History of Richrdson Grove State Park Example right-aligned image

Native People
The first known inhabitants of this region, the Wailaki people, used the area as a seasonal encampment for hunting, fishing and food gathering. These expert hunters trained dogs to drive game into the river so that it could be more easily caught. Both men and women made beautiful baskets.

The Grove Preserved
The first settler recorded in the area, Kentuckian Ruben Reed, arrived here in the late 1860s. By the early 1900s, Canadian immigrant Henry Devoy had purchased Reed's land. Devoy then leased the redwood grove to a man named Edwin Freeman, who built a store, a dining room and fifteen cabins at the site of today’s visitor center.

In 1922 the Save-the- Redwoods League, concerned about potential destruction of the trees by highway construction and logging, persuaded the State to acquire 120 acres of the redwood grove. Between 1922 and 1935, Freeman, who had been instrumental in naming the park after former California governor Friend W. Richardson, operated the new park as a concession. Today's visitor center was built in 1931 by the Civilian Conservation Corps, who later constructed the campgrounds, picnic facilities, trails, water systems and restrooms. Unfortunately, most of the CCC-built facilities were damaged or destroyed when the south fork of the Eel River overflowed in the floods of 1955 and 1964. Only the original visitor center remains. Natural history

This is an excerpt from a brochure produced by California State Parks

 

 

 

What Californians have cherished for nearly 100 years could be torn apart in one Caltrans construction season.