Campgrounds and Picnic Areas – Humboldt Redwoods State Park CA

Description

Humboldt Redwoods State Park was established in 1921 with purchases of some of the last remaining Old Growth stands of Coast Redwoods by the Save the Redwoods League. It has since been expanded several times and now includes over 51,000 acres, of which 17,000 are old growth redwood stands.  

California did not establish a state parks system until 1928, and little improvement work had been done at Humboldt Redwoods before the New Deal.  When the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) arrived at Dyerville camp in 1933, the young men got to work right away developing the state park. 

The CCC was active in the park from 1933 to 1940 and during that time CCC enrollees built the following campgrounds, according to Engbeck (p. 36): at Dyerville park headquarters, Upper Bull Creek Flat, North Dyerville Flat, Williams Grove, Gould Grove, Richardson Grove, Whittemore Grove, Hollbrook Grove, and Franklin K. Lane Grove. At each site, they built access roads, trails, parking areas, combination buildings, tables, benches, stoves, cupboards, and a water system.

O’Hara & Stockton (p. 90) also say that the CCC built the Burlington campground next to the park headquarters.

Subsequent floods on the Eel River and Bull Creek in 1937, 1955 and 1964 wiped out the CCC campgrounds at Dyerville, Upper Bull Creek and Williams Grove, as well as a pre-CCC campground at Stephens Grove.  These were replaced by Hidden Spring campground, farther from the flood plain in the 1950s. (O’Hara & Stockton, p. 77)