Falk: A Town Disappeared

It's hard to imagine that a small mill town once thrived here. This was a place where 400 people once made their home. What made this town almost forgotten less than 100 years after it was established?
Video by Ethan Cardoza and the HSU Film Department
Music by Pat Metheny
Narration by Danielle Orr

[@firebufff8523]

History in the woods --awesome! I helped with the Salmon Creek or Pass trail and had to bear hug a nearby tree very fast to not fall down a muddy slope in 11/2005.

[@markzucker3949]

Im glad it is protected + bike and camping friendly!

[@Joe-eq8we]

What a cool vid. Dont tell anyone, but I have bottles in my collection that I dug in Falk in the early 90s. Boy how things have changed out there!

[@humboldttimberfallerreconz3260]

Me too.. my mother-in-law told me about.. they used to go in 1950s to bottle hunt..you could drive out to the abandoned towns center .. old whiskeys, medicines,inks laying on top .. homes still standing with clothes still in closets, dishes in cupboards.. Factoid.. Noah Falk brought the first band saw ever.. to Humboldt!.. It was a game changer for milling these huge giants.. soon every mill had one.. we have a Velocipede (large wheel in front ,small in back, 2 wheel bicycle)we inherited, that was found there in 1959 by long gone granfolks.. I haven't been out there since about 96 ..before the headwaters deal.. now you can't disturb the soil or remove artifacts .. there's a place where there's 1930s-60s trash layered in creek side 10ft high.. I've stood by this bank an watched 30lb salmon swim by.. this place in 1950 must have been amazingly amazing.. still had a certain ghosty feel to it in 1996.. prolly to this day

[@Joe-eq8we]

@@humboldttimberfallerreconz3260 know the EXACT bank you are talking about!!! Its about 60-80 feet behind an old shed. The shed was one of the last two or three buildings still standing back then. I too, witnessed BIG salmon swimming past that very spot!!! I also know where the old model A/T dump truck sits! The one in the video. Would love to see a picture of the old bicycle!!!

[@Joe-eq8we]

@@humboldttimberfallerreconz3260 Have you ever read the book, "Falks Claim," by Jon Humboldt Gates? Great read! Bought a copy 25 years ago at Old Town Books in Eureka. Lost it somewhere in time. You can find it on Amazon.

[@humboldttimberfallerreconz3260]

@@Joe-eq8we yhup I read it every few years.. Joe.. Gates, the author of book ,I believe.. is Falk's grandson.. cool.. you've been there? Know where the 6ft high 4 ft wide Wells Fargo safe is that's 1/4 of lower part buried?.. think it was by shed.. that thing was worth some dollars if ya coulda got it out there... 1994 I found a Gacomini & Boyd Ferndale whiskey that's the highlight of my local alcohol bottles.. got about all local history books, Palm quist, Mccormick, Rovai, Edeline, Nash.. etc.. love me some HumHistory..

[@Joe-eq8we]

@@humboldttimberfallerreconz3260 Never saw the safe. Makes me want to go back out there!

[@MichaelRCarlson]

Nice video BLM. I love Northern CA history and I'm glad of the preservation being done after all of the destruction caused by shortsighted logging and mining in the early days.

[@Lahabitaciondelosjuguetes]

nice video, i sub,