Dog-hole ports were the small, rural

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...

s on the

West Coast of the United States The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast, Pacific states, and the western seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the contiguous U.S ...

between

Central California Central California is generally thought of as the middle third of the state, north of Southern California, which includes Los Angeles, and south of Northern California, which includes San Francisco. It includes the northern portion of the S ...

and

Southern Oregon Southern Oregon is a region of the U.S. state of Oregon south of Lane County and generally west of the Cascade Range, excluding the southern Oregon Coast. Counties include Douglas, Jackson Jackson may refer to: People and fictional charac ...

that operated between the mid-1800s until the 1930s. They were commonly called dog-holes because the schooners that served them would have to be able to "turn around in a harbor barely small enough for a dog".

Available ports

There were major American seaports between

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and

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region ...

;

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

;

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, and

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United Stat ...

. Of the other ports on the Redwood Coast only Caspar, Crescent City, Humboldt, Noyo and Mendocino could serve as ports for the largest coastwise and small deepwater vessels. Another 20 could hold medium-sized coasters. The rest, commonly known as dog-holes, could only serve the smallest of the ships. The Redwood Coast extended from

San Simeon San Simeon (Spanish: ''San Simeón'', meaning "St. Simon") is a village and Census-designated place on the Pacific coast of San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. Its position along State Route 1 is about halfway between Los Angeles ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

's Central coast to the

Chetco River The Chetco River is a stream located in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Oregon. It drains approximately of Curry County. Flowing through a rugged and isolated coastal region, it descends rapidly from about to sea level at the P ...

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

's Southwestern coast. This coast is dominated by cliffs and bluffs uplifted from the ocean floor by waves and currents from

marine terrace A raised beach, coastal terrace,Pinter, N (2010): 'Coastal Terraces, Sealevel, and Active Tectonics' (educational exercise), from 2/04/2011or perched coastline is a relatively flat, horizontal or gently inclined surface of marine origin,Pira ...

s. Since there are few rivers to create ports, the topography made it difficult to handle cargo. Usually, lumber schooners were the only connecters between the lumber ports and the major cities. They brought all types of supplies to the ports and returned with boards, farm produce, and even livestock. Most of the hulls were built on the Pacific Coast and towed to San Francisco loaded with cargo for finishing.

Types of ports

Chutes and hoists were a West Coast innovation because of the high cliffs along the coast and the lack of harbors. Mooring under a cliff to a buoy or by anchor, the ship received cargo down an apron chute or, later a wire hoist. It usually took two days to load. All these ports were full of rocks both hidden and exposed. There were undertows and cross-rip currents and continual changing sandbars. The dog-hole operators obtained franchises to build and manage the chutes. When a ship entered a port, it moored to a buoy (often a log anchored to the bottom) and would be warped or winched into position for loading. A ship’s boat, crewed by three seamen and the second mate, carried the eight inch mooring lines to the buoy.

Gravity chute

The gravity chutes were troughs allowing cargo to be sent down a cliff to a ship. Besides bagged goods, the chutes were used to load other cargo, such as live hogs.

Cable hoist

High-strength steel cable or wire became available in the 1870s. The cable hoist was a big improvement over the gravity chutes. They could load an entire sling of lumber at one time while the apron chutes could only load board by board. The cable hoist could be used to discharge, and load, cargo. Where prevailing weather conditions permitted, shippers built wharves allowing the ships to come alongside and load directly from the dock. The wire hoist permitted ships with deeper drafts to load since they did not need to approach so close to shore. The wire hoists continued in use until after

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and were discontinued in the north by the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and along the central coast after the opening of the Coast highway.

Northern California

Along the rugged Sonoma coast during the 1800s, timber harvesters used small indentations in the coastal cliffs and headlands to load redwood lumber and other timber products onto small schooners and steamers. In 2016, the California State Parks and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of National Marine Sanctuaries surveyed sites. * Duncan's Landing * Russian Gulch Landing * Fort Ross Cove * Gerstle Cove * Fisk Mill Cove * Timber Cove *

Stillwater Cove Stillwater Cove is an inlet between the museum and town of Fort Ross, California and Salt Point State Park. The cove is open to the public. Red abalone is hunted in the cove. It is adjacent to Stillwater Cove Regional Park. There is also a nearb ...

* Stewarts Point * Bihler’s Landing * Del Mar Landing

Central California

Along the Big Sur coast between

Monterey Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under bot ...

and

San Simeon, California San Simeon (Spanish: ''San Simeón'', meaning "St. Simon") is a village and Census-designated place on the Pacific coast of San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. Its position along State Route 1 is about halfway between Los Angeles ...

, a number of landings were built to allow residents to receive supplies that could not be brought overland and businesses to load goods for transshipment to major ports on the coast. These landings were built in the last three decades of the 1800s. They employed either a hoist and cable or apron-style chute system. The hoist and cable system typically extended from a platform on a cliff ledge or marine terrace. The cable style chute was used at eight of the fourteen landings along the coast. Two apron-style chutes were located at Bixby Landing and Coal Chute Point. As late as 1910, the winding, narrow coast road was still very rough and ended at the Pfeiffer Resort on the

Big Sur River The Big Sur River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed March 15, 2011 river on the Central Coast of California. The river drains a portion of the Big Sur area, a thinly ...

. It could be impassible in winter. Most goods including cheese produced on the Cooper Ranch were still shipped by boat to Monterey. Known ports include: * Coal Chute * Strader’s Landing * Notley’s Landing * Bixby Landing *

Point Sur Point Sur State Historic Park is a California State Park on the Big Sur coastline of Monterey County, California, United States, south of Rio Road in Carmel. The 1889 Point Sur Lighthouse is on the National Register of Historic Places. Hist ...

* Big Sur River Mouth * Partington’s Seaview Landing * Anderson / Saddle Rock Landing * Harlan Landing * Rockland Landing * Mill Creek Landing Later known as Bixby Landing * Pacific Valley Landing * Cape San Martin Landing * Alder Creek Landing

Loading the ships

There were four major methods of loading ships at dog-holes:

lightering Lightering (also called lighterage) is the process of transferring cargo between vessels of different sizes, usually between a barge (lighter) and a bulker or oil tanker. Lightering is undertaken to reduce a vessel's draft so it can enter port facil ...

, slide, apron or gravity chutes, wire or trapeze chutes, and wharfing. The ''Pacific Rural Press'' wrote in 1884, "San Francisco and San Diego are the only two good harbors on this long line of coast." It described chutes from 60 to 600 feet long consisting of wood forming a shallow trough that extended from a headland or high wharf or pier to water deep enough to allow vessels to load goods. At first shippers used lighters to ferry cargo out to anchored ships, but this was a slow process. By 1860 a gravity chute called an apron or slide chute was developed. It consisted of an A-frame on the bluff and an apron that could be adjusted to the height of the ships’ decks. Lumbermen sent down cargo from the bluff, which was as high as , by the chute powered by gravity. A hinged gate covered with iron rode in the chute governed the speed of the wood. A primitive brake called a clapper provided additional control over the speed. It was a moveable plank tongue positioned on the outer end of the apron. It was the responsibility of the clapperman to regulate the speed by a lever. It was dangerous work; if the seaman slipped or the

brakeman A brakeman is a rail transport worker whose original job was to assist the braking of a train by applying brakes on individual wagons. The earliest known use of the term to describe this occupation occurred in 1833. The advent of through brakes, ...

was slow, the lumber could kill or injure the crew member. Mill operators generally built their lumber loading facilities on the lee (usually the south) side of a point. This allowed the land to break the force of the waves and caused the direction of the swells to roll straight into the cove. Schooners moored with their bows pointed directly into the waves so that they pitched (the ship going up and down along its long axis) but did not roll (going up and down along its crosswise axis). This made loading easier. Along the Big Sur coast, powdered lime was packed into barrels that were then attached to cable strung from the coastal cliff. The cargo was hoisted in slings from the landing along a cable winched about 50 yards out into the Pacific Ocean, where it was loaded aboard coastal schooners. The schooners were moored to deadeyes embedded in rocks of the adjacent shore.

References

External links

"Doghole ports" (NOAA Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary)

Other sources

* Carranco, Lynwood; Labbe, John T (1975) ''Logging the Redwoods'' (Caxton Press) * Carranco, Lynwood (1982) ''Redwood Lumber Industry'' (Golden West Books) * Ryan, Terrence (Fall 2009) "The Pacific Coast Lumber Trade" in ''The California Territorial Quarterly'' (Paradise, California: Bill & Penny Anderson (79): 24–35. ISSN 1080-7594) * Ryan, Terrence (Fall 2010) "The Development of Pacific Coast Lumber Ship " in ''Nautical Research Journal'' (New York: Nautical Research Guild Inc.) 55 (3): 141–160) ISSN 0738-7245) * Ryan, Terrence (Spring 2012) "Pacific Coast Steam Schooners" in ''PowerShips'' (Cranston, R.I.: The Steamship Historical Society of America, Inc. (281): 38-45. ISSN 0039-0844) * Ryan, Terrence (March 2015) "The Redwood Fleet " in ''Sea Classics'' (North Hollywood, CA: Challenge Publications (Vol. 48, No. 3): 54-67. ISSN 0048-9867)