3. 1901 Ash Creek Bridge: Mile marker 101.65

Typical narrow wagon trail Photo courtesy Siskiyou County Museum

• Hard rock miners followed gold veins by blasting tunnels on the other side of the river.
  "The Dutzie" bootlegging still was located up the first ravine providing whisky to thirsty locals in the late 1800s.
• Crossing this bridge affords access to the original stagecoach trail. It wanders along the south side of the Klamath River all the way to Horse Creek, a distance of 28 miles. (This side trip will take today's traveler about two hours with one outlet back to Highway 96 at Walker Bridge, midway.) This adventurous road should be driven with caution, being one lane in places and when wet, very slippery.
• Going due west, annual rainfall increases nearly one inch per mile. The density of forest containing ponderosa pine, douglas fir, cedar, madrone and massive tan oak becomes greater as you travel further downriver.

Doodlebug on the Klamatb Photo courtesy Siskiyou County Museum

In the 1800s, Chinese farmed the flat and sold vegetables to the miners and worked in the local mines. They imported a homeland tree called the Tree of Heaven to remind them of their native land. Extensive trails exist at this Forest Service campground and wander through river riparian habitat (natural vegetation). Nature's diversity is described in a series of interpretive signs along the path. This well-developed fee campground has 22 sites, potable water, hiking, swimming and river access. West of this point is Humbug Creek drainage. It was extensively mined, and then dredged by "doodlebugs" (a floating mechanized rock and gold sorting machine fed by a scoop shovel). The old road travels up the canyon to Hawkinsville and Yreka. The sparsely vegetated mountainside provides an excellent view of occasional golden eagles hunting for jackrabbits and ground squirrels.

The Shasta Indian Tribe occupied a vast area encompassing the upper reaches of the Salmon, Klamath, Scott, Shasta and McCloud Rivers. During the winter, women, elders and children occupied multiple-family houses while the hunters went into the surrounding mountains for venison. Communal hunts made use of fires, "brush trail traps" and groups of people to drive deer into an ambush. The men were skilled at throwing sticks to break the wings of geese that habitually passed over low mountain gaps. The Shastas also subsisted on dried fish, acorns and a bulb called apaw.

Each spring new brush huts were fashioned near the mouths of creeks entering the rivers, creating numerous small villages. The men fished for salmon and hunted deer with obsidian-tipped arrows. The women and children dived for mussels and gathered berries during the summer. In August the second salmon run began, followed by acorn gathering.

The Shasta had a source of obsidian and curing salt for barter. Deer hides and venison were also traded with other tribes for dentalia (a tubular sea shell used for decoration and as a medium of exchange), as well as a variety of acorns, baskets and the occasional canoe.

The Tribe had a 4000-pound sacred boulder called the Rain Rock located at Gottville. It was deeply pocked by the hands of medicine men over past centuries, who buried the rock over 200 years ago to stop the rain and flooding. The rock was uncovered by a road-building crew in the 1930s and years later taken to the small museum in Fort Jones. Even non-Indians continue to call and request that the tribe cover the rock on special occasions to prevent rain.