The Old Klamath Bluffs Store, or fort, and in late years the Klamath
Post Office, was built in 1855 or 1856, by a man named Snider. He
conducted it as a trading post for Indians, soldiers and travelers
alike. It was built of rough split lumber and strongly made of double
walls with sawed blocks four inches thick placed between the walls, and
was bullet proof, with port-holes so that a few white men could defend
themselves against many Indians. This store is located twenty-four
miles up the river from its mouth, and is about eighteen miles down
the river from Weitchpec or the junction of the Trinity River, and
something like forty miles below Orleans Bar on the Klamath. Orleans
Bar was at one time the County Seat of Klamath County. The old store
is on the north bank of the river on a bar that was formed in ancient
times, and is high enough to make it safe from all high waters. It is a
beautiful, sunny spot and on the line of travel up and down the Klamath
river.
The north side of the river is mostly prairie along the bank, and the
old Indian trail is on that side. The whites took up the Indian trails
and improved them so they were traveled by all. This old store is also
the central ground for the lower Klamath Indians, as here close by is
where they held the sacred White Deer-Skin Dance, which is a worship
to their God. Here for ages past have gathered the wealthiest and
most prominent Indians, both men and women of all the upper and lower
Klamath tribe, including the Hoopa, Smith River and our Indians down
the coast as far as Trinidad.
White men have visited this famous old store, whose names will go
down in history, such as General Crook and many other army officers,
besides many wealthy business men. All of them liked to linger in
this beautiful spot where the sun shines warm and the pleasant sea
breeze fans it all through the summer months. There is a trail to
this place from the north, Crescent City, Reck-woy and other places.
This is not a mining country as there are no mines below the mouth of
the Trinity, except in the river gravel or in the low bars that have
been washed down from the upper Klamath and Trinity rivers where all
the rich gold-bearing mining placers are found. These mines were the
cause of the old store being a central stopping place for the men in
the early days, going to and from the mines. In the Fall of 1876 I
counted upwards of three thousand Indians there at a White Deer-Skin
dance. There were five different languages spoken among them, the lower
Klamath, upper Klamath, Hoopa, Smith River and Mad River. Some of them
could speak two and some three, while others could only speak one. So
it can be seen that this old Klamath Bluff store or Klamath Post office
as it is now called, has been the scene of many and not a few murders
and this store will be mentioned often in my writing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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