Our Two Days in Crescent City, CA

Crescent City sits between the mighty Pacific Ocean, ancient California redwood forests, tribal lands, and two wild rivers.

This rugged corner of California has a tenacious history. Through gold mining, logging and two fierce tsunamis that swept through in 1964 and 2011, Crescent City has persevered.

We began at the harbor to learn more about its tsunami history and its fishing industry.

An interesting sight here is the tetrapod, is a form of wave-dissipating concrete block used to prevent erosion caused by weather and longshore drift, primarily to enforce coastal structures such as seawalls and breakwaters.

In 1955, this factory on the beach was set up to construct numerous tetrapods. These tools are made of concrete, and use a tetrahedral shape to dissipate the force of incoming waves by allowing water to flow around rather than against them, and to reduce displacement by interlocking. So interesting to see!

Besides tsunamis, the town has a sad history of shipwrecks. The Brother Jonathan Cemetery commemorates the lives lost on July 30, 1865 aboard the sidewheeler vessel Brother Jonathan, which was headed from San Francisco to Portland, Oregon.

Conflicting facts surround the reasons for the vessel's sinking, which left only 19 survivors aboard a single lifeboat. The ship was carrying a number of political and entertainment dignitaries at the time of its sinking, including the company of a traveling circus. It was also holding freshly-minted military payroll coins that convert to an amount in the millions in modern currency. Today, the site contains the final resting places of 170 of the ship's crew and passengers, with a public memorial dedicated to their loss.

Nearby are portions of the hull of the General Petroleum Corporation tanker S.S. Emidio, which on December 20, 1941 became the first casualty of the Imperial Japanese Navy's submarine force action on California's Pacific Coast. The ship was attacked some 200 miles north of San Francisco and five crewmen were killed. Abandoned, the vessel drifted north and broke up on the rocks off Crescent City. The bow drifted into the harbor, where it lay near this marker until salvaged in 1950.

The Lauff Hotel (Surf Hotel), the tallest building in Crescent City, was once a hideaway for Hollywood actors and actresses. The 1964 tempest that destroyed 29 blocks and sank dozens of fishing boats, that bobbed helplessly in the harbor, ended this grand hotel's former life. Badly damaged, though it survived, it was abandoned for decades before reopening as a low-income apartment building for seniors.

A must-do is a visit to the Del Norte County Historical Museum.

It is a public museum operated by the Del Norte County Historical Society, located within Crescent City's former 1926 County Hall of Records facility. The museum has been open to the public since 1963, housed within the former County Jail portion of its historic building, with jail cells on the building's second floor serving as exhibit rooms. It details the social and cultural history of the Del Norte County, with exhibits showcasing the history and artifacts of local Tolowa and Yurok indigenous tribes, including one of Northern California's largest displays of indigenous basket-weaving. Other exhibits include collections of photographic and phonographic equipment, mining and logging tools, and period fashions and furniture from the region's 19th and 20th-century history. In the museum's Bolen Annex, the first-order Fresnel lens used in the Saint George Reef Lighthouse is displayed.

Northcoast Marine Mammal Center is a marine life conservation and rehabilitation organization that was originally founded in 1984 by Dr. Dennis Wood. The facility tends to up to 100 injured animals annually, responding to reports of distressed animals along the greater Northern California coastal region.

A highlight was a visit to Battery Point Lighthouse. This historic lighthouse, accessible only at low tide, was one of the California Pacific Coast's first lighthouses at the time of its 1855 construction.

Lighthouse keepers have resided there since 1856. The former keeper's quarters are stocked with period furniture as a living history museum, showcasing displays of artifacts, photographs, and documents related to the lighthouse's history.

We even learned about the importance and uniqueness of this Banjo Clock. These clocks were used to keep the time at many stations, lightships and lighthouse tenders. Time was very important to lighthouse keeper's to not only make sure the light was flashing correctly but to note times of significant events at the lighthouse. These events included keepers or assistant keepers leaving the station on business and noting their return, ship wrecks in the area, when storms came in or vessel sightings for instance. Time was important at the lighthouse and for that lighthouses and lightships had official issued clocks. These clocks were hand wound and were usually eight day clocks. They would be displayed in a main living area of the house or parlor.

Note the clock in this photo of the last paid lighthouse keeper, Wayne Piland, who moved out in 1953. Since then, Battery Point has been run exclusively by volunteers, except for a stent from 1965 to 1969 when the Coast Guard operated it.

The lighthouse operated a fourth-order Fresnel lens between 1856 and 1953, when it was fully automated. In 1964, the lighthouse survived the strongest earthquake on record in the northern hemisphere and the subsequent tsunami caused by it. Today, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and preserved as a California Historical Landmark.

A fish & chips dinner was had at the über cool SeaQuake Brewing, Crescent City's premiere craft brewery. It is owned by locals who grew up here. We loved it.

Like all small towns along 101, memory making is pretty easy to do when there is so much going on. We're enjoying the road trip. Thanks for following along.

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