Re: Hammond Lumber
Author: Jeff Moore
Date: 07-30-2011 - 16:48
According to the Hammond maps in Henry Sorensen and Lynwood Carranco's Steam in the Redwoods book, the Hammond trackage extended only as far north as about two miles southeast of Big Lagoon, or due east of Patrick's Point State Park. I don't think there were ever any railroad lines in the Orick area, or (outside of the Klamath & Hoppow Valley) any railroads between Hammond and the Hobbs-Wall narrow gauge railroad that came south from Crescent City.
A forest fire in 1944 eliminated all Hammond trackage north of Crannell, up the Little River south of Trinidad. This fire trapped the Hammond 2-8-2T #17 on the wrong side of the many burned out trestles, and it sat more or less abandoned in the woods until the Klamath & Hoppow Valley fished it out of the woods. The last Georgia Pacific (Hammond successor) log train from Crannell to Samoa rolled south on 17 February 1961. G-P tore out the northern half of the line in 1963 and the southern part in 1966.
After the railroad, Georgia Pacific did have a private truck road that ran northwest out of the area formerly served by the railroad towards Orick.
Jeff Moore
Elko, NV