BLC-Anigif

today

8:30 a.m. Audubon Society Field Trip See Event Description

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9 a.m. Arcata Farmers' Market Arcata Plaza

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9:30 a.m. Discovery Walk: Unknown Waterfront See Event Description

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9:30 a.m. Manila Dunes Restoration Manila Community Center

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10 a.m. Manila Dunes Guided Walk Manila Community Center

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10 a.m. Library Book Sale Humboldt County Library

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10 a.m. Dia de los Muertos and Mexican Folk Art Sale Private Eureka home

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10 a.m. Final Arcata Farmer's Market Arcata Farmers' Market (off the plaza)

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11 a.m. Donlin Foreman Dance Workshop Dell'Arte

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2 p.m. Humboldt Coastal Nature Center Draft Trails Plan Walk Stamps House

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5 p.m. Bati Zado and Show Redwood Raks World Dance Studio

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6 p.m. The Tumbleweeds Chapala Cafe

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6 p.m. Ali Chaudhary (jazz duo) Libation

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6:30 p.m. Not Evil, Just Wrong Humboldt Area Foundation

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7 p.m. Guitar Stan (country) Old Town Coffee & Chocolates

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8 p.m. Guitar Orchestra of Barcelona Arkley Center for the Performing Arts

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8 p.m. Stones in His Pockets Arcata Playhouse

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8 p.m. A Christmas Carol North Coast Repertory Theater

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8 p.m. Donna Landry Swing Dance Moose Lodge

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8 p.m. North Coast Wind Ensemble Fulkerson Recital Hall at HSU

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8:30 p.m. The Last Minute Men (international) Cafe Mokka

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9 p.m. Ian McFeron Band (folk rock) Six Rivers Brewery

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9 p.m. The Michael Paul Band WAVE @ blue lake casino

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9 p.m. The Generatorz (classic rock) Central Station Cocktail Lounge

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9 p.m. Taxi Bear River Casino

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9 p.m. VJ Itchie Fingaz Pearl Lounge

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9 p.m. Jack Ruby Presents + Blue Street + Acufunkture (DIY rock) Jambalaya

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9 p.m. 2nd Annual Scorpio Bash The Red Fox Tavern

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10 p.m. Music by DJ Sidelines

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10 p.m. DJ Icy Hot Aunty Mo's Lounge

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10 p.m. Jemimah Puddleduck (rock) Humboldt Brews

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10 p.m. White Manna + Midday Veil + The King Salmon Duo (rock) Jambalaya

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11 p.m. Radio Moscow (psychadelic blues) + Mosquito Bandito (one-man surf/garage) The Alibi Lounge and Restaurant

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previous columns

Oct. 29, 2009

This End Up

The story goes that The Lakota holy man Black Elk ...

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Oct. 22, 2009

Out, out brief candle

Anthropologists have yet to find a society that didn't hold ...

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Oct. 15, 2009

The Cedars of Lebanon

The deforestation of the cedars of Lebanon happened much as ...

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  • Statue of George Vancouver on the quay at his birthplace in Kings Lynn, Norfolk. Horatio Nelson was born a year later just 20 miles away. Author photo Statue of George Vancouver on the quay at his birthplace in Kings Lynn, Norfolk. Horatio Nelson was born a year later just 20 miles away. Author photo
The Man Who Didn't Discover Humboldt Bay

The Man Who Didn't Discover Humboldt Bay

By Barry Evans

In hindsight, it seems incredible that Humboldt Bay wasn't discovered by European explorers until 1849. That's when Josiah Gregg's overland expedition from Weaverville stumbled on the bay, which was finally entered by sailing ships the following year. Many ships had sailed up and down the western seaboard previously, all of them missing one of the most important openings in the coast.

Of the several potential discovers of Humboldt Bay prior to 1849, Royal Navy Captain George Vancouver is my prime candidate. Born in Norfolk, England in 1757, he served as a midshipman on two of James Cook's expeditions before being given command of HMS Discovery, a 330 ton sloop, on what turned out to be a five-year Pacific expedition. He was an expert navigator and surveyor, and his charts of the Northwest coast were so accurate that they served generations of coastal navigators into the 20th century.

That said, overlooking the entrance to Humboldt Bay was the least of his near-misses: He also managed to sail right by the mouths of the Columbia, Fraser and Skeena, three of the most important rivers on the West Coast. Had he explored the Columbia prior to American captain Robert Gray's venture upriver in 1792, the river might have defined the boundary of the U.S. and Canada, leading to a very different history of the Pacific Northwest.

And had Vancouver spotted the entrance to our bay after sailing across the Pacific from Hawaii to near Point Arena in April 1792, before heading north up the coast, the history of our own region might have been different. It's likely that Eureka would have been developed much earlier than it was, easily superseding San Francisco as the preeminent port on the west coast.

Anyone who has sailed off the coast will sympathize with Vancouver's failures. Between poor visibility, low coastlines and -- in the case of the Fraser -- a messy delta, it's easy to miss what turned out to be such important features. What he did do, in addition to charting most of the coastline of present-day British Columbia and maintaining good relations with both the native population and other explorers from Spain and the USA, was to determine that the putative Northwest Passage didn't exist at the latitudes being suggested at the time (45 to 50 degrees north).

And hey, he's got the biggest island on the west coast named after him, in addition to one of the greatest cities on Earth. Not bad for a limey.

Barry Evans (barryevans9@yahoo.com) champions the limey cause in Old Town Eureka, where he and his colonial wife live.

comments

1. unanonymous:

Nov. 5, 5:50 p.m.

I would go with Sir Francis Drake, a better treatise of the discovery of Humboldt Bay is given in:

http://www.calarchives4u.com/history/humboldt/humb1915-ch3.txt

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