Abandoned in 1867, the fort at Fort Bragg might have been forgotten had not a young man from Wisconsin named Charles Russell Johnson (1859-1940) arrived.

Born in Racine, Wisconsin, Johnson moved with his family to Michigan as a boy. There his father operated saw mills at Saugatuck and St. Ignace, producing an environment that would shape the youth's destiny and subsequently that of the redwood industry. Young Johnson had a bout with illness, and his father sent him west to recuperate. So it was that fourteen-year-old Charles Johnson arrived in San Francisco in 1873. He soon recovered, visited California for eighteen months, and returned home to work in his father's mill. Two years later he left to take a job with the Menominee River Lumber Company in Chicago. There he worked four years, absorbing countless details regarding production techniques, marketing methods, and the many uses for lumber.

So much had the visit to California impressed young Johnson that in 1881, when twenty-two years old, he returned there to make it his home. While he traveled extensively in California, he failed to find what he wanted until one day a family friend spoke in glowing terms of the big redwoods north of San Francisco. He decided to go there, traveling first by railroad, then by stagecoach, and finally by buckboard over roads which were barely discernible.

When Charles Russell Johnson saw the stately redwoods of the Mendocino Coast, he knew why he decided to make California his home. He fell in love with the redwoods with an affection that would continue until his death nearly sixty years later.

Among those he met during the journey were Calvin Stewart and James Hunter, veteran loggers in the area of abandoned Fort Bragg. Young Johnson purchased an interest in their holdings, thus establishing the firm of Stewart, Hunter, and Johnson. "C.R.," as friends dubbed the youth promptly proved his worth as a partner by introducing innovations that revolutionized redwood logging. The partners' logging operations became more efficient after Johnson bought modern machinery he had observed in the Midwest. Mill workers traditionally had worked a single shift; Johnson put operations on a twenty-four hour basis, and the output more than doubled.

Cargo from the Local Lumber Mill in Fort Bragg was transferred by Freight Car to Willits where it is Picked up by the Northwestern Pacific Railroad.
This does not still go on . . .

By modern standards, logging methods of the era were crude. After being downed by handsaws and axes, hand-operated devices and oxen moved the logs to rivers to be floated to the mills. Moreover, treacherous seas and a lack of harbors along the Mendocino Coat made it difficult for sizable vessels to serve the mills. Getting the timber to San Francisco, of course, was vital to the economics of the redwood industry. Scanning the area for the most advantageous loading point, "C.R." narrowed the search to the abandoned army post of Fort Bragg, alongside Soldiers Harbor, a sheltered cover large enough for sizable ships.

Johnson envisioned more than a mere shipping point. He foresaw a city established along with a major mill. Substantial capital would be needed. He therefore organized the Fort Bragg Lumber Company, with funds coming from friends, business associates, and his father. The new organization purchased the assets of Stewart, Hunter, and Johnson along with additional properties owned by the firm of McPherson and Weatherby on Pudding Creek, Noyo River, and the site of Fort Bragg itself. The first steps were construction of a mill and building a wharf for receiving and shipping.

At ten o'clock on the morning of November 16, 1885, Johnson started a bandsaw - a new invention purchased by a new firm.

Coinciding with formation of the lumber company, Johnson and his fellow investors established a railway, appropriately named the Fort Bragg Railroad. Logging companies in California had used railroads, at least of a primitive nature, as early as 1852. Most railroad logging operations made little, if any, effort to maintain regular schedules or encourage passenger traffic. Logging railroads basically were transient, operating only when needed and moved to reach the supply of trees.

The railroad founded by C.R. Johnson became an entirely different type of line. It played an important part not only in the area's industrial life, but also in its social and cultural activities. No other logging railroads in America made the deep impression on American life that was created by the line from Fort Bragg... first by the beauty of its route and later by the distinctiveness of its equipment.

A locomotive pulls a train of box cars, timber, and passenger coaches over The Redwood Route in this photograph that was probably made during the 1960s.

As the Union Lumber Company grew, so did Fort Bragg. Its residents voted to incorporate as a city in 1898 and Charles R. Johnson became its first mayor.

Charles R. Johnson, the man from Wisconsin who guided the development of the Union Lumber Company and the California Western, died of pneumonia February 1, 1940, just a few days before his 81st Birthday. His son, Otis, born in 1885 at Fort Bragg, became president and served until his death in 1957. His son, C. Russell Johnson, then took over as president.

Searching for ways to reduce expenses yet maintain passenger service, CWR general manager Carleton A. Curtis went east to inspect the bus. Favorably impressed, he arranged for a demonstration on the Redwood Route in 1925. The line officially purchased the vehicle on December 30, 1925. Numbered "M-80," the letter indicating that it carried its own motive power the entered service with passengers and onlookers both amused and pleased. Townspeople applied nicknames ranging from "Galloping Goose" to "Tin Lizzy" before finding one that not only seemed suitable but also helped to bring fame to the California Western.

The name, of course, was "The Skunk."

There is no documentation of how or with whom the name originated. The most popular story hold that trainmen who were familiar with steam locomotives said that the gas fumes were "like the odor of a skunk."

Bright and new, Skunk M-80 took time out to have this picture taken shortly after going into service in 1926.

Despite the crowds that came to ride, profits eluded the California Western because the buses could not carry enough passengers to offset the tremendous cost of maintaining the right of way. Floods and landslides continually plagued the railroad. The situation became more difficult when Skunk M-80 was destroyed in a head-on crash with Skunk M-100 on September 26, 1964. The cause of the accident was one bus over-running a meeting point . The CWR promptly instituted precautions to protect riders from other accidents, but the fact remained that passenger capacity fell sharply with the loss of the unit. The wrecked M-80 remained in the California Western yard at Fort Bragg until June 1966. Officials then decided the bus could not be rebuilt and junked it. Rebuilt, the M-100 returned to service. Coincidentally, Skunk M-200 left CWR service January 11, 1975, and was donated to the Pacific Locomotive Society for use at its Castro Point facility.

Skunk M-80, damaged beyond repair in a 1964 collision, was unloading passengers when this picture was taken in the late 1950's. (Redwood Empire Association)

A solution to the lack of capacity to carry more passengers came in 1966 from Ray A. Regalia, a long-time CWR employee and at the time assistant general manager, later becoming manager from 1974 to 1977. To accommodate more passengers and thereby generate more revenue, the CWR would bring back steam power and conventional passenger coaches.

The Model Engineering Works of Monrovia, California, produced an HO scale model of Skunk M-80 with fascinating detail down to the Skunk insignia.

Skunk M-80, the first rail bus purchased by the
California Western, shown here just leaving Tunnel No. 1. This photograph taken in the late 1940's (Bill Pennington Collection).

The crowd at Willits gave an enthusiastic welcome to the first train from Fort Bragg in 1911, gathering around the depot when this picture was made.

Practically every person in Fort Bragg wanted to be on the first train to Willits when the line was completed in 1911. The task of selecting the chosen few from the city's 2,400 residents was assigned to Fred C. White, at the time superintendent of the Union Lumber Company and president of the California Western Railroad from 1917 to 1927. Those fortunate enough to be invited for the trip rode free as guests of the CWR and its then parent, the Union Lumber Company. Considerable status went to the person who could boast that he or she went aboard for the historic trip.

This historic photograph was taken December 19, 1911,
as Locomotive No. 5 sped from Fort Bragg to Willits
with the first passengers to travel the new Redwood Route.

Passenger service was inaugurated December 19, 1911, with J.C. French, CWR superintendent, directing the operation. The crew included John Pimental, who left his native Azores for America as a youth. Falling in love with the redwoods, he was so eager to remain in Fort Bragg that he took a job laying tracks for the California Western. His enthusiasm was rewarded, and after just nine days he was offered a position as a CWR trainmen. The others in the crew were Fred Hanson, the Conductor, who joined the railroad in 1905 after working on other logging lines; he enjoyed the redwoods so much he didn't seek another job. Ed Hendrickson was engineer for the first run.

Ole Number 45, Built in 1924, is a 2-8-2 Baldwin.

CWR Construction Camp with the arrival of the stage coaches from Willits at present
terminus of CWR&N Co construction camp. Photo by Fitch (circa 1870)

The honor of pulling the first coaches over the line went to Engine No. 5, a 90,000-pound Schenectady Locomotive Company product built in 1880 and which the CWR acquired in 1906.

At 9:15 a.m. Fred Hanson called "All Aboard," even though the cars were filled and there was no room for more passengers.

John Galliani and Louis Hanson, May 1965 with model
that was used in the state fair at Sacramento.

The locomotive's bell rang happily; its horn gave a deep blast. The passengers cheered, and so did the waving bystanders left behind to make the trip another day. The train rolled out of the depot, its ringing bell almost drowned out by the cheering passengers and spectators.

While Ed Henrickson sat in the cab as the official engineer, J.C. French, the CWR superintendent, took the throttle for the happy and historic trip.

The train chugged along the familiar and ever-beautiful route by Pudding Creek, through Tunnel No. 1, and then alongside the curves of the Noyo River. It passed Alpine, Irmulco, and Burbank then it began to move through territory that was unfamiliar to the passengers. Ahead was the recently-completed Tunnel 2.

The passengers cheered.

The train crew members smiled.

Once through the tunnel, the train began to descend towards Willits.

Reflecting the sentiments of its readers, the Advocate reported the occasion of the first trip to Willits with the headline, "A Great Day of Rejoicing."

"It was a day looked forward to for years by the old residents of Fort Bragg with eager anticipation," the editor wrote, "and when it did finally come, it brought with it all the pleasures and happiness of years stored up in realization of such an important event."

"It was a great day in the broadest sense of the word," continued the editor, warming up to the subject, "and those in that party, we venture, will always refer to it as one of the happiest days of their lives, when the coast of Mendocino County was bound with steel rails, on one of the greatest and most scenic routes in the State of California, with the interior giving direct communications with the outside world."

The Advocate's editor described the trip with detail and enthusiasm.

"There is loop after loop on the road before reaching the summit," he reported. "The construction presented some very difficult engineering problems ... this part of the world is simply grand from a scenic point of view, and will be the tourists delight after the road is opened next spring for travel..."

The editor wrote no truer words as he described the scenery, for the line was to delight travelers' for many decades to come.

Locomotive No. 8, built in 1869, paused during a stop in
approximately 1910. Trainmen included engineer
Ed Hendrickson, conductor Arthur Hanson, and brakeman John Pimentel, all of whom served in operating the first passenger train between Fort Bragg and Willits on December 19, 1911.

The locomotive's whistle echoed over the countryside, alerting nearly everyone. An eager crowd waited at Willits, and the town's community band began to play as the Iron Horse from the shores of the Pacific chugged into town.

The passengers were so thrilled that they hardly noticed that the lack of ballast on new sections of the track made the last part of the trip a bit rough.

"Old men acted in playful moods like boys," reported the Advocate, "and the whole population was enthusiastic in the demonstration made."

The Iron Horse from the Pacific had arrived.

Highlighting the celebration was a lunch at the Hotel Willits attended by C.R. Johnson and his daughter, Emily.