A New Era for the Pudding Creek Trestle - Real Estate Magazine

Real Estate Magazine Editorial 489 for Printing
A New Era for the Pudding Creek Trestle
Story by Nancy Barth
Since mid-January, a crew from the Abacus Construction Company, a contractor based in Redding, has been
repairing the Pudding Creek trestle north of Fort Bragg. This structure, built in 1916, is 527 feet long and 45 feet
high, and has become a Fort Bragg landmark in the minds of many residents and visitors. For many years,
Pudding Creek beach has been a popular recreation area for surfcasting, boogie boarding, dog walking, and
sun bathing.
Although the restoration of the trestle was originally scheduled for completion by June, Michael Romo [the
California State Parks’ project director for the Pudding Creek trestle who is based in Sacramento] recently told
the Fort Bragg City Council that decay on the structure was worse than anticipated and completion of the
project could take an additional six to twelve months.
The trestle, originally built for the Ten Mile Railroad, was later converted to a logging truck road, and is currently
being restored for use by pedestrians and bicyclists who will be able to go from Glass Beach Drive to the former
Georgia-Pacific logging road without having to use Highway 1. The trestle has not only been a favorite subject
for artists and photographers, but has played a role in Mendocino Coast history since the first train on the Ten
Mile Railroad ran on January 3, 1917.
THE TEN MILE RAILROAD ERA
During the early years of the twentieth century, the Union Lumber Company harvested timber from forests
along the Ten Mile River. Union Lumber built the Ten Mile Railroad to transport logs from the woods to the Fort
Bragg mill. The coastal eight-mile portion of the railroad had trestles at Pudding Creek, Virgin Creek and
Laguna Creek
For thirty-two years, the Ten Mile Railroad existed as a “working railroad” hauling logs and taking workers to
and from the Ten Mile River timberlands. In April 1931, the Ten Mile Railroad provided a beach backdrop for a
photograph of the “Prosperity Special,” a fifty-car train carrying lumber to Willits and the Highway 101 corridor.
This highly publicized train was intended to convince the public that the building industry was recovering from
the depression and to sell the idea of using redwood for construction projects. Following the photo opportunity,
the “Prosperity Special” proceeded to Willits and then on to San Rafael stopping at communities along the route
to promote Union Lumber’s redwood.
When the Pudding Creek trestle was built, Charles and Lena Carlson’s homestead was located on the
headland northwest of the structure. The Carlsons, who were natives of Finland, moved to Sacramento in 1894
and later came to Fort Bragg and raised twelve children born between 1895 and 1919.
After Charles Carlson, who had worked as a carpenter, died in 1921, the family stayed on the property until the
early 1930s when they sold the property to a woman who sold it to Union Lumber, which burned the structures.
Lena Carlson planted the row of old cypresses north of Pudding Creek beach.
THE TRUCK ROAD ERA
Following World War II, log trucks were replacing railroads for hauling logs. As early as 1941, Union Lumber
contracted with Joe Rossi and Company to haul logs to the reload area at Irmulco. By 1949, the Ten Mile
Railroad had seventeen miles of track with Milepost 0 at the Union Lumber mill and Milepost 1 in the middle of
the trestle. Milepost 17 was at Camp 5 where logs hauled by trucks had to be reloaded on railroad cars.
Union Lumber’s truck roads had been extended to the north and east to connect with the Rockport Redwood
Company road system and as far north as the Usal timberlands, which Union Lumber had purchased in 1936.
All logs harvested in the Ten Mile woods and points beyond destined for the Fort Bragg mill had been
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Real Estate Magazine Editorial 489 for Printing
transferred from trucks to railroad cars. Logic dictated that Union Lumber convert the railroad route into a truck
road. On June 17, 1949, the Ten Mile Railroad ran a final excursion for one hundred Fort Bragg residents to
witness the loading of the last logging train at Camp 2 along the Ten Mile River.
Although the roadbed had been prepared in advance, the final conversion from railroad to truck road was
completed in two days utilizing a device, pulled by a locomotive, which pulled up the rails. Because the offhighway
trucks, which would use the road to haul old growth logs, were wider and heavier than the railroad
cars, the Pudding Creek trestle’s structure was reinforced and the deck was widened.
After the railroad tracks, and ninety-six thousand ties were removed and hauled away, the road was leveled
and prepared for the trucks to haul logs in July, 1949. After the conversion, Union Lumber contracted with Joe
J. Rossi and Company to haul logs using 1949 Kenworth 524 off-highway diesel-powered trucks. In 1956,
Union Lumber bought five of the trucks from Joe J. Rossi.
Of the nineteen off-highway trucks owned by Union Lumber, No. 11, a 1958 Kenworth, was transferred to the
Roots of Motive Power [an all-volunteer organization founded in 1982 to preserve and restore steam- and
diesel-powered equipment used in California north coast logging industry from the 1850s to the present]. In
May 1998, No. 11 took its final drive over Highway 20 from Fort Bragg and now can be seen at Roots of Motive
Power located on East Commercial Street in Willits just east of the county museum.
In January 1952, Union Lumber closed the dining room and bachelor cabins of Camp 2, the last remaining
camp in the Ten Mile woods. Most employees preferred to live in Fort Bragg instead of in the remote camps.
The Pudding Creek trestle was the site of a tragedy on the night of February 7, 1952, when an automobile
jumped the guard rail and plunged forty-five feet down to the beach. All three occupants of the car died before
the accident was discovered the next morning.
In 1969 the Union Lumber Company was purchased by Boise-Cascade, which sold the mill to Georgia-Pacific
in 1973. In 1976, Georgia-Pacific did the first major repair of the Pudding Creek trestle in many years using
cranes from the woods operation to replace planks, ties, stringers, sway braces and pilings.
Vehicle traffic on the Ten Mile beach portion of Georgia-Pacific’s logging road came to an end on February 16,
1983 after high waves from a winter storm washed out twenty feet of the road a quarter of a mile north of the
Ward Avenue access. The same storm damaged Point Cabrillo Drive near Caspar beach and destroyed Point
Arena’s fishing pier. Subsequent storms caused increased damage and washed out a detour being constructed
by Georgia-Pacific. Finally, Georgia-Pacific applied for a permit to develop a bypass east of the damaged
portion of the road on state park property, but the approved permit gave Georgia-Pacific use of the road only
until 1990.
While the debate over repair of the logging road was going on during the summer of 1983, the Pudding Creek
trestle had some unusual visitors. Early in August, a herd of nine female Roosevelt elk came as far south as
Pudding Creek before heading back north to the Ten Mile River. Several of the elk had radio collars, which had
been installed in the King Range, where they had been relocated from Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park.
The elk were on Ten Mile beach heading north when the California Department of Fish and Game attempted to
capture them using tranquilizer darts. Four were tranquilized and returned to the King Range but one had an
adverse reaction to the tranquilizer and drowned in the ocean. The other four elk escaped to pasture lands east
of the Ten Mile River bridge and lived there among the cattle until a few years ago when they succumbed to old
age. Elk had lived on the Mendocino Coast in the past, but a historical document claimed that the last coastal
Roosevelt elk was killed north of Ten Mile in 1878.
After lengthy negotiations, California State Parks purchased the unused logging road and the headlands
northwest of the trestle in 1995. State Parks Mendocino District Superintendent Bill Berry and his successor,
Greg Picard, both strongly supported restoration of the trestle for pedestrians and bicyclists. [Currently the
acting superintendent is Kirk Marshall; the position is expected to be filled in June of this year.]
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Real Estate Magazine Editorial 489 for Printing
Bill Berry’s stay on the coast did not start smoothly. His first act as district superintendent was to evict long-term
campers from Navarro beach. Then he called a meeting of local people in Cleone to sound them out about
closing the access at Mill Creek Drive. The result was a major confrontation. From then on, Bill Berry focused
on the coastal trail and frequently led hikes through the dunes. When Bill Berry left in 1998, he had a large
following of local friends.
Greg Picard came to the Mendocino district from Cuyamaca State Park in the mountains east of San Diego.
Greg had the luck to come to the Mendocino Coast in February 1998, just in time for El Niño’s heavy storms,
which damaged coastal trails. Before his retirement [in the fall of 2003] Greg weathered controversy about what
uses would be allowed in the Ten Mile dunes and how to make recreation compatible with habitat preservation.
Greg Picard was a strong supporter of restoring the Pudding Creek trestle.
The trestle project also received vital support from the Fort Bragg City Council, the Mendocino County Board of
Supervisors, State Senator Wes Chesbro, Assemblywoman Virginia Strom-Martin and Assemblywoman Patty
Berg.
RESTORATION IN PROGRESS
Because the trestle had not been used since 1983 and had not had major repairs since 1976, extensive work is
needed to replace rotten and damaged wood. Some of the pilings are wet much of the time and are battered by
winter’s high water, storm tides and rogue waves. The abutments, which support the trestle’s weight at each
end, are damp several months each year.
The Abacus crew started the project by constructing a temporary guardrail for worker safety, and then began
replacing fender planks on the bottom of the trestle. The fenders add stability to the structure and deflect
floating logs and debris which comes down Pudding Creek after heavy rains.
At the same time, Abacus workers were preparing the south bluff for replacement of the abutment. First, the
remains of the old abutment were removed with a backhoe, and then the workers constructed forms for pouring
cement for the new structure. Workers have also been on scaffolds replacing diagonal sway braces with new
planks. The structural work is necessary because the trestle will have to support heavy equipment when the
deck is replaced.
At this time, the date for completion is unknown but the opening is certain to be a major event for Fort Bragg.
THANK YOU to Morgan Zeitler of California State Parks for his cooperation, to Gene Lewis for sharing his
historical and technical knowledge, and to all the Abacus workers who answered my questions about the
project.
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