Cattle Drives on the Old Campbell Trail

Enjoy this piece of Cohasset history…
put together by Gage Conkey-Wiebelhaus

From the 1860s until recently, ranchers in this part of Northern California would drive sheep and cattle from their winter pastures in the valley up to their summer grazing ranges in the mountains, passing through Cohasset and other foothill areas. Interviews with local cattlemen, including those from the Baccala and Roney families, offer some fascinating information about these cattle drives, which traversed through the upper reaches of the Cohasset ridge. Old trappers are also mentioned, and the woods that the cattle were grazing in changed a lot over the years.

Campbell Ridge Road is one of the trails used by the cattlemen in our part of the North State. It was a long trek taking several days to complete. Corrals were constructed at the known springs, where the cowboys would camp.

The interviews also mention the cattle drivers staying at a cabin located near the spring on Cold Spring Hill. I'm personally intrigued with this cabin collectively built by the cattle drivers between 1936 and 1938, with the walls signed by those who would use the cabin to keep the cold at bay. Cattlemen like the Bennetts, Griffiths, and even Harry Keefer used that cabin, but it was unfortunately destroyed in 1975, apparently blown up! Who destroyed that cabin and why? I'd love to know.