Lucile Wyllie in front of curly redwood log 1952

The Curly Redwood Lodge began as an idea by Tom Wyllie who owned the Redwood Room in Klamath, California. He thought it would be possible to build a lodge out of one redwood tree. He liked curly redwood and found a tree near the Klamath River from which enough wood could be used. The tree was 18’ 2" at the butt cut and curly to the tip of every branch. It was so huge, it had to be cut into 5 logs and quartered. The logs were then loaded over their own stump by smoothing the stump with a chain saw, cutting one side just the height of a truck bed and three logs were put on the opposite side of the stump so the quartered logs could be pushed onto the truck bed with a caterpillar.

57,000 board feet of lumber came from that single tree when it was cut down in 1952 and was brought to Crescent City. Many mills sawed, air-dried and cut the redwood into various different cuts for paneling, posts and doors. All the wood was cut into solid pieces; not one piece of veneer was made or used for redwood; there is enough curly redwood lumber left to build more units for the future.

The Curly Redwood Lodge opened in 1957 and the wood to this day is displayed inside and outside of the building. The building is in a horseshoe shape with covered parking for all rooms. Maintenance and preservation of the wood has been a consistent job to keep it at its pristine state especially since so much of the wood is exposed to the ocean elements on the exterior of the building. We take pride in consistently refurbishing the rooms keeping them to the same spacious and comfortable standard that they were when the lodge first opened.

The Curly Redwood Lodge is like a "blast from the past" favored by many who remember traveling with their parents and staying in large comfortable rooms with a home like atmosphere, the lodge will be what has now become a unique experience. The clean comfortable lodge is Northern California’s most unique redwood lodge, which is a comfortable alternative to the chain motels.

Quartered curly redwood logs 1952

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