Happy Camp, California

The Klamath River - about 4 miles downriver from Happy Camp.

The Klamath National Forest is huge -- 1,700,000 acres!
Do you think maybe Bigfoot lives here?

Happy Camp changes a lot. That's why I think it is important to preserve a moment in Happy Camp time. Two years from now, much of this could be changed. The town seems on the path to renewal after two decades of distress, despair, decline, and disrepair.

A bit of Happy Camp history:

This little corner of the forest was inhabited only by Native Americans - Karuks - until 1851 when gold miners made their way upriver from the coast. Euro-American settlers stayed because they found gold in the Klamath River and its tributary creeks, and in the hills nearby. There were skirmishes between the Karuks and immigrants, but eventually everyone settled down and intermarried. At this time there are less than ten full-blooded Karuks left.

Hundreds of Chinese miners made Happy Camp their home. The census for 1880 recorded that 250 Happy Campers were white, 250 were Chinese and 97 were Karuks. The Chinese gold and jade miners lived here from 1860 through 1910 when Chinatown burned a second time. After 1920 there were only a few Chinese settlers left.

After the initial gold rush, after the easy pickings disappeared, the people who stayed were serious prospectors who established gold mines in the hills and along the creeks and the river. There was also a Chinese jade mine next to the South Fork of Indian Creek. There is still an active jade and gold mining operation there to this day: South Fork Mining.

Other industries sprang up. There were stores, a brick factory, and several sawmills. For most of the twentieth century the sawmills provided most of the sustenance for Happy Camp families. In the 1980s disaster struck when a series of lawsuits were filed to ostensibly protect the Spotted Owl. These led to the ruination of the lumber industry in Happy Camp and the eventual closing of the mills.

This is what led to a decade of failure. Happy Camp couldn't sustain new businesses to replace the sawmills. Hundreds of people were forced to leave the area - something that was very traumatic for people who were accustomed to living in a remote area in the woods. Long-established businesses closed because there was insufficient revenue, with so many formerly working people now unemployed or gone. Houses and businesses stood empty and in disrepair. It was at this point I moved into Happy Camp, in the year 2000.

Since then numerous buildings have been re-occupied. Most received renovation. There's been a lot of growth. Two art centers were established in the hope that Happy Camp will become an artist-colony town. One could not ask for a more picturesque place to do nature paintings! An extensive new art center is planned; it will most likely be right next to Highway 96 on the east side of town.

This lens gives almost one-hundred photographs that show what the town was like in the summer of 2009 on the day I walked through at about 8-9 am. This is a moment in Happy Camp time. It isn't the only moment. Happy Camp continually changes. The current trend is that it is changing for the better.

I entered Happy Camp from the southwest, passed the green elevation/population sign, and turned left on Second Avenue.

The first photo gallery shows what I saw on Second Avenue that day. Click on the photos to see each one.

The Karuk Tribe

Karuk means "upriver". Yurok means "downriver". The Karuks have lived in the Happy Camp area for many centuries. Their territory extended downriver to the Orleans area. The Yuroks live further downriver, near the Pacific coast.

The Karuk name for Happy Camp is Athithúfvuunupma.

The Karuk Tribe's administrative offices are in Happy Camp. The tribe has it's own website: Karuk Tribe Official Tribal Website. The Karuk Tribe is one of the major employers in Happy Camp. They get most of their funding from grants. The tribe owns the old elementary school and has built several newer buildings there to accommodate the community health clinic, the dental office, and the People's Center.

The Forest Service in Happy Camp

Another major employer in Happy Camp is the U.S. Forest Service. Their website: The Klamath National Forest.

Every summer there are fires in the forest near Happy Camp. Fire fighting is an important seasonal job opportunity for many Happy Camp people.

The Second Avenue Bridge

The original bridge over Indian Creek at this location was a gift to Happy Camp from the original owners of the J. Camp Mercantile: John Camp, Heil Camp, and John Titus. (You will see their building in the next photo gallery.)

Back around 1865 they ordered metal rods from Eureka on the coast, for the building of the bridge. The rods had to be brought to Happy Camp on the mule train! One can only imagine the difficulty of bringing such an unwieldy, heavy load all the way up the Klamath River Valley on the backs of mules!

That bridge and others were eventually wiped out by floods. There have been many floods in Happy Camp -- both on Indian Creek and on the Klamath River.

My Street Name Rant

I don't know if anyone else cares, but the streets of Happy Camp used to have different names. Second Avenue was called Bridge Street -- because of the bridge. First Avenue was called Church Street. I guess there was a church there at one time. And Indian Creek Road was Main Street back in the old days.

I cannot understand why the streets were renamed "First Avenue" etc. . . . there are only four of these "Avenues" which are really just tiny countrified streets. I have always wondered why someone way back when decided to number the streets -- especially since Happy Camp is such a tiny little village, nobody is going to get lost here anyway. They won't need numbered streets. It isn't like San Francisco or New York where numbered streets are very helpful!

I'd love to have Happy Camp return to the original street names.

The J. Camp Mercantile and Happy Camp History

You can find out more about the old mercantile building and see photos from earlier eras by reading an article I wrote for Evans Mercantile on Happy Camp history. The article tracks the history of dry-goods stores in our town and introduces some early Happy Camp residents.

This photograph shows what the building looked like in 2000 when I moved to Happy Camp. Since that time the owners have had it painted by local sign painter, Ray Arneson - restoring the lettering on the front of the building and painting over the old Shell Oil advertisement.

The American House and Henry Doolittle

The American House is the original name of the old wooden hotel that stands on the corner of Second Avenue and Indian Creek Road. The original structure was built by Henry Doolittle in 1856. It was one of the first buildings in Happy Camp built by Euro-American settlers, but it burned down twice and this is a later version in the same location.* (see the update in the next paragraph.) This photo shows what The American House looked like in 2000 when I moved here. Since then the trees have been cut down and the entire building painted for the first time by the new owner.

[*UPDATE, 2010: I received email from the current owner of the American House. She states that there's no evidence that the hotel ever burned down. She wrote: "It never burnt down...there is no evidence to support that onsite archeologically nor have I ever read it in written records. There are two legal property lots associated with the site...maybe an outhouse burned on the property - but never the hotel. In the 14 years since I bought it ... my caretaker, and the many folks digging deep, especially in the basement, show layers in time going back literally thousands of years to the time the Karuk first occupied the site. Each major flood swirled the contents in the basement which then settled and formed an historic record back to the 1860s."

I was told it burned down twice by the daughter of an early resident. I also noted the current structure doesn't resemble the hotel shown in the first two hotel photographs shown on the Evans Mercantile History web page but it does look like the building in the photo at the bottom of that page. I agree that if the hotel had burned in that location, there should have been some evidence in the basement - ashes, or even burnt timber. Here I find conflicting information: local legend vs. the owner's statement of evidence discovered. I post the controversy here so it is out in the open, so everyone can make up their own minds on this issue.]

In the only books about Happy Camp history, it was noted that Henry Doolittle left Happy Camp in 1872 after many years of community service as a business owner, Postmaster, and Justice of the Peace. After I established Happy Camp News in 2001, a descendant of Henry Doolittle, Richard Ramsey, wrote to me about him. From Mr. Ramsey I learned that Henry Doolittle left here and went to Washington state.

Strange personal tie-in: my mother, who has never lived in Happy Camp, married a man from Washington state named Bob Doolittle, back around 1987. There's a resemblance!

There are two streets and a creek in the Happy Camp area named after Henry Doolittle. His brothers, Albert and Alphonso, lived here for a while too but left long before Henry did.

The American House has had other names over the course of the last century. It was called the Cuddihy Hotel and the Baker Hotel. The most recent owner changed the building's name to The American Hotel. It is now a private residence.

The Timber Inn

I'm not qualified to write much about The Timber Inn because I never saw it before it burned down in 1975. It was on Second Avenue right next to the backyard of The American House. In this photo it is right behind the "garage".

The Timber Inn housed a café, bar, and dance hall. Behind that was the Del Rio Theater - the only theater Happy Camp has ever had. After the Timber Inn and Del Rio Theater burned, corn started growing in the ruins -- popcorn that had been dropped by people watching movies in the little theater!

Old Town Park

The property where the Timber Inn once stood was vacant for years until 1999 when Happy Camp Community Services leased the land to create Old Town Park. Now there are fund raising efforts to buy the land and develop the park. If you would like to donate to this project, send your donation money directly to:

Happy Camp Community Services
PO Box 1129
Happy Camp, CA 96039

They will hold donations in an escrow account until $45,000 is raised.

Fishing in the Klamath River

I'm not a fishing enthusiast, as I'm a vegetarian, but Happy Camp is famous for fishing opportunities. My landlady once told me she and her husband moved here for the fishing! Happy Camp has been called the "Steelhead Capital of the World." There's also a lot of salmon in the river.

That's about all I can tell you about fishing. Locally there are several people working as fishing guides. You can see Ron's business sign in the photo gallery above. Google Klamath River fishing to learn more about it.

The Frontier Café & Saloon

If you compare this old picture with the picture of the Frontier Café and Saloon in the photo gallery above, you may soon be as confused as I am. It looks like the bricks from the Shell building were moved to create the saloon part of the Frontier. Or is the saloon the Shell building with a cafe built on the side? The Shell building seems to be sitting in the place where Highway 96 was extended, leaving Happy Camp's Second Avenue off the highway. I guess I'll have to ask an old time resident to be sure. If you know the answer -- leave a message in the guestbook below so I can find out what happened to that Shell building!

I've never been in the saloon except for Chamber of Commerce meetings when we used to have them there, but I've eaten at the café many times. They have wonderful meals including vegetarian tacos and lasagna. (I'm a vegetarian, remember?) The waitress, Debbie, makes some of the best salsa in town! They also have plenty of food for people who aren't vegetarians. It is a full-service restaurant.

The Headway Market

When I moved here in 2000 the Headway Market was empty and the former owner worked at the hardware store. For a few years the Family Resource Center rented the building, but they had to leave when the Karuk Tribe purchased it. The tribe did a major remodeling project and now it is used for the Senior Nutrition Program.

Highway 96 - the Bigfoot Scenic Byway

The Bigfoot Scenic Byway runs from the Bigfoot statue at the corner of Highway 96 and Davis St. to Willow Creek, California 75 miles south west of here.

You'll see the Bigfoot statue in a minute. We're almost there.

JavaBob's Bigfoot Deli

When I moved here this building was yellow and empty. In 2004 or 2005 my neighbor, Bob, opened JavaBob's Bigfoot Deli in the building. Unfortunately he closed in 2006. He left town to go look for Bigfoot in other areas of the country.

The local real estate office uses the windows there to display properties for sale. If you'd like to see some go to the River Connection Realty website.

Why the Town Moved Uphill

After years of terrible floods, after having homes and businesses ruined, newer construction projects moved uphill for safety reasons. The Klamath River still floods every few years. I was caught in a Klamath River flood on December 30, 2005, and had to stay in the church in Horse Creek for two nights because the Klamath River Highway was flooded in either direction.

Urban Sprawl in a Small Mountain Town?

This part of Happy Camp reminds me of urban sprawl. It is blandly industrial, unlike what most people would expect a tiny mountain village to be like. There's no consistent theme and the buildings don't match. It dates to the years of the lumber mills whereas the older section of town on Second Avenue dates from the gold prospecting era.

Buildings on Highway 96 are far apart and the street is wide - probably to accommodate lumber trucks which are rarely seen here anymore. The empty hardware store and the building that used to be JavaBob's Bigfoot Deli add to the feeling of urban sprawl due to their emptiness. I hope they can be put back into use soon. There are also empty lots that could be built on.

At least now the old restaurant is occupied again after all these years. It gives hope that the town will eventually recover from the distressing post-lumber mill years.

The Bigfoot Statue



This statue was intended to be a community project; it started with a call for scrap metal in 2001. The artists who did most of the work were Cheryl Wainwright of Happy Camp and professional artist Ralph Starritt of Yreka.

Artists in Happy Camp

Happy Camp artists have worked hard to try to save this town from the post-lumber mill doldrums. The Bigfoot statue was the first major art project. While that was being constructed art shows began to provide a night out on the town complete with potluck dinners and wine. There's now an art show monthly to introduce a new art gallery exhibit. There are also weekly dinners to raise money for the proposed Klamath-Siskiyou Art Center complex of buildings that will be built next to Highway 96 on the east side of town.

Davis Street starts with the Bigfoot statue and ends with the giant dreamcatcher.

The Old Truck

Until recently that truck was stuck in the brambles and poison oak behind the pharmacy. My son showed it to me years ago and I took this picture of him standing on the hood on March 24, 2003!

I wasn't happy when one of the local business owners pulled the truck out of the bushes behind the pharmacy to sit on the corner of Davis St. and Indian Creek Road - on her property - but despite the fact that it is a wreck, it does look okay there. It definitely symbolizes something about Happy Camp.

Broken. Old. Lumber. Town.

At one time she had a huge log across it where the big bend is in the truck's bed... and that looked even better. I'm sorry that the log was removed.

When people pull into Happy Camp from the Grayback Road route over the mountain from Oregon, this is the first thing they see. I hope they aren't thinking that if they stay long enough their vehicle will end up like that one!

One thing for sure -- when you live in a remote place in a rugged mountain range you're entitled to your own sense of beauty -- and I've never heard any complaints about the truck.

The Old Log High School

At one time Happy Camp didn't have a high school. Local residents got together in the thirties and built one of logs. That old high school still exists at the corner of Washington and Fourth Avenue, behind the newer and much larger high school you saw in the photos above.

Now the old log high school is used as a senior citizen center. Also the occasional government food give-aways take place there.

Back to Old Happy Camp

At this point I've completed a circle. Here's a map to show you where I went. You can click on the map to go to Google maps and explore Happy Camp more.