29. Somes Bar: Mile marker 0.75

Services: Grocery, camping, RV park, cabin rentals, dining lodge, rafting and fishing guide services, pack trail rides, mountain biking.

Osprey nest between Somes & Orleans Photo courtesy Brian Helsaple		Covered Bridge at Somes in 1926 Photo courtesy Hazel Davis Gendron

• In Karuk language, this area was known as Ueeti-luk.
• Ishi Pishi Falls can be viewed from the highway and is more whitewater than a "waterfall." Rafters should be aware that Ishi Pishi is unrunable.
• Abraham Somes, with partner and friend, William Tripp, built the town in the early 1850s to supply miners in the area. Somes Bar originally was located about a mile and a half up the Salmon River, but floods and fire over the years resulted in its relocation. The Tripp and Conrad families still make up a large portion of the residents in the area today.
• In the spring of 1851, miners flocked into the Salmon River area. They came poorly equipped and expected pack trains to supply their food. A snow storm blocked all access and the men had to eat their mules and shoe leather to survive. This was known as "Salmon River Starvation Times."
• Junction School District was first established in 1892. This is a primary school- currently with two teachers, one of whom is the principal.
• President Herbert Hoover had a hideaway cabin on Wooley Creek. His personal interest was partly responsible for protecting the Marble Mountains as a Wilderness Area.
• The rugged steep mountains surrounding the area allow for only three hours of sunshine during winter.
• Following Ishi Pishi road behind the store for a half mile will take you to a magnificent aerial view of the mouth of the Salmon River entering the Klamath.

Along the 180-mile length of the Klamath, many nests can be found that are built on top of sturdy trees overlooking the river. The pioneers regarded the Osprey as a fish crow. Its diet is strictly live or injured fish, mainly the river suckers. The birds arrive in early April. The Osprey fishes constantly, whereas the Bald Eagle is an opportunist, many times diving on the Osprey to steal its catch.