History of Orick - full page article with 7 photos. The page should be. The article was written by Savina Antonioli , a Humboldt Times correspondent. Arthur Davidson will be 95 in Feb. 1951. He arrived in the Orick area 70 years ago 1881. At that time the road north of Trinidad ended at about 2 miles north of Trinidad. From there you hiked or rode horseback to Swan's in the Redwood Creek valley , located where the Dr. V. Hunt ranch is today. Young Arthur was there in 1885 - 18886 when the tunnel was built to obtain more water to wash the gold bearing sand. The 6' foot square tunnel was about a quarter mile long & diverted the Upper part of Prairie Creek through the tunnel. It was used for about 3 years. The authorities stopped it because they thought it would dry up Prairie Creek and destroy the fish. In the early 1900's the first dredge was brought in & put into operation by Randall and Terrel of Hartford, Conn. Swan & Giffin in the Orick valley had homesteaded and acquired 2,000 acres which included almost all of the valley. According to Arthur, the first settler in the valley was Charlie Jewell, who came in the 1870's. He sold out to Swan & Griffin. Griffin died in 1883. The first sawmill was built by Swan. The mill equipment was later sold to Frank Huffed. Who operated the 2nd Sawmill in the valley. Swan had a man that operated the ferry near the present bridge site. The stream was formed in summer. Tn the summer of 1894 the wagon road was opened with horse stages running from Eureka to Crescent City. In 1902 Burr McConnaha, operator of Humboldt Motor Stages, started a regular horse stage route through Trinidad to Requa. In 1910 the machine age arrived with the use of Ford and heavy Pierce Arrow stages making regular runs, operated by Reed and Reed. A trip to Eureka usually required 3 days. Arthurs wife Irene took many photos in those early years. The photos with this article were taken by her. The original Orick Inn was destroyed by fire in 1918. The first school was located on a small hill from be mouth of Prairie Creek. It burned down in 1910.