Wonderful Business Opportunities in a Place of Beauty!
We love Happy Camp and our Klamath Neighbors, and walking in beauty of Creation everyday!
by Judy E. bushy April 8, 2018
Spring is beautiful along the Klamath River Highway! Happy Camp may be remote, separated from lots of fast food and retail places by nearly 75 miles, but this former Gold Rush town is full of neighborly people. Happy Camp was even listed in a book of Ghost Towns of California, but it endured due to the logging and timber industry.
Outdoor Family Fun
There have always been the hunters and fishing enthusiasts who come to enjoy our town. The goldpanners didn’t stop coming in the 1950’s and we would still have more if they were allowed to pursue recreational gold mining.
Recreation and Refreshment
One of the last big attractions is the rafting on the Klamath River where Happy Camp is situated on the best family rafting place to be found. At the same time, one can be remote enough to see abundance of birds and wildlife to make the trip very enjoyable.
Mill closed
Then in mid-1990’s the last big mill that had employed shift workers around the clock closed and since then families left for employment and the school attendance declines. More retired folks have come back to fond memories of their childhood in this beautiful place.
We are anticipating the opening of the new Karuk health facility, and always grateful that it serves the entire community, as does the Computer Center and other Karuk Tribe organizations.
Small Business Opprotunity
There’s room in Happy Camp for small businesses. The Frontier Café and Saloon has been wearing a “For Sale” sign, as well as the R & C Second Hand store, which also housed a dog grooming business and barber shop next door. Next to the former Barber shop is the former Second Avenue Salon where ladies could go have full beauty care and then Evans Mercantile which at one time held most of the clothes, household and gift retail sales, adding feed and garden, and the brick building that housed the J. Camp Mercantile in the 1860’s made from bricks made in Happy Camp. There’s also an Auto Supply Owner willing to retire, all that’s needed is a young entrepreneur who can operate a successful business in the wonderful town of Happy Camp.
By the end of the week, Karuk members and employees will be enjoying an introduction to the Rain Rock Casino in Yreka. That means soon the gaming facility will be open to the public. It was interesting to see the menu of the food that will be prepared for guests at the Casino, at the Sportsman’s Expo. It must be so very exciting for the new place to open and so many new employees will be working there. One of the biggest needs in our Siskiyou County is for more employment opportunities!!
Spring is in the air! It’s been beautiful, except when the April Showers came. But even the rain brings anticipation of the spring flowers coming and blooming in MayThe Calendar at Marble Mountain Gift Co. is filling up slowly but surely. This Monday was the monthly meeting (delayed a week from the original schedule) at 5:30 at the Karuk Housing Authority.
Ruth Bain let me know that Happy Camp Grange will be having a big Sale. June 2nd will be the big opportunity for an Indoor or Outdoor Yard Sale at the Happy Camp Grange. That will delightfully be able to be held without concern for the weather report. The Grange will be letting you know soon about the plans, and getting out a flier, so plan now. While you are spring cleaning, you can get rid of some dusty clutter, white elephants, or things the family has outgrown, and turn them into income with a Sale so that they can bless someone to whom they will be new!
I am renewing my request for historical information. In 1876 some folks from the Happy Camp area of California and came to the Black Hills of South Dakota to take part in the fabulous gold rush. They discovered gold in a gulch east of my place which is still called California Gulch. My place became a community of buildings which was called ‘Happy Camp’. After the miners left the area, the place was called ‘Windy Flats’. Then it was called ‘Redfern’ when the railroad was built through in 1890.
I would like to find some photos of my place taken in 1876-1880 when it was known as Happy Camp. If there is anyone out there with relatives who came to the Black Hills in 1876, I would like to correspond with them.
Thank you.
Kenneth Hargens
khargens1024@msn.com
Ken, just heard on the radio that there is a newspaper office in the Black Hills with newspaper’s from way back, perhaps that would be a good place to search for some who may have gone to the Black Hills in 1890. Other than that info, nothing else has shown up as of yet.