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Bear River is a small river, twenty-five miles long, threading its way from the foot of Mt. Pierce to the mouth of the river at Capetown. Compared to the Eel River to the north or the Mattole River to the south, Bear River, bordered by privately owned land with no public access, is not as well known or traveled.

From the 1870s to the turn of the century, most of the dairying in the Ferndale area took place at Bear River. One reason for this was that Bear River had available land. The town of Ferndale was essentially bought up when Seth Shaw and Francis Francis each purchased a section of land. That was a total of 320 acres, and that land was planted with crops, such as potatoes and beans.

The tall ferns, for which the town was named, grew to the height of six or seven feet; thus, the land did not lend itself to grazing. The other important reason Bear River was ideal for dairying was the Homestead Act of 1862. A homesteader only had to be the head of a household and at least twenty-one years of age to claim a 160-acre parcel of land. Each homesteader had to live on the land, build a home, make improvements, and farm for five years before they were eligible to “prove up.” A total filing fee of $18 was the only money required.

Access to Bear River is gained by traveling the Wildcat Road. This road begins at the south side of Ferndale where the sign reads “Capetown-Petrolia.” In the Ferndale Enterprise it was reported that

On Monday. April 8, 1884, work started on the building of the Wildcat Road. W.L. Collins, the gentleman awarded the Wildcat Road bid, expects, if nothing happens, to have the road open in six weeks. He employs forty Chinamen and a few white men and intends to push the work while the ground is in good condition.

The Wildcat road remains the dominant access road to Bear River.

Prior to the Wildcat Road being built, the only route to Bear River was from Centerville (west of Ferndale) to Capetown, either via the overland route or on the beach. The solid ground route was by way of Fleener Gulch and Guthrie Creek and finishing up at Oil Creek, which flows along West Point Ridge. The beach route was faster but more dangerous. Knowing the tides was essential, as travelers wanted the sand to be firm and the tide going out. Slippery rocks were exposed, waves could be huge, and there was a bad undertow.

In 1976, retired Ferndale High School teacher Bill Crane wrote a historical novel entitled Franz and the Bear River Horse, or a Swiss Boy Comes to Humboldt. The book was published posthumously by his son. William Crane. Jr. The story tells of the difficulties of taking the beach stage.

At one time they were overwhelmed by a huge breaker and horses and riders were for a considerable time floundering in the seething waters and in imminent danger of being swept to sea.

(The novel is based on the real life of “Franz” — Frank Vogel, who came to the United States from Germany in 1884. with his mother Lena Teichgraber Vogel, to reunite with his father Karl Vogel. They stayed overnight at the hotel run by the Marble family at Capetown and were taken six miles up the river by Mr. Marble’s team of horses, only to find that Karl had been killed by a falling tree at the same time they were traveling from Germany. Lena later married Martin Barbettini, whose ranch was upriver from the Schmidt ranch where Karl had worked. Martin had a dairy and made butter, as did all the dairies at that time.)

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Butter making was the chosen means of making a living because it was the most suitable product for such an isolated area — of utmost importance was that it could be stored until transportation was available. The necessary ingredients were cream, butter kegs, and salt. The dairy cows at Bear River weren’t the typical Jerseys, Holsteins and Guernseys of today. They were a Durham breed, a sturdy red cow that almost resembled beef cattle.

Cows were typically milked in the corrals. Milk was then put in pans to cool and to let the cream rise to the top. A cream skimmer was used and cream went in one bucket, skim milk in the other. Skim milk was often given to the pigs, mixed with grain to make a mash. The cream was churned into butter by a work horse going round and round, turning solid redwood planks that were three feet on the sides with ends approximately thirty inches square. When the cream became butter, the buttermilk was drained off and the butter was placed on a round table that could be spun around to remove as much moisture as possible. Then salt was mixed in as a preservative, just the right amount per pound to keep the butter edible months later.

Isolated dairy ranches had to stock up in fall with enough butter kegs to last until spring. There was a “cooper shop” at Capetown across from the old schoolhouse, as well as one on the way from Capetown to Centerville near Mazeppa Ranch. They made the 25- and 50-pound butter kegs the ranchers would be filling from October of one year to May or June of the next. The kegs were made of spruce and had metal hoops and a lid. Hoops were loosened to fill the kegs to within an inch of the top with butter, the top was placed in its groove, the hoops were tightened, and brine was poured into a three-quarter inch hole in the top. Barrels would have been stored on the coolest site on the ranch. At the Barbettini ranch there was a butter safe in the creek, deep in a grove of pepperwoods, and the cool water ran over it constantly.

From 1870 to 1900 there were as many as twenty-five dairies at Bear River. The Southmayd Ranch is believed to be the first dairy on Bear River, as well as the first house, in 1856. Since the Homestead Act did not take effect until 1862. Southmayd may have been purchased using the Preemption Act, a statute passed in 1841 in response to the demands of the Western states that squatters be allowed to preempt lands. Settlers could stake a claim of 160 acres and after fourteen months of residence purchase it from the government for as little as $1.25 an acre.

John Lewis Southmayd.

John Lewis Southmayd came to Humboldt County in 1853 from New Hampshire. Additional recordings show that he purchased more property adjacent to his original section. His nephew, C.H. Southmayd, had nearby property, and in The History of Northern California of 1891 he’s listed as milking 127 cows on his ranch. J. L. Southmayd married Ella Bartlett, also from New Hampshire, in 1871. He died at age sixty-six from an “ailment of peculiar nature” where his foot was diseased and his lower limb flesh was absorbed by the disease. as related in the Ferndale Enterprise obituary.

East of Southmayd was the Walch ranch, homesteaded in 1865. The original home burned down in 1925 and was re-built the next year. In photographs of the original house, a dairy barn is in the background, and that barn is still standing today. Sanford and Dorian Lowry now own the property. Sanford’s grandfather and grandmother, Robert and Katherine Lowry, homesteaded a ranch just west of Southmayd called the Lowry “Upper Place.” Sanford’s mother and father, Will and Mabel Lowry, had the “Lower Place” at the confluence of the south fork of Bear River and main Bear River when they married in the early 1930s. Part of their house was the original cabin of Knyphausen “Foss” Geer, who had his own dairy in the 1860s. Foss enlisted in the 1st Battalion of Mountaineers, California Volunteers, and became a captain in 1864 at Fort Humboldt. He fought Indians all over Humboldt County and had many battles in the Bear River area, including a clash with the Bear River Indians on the south fork of Bear River at the Russ home. Mountain View,

There were several different owners of the Southmayd Ranch over the years. In the 1920s brothers Sam and Bill Graham bought the ranch. Sam lived on another ranch nearby with his wife Mildred. Bill lived in the house at Southmayd with a mail order bride from the east coast, and her son Blair. Maxine Goff of Ferndale remembers that times were tough in the big cities back East during the depression and women were attracted to the lure of the frontier. But it was lonely and she remembers that Bill’s wife also spent time at an apartment in Ferndale. Bill and his wife attempted to make a living at Southmayd by borrowing money from William Russ to build cabins on the property to be used as “honeymoon cottages.” When this endeavor did not prove lucrative. Bill and his bride lost the ranch. According to Sam’s son Elwood Graham, his father, who worked for the Russ Co. for over sixty years, had wanted to buy the ranch back for himself. But Mr. Russ chose to make it a wedding present for his daughter Viola, and her intended husband Rex McBride. Elwood Graham is still ranching on his parents’ property, past Southmayd, at the foot of Mt. Taylor.

Maxine Goff’s father, George Robinson, had dairy bulls to rent out before the days of artificial insemination. He pastured forty dairy bulls at Sam Graham’s ranch until such time as they were needed back in Arlynda Corners. Sometime in the late 1920s Maxine and her father rode out to Grahams to check on the bulls. She lived at the was in a hurry to be back in town for New Year’s Eve. It was the first time she had ridden in snow and it was “rough goin’.” The horses had their shoes on which collected snow and would build up to four or five inches, making it like being on stilts. If you were lucky the clumps of snow would break away and if not, it was like skiing. She did get back for New Year’s Eve!

Elwood Graham remembers at one time they pastured eighty dairy bulls. His mom insisted on a high picket fence around the house. One time she was trapped in the outhouse, surrounded by bulls. After that her husband built a chute (to hold the bulls in place) and they cut off all their horns.

Another time when Maxine was only ten years old and her sister Letha just eighteen months older their dad sent them to Bear River with “pasture stock” to turn over to Sam Graham. They met Sam up on Bear River Ridge but when they turned back for home it was foggy and they were lost. They would send the dog out but he kept coming back with sheep. They tried to reconnect with Sam but he had already started for home. Finally they made their way to Bonanza Ranch and were able to stay the night. One of the hired help had to ride to Capetown to call their parents regarding their delay. The next day they followed the horseman packing cream out to the Wildcat for the stage. Maxine said she cried all the way, thinking she would never see her parents again. She was just sure the man didn’t know where he was going. Later they thought if they had just given their horses free rein they probably would have led them through the fog safely.

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Although Viola Russ inherited many ranches, Southmayd was always her favorite, and she spent many happy hours there, despite no electricity or phone and being isolated from the world. She and Rex were rearing their three children there in the 1930s when Viola’s father died, and she was left to run all his enterprises. It took her away from her family much of the time and the family was forced to live at ranches closer to town. In later years however, Viola spent much of her time at Southmayd, painting and writing and enjoying leisure life in the country. Because several people had been buried at Southmayd over the years, creating an existing cemetery, Viola was able to have her wish to be buried at Southmayd. The cemetery includes a man, George Eades, who fell off his horse and died while passing through Southmayd in 1882, and a young boy, son of Peter Hansen, who died in 1879 after an accident on the ranch.

Many different employees of the Russ/McBride ranches lived at Southmayd over the years. One was Joe McAlister, who was known to be a good horse handler. Nila Morrison, longtime resident of Bear River, remembers sitting on the porch at Southmayd sipping tea with Nola McAlister while the men sheared sheep down at the barn. Nila’s husband Sid sheared sheep for a living and lived his whole life on the Morrison ranch at Bear River. That ranch was also a dairy at one time, and the shed where the milk cooled is still on the property today. Nila was the teacher at Capetown in the early 1930s, when she met Sid. She is now 97.

After the turn of the century, ranches at Bear River began raising sheep and later beef cattle. Although Southmayd Ranch is now a cattle ranch, it is still owned by the McBride family, and it still has neither a telephone nor electricity.