Subscribe to
Happy Camp News
by email:










Search Now:


Three Natives Along the Klamath!

January 22, 1990

34threentvsklmath12

Ray Stores, the man who killed the lion, is holding the heard: Rudolph Blockwell is twisting the lion’s tail. Ray has killed many of these big cats and by so doing has saved the lives of many deer, as it is estimated that a lion will kill one deer a week.

The building pctured here is that of the old (American House Hotel) Cuddihy place and is now owned by Mr. & Mrs. Baker. It looks the same as it did over fifty years ago on my first visit to Happy Camp. It was then that I first met Martin Cuddihy. I arrived there tired and footsore, hungry and thirsty after a long walk over a steep pack trail. There were no roads to Happy Camp at that time, now was it in Siskiyou County but was a part of Del Norte County. Martin Cuddihy tried to persuade me to have a small drop of liquor, and he did not have to try very hard. He then offered me food and shelter for as long as I cared to stay. He told me that he set the best table of any hotel in Northern California and in that respect I soon found that he was telling the truth. I also found that Martin never refused food to a hungry man, even though he knew that he would never receive any money.

Martin Cuddihy crossed the Great Divide many years ago. They have missed him in Happy Camp, and we all know that His “eternal lot as been cast with those who know no sorrow and can feel no pain” And so9 long as I* live I will remember Martin Cuddihy as one of the finest among those fine old timers.
34threentvsklmath11




Henry Doolittle, A Happy Camp Pioneer

By Linda Martin

Richard Ramsey, the great-grandson of Happy Camp pioneer, Henry Doolittle, signed the guestbook of the Happy Camp History website this last week and solved one of our long-standing mysteries for us. He told us where Henry Doolittle went when he left Happy Camp in the early 1870’s!

To this day, Henry Doolittle is one of the best-known gold-rush era Happy Camp settlers. There’s a street named Doolittle in the center of town and there’s Doolittle Creek Road a few miles north, off Indian Creek Road too. At one time he and his brothers, Alfonso and Albert, owned most of Happy Camp.

Henry Doolittle sold the lot the Camp Mercantile Store sits on to James and Heil Camp and John Titus in the late 1850’s. He served as postmaster from 1858 to 1860 and from 1864 to 1870, and as Justice of the Peace from 1866 to 1870. He sold his vast properties and extensive business interests in 1872 and left town. Thanks to Richard Ramsey, we now know he moved north to Washington state with his second wife and two children.











Indian Creek

Indian Creek, downstream from the Eddy.


Thank you for your
support of Happy Camp News

Please help support Happy Camp News' free news on the web by using our Amazon links whenever you need to purchase something from Amazon.Com. Your support of this news service is very much appreciated.

Amazon.Com carries almost everything a person might want to buy - besides books they have music, clothing, housewares, and much more.

Search Now:



Happy Camp River Access Buck

A buck at the Happy Camp River Access.


Elk Creek Bridge

The Elk Creek Bridge.


Klamath River

Downriver, about four miles.