page_title: Caspar, South Fork and Eastern Railroad
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: Caspar, South Fork and Eastern Railroad / Early history
caption_attribution_description: Caspar Lumber Company, Caspar, California
context_page_description: The Caspar, South Fork & Eastern Railroad provided transportation for the Caspar Lumber Company in Mendocino County, California. The railroad operated the first steam locomotive on the coast of Mendocino County in 1875. Caspar Lumber Company lands became Jackson Demonstration State Forest in 1955, named for Caspar Lumber Company founder, Jacob Green Jackson.
context_section_description: Siegfrid Caspar settled in 1860 at the mouth of a stream on the coast of Mendocino County.  The stream and the community which developed at the mouth are named for him.  A sawmill was built at the mouth of Caspar Creek in 1861.  In 1864 this sawmill was purchased by Jacob Jackson, who had been born in Vermont in 1817.  About 1870, Jackson purchased the schooner Cora to transport lumber from his sawmill to San Francisco. A second schooner "Elvenia" was built in 1872.   When all timber close to the sawmill had been cut, Jackson build a 1.5-mile (2.5 km)  railroad north to Jug Handle Creek in 1874.  This "railroad" had ties spaced at 6-foot (2-meter) intervals, and the "rails" were 6-inch (15 cm) by 8-inch (20 cm) wooden beams.  Logs were transported to the sawmill from Jug Handle Creek on small cars towed by a horse and 5 mules.  The wooden rails were shortly capped with iron straps to improve durability.  The animal power was replaced in 1875 by a geared locomotive formerly used to transport sand fill behind the Embarcadero (San Francisco) seawall.  The strap rail proved troublesome for the locomotive, and was replaced by French iron rail salvaged from a shipwreck.  Two more schooners "Abbie" and "Maxim" were purchased in 1876.
  Caspar Lumber Company was incorporated in 1880.  By that time the railroad had been extended to a length of 3.5 miles (6 km) and equipped with ten railcars available for transporting logs.  Sawmill capacity was 45,000 board feet per day.  A trestle was built over Jughandle Creek in 1884 to reach logs in Hare Creek to the north.  The trestle was 1000 feet (300 meters) long and rails were 160 feet (48 meters) above Jughandle Creek.  During dry weather, locomotives sprayed water onto the trestles as they approached to reduce the possibility of smoldering sparks from the smokestack igniting the trestle.  The 6-mile (10 kilometer) railway from the sawmill to Hare Creek became known as the Caspar & Hare Creek Railroad.  Conventional ungeared locomotive number 2 was purchased for better efficiency on the longer rail line.  The locomotive was delivered disassembled on schooners.  The largest piece weighed 8 tons.  The pieces were transported from San Francisco aboard the schooner "Abbie" in 1885 and transferred to lighters for assembly ashore.  The steam schooner "Caspar" was built in 1888.  Rails had been extended up Hare Creek for a total distance of 8 miles (13 kilometers) from the Caspar sawmill by 1890, and the logging train was making five trips per day.  Larger locomotive number 3 was purchased in 1894.
  Caspar Lumber Company began using steam donkeys in the early 1890s to load logs onto railway cars.  The logs were typically 32 feet (10 meters) long and up to 12 to 14 feet (4 meters) in diameter.  Screw jacks had previously been used to load the logs.  Steam Donkeys encouraged laying some branch lines too steep for the locomotives.  Cars were lowered or raised over these inclined tramways using steam donkey cables.  One steam donkey could do the work of ten oxen skidding logs to railway loading points; and bull teams were replaced by steam donkeys between 1907 and 1915.
caption: The Caspar Mill sometime in the 19th century
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