Patrick's Point State Park, State nature park on Pacific coast in Humboldt County, United States.
Sue-meg State Park is a 640-acre California State Park on a forested promontory above the Pacific Ocean near Trinidad in Humboldt County. Its shoreline alternates sandy beaches and sheer cliffs, and the woods hold coastal redwoods, Sitka spruce, western hemlock, grand fir, Douglas fir, red alder and wildflower meadows. Trails lead to lookout points over the water.
Patrick Beegan, an Irish immigrant from the Mississippi Valley, filed a preemption claim to the land in 1851, and the area became known as Patrick's Ranch. The first official mention of Patrick's Point on a Humboldt County map dates to 1886. The state acquired the park in 1930, and in 2021 the California State Parks and Recreation Commission voted unanimously to rename it Sue-meg, the original Yurok place name.
The park features a reconstructed Yurok village and native plant garden that show how Indigenous peoples lived in harmony with this coastal land. Walking through these spaces, visitors can see traditional dwellings and learn about the plants that sustained the communities who called this place home.
The park has three family campgrounds, multiple hiking trails, accessible beaches, and lookout points along with designated picnic areas. Most sections are reachable by regular paths, and there is plenty of space to enjoy both relaxing and active recreation throughout the year.
The Yurok Tribe sought to change the park's name for over a century before the 2021 vote. The request rested partly on accusations that Patrick Beegan, the Irish immigrant whose 1851 land claim produced the name Patrick's Ranch, had murdered several Indigenous Americans. The renaming fell under California's Reexamining Our Past Initiative.
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