Wielding the power of the subpoena and carrying a mandate enshrined in the state Constitution to serve as overseers of local government, a group of volunteers comes together each year to constitute the Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury. During their service, the 19 members spend months conducting interviews, making on-site visits and reviewing documents as […]
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‘Come Back Young Again’
Lightning struck Trinity County on July 30, 2021, and sparked a fire that burned for 88 days. Before it was fully contained, the Monument Fire consumed 223,124 acres, according to Cal Fire. One of the 28 structures destroyed was a lookout on Ironside Mountain (Tse:nding, as it is called by the Tsnungwe people). “This mountain […]
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‘No Signs of Recovery’
When the California Fish and Game Commission took the unprecedented step of shuttering the North Coast’s red abalone season back in 2017 due to a precipitous decline in the population amid the larger collapse of the region’s kelp forests, there was hope that the temporary moratorium would give the fishery a chance to rebound. But, […]
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Signs of Soulatluk Revival
As you look out over the water along Eureka’s boardwalk at the foot of F Street, a small placard at your elbow might catch your eye, reading “DA’GURR, Known in English as Sea Otter,” above the illustration of a mustachioed specimen drifting on his back and waving a paw. Just a few inches below its […]
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Global Solidarity at the Mouth of the Klamath
In her home country of Chile, 15-year-old Ianka Purran has a front-row seat to the deterioration of her home river, the Biobío, which is suffering from the impacts of dams. When Purran, Mapuche Pewenche, heard about a historic descent being planned for the newly free-flowing Klamath River in the United States, she jumped at the […]
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‘I am an Artist’
As the film opens, men trickle into Pelican Bay State Prison’s B-facility gym to take their places in a wide circle of folding chairs, and Samuel Nault’s even voice plays over the footage: “We are all creators, every single one of us. It is the chaos and pain that we created which ultimately brought us […]
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A Saturday at the Rodeo
Saturday, July 19, was a good day at the 104th annual Fortuna Rodeo to watch and photograph the talented athletes and their skilled animals compete in several events. And on this day, the bulls won — not a single rider lasted eight seconds. A 6-year-old cowboy won a belt buckle and a new hat, however, for best ride […]
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The Conductor
Sweatshirts and jeans brushed against silk dresses and suits, leather and corked dress shoes creaked across the same carpeting as sneakers and sandals. Attending any night during the five programs and 10 performances of the Eureka Symphony’s 2024-2025 season pulled one into a bright, buzzing world peopled by an audience from every stage of life, […]
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The Disappearing Registrants
For years, Elizabeth Thurston used the website as a kind of salve. She’d check it for affirmation, clicking her abuser’s name so it would come up for the world to see, reinforcing that through the awful experiences that shaped her childhood and, in turn, her life, she’d taken a stand as an 8 year old […]
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A Place to Stop and Rest
When the Wiyot Tribe decided to leverage its resources to tackle Humboldt County’s housing crisis, it didn’t just start buying land to develop. Instead, tribal officials spent two years listening. “We spent two years studying housing,” says Dishgamu Community Land Trust Director Michelle Vassel. “We went to big events, farmers markets and just asked people […]
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The Man Who Unsolved a Murder
On Aug. 28, 1976, sometime between 7:30 and 8 p.m., a 6-year-old boy named Willie Cook disappeared from the bed of his father’s pickup in Happy Camp, a secluded logging community in Northern California’s Klamath National Forest. Willie’s father, Bill Cook, had been working on his lawnmower at a repair shop in the center of […]
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Thousands Demonstrate in Eureka at No Kings Protest
From H to J streets, thousands of protesters took to the pavement as part of the No Kings protest, with the Eureka Police Department estimating 3,000 to 4,000 protesters were on site. The protest was one of many held across the country as millions were reported to be in attendance nationwide. Starting from 11 a.m. […]