Cultural Landscape Inventory Elk Prairie Landscape, Prairie Creek State Park, Redwood National Park

JRP Historical Consulting, LLC; Bradley, Denise

Elk Prairie is located within the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park within the boundary of Redwood National Park. It is cooperatively administered by the National Park Service (NPS) and California Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) as part of Redwood National and State Parks. Elk Prairie is within Yurok ancestral territory. Elk Prairie includes 120-acres of mostly grassland surrounded by old-growth coast redwood forests, with forested hills to the north and east, and bordered by Prairie Creek to the west and Boyes Creek to the north. Elk Prairie, located approximately 22 miles north of Orick in Humboldt County, California, is the center of recreational activity in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park and includes the Elk Prairie Campground, Visitors Center, amphitheater, parking, and hiking trails. There is a park administrative complex which includes buildings and structures related to park maintenance operations and employee housing. These features have been developed within an old growth redwood forest and a small prairie. The Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway (Parkway), originally the Redwood Highway, and a split rail fence running along both sides of the Parkway, bisect the prairie. Most of the buildings and structures are located either under forest canopy or in the northeast portion of the open prairie. This arrangement limits the view of buildings from the Parkway and has helped to maintain the view of the open prairie surrounded by a redwood forest. Elk Prairie has many layers of history and use. During the pre-European settlement period, the lands, streams, and coastal areas throughout the park were important hunting and gathering areas for the Yurok people. Yurok people continue to have ties to the prairie and Redwood Creek, which has been valued for hunting and fishing, and as a confluence of several travel routes. Building construction and commercial development began with Andrew and Jenett Harris who started a homestead in 1881 and continued after they sold to William and Emma Boyes in 1905. The land became part of the state park system in 1931. The prairie was the site of a camp for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) beginning in 1933. From 1933 to 1936, the CCC built park recreational facilities at Elk Prairie. The CCC activity ended by 1938 and the CCC camp was removed soon afterward. After World War II, DPR further developed Elk Prairie and the forest that bordered the prairie by adding new trails, campgrounds and restrooms, parking lots and public kiosks, maintenance facilities, and employee housing. The landscape of Elk Prairie has been analyzed in this report as it relates to four historic eras: the Harris and Boyes Ranch Era (1881-1939), the CCC Era (1933-1938), the early Post-World War II Era of substantial development by California State Parks (1948 to 1961), and post-1961 to the present. The landscape was considered under National Register of Historic Places (hereafter National Register) Criterion A for its association with European American settlement of the Harris and Boyes families, with the CCC’s role in the development of California State Parks in Prairie Creek Redwood National and State Parks, and with the development of California State Parks during the post-World War II era. For the post-1961 era, Elk Prairie landscape is not associated with significant events, trends, or pattern of events. The landscape lacks integrity for the Harris and Boyes, CCC, and early post-World War II eras and is not eligible for the National Register under Criterion A. Almost all of the buildings, structures, and constructed features from the Harris and Boyes era and the CCC era are no longer extant. The buildings, structures, and constructed features from the post-World War II era lack integrity due to modifications. The circulation features (roads, parking lots, and day-use trails) were modified or added during the post-1961 period.