12. Seiad Valley at Old Man's Pool: Mile marker 59.4

Seiad Gold Dredge Photo courtesy Brian Helsaple

Services: Store, cafe, fuel cardlock (with credit card), guide service, RV park and post office.

• Seiad is a Yurok Tribal word meaning "far away land." In the Karuk language it is Sáamay.
• Daniel Cook and William Green came to this valley to trap for the Hudson Bay Company. They were accompanied by the Reeves Brothers who homesteaded and farmed 480 acres, supplying vegetables for the local miners in the mid-1800s.
• In 1885, William Grider homesteaded the south portion of the valley where he farmed, operated a hydraulic mine, and ran a ferry and stage stop. From his converted sheep barn, the stage climbed the 4,000 foot Evans Mountain to the southwest and then down to Happy Camp.
• In 1940, a bucket lined gold dredge reshaped 300 acres of river and fertile fields to extract the gold. This dredge rotated 70 buckets on an endless chain, each bucket weighing 3,000 pounds.
• The view exemplifies river riparian habitat which is nature's way of restoring the tailing piles. This is where numerous species of migratory songbirds gather before venturing into or out of the forest.
• To the east is a bald eagle sanctuary. Along the river is a great blue heron rookery, and to the west is a pair of osprey nests.
• River otters can be seen in this pool quite often.
• Easy access to the Pacific Crest Trail can be found 300 feet to the east. Those inclined can walk up a short distance for a stunning view.
  
  

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13. Bittenbender Slide/Portuguese Creek: Mile marker 57.3

Monitor on mule being packed to mine site Photo courtesy Brian Helsaple (Right) Osprey nest across river Photo courtesy Brian Helsaple

• This slide area allows close examination of the geology of an elevated ancient river channel resting on bedrock. Look at the contrast of solid bedrock with the crumbling, bare area upriver. During wet years the fractured rocks and soils are known to slide abruptly down the slippery blue shist slope.
• At Bittenbender, Chinese laborers used derricks to create the pyramid-shaped rock piles across the river on Masonic Bar.
• Hoskins Bar mine, across from the mouth of Portuguese Creek, was also operated by Chinese. During the flood of 1890, a land and snowslide carried a house into the river with three Chinese miners inside.
• Above the highway is a good area to explore geology. The natural process and compaction that formed the soils created a cemented material that combined river cobbles with gravel. This formation is a likely spot to find gold.
• The Chinese attacked this type of deposit using a water nozzle fed by pipes fashioned out of pigskin hides that were sewn together. Later goldseekers used mules to pack in 2500 feet of 14-inch steel miner's pipe that ran three hydraulic giants (large water nozzles).
• The present-day stark absence of plants is the result of the 1997 flood. An explosion of creek runoff ripped timber from the mountains, creating a gigantic impassable barrier on the highway in this and other locations where creeks flow under the highway. This flood prevented access and supplies from reaching the many residents from Horse Creek to Orleans, over 70 miles away.
• Portuguese Creek river access is an excellent launch site for boats, kayaks and rafts.