Editor’s note: The following was written and submitted in response to last week’s cover story, “Broken Trust.” Most of us know that what we call Humboldt Bay was part of the territory of the Wiyot people. And most us of know of the terrible mass killing that occurred in 1860 on what was called Indian […]
Jerry Rohde
Jerry Rohde does investigative reporting — 150 years too late. He’s working on a multi-volume geographical history of Humboldt County when he isn’t distracted by glitzy writing projects.
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The 200th Victim
In 1918 my dad, part of the U. S. Army’s First Division, was on a troop ship bound for France. The soldiers on board slept in bunk beds. My dad had a lower bunk, and each morning he would kick the bunk above him to wake up the soldier sleeping there. One morning he kicked […]
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The Women Behind the Trees
On Nov. 10, 1924, the Pacific Lumber Co. began secretly logging its timberland near the mouth of the South Fork Eel River. The plan was to cut a right-of-way through the forest that would allow the company to reach Bull Creek Flat, about a mile away, and then level thousands of acres of old growth […]
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An American Genocide
On the morning of April 7, 1862, Capt. David B. Akey and a detachment of soldiers from the Second California Cavalry left their camp in the Kneeland-Iaqua area. They were looking for Indians. The ground was covered with four inches of snow, which made tracking easy. Akey described what happened next. “Found fresh trail of […]
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Scotia
Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from local historian Jerry Rohde’s recently released book, Both Sides of the Bluff: History of Humboldt County Places. An extensively researched chronicle more than a decade in the making, Rohde’s book is filled with interesting material, from tales of murder and massacre to ingenuity and perserverence. Given our […]
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Railroad!
The current buzz about building a new railroad is nothing new for the North Coast. A century ago, the promotion of rail lines to the north, south and east often filled the headlines on a weekly, or even daily, basis. It was a time when optimism and speculation ran rampant. By December 1909 one […]
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Some Other Proposed North Coast Railroads
1868: San Francisco and Humboldt Bay Railroad 1895: Oregon, California and Idaho Railroad (Arcata, Red Bluff, Snake River) 1906: California & Inland Empire Railroad (Eureka, Redding) 1907-1915: Portland-San Francisco Railroad Company (Portland, Eugene, Drain, Coos Bay, Trinidad, Eureka, San Francisco) 1912-1915: Great Northern (Bend, Klamath Falls, Requa, Trinidad, Eureka) 1913: Grants Pass and Crescent City […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Grave Matters
In Tony Hillerman’s novel Talking God, a staff person at a government museum states that the reburial of 18,000 of the museum’s skeletons is not possible, “because of research needs.” She subsequently receives a large box. Inside she finds the bones of two of her grandparents, which have been removed from their graves. Now she […]
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Story on the Door
When the Journal moved to its new offices in the Omicini Building at Third and F in Eureka, more than few staff eyebrows were raised by the sign on the door of Room 206. There, on a frosted glass window straight out of The Maltese Falcon, was the name Earl Warren Jr.: Could this be […]
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Place Names of Humboldt County, California: A Compendium 1542-2009
The title of this new edition of the Turners’ book is too modest. Although their 304-page geographical history contains thousands of Humboldt County place names, each name also gets its own paragraph of concise historical information, a detailed list of references, and sometimes even a photo. Take, for example, the town of Crannell, known to […]
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Genocide and Extortion
The dance was over [in] one day. The wind blew and rough weather. On account of this nobody went home. That night after the dance all were asleep. There were four houses and one sweat house….The door was blocked by white men as the people were asleep, not expecting anything to happen. They were not […]
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The Sonoma Gang
In March 1850, the brand-new California Supreme Court, Chief Justice Serranus C. Hastings presiding, issued its first-ever decision. The ruling freed seven men who had recently been charged with arson and murder and instead placed them under a $10,000 bond. The men were released from the USS Savannah, a naval vessel anchored in San Francisco […]