Siskiyou Pioneer 2021 is Out!!

by Judy E. Bushy

2021 Siskiyou Pioneer

What a joy to receive the brand new, hot off the press publication! Siskiyou County and its MONUMENTS is the name of the latest publication of the Siskiyou County Historical Society.

The unique cover announces that this covers memorials, pillars, plaques, columns, obelisks, cairns, signs and monoliths, and besides that two buildings in Happy Camp are celebrated!

Delighted Despite Delay
You may be wondering why the 2021 book is just coming out, but it should be no surprise to anyone that the Covid and other unforeseen problems impacted the publication, No worried, it was worth waiting for! (Incidentally if you haven’t renewed your membership for 2022 to get the new book for this year, be sure and do so as soon as you can!!

Log High School
The information on the Happy Camp Area starts with the Log High School on E Street and 4th Avenue in Happy Camp. As most old timers in Happy Camp know, the Log High School was “built in 1933 with donated labor and material by the people of Happy Camp on land given by L.H..Newton. Supervised by the High School Building Committee: W.B. Mason, G,R. Humphreys and P.M Toleman.

Karuk People’s Museum
Another site is the Karuk 54256 Second Avenue in Happy Camp. People’s Center Museum (and Gift Shop) in Happy Camp.

Brick Building

1860 Brick Building

Another Building is the J. Camp, Titus and Heil Camp Mercantile and Drug Store. The most notable thing about this building, which is one of the first buildings built in Happy Camp was that it is made of local bricks. That’s why it is usually called “the Brick Building,” by locals. In recent years it has been used by the Evans Mercantile next door. which is closed at present.

Some persons persist in the rumor that John Titus reported that James Camp had the nickname, “Happy” and when he came to Happy Camp he named it after himself. However, anyone careful about history accuracy would know that prospectors coming to “Murderer’s Bar” area in 1951 camped on the Klamath River beside Indian Creek and changed the name to “Happy Camp.”

Until at least 1854, James Camp and his brother were still back in Virginia where the family had moved from New Brunswick. It was in 1857 that Richard Humphries and Lewis Barnes sold their ferry and buildings at Ferry Point to James Camp and John Titus.

J. Camp & Company Came to Happy Camp
Later, the Waldo or Gasquet Trail became more prominent than the Kelsey Trail at Ferry Point they moved to Happy Camp. Henry Doolittle, first postmaster of Happy Camp sold the hotel on Main Street and Bridge Street to Martin Cuddihy. Cuddihy sold a lot across from the hotel to James Camp and Co where they built the Brick Building in 1860.

There are very many interesting Monuments of different sorts in this new Siskiyou Pioneer. There are others that have disappeared, and some yet to be put up. There are many to explore, and you may discover others. Let us know!!

Sarah’s Poem About Our Log High School

Songbird

From “Before The White Man Came”
by Charles S Graves c1934

Composed by Sarah Barney and sung by
Sarah and Mae Barney during the ceremony
of dedication of Happy Camp High School.

Down in a valley
In Happy Camp,
In our log High School
A tribute by all;

Willing hands lended
Lumber was bought,
Logs brought from mountains
To our School lot.

Community Spirit
Labor and toil
Community Spirit
For our High School.

Indian Creek murmurs
Down ‘neath the bank,
Whispering a message
As it goes by.

We’re proud of our High School
Our vision came true,
That we had pictured
From years before.

It’s through our efforts
Burdens and trials,
That our log High School
Stands here today.

Community Spirit
Labor and Toil
Community Spirit
Made our High School.

Editor’s Note: See more information on the Log Memorial High School in Happy Camp and how it was built on the Community page.

Early photo of little log high school & students.

Our Log Memorial High School 1933

loghs1902
by Judy Bushy
The Log Memorial Building on 4tth Avenue & East Street is an important part of Happy Camp’s History. It shows how one man with a vision of giving the young people of Happy Camp an education, and enlist the support of many community members that out of the unity of working together towards that purpose, great things could be accomplished. Times looked bleak in 1933 and the country was in the great depression, but that obstacle didn’t stop the community from completing a high school in Happy Camp.

In 1922 Gorham Humphreys had started a school for Happy Camp Students that included the first two years of high school. The classes were held at the local grammar school. Mr. Taylor was the school’s first teacher. He was followed by Miss Rudd, who taught for four years. The two year course was discontinued in 1928 for about three years, according to Justice Court Judge Philip Toleman. He was speaking at a dinner served by high school home economics department.

Humphreys obtained re-establishment of the two year high school after campaigning at his own expense to the district board. There were about 30 students then and they needed a four year course and a separate place from the grammar school which was also overcrowded. On March 3, 1933 with all the banks in the country closed and the depression in full swing, Gorham Humphreys, Dr. Mason and Judge Toleman presented to the district board the Grange plan to get the people together to build a school for Happy Camp. Toleman said that, “the board had a really a tough row to hoe, taxpayers were broke and appeared to request all expenditures be cut to the bone.” Still, Ed Kaupp of Mt. Shasta helped turn the board in favor of the project and they promised $500 for the purpose.
Bert Newton donated the land, helped build the Log High School and lost his life due to illness contracted when serving at a school activity. Bert Newton had started freighting with horses from Hornbrook to Klamath River points in 1910. From 1919 to 1930 he carried mail and parcel post from Hornbrook to Happy Camp, burying freighter franchises from Walter Bower and George Howard. By 1927 a new era had arrived—the automobile was replacing horses everywhere. So that spring he turned 57 head of stage horses loose with a herd of wild horses on the Bogus Range. He couldn’t even give them away!

Meanwhile, in 1920, he and his partners, his brother I.S. Newton and Harry Pence, had purchased most of the unimproved land in Happy Camp, erected a store, some cabins, a campground and a saw mill. He built the first building on what is now the Happy Camp Ranger Station at 2nd Avenue and Airport Road, and leased it as headquarters to the Forest Service for many years. The Log High School was then where the present high school is located.

Gorham Humphreys initiated the idea of the high school building and must have been able to convince many in the community of the value of proceeding to build, as it seems the community worked together with uncommon unity.

Logs for the new log high school were donated by the Forest Service and cut under the direction of Bob Titus. Toleman was in charge of the building operations. Milt Fowler set the foundation forms. Gravel was hauled by Ralph Gordon. Pete Grant, Mike Effman and others chopped notches in the logs. When things got “bogged down” in August (of 1933) men weren’t able to come when needed and a few forgot that they had pledged a certain amount of labor and many in town thought maybe they had “bitten off more than we could chew…” That is when the women of the Grange put on a couple of noon picnics to get a large group together to put on thee roof. Other women encouraged the work on optimistically. Ora head (Mrs. Guy Head) encouraged the workers to stay with it, urging all to remember that “Rome wasn’t built in a day>”

In September, two large classrooms were ready for Mr. Lowe and Miss Fite, the teacher, to begin classes. The people of Happy Camp had built a high school for education of its young people with only about $1,000 from the District Board.

In November of 1933 a dedication was held. At that time, Toleman said, “we were hearing a lot about the age of rugged individualism that was past. At this time I would like to say that it was that spirit, combined with a will to help each other that did the job. And in passing I believe that it is proper to note that the teachers who lead in the education of our youth and who at times may wonder if their efforts are really appreciated cannot help but feel that the answer is YES, when they have occasion to work in or even hear of a high school that has grown under the conditions that this one has here in Happy Camp.”

The first graduating class in 1935 included Mae Barney, Marshall Vanhoy, Ruth Baker, Robert Humphreys, Nina Sedros, Edna Fowler, Paul Good, Geraldine Titus, George Logan and Florence Sutcliffe.

Gorham Humphreys must have felt great happiness when his son, Robert was one of the first graduates of the school. He had seen a need for a high school and enlisted others to work with him to bring his vision to reality. Several children had died but his surviving four daughters and son had a great example of a father concern for their education. Of his daughters, Bertha married Tom Carter who was Forest Ranger. Viola became a nurse, Aurelia was a teacher and Hazel went to college in Marin County and then married Finley Joyner. The son, Robert who graduated in 1935 died in Italy on the last day of the war in Europe.

Eventually a new high school building was needed. The principal, Arthur French, said “For two and one-half years teachers and equipment have been crowded together into 2,400 square feet of floor space.” The new building was expected to cost $438,000 and the bond bill was to be voted on according to the April 16, 1955 Klamath River Courier. “The new facility provided large modern home economics room and a complete science room. It would also allow development of a commercial department and library.” Dr. Jere Hurley, Superintendent of Siskiyou County’s Joint Union High School District gave the speech dedicating the new building to “the principles of democracy and the constitution of the United States, to all students –past, present and future.” Short addresses were also given by Sharon Titus, Carol Evans and Gene Erskin of the High School Student Board.

The old Log Memorial Building was to be moved to another site, and perhaps used for a library or museum. It was believed to be the only high school building constructed of logs still in use at the time. When “Old Timers” look at the Log Memorial Building they recall how the whole community united in the effort to bring education to our children.. It’s amazing what can be accomplished when we work together toward our goals!

Poem/ the High School Built of Logs by Bill Gates (’37)

We are grateful to Bill Gates ‘37
author of this poem for sharing it!

Where the Indian met the Klamath, and the Klamath flowed to the sea,
Through the canyons and the chasms full of magic mystery
Where old Preston towered o’er Baldy an Baldy towered o’re Cade
And Cade looked down on a little town in a lovely little glade.
There in the summer sunshine and in the winter fogs
Was the most wonderful of high schools, entirely built of logs.

Still the Klamath meets the Indian where the float is flecked with foam
And the salmon and the steelhead search the shallows for a home
Still the pines and fir and cedars cast their cooing, soothing shade
On the hamlet queer and the high school dear in that lovely little glade.
Now I am old and far removed and my reverting memory fogs
Built I still return affection for my high school built of logs.

For Information on the Log Memorial Building that was built with community effort in 1933 see another post