Thursday, March 17, 2022

New high-tech bridge and pioneer history

March 16, 2022

Liz Writes Life

Today I will share my life-adventure from Monday, March 7, 2022. This depicts a typical Scott Valley-rural-lifestyle-day, but will take a while to get to it, cuz there are several prefaces.

This story, actually begins 16 months ago, when I wrote my weekly column about a new technology that makes concrete lighter and super-strong using a newly- developed technology of nanocellulose wood fiber. It is also expected to last 100 years!

Grace Bennett, who is now retired from the Dist. 4 Siskiyou Co. Supervisor position, pushed to coordinate with the U.S. Forest Service through a grant to utilize the new technology -- locally. Ray Haupt, Siskiyou Co.  Supervisor for Dist. 5, was in his first term and worked with Grace on the project.

Ultimately, four very long concrete slabs with the new technology replaced a wooden-plank bridge over Moffett Creek in the East Moffett Creek and Scarface area. That was on Nov. 3, 2020 and Grace invited me to attend. I took photos of the crane that lowered the slabs in place. Scott Waite was director of Public Works at the time and Ben Haupt was Timber Management Officer at Klamath National Forest. Both were also involved as was Oregon State University at Corvallis and Knife River Materials, in Oregon, who actually manufactured the concrete.

Another aside: I later learned, from a contractor, that cement and concrete should not be referred to as the same thing. In the Nov. 18, 2020 article, I incorrectly referred to concrete as cement, which is an ingredient in concrete.

So, out-of-the-blue last week, I received a phone call from Angela Aguero. She was writing an article on the wood fiber nanocellulose technology for a trade magazine called “Concrete International.” Angela explains that the article is an introductory overview of nanocellulose concrete and why the industry should care. Through internet searching, she had found the Nov. 3, 2020 “Liz Writes Life” column about Siskiyou County using the technology in its bridge replacement.

Surprisingly, Siskiyou County may have placed the first bridge of this kind -- in the United States! She hasn’t found any others. Yes, Grace, Ray and Siskiyou’s partners were on the cutting-edge of actually implementing a real-world example for use of the concrete. Angela needed more information for her article. I gave her Grace’s name and phone number.

But, in our discussion, Angela said she could not find a photo of the completed bridge. Siskiyou Daily News published two of my photos from the placing of the bridge. Hum, without thinking, I offered to go get a photo of the finished bridge. Now for another “but” –  weather sites predicted snow and or rain for a few days, which meant dreary light from storm clouds. Not good for clear photographs. (And we certainly didn’t receive enough moisture!) I told her it would be Sunday or Monday, before I could get a sunny photo. Angela was on deadline, but said that would still work.

I remembered to take my camera on Sunday morning, when I went to church planning on making a quick drive out to get photos if it was sunny. Yep, I drove out there, but couldn’t remember how far up the bridge was located. Feeling skeptical of the first bridge, where I took photos, I went home. Later that evening, I emailed Ray Haupt to get his directions. I was embarrassed I didn’t find the bridge. He actually looked it up on Google maps and it was several miles further along East Moffett Creek Road.

On Monday morning, I also decided to call Mike Cramer, whose family once owned much of the area and still ranches there. He knows Moffett Creek well! And, his directions were the same as Ray’s only with Scott Valley descriptions. He recalled several of the cattle guards I would drive over; yep, go past the huge metal barn with several houses. He mentioned that his grandfather, Fredrick William Cramer, built the older house in the 1930s.

Then several more miles down the dirt road (maintained by the county), a road from around Duzel comes in from the west. The bridge can be seen right there crossing Moffett Creek. If I missed the turn-off (you can’t miss it) I would then go by a two-story dove-tailed wooden plank house – and that was too far. The house was built for his Great Uncle Ira Cramer, his grandfather’s brother.

A quick tidbit from Mike – the man that built the house was named Jack Paige or Page and charged $85. No, Mike wasn’t sure when the house was built. It looks well over 100 years old to me.

Well, I guess this will be a two-part story or maybe three-part story as I really haven’t started on my Monday adventure up Moffett Creek. So, I will do like the television shows before a commercial – leave you hanging!

I did post several photos of the bridge on my blog. Address is below. It looks like a regular bridge.

May peace and calm be with you this week. Smile – just cuz it makes you feel better!

Oh, and Happy St. Patrick’s Day tomorrow!

Liz Bowen began writing ranch and farm news, published in newspapers, in 1976. She is a native of Siskiyou County. Columns from the past can be found at: lizwriteslife.blogspot.com. Call her at 530-467-3515.

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