Crabtree Hot Springs
Public Library & Museum

In the 1860's, following the stealing of cattle and murder of early settlers in Gravelly Valley, the massacre of 65 Indians of the Yuki Tribe, by an angry group of settlers from Upper Lake,  gave rise to the outcrop's name. In two versions of the story, the Indians were either all shot & their bodies thrown off the rock, or, rather than surrender, the Indians sang their death song, joined hands, then jumped off the rock and were killed. No Indians escaped or were captured, and as late as 1897, historical records at the Lakeport Museum indicate that the remains of the Indians were still in evidence at the bottom of Bloody Rock.

And at one time, a trail also went from the Indian village at  Bloody Rock, to the north end of Big Squaw Valley, down Squaw Valley Creek, then through Gravelly Valley and up Rice Fork Eel River canyon to the geological phenomenon of Crabtree Hot Springs. A portion of this trail is now under Lake Pillsbury.

tule elk herd at Lake Pillsbury

The tule elk is one of the largest land mammals native to California, with cows weighing up to 350 pounds, and the largest bulls weighing roughly 500 pounds. Hunted to near extinction during the state's gold rush era, the animals were reintroduced to the Lake Pillsbury Basin in the late 1970s by the California Department of Fish and Game, and the herd has steadily grown.

Now numbering about 100+ elk, the herd lives along the north shore of the lake, just west of Gravelly Valley Airport, at the bottom of the southwestern slopes of Hull Mountain, and enjoy wild clovers and grasses, along with the green summer and fall foliage around Lake Pillsbury's edges.

Mendocino National Forest & Los Padres National Forest are the only two national forests in California to have tule elk. There is a 10 day hunting season beginning on the second Wednesday in September each year.

Welcome! to Crabtree Hot Springs.
elevation 2,257 feet - temperature 106 F

And...after a fun summer vacation with the "Family of Infinite Soul, Inc." at Crabtree Hot Springs, and discovering what's happening at the trips festival tribal stomp - which was everyone's favorite social event of the year - we went our separate ways, but looked forward to the next time we would all be together again at Crabtree Hot Springs.
Crabtree Hot Springs Neighborhood Watch Group Newsletter
by kids at play and special guests + the unexpectable.

geology of hot springs

Nearly all of the water in a hot spring is recirculated ground water. When it rains, cold water filters down through Earth's rock layers until it reaches molten magma, then because of convection, the heated water rises to the surface as a hot spring. The pathway of ascent is commonly along a fault line because of the ease of flow, and hot springs generally occur where the hot or molten rock exists at relatively shallow depths.

The chemical composition of thermal waters is determined by the temperature, types of rocks, and gases encountered during underground flow. The types of minerals deposited by hot springs reflect these conditions, as Crabtree is distinctly mineralized by salts of soda, plus iron, carbonic acid, and smelling strongly of sulfur.

The Bartlett Springs Fault system is an active, and major northwest-trending zone about 170 km(105.6 miles) in length that moves horizontally and laterally to the right at an estimated slip rate of around 6 millimeters per year. Discontinuous & divided into 3 sections, the Bartlett Springs Fault is a sub-parallel fault to the massive San Andreas Fault system in northern California, and stretches southward from the southwest corner of Trinity County, slicing through the norhteastern half of Mendocino County, and transecting the center of Lake County, before reaching the uppermost northwestern part of Napa County near Lake Berryessa.

170 km in length and from 1.5 km to 3 km wide, the Bartlett Springs Fault Zone was first recognized as an essentially continuous zone of faulting as early as 1930, but wasn't named until 1982.

USGS maps of the Bartlett Springs Fault Zone
000 - 170 km

Crabtree Hot Springs Public Library & Museum

History of Crabtree Hot Springs, California, USA - Part 1
and
Rice Fork Eel River + geological phenomenon of Crabtree Hot Springs
+
SS Red Oak Victory - World War II cargo ship museum
Pacific Coast Air Museum, Santa Rosa, California, USA 95403

Rice Fork Eel River at Crabtree Hot Springs trailhead

Muchos grassy ass for visiting Crabtree Hot Springs...hasta luego.
with current weather conditions & recent travel information

Touring
California & Nevada hot springs

Swimming Holes of California
Day Trips with a Splash

go back to the party at crabtree hot springs.

© copyright 1997 manson family picnic. all rights reserved.