The Curley Redwood Inn

On our recent trip we stopped coming back in Crescent City, at the Curley Redwood Inn.

Home in Santa Rosa we've the "Church of One Tree"; a charming craftsman-style structure built in the early 20th. century from the bones of one of our Coast Redwoods. If you're old enough, you may remember this from a posting in Ripley's 'Believe it or Not'; a widely circulated, large-panel colored comic section institution of 1950's America, which weekly featured a few of the curious oddities discovered by Mr. R.... Largely forgotten today, Ripley was a long time the syndication star of Sonoma county; until displaced by Charles Schultz and his "Peanuts". You can see his proud remains in our downtown Rural Cemetery; and of course may visit the peripatetic COOT(moved once or twice after being decommissioned as a house of worship) in our Julliard Park.
The Curley Inn is of similar provence; made from 8 huge quarter sections taken from an immense tree at Midcentury. At the desk, friendly staff will proudly show you an album of photos documenting this impressive feat. But instead of a Christian Chapel, this king's ransom of heartwood was allotted to embellish the emerging new american religion of the endless road with a rather fine Motel. I don't recall it ever made it to the funny papers, although full worthy.

I suppose this is taking a bit of a sardonic tone; and in I do regret that
In fact, I loved the Curley Inn. It's in every way a classic of it's kind; and can only be described as beautiful. This is more than the tasteful use of the fabulous wood. The place is beautifully proportioned, lovingly maintained and entirely faithful in every detail to the best of the 1950-60 road aesthetic. The staff are hospitality itself. Inexplicably overshadowed by a handful of new hideous chain Motels, there's plenty of room at the Inn. If you need to pause in Crescent City, please check it out. Save the Curley Inn!

There's of course a lot of regret to share around concerning the loss of most of our aboriginal Redwood Forest. Some does remain--some wonderful trees are passed in the last few miles coming down to C.C. from the north-- but so much was squandered that preserving bits of the best in the Curley Inn cannot be censured. I'll never forget my trip through Arcada in 1976; hearing a belligerent voice on the local radio heaping scorn on the tree-huggers because 'there was almost 10% of the old-growth forest yet uncut'. Anyone know what the figure is today?

Posted on May 1, 2013 01:54 AM by icosahedron