The clatter of lumber and the shouts of longshoremen at Laguna Point began in 1883. Schooners and steamships moored here to take on loads of Mendocino's valuable redwood lumber
Laguna Point
In 1883, the Laguna Point loading operation served two sawmills - one at Laguna Creek (today's Mill Creek) and the other at Ten Mile River.
At Laguna Point, ships were loaded by sliding cargo down an "apron chute" to the deck. In 1885, winter storms washed away the chute and wharf. The apron chute was replaced by a "wire chute," which lowered bundles of lumber via cables.
The Tramway
In 1887, the Little Valley Lumber Company built a 2.5-mile-long, gravity-driven tramway from its mill near the town of Cleone to Laguna Point. Full rail cars coasted down hill to the shipping yard, and horses hauled them back to the mill.
Laguna Creek Mill and the tramway shut down in 1904. Although railroad ties and tanbark continued to travel out of Laguna Point until 1920, most lumber was shipped out of Fort Bragg.
From Railroad to Coast Trail
MacKerricher's coastal trail began as a logging railroad in 1916. In 1949, a road was built to transport logs by truck. The Lake Cleone railroad trestle burned down in the early 1960s. You can walk the same haul road today.
Doghole Schooners
Early
in the logging era, specialized "doghole schooners" hauled lumber from the Mendocino Coast to markers in San Francisco. "Dogholes" referred to shipping points along the coast "too small for a dog to turn around in," but with just enough room to load lumber onto a small wooden schooner.
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