Pacific Lumber Company
Encyclopedia
The Pacific Lumber Company, officially abbreviated PALCO, was one of California's major logging
and sawmill
operations, located 28 miles (45.1 km) south of Eureka
and 244 miles (392.7 km) north of San Francisco. The once storied company and its historically positive relationship with conservationists begun in the 1920s was altered drastically after a hostile takeover began in 1985. As a result, the company was transformed into a wholly owned subsidiary of Maxxam, Inc by 1986 and during its two final decades. The bulk of operations, including the historic company town
of Scotia, California
, remain adjacent to US 101 along the Eel River
. Operations were split over several milling sites over the many years to mill logs from timber holdings exceeding well over 200,000 acres (890 km²) in the Redwood and Douglas-Fir forests of Humboldt County
. For generations, it was one of the largest private employers in the entire region, appropriately known as the Redwood Empire.
In January 2007 the company filed for bankruptcy protection. On July 29, 2008, the "Final Order" from US Bankruptcy attorney, Judge Richard Schmidt, led to the transfer of the assets of the bankrupt PALCO and all its subsidiaries to the Mendocino Redwood Company
and Marathon Structured Finance. After 145 years as PALCO, the new company is known as the Humboldt Redwood Company.
Some of the affected parties, including Bank of New York Trust Company, filed an appeal, and on September 29, 2009, the Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit modified this judgment.
Mill ever constructed. The quaint town adjacent to the mill is still open to public visits. Pacific Lumber has been at the center of multiple controversies since a hostile takeover by Maxxam, Inc. (of Texas), that was completed in 1986, changing its status from stable employer to one of controversy and finally instability. The controversy is partly a result of a departure from long-standing management practices that ensured sustainability. The company maintains that it is still a sustainable operation, but its policies and practices bear little resemblance to those before 1986. The tale of the company since then is that of constant legal battles, hearings, and lawsuits played out in courts that have involved environmental agencies and organizations as well as the State and Federal governments. 1999 saw the sale of thousands of acres of land to become the Headwaters Forest Reserve. In that agreement, strict rules were put into place requiring the company to manage its holdings under more-restrictive practices. This in part led PALCO to file for bankruptcy in January 2007. Plans are being considered to bring the company out of bankruptcy. This process, though held in a Texas Bankruptcy Court, has many players, from Wall Street to Humboldt County. Even the Governor of California has written the court stating the importance of this company to all of California.
telegraph station, church, post office, and school. In 1895, the company suffered a major setback as the entire town burned, suffering $400,000 in losses ($8,000,000 in today's terms). The Murphy family, by then the controllers of the company chose to rebuild, despite the fact that insurance covered only 25% of losses.
, World War I
, and numerous floods on the Eel River, the company came into the modern age. By 1920 the company had 1,500 employees and 65000 acres (263 km²) of timberland. Beginning in the same decade, company management began participating in the preservation movement, primarily as a result of pressure from the Save-the-Redwoods League
in San Francisco. Portions of prior PL holdings including the Rockefeller Forest, the world's largest remaining contiguous old growth Redwood Forest to survive, now comprises the core of Humboldt Redwoods State Park
. Further developments included recycling of sawdust into the world's first Presto logs.
In 1931, Stanwood Murphy became president of the company. His unique foresight led to a drastic change in practices from the industry standard of clear cutting to a "selective cut" system of logging. This meant that the company would limit cutting to a maximum of 70 percent of the mature trees in a stand, leaving the younger, most vigorous trees to hold the soil and seed a new generation of forest. He also instituted the concept of "sustainable yield," which directed planners to never cut more than the company's forests could replace by new growth in any year. These practices were hailed as revolutionary and he and his direct heirs ran the company in this manner for the next 55 years.
By the 1950s, PALCO efforts to make Scotia a comfortable place to live and raise a family provided the following in the company town: affordable employee housing, stores, a school, a hospital, a skating rink, and a theatre. Under the Murphy family, the company implemented an employee pension plan, and provided free life insurance. By 1961, academic scholarships were also provided to students who were children of company employees. In 1975, PALCO was listed on the New York Stock Exchange
. In a decade, this move would cause the undoing of the venerable company and its practices and traditions.
On February 26, 1986, the day after the completed takeover, Warren Murphy resigned, turning over the company to John A. Campbell
, a man who had been one of his executive vice presidents. However, despite indisputable changes in the tenor and management of the company, its last major holding of contiguous old growth forest was ultimately preserved as environmental groups and various auspices of government worked to seek a deal that inevitably led to the creation of the Headwaters Forest
in 1999 in exchange for $480 million in taxpayer's money.
.
activist Judi Bari
exploded, sending her and fellow activist Darryl Cherney to the hospital. Judi and Darryl were on their way to a music and speaking event on the UC Santa Cruz
campus, part of an organizing tour for Redwood Summer, which sought to inform the wider public about the tragedy unfolding in the Redwood Empire.
That explosion, and the subsequent misinformation attacks on Judi and Darryl by the FBI and Oakland police, would forever change the face of forest activism in the redwoods and elsewhere. The bomber was never found, because the FBI never conducted a serious investigation, choosing instead to accuse Judi Bari of planting the bomb under the driver's seat of her own car. A lawsuit filed by Judi against the FBI for violation of Constitutional rights was ultimately successful in 2002, vindicating Darryl and Judi, but coming five years after Judi's untimely death from breast cancer at the age of 47.
Redwood Summer, held in 1990, was a mass mobilization of students and others from across the United States to protest the deforestation of the redwood region in Northern California, which was being decimated by Maxxam. The mobilization was modeled after Mississippi Summer, a major organizing effort in the nation's civil rights movement in the South in the 1960s. A key architect and organizer of Redwood Summer was labor and environmental leader Judi Bari. The bomb which nearly killed her was preceded and followed by a smear campaign against Earth First!, carried out by the FBI, which tried to charge Darryl and Judi for the bombing, and tried to brand the deep ecology group Earth First! as a terrorist organization. This misinformation campaign was largely successful.
On September 17, 1998, David Chain
, an Earth First! activist was struck by a falling tree while trying to stop logging in Pacific Lumber property. He was killed instantly and died of massive head trauma. In response to his death, a Pacific Lumber Co. spokeperson said their logging crew did not see anybody in the area and were unaware of Chain's presence. Earth First! said that the loggers had been deliberately felling huge trees, in a perpendicular manner rather than downhill, in the protesters' direction. One of the protesters also noted that the tree fellers were fully aware that they were there, as the activists had been "yelling at them, walking towards them, telling them'Don't fall this tree' ". On a videotape supplied by Earth First!, Arlington Earl Ammons, the 52-year-old logger responsible for falling the tree that caused Chain's death can be heard shouting expletives and threatening the protesters.
for loading aboard ships. The line was completed to Alton, California
on 20 August 1885 where connection was made with the Eel River and Eureka Railroad for the remainder of the distance to Humboldt Bay. Rails were extended southward up the Eel River from Scotia to bring logs into the sawmill. Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
merged the Pacific Lumber Company railway into their subsidiary San Francisco and Northwestern Railway
on 15 May 1903, although Pacific Lumber Company retained timber rights and the ability to use the line for their logging operations. The railway became part of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad
on 8 January 1907. Pacific Lumber Company built flatcar
s from wood and maintained a fleet of locomotives for moving logs from the woods into the mill and for switching cars for loading or unloading at the sawmill. Log trains of wooden flat cars ran to the Scotia mill through the 1970s from a log deck in Carlotta, California
. Company switchers were stationed at Scotia until Northwestern Pacific Railroad discontinued service.
, spotted owl
, and other old growth dwellers.. As required by regulatory authorities, buffer zones have been further developed around rivers to prevent erosion
and maintain animal habitats, but the Eel River, the region's major waterway, has been considerably damaged as a result of more than 150 years of logging activity, not all of which is the result of PALCO operations.
In 1999 PALCO agreed to American activist Julia Butterfly Hill
's requests to create a 3 acres (12,140.6 m²) buffer zone around a 600 year old growth redwood named Luna
in exchange for leaving the tree, as she had been living in it for just over two years. Though someone vandalized the tree during the process, it survives to the present.
In 2003, the Company was sued civilly, by the District Attorney of Humboldt County, for fraud and violations of the California Business and Professions Code. The suit was predicated on the allegation that PALCO had affirmatively represented that its timber operations would have a similar environmental impact across all of its land holdings, when in fact there were wide variances and effects on differing watershed environments. The suit was ultimately dismissed by a California Superior Court Judge, but was later appealed to the California Court of Appeal. In January 2008, the California court of Appeal for the 1st district upheld the trial court's dismissal of the litigation, and the suit is for all practical purposes over.*http://eurekareporter.com/article/080110-appeal-court-upholds-dismissal-of-fraud-suit-against-palco
During the pendency of this litigation MAXXAM filed for Bankruptcy. Reports indicate that the family that owns the GAP Stores who are already investors in timber lands in Mendocino county, just south of Humboldt county have submitted a proposal to take over PALCO to the Bankruptcy court in Corpus Christie, TX. Environmentalists hailed the move as being a vast improvement on the increased logging approach by Charles Hurwitz and MAXXAM.*http://www.times-standard.com//ci_7786338?IADID=Search-www.times-standard.com-www.times-standard.com
Logging
Logging is the cutting, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks.In forestry, the term logging is sometimes used in a narrow sense concerning the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard...
and sawmill
Sawmill
A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....
operations, located 28 miles (45.1 km) south of Eureka
Eureka, California
Eureka is the principal city and the county seat of Humboldt County, California, United States. Its population was 27,191 at the 2010 census, up from 26,128 at the 2000 census....
and 244 miles (392.7 km) north of San Francisco. The once storied company and its historically positive relationship with conservationists begun in the 1920s was altered drastically after a hostile takeover began in 1985. As a result, the company was transformed into a wholly owned subsidiary of Maxxam, Inc by 1986 and during its two final decades. The bulk of operations, including the historic company town
Company town
A company town is a town or city in which much or all real estate, buildings , utilities, hospitals, small businesses such as grocery stores and gas stations, and other necessities or luxuries of life within its borders are owned by a single company...
of Scotia, California
Scotia, California
Scotia is a census-designated place in Humboldt County, California. It is located south-southeast of Fortuna, at an elevation of 194 feet . The ZIP Code is 95565. The population was 850 at the 2010 census....
, remain adjacent to US 101 along the Eel River
Eel River (California)
The Eel River is a major river system of the northern Pacific coast of the U.S. state of California. Approximately 200 miles long, it drains a rugged area in the California Coast Ranges between the Sacramento Valley and the ocean. For most of its course, the river flows northwest, parallel to the...
. Operations were split over several milling sites over the many years to mill logs from timber holdings exceeding well over 200,000 acres (890 km²) in the Redwood and Douglas-Fir forests of Humboldt County
Humboldt County, California
Humboldt County is a county in the U.S. state of California, located on the far North Coast 200 miles north of San Francisco. According to 2010 Census Data, the county’s population was 134,623...
. For generations, it was one of the largest private employers in the entire region, appropriately known as the Redwood Empire.
In January 2007 the company filed for bankruptcy protection. On July 29, 2008, the "Final Order" from US Bankruptcy attorney, Judge Richard Schmidt, led to the transfer of the assets of the bankrupt PALCO and all its subsidiaries to the Mendocino Redwood Company
Mendocino Redwood Company
The Mendocino Redwood Company, officially abbreviated as MRC, is a California based forest products company. With holdings of over , primarily in Mendocino County, this relatively new timber company owns and manages ten percent of the county's private land...
and Marathon Structured Finance. After 145 years as PALCO, the new company is known as the Humboldt Redwood Company.
Some of the affected parties, including Bank of New York Trust Company, filed an appeal, and on September 29, 2009, the Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit modified this judgment.
Overview
The Pacific Lumber Company was started in 1863. Though it employed over 350 people in its final days in 2008, there were over 1,600 employees at the turn of the millennium. The company itself is a tourist attraction that once welcomed visitors for a tour of the (now permanently closed) largest RedwoodRedwood
-Trees:Conifers* Family Cupressaceae *** Sequoia sempervirens - coast redwood**** Albino redwood*** Sequoiadendron giganteum - giant sequoia*** Metasequoia glyptostroboides - dawn redwood* Family Pinaceae...
Mill ever constructed. The quaint town adjacent to the mill is still open to public visits. Pacific Lumber has been at the center of multiple controversies since a hostile takeover by Maxxam, Inc. (of Texas), that was completed in 1986, changing its status from stable employer to one of controversy and finally instability. The controversy is partly a result of a departure from long-standing management practices that ensured sustainability. The company maintains that it is still a sustainable operation, but its policies and practices bear little resemblance to those before 1986. The tale of the company since then is that of constant legal battles, hearings, and lawsuits played out in courts that have involved environmental agencies and organizations as well as the State and Federal governments. 1999 saw the sale of thousands of acres of land to become the Headwaters Forest Reserve. In that agreement, strict rules were put into place requiring the company to manage its holdings under more-restrictive practices. This in part led PALCO to file for bankruptcy in January 2007. Plans are being considered to bring the company out of bankruptcy. This process, though held in a Texas Bankruptcy Court, has many players, from Wall Street to Humboldt County. Even the Governor of California has written the court stating the importance of this company to all of California.
19th Century
Pacific Lumber (or PL, as locals have known it for generations) began during the heat of the US Civil War in 1863 when A. W. McPherson and Henry Wetherbee purchased 6000 acres (24.3 km²) of timberland on California's Eel River at the rate of $1.25 per acre. Over the ensuing 20 years they added more partners and began significant logging by 1882, at the present main site and town, which was originally known as Forestville. By 1888, the company became the largest in Humboldt County, with 300 employees and lumber shipments exceeding 20000000 board feet (47,194.7 m³) annually. By this time the town name was changed to Scotia and it boasted a Western UnionWestern Union
The Western Union Company is a financial services and communications company based in the United States. Its North American headquarters is in Englewood, Colorado. Up until 2006, Western Union was the best-known U.S...
telegraph station, church, post office, and school. In 1895, the company suffered a major setback as the entire town burned, suffering $400,000 in losses ($8,000,000 in today's terms). The Murphy family, by then the controllers of the company chose to rebuild, despite the fact that insurance covered only 25% of losses.
Early 20th Century
Through the rebuilding of San Francisco after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake1906 San Francisco earthquake
The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck San Francisco, California, and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is a moment magnitude of 7.9; however, other...
, World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, and numerous floods on the Eel River, the company came into the modern age. By 1920 the company had 1,500 employees and 65000 acres (263 km²) of timberland. Beginning in the same decade, company management began participating in the preservation movement, primarily as a result of pressure from the Save-the-Redwoods League
Save-the-Redwoods League
The Save the Redwoods League is an organization dedicated to the protection of the remaining Coast Redwood trees in the state of California. It was founded in 1918 by Frederick Russell Burnham, Madison Grant, John C. Merriam, and Henry Fairfield Osborn....
in San Francisco. Portions of prior PL holdings including the Rockefeller Forest, the world's largest remaining contiguous old growth Redwood Forest to survive, now comprises the core of Humboldt Redwoods State Park
Humboldt Redwoods State Park
Humboldt Redwoods State Park is located south of Eureka, California in southern Humboldt County, within northern California. Established by the Save-the-Redwoods League in 1921 with the dedication of the Raynal Bolling Memorial Grove, it has grown to become the third largest park in the California...
. Further developments included recycling of sawdust into the world's first Presto logs.
In 1931, Stanwood Murphy became president of the company. His unique foresight led to a drastic change in practices from the industry standard of clear cutting to a "selective cut" system of logging. This meant that the company would limit cutting to a maximum of 70 percent of the mature trees in a stand, leaving the younger, most vigorous trees to hold the soil and seed a new generation of forest. He also instituted the concept of "sustainable yield," which directed planners to never cut more than the company's forests could replace by new growth in any year. These practices were hailed as revolutionary and he and his direct heirs ran the company in this manner for the next 55 years.
By the 1950s, PALCO efforts to make Scotia a comfortable place to live and raise a family provided the following in the company town: affordable employee housing, stores, a school, a hospital, a skating rink, and a theatre. Under the Murphy family, the company implemented an employee pension plan, and provided free life insurance. By 1961, academic scholarships were also provided to students who were children of company employees. In 1975, PALCO was listed on the New York Stock Exchange
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...
. In a decade, this move would cause the undoing of the venerable company and its practices and traditions.
Late 20th Century
By the 1980s, this huge lumber operation had absolutely no debt, holding a partially diversified portfolio that included a high-rise building in San Francisco and lucrative welding operation in the San Francisco Bay Area, all derived from the company's 100-year-plan based on sustained yield directed cutting and profits carefully spent to protect cash flow. These long-term plans consequently and purposely led to a relatively low profit annually, which unwittingly were about to make the company vulnerable to "new" acquisition practices from Wall Street. The last Murphy to run the company under these circumstances reflected on what it was like to run such a stable enterprise with sound environmental practices: "We were the good guys. It was fun, it was easy—it was a great life."1985 Hostile Takeover
On September 30, 1985, the venerable Pacific Lumber Company, having maneuvered through more than a century of business peaks and valleys, was taken over as a result of stock purchases culminating on September 27, 1985. The Murphy family (the largest minority stock holders at the time) and countless previous stockholders, mostly company employees, were relieved of their stock as a result of a hostile takeover by Charles Hurwitz and his Maxxam, Inc. corporation of Texas.On February 26, 1986, the day after the completed takeover, Warren Murphy resigned, turning over the company to John A. Campbell
John A. Campbell (lumber executive)
John Aloysius Campbell was a timber executive who served as president of the Pacific Lumber Company in the 1990s.-Early life:Campbell was born on June 20, 1941 in Leura, New South Wales, outside of Sydney, Australia...
, a man who had been one of his executive vice presidents. However, despite indisputable changes in the tenor and management of the company, its last major holding of contiguous old growth forest was ultimately preserved as environmental groups and various auspices of government worked to seek a deal that inevitably led to the creation of the Headwaters Forest
Headwaters Forest
The Headwaters Forest Reserve is a series of old growth Coast Redwood groves measuring about . Located in the Northern California coastal forests ecoregion near Humboldt Bay of the U.S. state of California, most of it was owned by the now defunct Pacific Lumber Company, which was owned by Charles...
in 1999 in exchange for $480 million in taxpayer's money.
Clearcutting Introduced Under Maxxam
Between a desire to turn a higher profit and the need to start paying off the debt incurred from acquiring Pacific Lumber, Hurwitz's Maxxam replaced the sustainable growth policy of the previous owner-managers (primarily the Murphy family) with one of clearcuttingClearcutting
Clearcutting, or clearfelling, is a controversial forestry/logging practice in which most or all trees in an area are uniformly cut down. Clearcutting, along with shelterwood and seed tree harvests, is used by foresters to create certain types of forest ecosystems and to promote select species that...
.
Protests and Resistance
On May 24, 1990, a bomb planted in the car of Earth First!Earth First!
Earth First! is a radical environmental advocacy group that emerged in the Southwestern United States in 1979. It was co-founded on April 4th, 1980 by Dave Foreman, Mike Roselle, Howie Wolke, and less directly, Bart Koehler and Ron Kezar....
activist Judi Bari
Judi Bari
Judi Bari was an American environmentalist and labor leader, a feminist, and the principal organizer of Earth First! campaigns against logging in the ancient redwood forests of Northern California in the 1980s and '90...
exploded, sending her and fellow activist Darryl Cherney to the hospital. Judi and Darryl were on their way to a music and speaking event on the UC Santa Cruz
University of California, Santa Cruz
The University of California, Santa Cruz, also known as UC Santa Cruz or UCSC, is a public, collegiate university; one of ten campuses in the University of California...
campus, part of an organizing tour for Redwood Summer, which sought to inform the wider public about the tragedy unfolding in the Redwood Empire.
That explosion, and the subsequent misinformation attacks on Judi and Darryl by the FBI and Oakland police, would forever change the face of forest activism in the redwoods and elsewhere. The bomber was never found, because the FBI never conducted a serious investigation, choosing instead to accuse Judi Bari of planting the bomb under the driver's seat of her own car. A lawsuit filed by Judi against the FBI for violation of Constitutional rights was ultimately successful in 2002, vindicating Darryl and Judi, but coming five years after Judi's untimely death from breast cancer at the age of 47.
Redwood Summer, held in 1990, was a mass mobilization of students and others from across the United States to protest the deforestation of the redwood region in Northern California, which was being decimated by Maxxam. The mobilization was modeled after Mississippi Summer, a major organizing effort in the nation's civil rights movement in the South in the 1960s. A key architect and organizer of Redwood Summer was labor and environmental leader Judi Bari. The bomb which nearly killed her was preceded and followed by a smear campaign against Earth First!, carried out by the FBI, which tried to charge Darryl and Judi for the bombing, and tried to brand the deep ecology group Earth First! as a terrorist organization. This misinformation campaign was largely successful.
On September 17, 1998, David Chain
David Chain
David Nathan "Gypsy" Chain was an environmental activist. He was killed by a falling tree in suspicious circumstances during a protest in California Redwood Forests against the Pacific Lumber Company.-Background:...
, an Earth First! activist was struck by a falling tree while trying to stop logging in Pacific Lumber property. He was killed instantly and died of massive head trauma. In response to his death, a Pacific Lumber Co. spokeperson said their logging crew did not see anybody in the area and were unaware of Chain's presence. Earth First! said that the loggers had been deliberately felling huge trees, in a perpendicular manner rather than downhill, in the protesters' direction. One of the protesters also noted that the tree fellers were fully aware that they were there, as the activists had been "yelling at them, walking towards them, telling them
Beginning of a new millennium
The company filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2007. A Texas bankruptcy court considered reorganization options early in 2008. On June 6, 2008 the judge preliminarily decided to confirm the Mendocino Redwood Company option for reorganization and signed the order on July 8, 2008. The company's bond holders attempted to appeal, but on July 24, the appellate court in Louisiana refused to hear the case. Timber note holders stated that this will mean the Mendocino Redwood Company/ Marathon plan will be able to go forward, and many agree that any future court will be unlikely to undo it.Railroads
Pacific Lumber Company incorporated the Humboldt Bay and Eel River Railroad on 17 November 1882 to transport lumber from the Scotia sawmill to Humboldt BayHumboldt Bay
Humboldt Bay is a natural bay and a multi-basin, bar-built coastal lagoon located on the rugged North Coast of California, United States entirely within Humboldt County. The regional center and county seat of Eureka and the college town of Arcata adjoin the bay, which is the second largest enclosed...
for loading aboard ships. The line was completed to Alton, California
Alton, California
Alton is an unincorporated community in Humboldt County, California. It is located south-southeast of Fortuna, at an elevation of 62 feet . Alton is located along U.S. Route 101 and State Route 36. The ZIP Code is 95562. The community is inside area code 707.-History:The name Hansen honors Mads...
on 20 August 1885 where connection was made with the Eel River and Eureka Railroad for the remainder of the distance to Humboldt Bay. Rails were extended southward up the Eel River from Scotia to bring logs into the sawmill. Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often abbreviated as Santa Fe, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The company was first chartered in February 1859...
merged the Pacific Lumber Company railway into their subsidiary San Francisco and Northwestern Railway
San Francisco and Northwestern Railway
San Francisco and Northwestern Railway was a Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway subsidiary formed in 1903 to connect Humboldt Bay to the Santa Fe rail system....
on 15 May 1903, although Pacific Lumber Company retained timber rights and the ability to use the line for their logging operations. The railway became part of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad
Northwestern Pacific Railroad
The Northwestern Pacific Railroad is a regional railroad serving California's North Coast. The railroad currently runs on 62 miles of the 462 mile main line, stretching from Schellville, California to Eureka, California...
on 8 January 1907. Pacific Lumber Company built flatcar
Flatcar
A flatcar is a piece of railroad or railway rolling stock that consists of an open, flat deck on four or six wheels or a pair of trucks or bogies . The deck of the car can be wood or steel, and the sides of the deck can include pockets for stakes or tie-down points to secure loads...
s from wood and maintained a fleet of locomotives for moving logs from the woods into the mill and for switching cars for loading or unloading at the sawmill. Log trains of wooden flat cars ran to the Scotia mill through the 1970s from a log deck in Carlotta, California
Carlotta, California
Carlotta is an unincorporated community in Humboldt County, California. It is located southeast of Fortuna, at an elevation of 131 feet ....
. Company switchers were stationed at Scotia until Northwestern Pacific Railroad discontinued service.
Locomotives
| Number | Builder | Type | Date | Works number | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Pennsylvania Railroad Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.... |
4-4-0 4-4-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-4-0 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles , four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles, and no trailing wheels... |
1886 | 1031 | originally Pennsylvania Railroad #452; then Chicago, St. Louis and Pittsburgh Railroad #452; then Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad The Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, commonly called the Pan Handle Route , was a railroad forming part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system. Its common name came from its main line west from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania across the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia... #8298; renumbered #298; renumbered #343; sold 1902 to Eel River and Eureka Railroad as #4 |
| 2nd # 3 | Baldwin Locomotive Works Baldwin Locomotive Works The Baldwin Locomotive Works was an American builder of railroad locomotives. It was located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, originally, and later in nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania. Although the company was very successful as a producer of steam locomotives, its transition to the production of... |
2-6-2 2-6-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-6-2 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels, six coupled driving wheels and two trailing wheels.Other equivalent classifications are:... |
1922 | 55248 | formerly Humboldt Northern Railroad #3 purchased 1950; sold 1953 |
| 9 | Heisler Locomotive Works | 2-truck Heisler locomotive Heisler locomotive The Heisler locomotive was the last variant of the three major types of geared steam locomotive, Charles L. Heisler receiving a patent for the design in 1892 following the construction of a prototype in 1891. Somewhat similar to a Climax locomotive, Heisler's design featured two cylinders canted... |
1920 | 1446 | originally Mount Tamalpais and Muir Woods Railway #9; then Siskiyou Lumber Co. of Macdoel, CA; then Humboldt Northern Railroad #5; purchased 1950; retired 1953 and placed on display in Scotia. |
| 19 | Baldwin Locomotive Works | 0-6-0 0-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 0-6-0 represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and no trailing wheels... Tank locomotive Tank locomotive A tank locomotive or tank engine is a steam locomotive that carries its water in one or more on-board water tanks, instead of pulling it behind it in a tender. It will most likely also have some kind of bunker to hold the fuel. There are several different types of tank locomotive dependent upon... |
1875 | 3739 | purchased from Excelsior Redwood Company |
| 20 | Marshutz & Cantrell | 0-6-0 Tank locomotive | 1882 | purchased from Excelsior Redwood Company | |
| 21 | Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works was a 19th-century manufacturer of railroad steam locomotives based in Paterson, in Passaic County, New Jersey, in the United States. It built more than six thousand steam locomotives for railroads around the world. Most railroads in 19th-century United States... |
4-4-0 | 1881 | ||
| 22 | Baldwin Locomotive Works | 2-4-2 2-4-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-4-2 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles, and two trailing wheels on one axle... Tank locomotive |
1887 | 8792 | purchased as #2; renumbered |
| 23 | Baldwin Locomotive Works | 2-4-2 Tank locomotive | 1886 | 8007 | purchased as #1; renumbered; wrecked in 1938 |
| 25 | Baldwin Locomotive Works | 2-4-2 Tank locomotive | June 1904 | 24317 | purchased as #5; renumbered; sold to Holmes-Eureka Lumber Company |
| 26 | Lima Locomotive Works Lima Locomotive Works Lima Locomotive Works was an American firm that manufactured railroad locomotives from the 1870s through the 1950s. The company took the most distinctive part of its name from its main shops location in Lima, Ohio. The shops were located between the Baltimore & Ohio's Cincinnati-Toledo main line... |
2-truck Shay locomotive Shay locomotive The Shay locomotive was the most widely used geared steam locomotive. The locomotives were built to the patents of Ephraim Shay, who has been credited with the popularization of the concept of a geared steam locomotive... |
14 July 1906 | 1615 | purchased new; scrapped 1950 |
| 27 | Baldwin Locomotive Works | 2-6-2 | 1909 | 33339 | purchased new; scrapped 1955 |
| 28 | Lima Locomotive Works | 2-truck Shay locomotive | 24 February 1910 | 2268 | purchased new; sold to Pelican Bay Lumber Company Algoma, Oregon Algoma, Oregon Algoma is an unincorporated community on the east shore of Upper Klamath Lake, in Klamath County, Oregon, United States. It is about north of the city of Klamath Falls on U.S. Route 97. Algoma was named for the Algoma Lumber Company.- History :... |
| 29 | Baldwin Locomotive Works | 2-6-2 | 1910 | 34484 | purchased new as a wood-burner; later converted to oil fuel; in 1986 placed on display in Eureka, California |
| 30 | Baldwin Locomotive Works | 2-6-2 | 1911 | 36173 | purchased new; scrapped 1955 |
| 31 | Lima Locomotive Works | 3-truck Shay locomotive | 6 April 1911 | 2419 | formerly California Western Railroad California Western Railroad The California Western Railroad , popularly called the Skunk Train, is a heritage railroad in Mendocino County, California, running from the railroad's headquarters in the coastal town of Fort Bragg, and the interchange with the Northwestern Pacific Railroad at Willits.The CWR runs steam and... #10 purchased 1917; sold 1920 |
| 32 | H. K. Porter, Inc. | 0-6-0 | 1920 | 6533 | fireless sawmill switcher with steam reservoir periodically refilled from the sawmill boiler; sold 1921 |
| 33 | Climax Locomotive Works Climax Locomotive Works The Climax Locomotive Works was a manufacturer of Climax geared steam locomotives between 1888 and 1928. It was based in Corry, Pennsylvania.-In fiction:... |
3-truck Climax locomotive Climax locomotive A Climax locomotive is a type of geared steam locomotive in which the two steam cylinders were attached to a transmission located under the center of the boiler. This transmits power to driveshafts running to the front and rear trucks.... |
1923 | 1633 | original locomotive c/n 1592 built in 1921 was returned to builder and replaced; scrapped 1952 |
| 34 | Baldwin Locomotive Works | 2-6-0 2-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-6-0 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and no trailing wheels. This arrangement is commonly called a Mogul... |
1913 | 39760 | purchased 1921 from Ocean Shore Railroad Ocean Shore Railroad The Ocean Shore Railroad was intended to be built from San Francisco to Santa Cruz, California, via a route along the Pacific coastline.-History:... ; sold 1942 to Red River Lumber Company Westwood, California Westwood, California Westwood is a census-designated place in Lassen County, California, United States. Westwood is located west-southwest of Susanville, at an elevation of 5128 feet... |
| 35 | Baldwin Locomotive Works | 2-8-2 2-8-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-8-2 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle , eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles, and two trailing wheels on one axle... |
1924 | 67538 | purchased new; sold 1971 |
| 36 | Lima Locomotive Works | 2-truck Shay locomotive | 3 May 1907 | 1836 | formerly Metropolitan Redwood Lumber Company Metropolitan, California Metropolitan is an unincorporated community in Humboldt County, California. It is located on McDairmid Prairie, on the Eel River three miles downstream of Scotia, at an elevation of 72 feet .- History :... #1; purchased October 1935; scrapped 1953 |
| 37 | American Locomotive Company American Locomotive Company The American Locomotive Company, often shortened to ALCO or Alco , was a builder of railroad locomotives in the United States.-Early history:... |
2-8-2 Tank locomotive | 1924 | 660333 | purchased 1935 from Sugar Pine Lumber Company; sold 1966 |
| 38 | Climax Locomotive Works | 2-truck Climax locomotive | 1922 | 1621 | purchased 1938 from Holmes-Eureka Lumber Company; sold 1956 |
| 101 | GE Transportation Systems GE Transportation Systems GE Transportation, formerly known as GE Rail, is a division of General Electric. The organization manufactures equipment for the railroad, marine, mining, drilling and energy generation industries. It is based in Erie, Pennsylvania. Locomotives are assembled at the Erie plant, while engine... |
GE 80-ton switcher GE 80-ton switcher The GE 80-ton switcher is a locomotive model built by GE Transportation Systems. It is classified as a B-B type locomotive. It was designed for industrial and light switching duties around railheads and ports.- Military version :... |
1956 | 32395 | purchased new, retired 1992; sold 1996 |
| 102 | GE Transportation Systems | GE 80-ton switcher | 1956 | 32413 | purchased new, retired 1992; sold 1996 |
| 103 | GE Transportation Systems | GE 80-ton switcher | 1957 | 32414 | purchased new, sold 1980 |
| 104 | Baldwin Locomotive Works | Baldwin VO-1000 Baldwin VO-1000 The Baldwin VO-1000 was a diesel-electric switcher locomotive built by Baldwin Locomotive Works between January, 1939 and December, 1946. The 236,260–242,200 lb units were powered by a normally aspirated eight-cylinder diesel engine rated at , and rode on a pair of two-axle trucks in a B-B... |
1945 | 71740 | purchased 1962 from United States Army Transportation Corps United States Army Transportation Corps The Transportation Corps was established 31 July 1942 by Executive Order 9082. The Transportation Corps is a combat service support branch of the U.S. Army, and was headquartered at Fort Eustis, Virginia, but has now moved to Fort Lee, Virginia. The Transportation Corps is responsible for the... ; sold 1981 |
| 105 | Baldwin Locomotive Works | Baldwin VO-1000 | 1945 | 71985 | purchased 1964 from United States Navy United States Navy The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S... ; sold 1981 |
Environmental issues
The company has recently considered selling 6,000 acres (24 km²) of mostly old growth redwoods for $300 million to protect the marbled murreletMarbled Murrelet
The Marbled Murrelet is a small seabird from the North Pacific. It is a member of the auk family. It nests in old-growth forests or on the ground at higher latitudes where trees cannot grow...
, spotted owl
Spotted Owl
The Spotted Owl, Strix occidentalis, is a species of true owl. It is a resident species of forests in western North America, where it nests in tree holes, old bird of prey nests, or rock crevices. Nests can be between 13 and 66 yards high and usually contain two eggs...
, and other old growth dwellers.. As required by regulatory authorities, buffer zones have been further developed around rivers to prevent erosion
Erosion
Erosion is when materials are removed from the surface and changed into something else. It only works by hydraulic actions and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere...
and maintain animal habitats, but the Eel River, the region's major waterway, has been considerably damaged as a result of more than 150 years of logging activity, not all of which is the result of PALCO operations.
In 1999 PALCO agreed to American activist Julia Butterfly Hill
Julia Butterfly Hill
Julia Butterfly Hill is an American activist and environmentalist. Hill is best known for living in a -tall, roughly 1500-year-old California Redwood tree for 738 days between December 10, 1997 and December 18, 1999...
's requests to create a 3 acres (12,140.6 m²) buffer zone around a 600 year old growth redwood named Luna
Luna (Redwood Tree)
Luna is the American name given to a coast redwood tree in October 1997. This tree has also been referred to as the 'Stafford Giant.' The tree is between 600 and 1000 years old and lives in an old growth forest--Headwaters Forest, in Humboldt County, California near the small community of...
in exchange for leaving the tree, as she had been living in it for just over two years. Though someone vandalized the tree during the process, it survives to the present.
In 2003, the Company was sued civilly, by the District Attorney of Humboldt County, for fraud and violations of the California Business and Professions Code. The suit was predicated on the allegation that PALCO had affirmatively represented that its timber operations would have a similar environmental impact across all of its land holdings, when in fact there were wide variances and effects on differing watershed environments. The suit was ultimately dismissed by a California Superior Court Judge, but was later appealed to the California Court of Appeal. In January 2008, the California court of Appeal for the 1st district upheld the trial court's dismissal of the litigation, and the suit is for all practical purposes over.*http://eurekareporter.com/article/080110-appeal-court-upholds-dismissal-of-fraud-suit-against-palco
During the pendency of this litigation MAXXAM filed for Bankruptcy. Reports indicate that the family that owns the GAP Stores who are already investors in timber lands in Mendocino county, just south of Humboldt county have submitted a proposal to take over PALCO to the Bankruptcy court in Corpus Christie, TX. Environmentalists hailed the move as being a vast improvement on the increased logging approach by Charles Hurwitz and MAXXAM.*http://www.times-standard.com//ci_7786338?IADID=Search-www.times-standard.com-www.times-standard.com
External links
- North Coast Journal—at least 380 articles on the developments within and surrounding PALCO.
- San Francisco Chronicle—multiple stories and editorials related to PALCO.
- Pacific Lumber's environmental record
- Critique of PALCO's environmental program
- The Judi Bari Website-Dedicated to the memory of Judy Bari, Non-Violent Environmental activist who lost her life fighting to protect the old growth redwoods