Barry Evans

We’re in an economic slump, no question. What we need is a new and profitable tourist attraction right here in Humboldt. Nope, not a steam train around the bay, much as I’d love to see it. I’m thinking just a tad grander. Here’s the plan: Announcing the Transglobal Tourist Tube. It’s pretty simple, really. My […]

Don’t forget to set your alarm so you can celebrate this year’s winter solstice, one of Earth’s four annual regular-as-clockwork astronomical events — the others being the summer solstice and the spring and fall equinoxes. Solstice happens here in Humboldt — and everywhere in the Pacific time zone — on December 21 at 4:04 a.m. […]

Turns out that my weakness for rum balls is shared by the co-owner of Eureka Books. Scott and I found ourselves standing in front of what I think of as the "Temptation Display" in Ramones. "So what’s the topic of your next Journal piece?" he asked. "Haven’t a clue," I replied, "Any ideas?" "Albino redwoods." […]

Twice a day, Humboldt Bay inhales and exhales a vast amount of water through the half-mile-wide harbor entrance between north and south spits. How much water? Picture a cube straddling four city blocks, that is, two blocks long, wide and high. That’s the volume, on average, that passes through the “throat” of the bay every […]

Have you ever wondered why the name of our county seat appears right there on the state seal? (In fact, it’s the state motto.) And speaking of Eureka, what’s that about Archimedes running naked around the streets of Syracuse yelling the name of Humboldt’s largest city? Archimedes was the greatest mathematician of the ancient world. […]

The schooner Laura Virginia made history on April 14, 1850, by becoming the first vessel to enter our bay. Captain Douglass Ottinger and his second officer, Hans Buhne, promptly named the bay “Humboldt” after a German naturalist. Three years later, Humboldt Bay gave its name to our county when it was detached from Trinity County. […]

Our corner of the world is on the verge of becoming famous in a new and unprecedented way. The State of California has adopted the most aggressive goals in the country for developing renewable energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Here in Humboldt County, plans are underway to make us a leading player in one […]

Looking at the Andromeda galaxy is looking back in time to when Lucy and her forebears roamed the highlands of present-day Ethiopia, making it the farthest object we can see with the naked eye. It consists of a trillion or so stars, the twin to our own Milky Way galaxy, separated from us by a […]