Gradually it became
the fashion in Humboldt to "unload" redwood timber-claims on thrifty,
far-seeing, visionary John Cardigan who appeared to be always in the
market for any claim worth while.
Cardigan was a shrewd judge of stumpage; with the calm certitude of a
prophet he looked over township after township and cunningly
checkerboarded it with his holdings. Notwithstanding the fact that
hillside timber is the best, John Cardigan in those days preferred to
buy valley timber, for he was looking forward to the day when the
timber on the watersheds should become available. He knew that when
such timber should be cut it would have to be hauled out through the
valleys where his untouched holdings formed an impenetrable barrier
to the exit! Before long the owners of timber on the watersheds would
come to realize this and sell to John Cardigan at a reasonable price.
Time passed. John Cardigan no longer swung an axe or dragged a cross-
cut saw through a fallen redwood. He was an employer of labour now,
well known in San Francisco as a manufacturer of split-redwood
products, the purchasers sending their own schooners for the cargo.
And presently John Cardigan mortgaged all of his timber holdings with
a San Francisco bank, made a heap of his winnings, and like a true
adventurer staked his all on a new venture--the first sawmill in
Humboldt County.
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