Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park
| Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park | |
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IUCN category II (national park)
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| Location | Humboldt County, California, USA |
| Nearest city | Arcata |
| Coordinates | 41°24′14″N 124°02′18″W / 41.40383°N 124.03844°WCoordinates: 41°24′14″N 124°02′18″W / 41.40383°N 124.03844°W |
| Area | 14,000 acres (57 km2) |
| Established | 1925 |
| Governing body | California Department of Parks and Recreation (cooperatively managed within Redwood National and State Parks) |
Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park is a state park, located in Humboldt County, California, near the town of Orick and 50 miles (80 km) north of Eureka. The 14,000 acre (57 km²) park is a coastal sanctuary for old-growth Coast Redwood trees.
The park is jointly managed by the California Department of Parks and Recreation and the National Park Service as a part of the Redwood National and State Parks. These parks (which includes Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, and Redwood National Park) have been collectively designated as a World Heritage Site and form part of the California Coast Ranges International Biosphere Reserve.
The meadow along the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway, with its population of Roosevelt elk, is considered a centerpiece of the park, located near the information center and campground. Other popular sites in the park are Fern Canyon and Gold Bluffs Beach. The park is also home to the tailed frog and several species of salmon.
Some of the first Euro-Americans to visit the vicinity arrived in 1851 with the discovery of gold in the area that would become known as Gold Bluffs. Gold Bluffs had at one time been a substantial mining camp, although little remains of the camp today.
With the end of the Civil War and a fall in the price of gold, operations at the Gold Bluffs were shut down. In 1872 a Captain Taylor of New York visited the Gold Bluffs to obtain the mine and exploit the rich sands supposedly deposited offshore. In the spring of 1873, over 100 tons of sand were raised from an area from one-half mile to within 40 feet (12 m) of the bluffs, and in depths of from eight to four fathoms of water. However, by the 1880s activities at the Gold Bluffs again began to slump.
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