Artifact Spotlight: WWII and Redwood National and State Parks

This is the second to last week of our Artifact Spotlight's special focus on stories related to Redwood National and State Parks in celebration of our new exhibit: The Redwoods Provide(d) .

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One thing about National and State Parks that many people forget is that the areas preserved oftentimes contain important and interesting historical, cultural sites. In Redwood National and State Parks, there are two particularly interesting sites associated with World War II that are also represented in the Clarke collections: an enemy aircraft lookout post and the largest WWII memorial in the United States.

​World War II left its mark in Humboldt County in a few different ways. A number of community members served in the war, and many are memorialized in our special exhibition at the Airport. Items from many locals who served can be found in the Clarke collections, from photos to uniforms. Local buildings were even affected, with Founders Hall at HSU being painted in camouflage to the bunkers in Samoa and other structures. Some of those structures are within the present-day Redwood National and State Parks, most notably the Klamath River Radar Site B-71. Rather than being painted green, brown and black, the site used a different type of camouflage to conceal its real purpose.

​It was a small, early radar station, which is why the site is now protected as a historically important site. The buildings were built in response to three Japanese shelling attacks on the Pacific Coast as a system to detect possible attacks along the coastline from Mexico to Canada. It was the northernmost station built in 1942-1943.

One of the farm buildings. While the station was in use, the cinderblock wall was covered by wooden planks. Courtesy of L. Scott, Redwood National and State Parks.

​Staffed by Army Air Corps troops who were living in Klamath, the small station had three buildings: a power house, an outhouse, and an operations center. Two of these buildings were disguised as farm buildings: one a house and the other a barn to deter detection by the Japanese. There were several small farms and ranches along the coastline at the time, so the presence of another ranch wasn’t suspicious. 35 men ran the station, working in 24-hour shifts. The station was also guarded by military police, three 50 caliber anti-aircraft machine guns in 12-foot diameter pits. 

Over time, there was less of a need to protect the area from the Japanese, so the site because a support site for emergency rescue operations. It operated until the end of WWII and was one of the 22 radar stations that operated to the end of the war. The land passed into private hands for a time before being incorporated into the National Park in 1968. The buildings still stand today and can be visited by the public. ​

​Another mark is located further north, in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. Known as the largest WWII memorial in the US, the National Tribute grove is a 5,000 acre grove dedicated in memory of those who died in WWII and was started by the Daughters of the American Revolution, who invested $3,000 of the $26,000 needed to purchase the grove for preservation. The Garden Club of America pitched in to help raise money and the effort was led by Save the Redwoods League, who had spearheaded the memorial grove movement. The project began in 1946 and the names of the donors and people honored by the grove were recorded in a “Golden Book” in the National Archives. The grove was officially dedicated by Newton B Drury on September 25, 1949, who stated that the grove would be a “memorial of eternal gratitude, eternally expressed”. For a time, the exact location of the grove marker had been lost in foliage due to lack of access to the site, but in 2014, the marker was found and moved to a popular day use area near the grove to ensure that the memorial would be easily accessible. 

National Tribute Grove is on the right side of this photo. The Jedediah Smith Redwoods Campground is on the left side. Photo by Katie Buesch

Information for this post came from the following sources:
Largest WWII Memorial in U.S. Rediscovered in the Redwoods- Save the Redwoods League
Radar Station B-71: Redwood National Park
​Nation's Largest Memorial To WW2 Vets Rededicated At Redwood National And State Parks
Historic California Posts, Stations and Airfields, Klamath River Radar Site B-71 (Crescent City Radar Site B-71, Trinidad Radar Site B-71)