred to the False Klamath Cove area as Otegoreyet (“Where the division comes”) because here both law and language changed. The arrival of people of European descent in the early 1800s signaled momentous changes. From June 8 to 11, 1828, American explorer/mountain man Jedediah Smith camped at Wilson Creek with his party of fur trappers and over 250 pack animals.
 Captain Spott, the last traditional headman of the Yurok village Rek’ woy. Submitted Both the Tolowa and Yurok managed the landscape to maintain productive tracts of open land using low-intensity fires. This practice created large prairies that attracted European and American settlers during the Gold Rush, initiating a period of violent and devastating upheaval for native people. By the 1870s, settlers more peaceably inclined toward the native people began moving into the area. In 1877, Swiss-American Louis Peter DeMartin and his family homesteaded a large area of coastal prairies and some forested lands from south of Damnation Creek to Hidden Beach, south of False Klamath Cove. The DeMartins originally tried ranching sheep, but bears and mountain lions took many animals so they diversified the ranching operation, and even used their home as a hostelry for travelers on the Coastal Trail, charging 25 cents a room. Before completion of the wagon road to Crescent City in 1894, Louis and other settlers on the Klamath River contracted with Captain Spott to transport their produce from the mouth of the Klamath River to Wilson Creek, and then on to Crescent City and back, as many as five times a summer from 1877 until 1894. In his large oceangoing “cargo” canoe, Captain Spott and his crew of six paddlers received $75 in American money for this service.
 copy.jpg "The DeMartin ranch in the late-1940s. Submitted") The DeMartin ranch in the late-1940s. Submitted In 1944, the bulk of the ranch was sold to Miriam Kelly Rudisill. Miriam and her husband Henry continued the ranching operation while using their large house as a bed and breakfast, continuing the tradition of housing travelers. Then, when Redwood National Park was created in 1968, most of the original DeMartin ranch was incorporated within the park’s boundaries. In 1987, the National Park Service contracted with the non-profit Hostelling International USA to provide affordable accommodations to park visitors. But the geology of this area is also changing and the land underneath the hostel constantly shifts and sinks, finally forcing it closed in January 2010 due to insurmountable restoration costs. While the fate of the building remains undecided, the closure continues to disappoint many visitors and locals alike for whom this much-loved structure still maintains iconic status. But change, as history tells us, is nothing new in this place.
 The Demartin family poses for a photo circa-1901. Submitted The DeMartin house at Wilson Creek no longer stands as a sentimental reminder of a chapter now closed. Instead, its continued presence reminds us that this area of rich history and incomparable beauty — whether called O men, Daa-geslh-ts’a’, DeMartin Ranch, or False Klamath Cove — is very much a culturally-shared landscape where change will come again. |
