science

Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park

Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park rather than just read about it. In short: Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park is a state park, located in Humboldt County, California, near the town of Orick and 50 miles (80 km) north of Eureka. The 57-square-kilometre (22 sq mi) park is a coastal sanctuary for old-growth Coast Redwood trees.

Key takeaways

Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park is a state park, located in Humboldt County, California, near the town of Orick and 50 miles (80 km) north of Eureka. The 57-square-kilometre (22 sq mi) park is a coastal sanctuary for old-growth Coast Redwood trees. The park is jointly managed by the California Department of Parks and Recreation and the National Park Service as a part of the Redwood National and State Parks. This group of parks (which includes Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, and Redwood National Park) has been collectively designated as a World Heritage Site and forms a part of the California Coast Ranges International Biosphere Reserve. The meadow along the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway, with its population of Roosevelt elk, is considered a centerpiece of the park, located near the information center and campground. These open areas of grassland within the redwood forest are locally known as prairies; and the park takes its name from Prairie Creek flowing near the western edge of the meadow and along the west side of the parkway. Other popular sites in the park are Fern Canyon and Gold Bluffs Beach. The park is also home to the tailed frog and several species of salmon.

History The Yurok, who traditionally lived near the Klamath River and along the coastline of the Pacific Ocean, primarily lived on the lands of what is now known as Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. Yurok villages, numbering no less than fifty in total, were located from Little River, California, in the south to the Wilson Creek Basin which runs into False Klamath Cove in the north (on the southern edge of Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park). Some of the first Euro-Americans to visit the vicinity arrived in 1851 with the discovery of gold in the area that would become known as Gold Bluffs. Gold Bluffs had at one time been a substantial mining camp, although little remains of the camp today. With the end of the Civil War and a fall in the price of gold, operations at the Gold Bluffs were shut down. In 1872 a Captain Taylor of New York visited the Gold Bluffs to obtain the mine and exploit the rich sands supposedly deposited offshore. In the spring of 1873, over 100 tons of sand were raised from an area from one-half mile to within 40 feet (12 m) of the bluffs, and in depths of from eight to four fathoms of water. However, by the 1880s activities at the Gold Bluffs again began to slump. One story of the region comes from the area of Gold Bluffs. In a newspaper article from 1984, Thelma Hufford recorded this tale:

At Upper Bluffs, imported miners from Cornwall [England], who were expert tunnel builders and who know how to set up timbers in a tunnel [were employed] ... Arthur Davison said [a tunnel] was opened in 1898. The tunnel was through to the coast. It was 600 feet (180 m) long and 6 square feet (0.56 m2). The tunnel was built to bring water from Prairie Creek to the headwaters of Butler Creek. A reservoir was built on the west side of the creek. It was used for five years. ... The opening, Fay Aldrich said, was on the Prairie Creek side of Joe Stockel's place near the apple tree on Highway 101.

By 1920 mining operations at the Gold Bluffs had been closed. The park was created in 1923 with an initial donation of 160 acres (65 ha) by then owner Zipporah Russ to the Save the Redwoods League. By 1931, the League had acquired an additional 5,000 acres (20 km2) from the Sage Land and Improvement Company, a large timber concern. During the great depression, a Civilian Conservation Corps camp was stationed in the park, clearing out campsites and creating fences on the borders of the prairie.

Trees

Notable redwoods include Big Tree, Corkscrew Redwood, and the Cathedral Trees. Many redwoods in the park have reached 300 feet (91 m) tall. Besides Coast redwoods, other tall coniferous tree species in the park's forests include coast Douglas fir, Sitka spruce and western hemlock.

Trails Trails in the park include:

Miners Ridge and James Irvine – 11.6 miles (18.7 km) Brown Creek Loop – 3.5 miles (5.6 km) Big Tree Loop – 3.2 miles (5.1 km) Ten Taypo Trail – 3.5 miles (5.6 km) Rhododendron and Cal Barrel – 5.1 miles (8.2 km) West Ridge and Prairie Creek South – 5.8 miles (9.3 km) West Ridge and Rhododendron North – 7.7 miles (12.4 km) The Friendship Ridge Trail – 8.0 miles (12.9 km) The Ah Pah Trail – 0.6-mile (0.97 km) The Nature Trail – 1.0-mile (1.6 km) Hiker Jim Hamm was attacked by a mountain lion while hiking the Brown Creek Loop in 2007.

Facilities A visitor center is provided with displays, wall maps and bookstore. It is along the same drive as the campground and some day-use parking is available. There is also parking along parts of the parkway, where elk may be seen; no day-use fee is required to park and leave vehicles in that area during daylight hours. Restrooms are located near the visitor center and also nearby at the Big Tree parking lot.

References

External links

California State Parks: official Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park website Images and Information including Prairie Creek's Atlas Grove North Coast Redwood Interpretive Association

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park

In research: Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1925 establishments in California, Beaches of Del Norte County, California, Beaches of Northern California, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park in simple terms?

Why does Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park.