Memorial To Captain Courageous - Hero Floating Bull

Klamath, California

Captain Courageous, originally known as Bahamas, was a young Angus-Jersey bull that got caught in the Great Christmas Flood of 1964. The 800-lb. black bull was swept away in the rising waters along the Klamath River, then washed 16 miles downriver and out to sea, apparently perched on floating debris.

He survived the night and was spotted a couple hundred feet from shore in Crescent City Harbor, among floating logs and storm flotsam. Bahamas recovered from his ordeal, was renamed "Captain Courageous," and lived out his life as a Klamath hero -- a symbol of never-say-die tree-biter toughness. Tourists would stop to look at him and read his story on a sign.

The Captain died in 1983; an E Clampus Vitus plaque installed on a rock in 1997 pays him proper tribute: "The heroic voyage of this crossbred steer, floating downriver from Klamath Glen and up the coast into Crescent City Harbor, was an inspiration to the flood victims of Klamath. He embodied their courage, stamina, and indomitable spirit. A living memorial to the disastrous flood of 1964, he passed peacefully on to greener pastures in 1983."

The boulder and plaque are along the road into Klamath, which also features a pair of gold painted California bear statues.