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January – Drumming and dancing are featured as part of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration at the Arcata Community Center. -
January – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is celebrated at the Arcata Community Center with a panel of community members discussing their life experiences in the community. -
February – Hundreds of Cal Poly Humboldt students gather to protest a proposed policy preventing returning students from living in Fall 2023 residence halls. The policy was eventually rescinded by campus administrators. -
April – A telephoto lens view of the controversial Schneider property from Freshwater Slough and Myrtle Avenue/Old Arcata Road prior to the county decision to remove the construction. -
April – A dead young gray whale washed ashore not far from the North Jetty along the Samoa Peninsula in April. -
May – The presentation of degrees makes it official – the Class of 2023 graduates are now alumni of Cal Poly Humboldt. -
May – The food trucks under the Samoa Bridge offer excellent picnic options and a good view of the giant kites flying east of the bridge at the Kite Festival. -
May – Day 1 of the Kinetic Grand Championship begins with the racers making loops around the Arcata Plaza crowded with spectators. -
May – The second challenge racers faced on Day 2 of the Kinetic Grand Championship after they enter Humboldt Bay is … will my Kinetic vehicle float? -
May – Memorial Day activities begin in Ferndale with its traditional small-town parade. -
May – Tce yac, a newly created mosaic otter, is celebrated with a party on World Otter Day and installed into the visitor center at Humboldt Redwoods State Park near Weott. The otter, covered with more than 40 mosaic images of flora and fauna found in southern Humboldt parks, was created as gift for the visitor center by Weott mosaic artist Jennifer Amidi. -
June – Princess Leia Organa (aka Karen Booth of Ukiah) recreates her signature moment with R2-D2 during the Costumers Appearance at Arts Alive! in Eureka. Humboldt celebrated the inaugural Forest Moon Festival presented by the Humboldt-Del Norte Film Commission on the anniversary of the locally filmed Return of the Jedi. -
July – Cowboys and cowgirls showcase their talents at the Fortuna Rodeo. -
July – The Humboldt Folklife Festival’s Barn Dance features host band Cidermill with caller Lyndsey Battle, bringing out a big all-ages crowd and lots of smiles on the faces of the dancers. -
August – Artist Cate Be from CBe Ceramics stepped away from her vendor table to join in Bon Odori, traditional Japanese folkdancing, at the Obon Festival. -
August – The Obon Festival features Bon Odori, traditional Japanese folkdancing, led by Craig Kurumada with Gary Ronne on Taiko drum. -
August – Under smoky skies from wildfires at the Klamath “No Salmon” Salmon Festival, this cohort repeatedly “removed” each of the four Klamath River dams during the parade. The theme of this year’s festival, “Celebrating Dam Removal and the Healing of the Klamath River,” honored the successful tribally led effort to remove four antiquated dams; the first was removed in September. -
August – The Yurok Tribe honors Miss Indian World 2023 Tori McConnell, of the Yurok Tribe and Karuk heritage, while riding in a redwood canoe float in the morning parade at the 59th annual Klamath Salmon Festival. The 23-year-old McConnell wore the beaded crown of Miss Indian World 2023 awarded in April at the Gathering of Nations Pow Wow in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Born and raised in Eureka, McConnell graduated from the University of California at Davis with a Native American studies major. -
August – Members of the “WINGS Women of the Ingomar” Hat Day group join other railbirds to watch the finish of this horse race on Saturday at the Humboldt County Fair. -
September – The 36th annual I Block Party on Labor Day on I street in Arcata draws a crowd with food and live music from Lizzy and the Moonbeams, Citizens Funk and Timbata (shown here). It’s the annual fundraiser for the Arcata-Camoapa Sister City Project, which is celebrating 37 years of international friendship and solidarity. All proceeds benefit Camoapa, Nicaragua. -
September – Opponents of the recently renamed-for-the-ballot (Measure A) Humboldt Cannabis Reform Initiative in a Yes We Cann & Hullabaloo parade march through Eureka’s Old Town and on to the party underneath the Samoa Bridge. -
September – An unexpected stop in Humboldt Bay due to high winds for the traditional Polynesian voyaging canoe Hōkūle‘a and its crew gives local residents a chance to tour the vessel and visit with the crew. The vessel is part of a 43,000 nautical mile, 47-month circumnavigation of the Pacific by traditional Polynesian voyaging canoes Hōkūle‘a and Hikianalia and 400 crew to 36 countries and archipelagoes, nearly 100 indigenous territories and 345 ports. -
October – In closing, Donald Forrest, as Terry “King” Lear, raises a glass in toast to life and death in his title role in “King Lear” at the Logger Bar inn Blue Lake. The play was produced and directed by Michael Fields, owner of the Logger Bar. Forrest died unexpectedly of complications of COVID-19 not long after the the show closed. -
October – After the dance performance by the Dancing Magickal Witches of Humboldt County, Jody Himango leads the Witches Paddle participants out into Humboldt Bay. -
October – A fun pano view of the five Maker’s Apron Creative Reuse artists creating their ephemeral displays from compostable plant materials in a temporary sidewalk installation under the Redwood Skywalk in Eureka’s Sequoia Park. -
November – Maria Ramirez, one of the organizers of the Day of the Dead event, had prepared a large candle-lit offrenda displaying photos of her dead grandmother and other persons important to her life and family. -
November – The 2023-24 men’s basketball season begins at Cal Poly Humboldt and the first home game featured a new coach (Chris Tifft), one returning player [Cam Timmons (right front)] and 14 new student-athletes who were recruited starting in July, when Tifft was hired. Their goal for the season – rebuild the team and culture around it after last season’s player complaints about the former coach. -
November – Many lucky bird watchers have now seen this “first-ever-at-the-Arcata Marsh” American purple gallinule near the Brackish Pond at the Arcata Marsh & Wildlife Sactuary. It’s a resident species of the Southeastern United States and Pacific Coast of Mexico and had never been sighted before north of the Bay Area. Sources say, however, that “the species has the greatest pattern of vagrancy amongst rails.”
Through Mark Larson’s Lens
