Sue-meg State Park
Agate Beach at Sue-meg State Park
Map showing the location of Sue-meg State Park
Map showing the location of Sue-meg State Park
Map showing the location of Sue-meg State Park
Map showing the location of Sue-meg State Park
LocationHumboldt County, California, United States
Nearest cityEureka, California
Coordinates41°8′9″N 124°9′41″W / 41.13583°N 124.16139°W / 41.13583; -124.16139
Area640 acres (260 ha)
Governing bodyCalifornia Department of Parks and Recreation

Sue-meg State Park (formerly Patrick's Point State Park) is a 640-acre California State Park (260 ha) in Humboldt County, California near Trinidad on the Redwood Coast, situated on a lushly forested promontory above the Pacific Ocean. [1]

The park is home to many tree species including coastal redwoods, Sitka spruce, western hemlock, pine, grand fir, Douglas fir, red alder and wildflower meadows, with a shoreline that consists of sandy beaches and sheer cliffs against the Pacific Ocean.

Amenities include hiking trails, a recreated Yurok Village, a native plant garden, visitor center, three family campgrounds, two group camps, a camp for hikers and bicyclists, accessible beaches, lookout points, and three group picnic areas.

History

Sue-meg is the original place name used by the Yurok people.[2] In the modern Yurok orthography, it is spelled Suemeeg, pronounced [ʂumiɣ] or [ʂumij].[3][4]

Patrick Beegan, an Irish immigrant who came from the Mississippi Valley in 1851, referred to the area as Patrick's Ranch.[5] After encountering wild potato, "Old Patrick," as he was known to the residents of the Trinidad area, decided to stop and file a preemption claim to the land. Beegan's claim to the land was first recorded in the Trinidad Record Book on January 13, 1851, and the first official mention of Patrick's Point on the Humboldt County map was in 1886.

Another narrative attributes the name to Patrick McLaughlin, a squatter who arrived in the 1870s and is credited with planting the first apple trees in the area.[6]

Efforts to protect the wooded region and coastal rock formations led to the establishment of the park, ultimately encompassing an area of 420.01 acres (169.97 ha), originally named Patrick's Point State Park.

Later, requests that the park be renamed because Patrick Beegan had been accused of murdering several Indigenous Americans led to a name change. Sue-meg, reflecting the original Yurok name for the land, became official by unanimous vote of the California State Parks and Recreation Commission in 2021.[7][8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Sue-meg SP". Parks.ca.gov. Retrieved December 31, 2013.
  2. ↑ Romero, Dania (September 10, 2021). "California State Parks seeks public input to change Patrick's Point State Parks name". KRCR. Retrieved September 14, 2021.
  3. ↑ "Yurok Dictionary: Suemeeg". linguistics.berkeley.edu. Retrieved October 10, 2021.
  4. ↑ "Yurok Language Project: Yurok Vowels II". linguistics.berkeley.edu. Retrieved October 10, 2021.
  5. ↑ Seidman, Lila (October 4, 2021). "California state park with ties to racist past will now be called by Indigenous name". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 4, 2021.
  6. ↑ Turner, Dennis W.; Turner, Gloria H. (2010). Place Names of Humboldt County, California: A Compendium 1542-2009 (Second Edition, Revised, 2010). Orangevale, CA: Dennis W. & Gloria H. Turner. p. 185. ISBN 978-0-9629617-2-4.
  7. ↑ Tribe, The Yurok (September 30, 2021). "Commission approves Yurok Tribe's request to rename Patrick's Point SP". Yurok Tribe. Retrieved September 30, 2021.
  8. ↑ "California renames park at request of Yurok Tribe". AP NEWS. September 30, 2021. Retrieved October 1, 2021.
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