Cover Story

Think of it as a duffel bag full of money — more than $20 million at our disposal to spend as we see fit. It’s actually a modest sum compared to the vast revenues Humboldt County lost in 1999 when the state and federal governments bought the Headwaters Forest from Pacific Lumber Co. There are […]

Around the United States and around the world, to most people the phrase "Humboldt County" can signify any number of things. For instance, some people might immediately think of marijuana. Others? Weed, pot, grass, dope, herb, chronic, reefer … Like it or not, Humboldt County culture is deeply rooted in the production and consumption of […]

The early winter sun shone in a glittery slant onto the bright green grass of the field, on the edge of Arcata, where you had to cross muddy braids of earth and streamlets to get to higher ground. There were cows in a distant corner of the field, noses down. The highway and a busy […]

1. CRASH Ugh, the economy … woe is us. It’s “the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression,” we’re told every few minutes, and Humboldt County can no longer huddle behind the Redwood Curtain. To wit, Samoa’s Evergreen Pulp Mill, which withered in a sluggish global pulp market. The mill somehow changed hands in October […]

For California voters, the two biggest races in the Nov. 4 election were the presidential race and Proposition 8, a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Humboldt County voters voted similarly in each of the two races — they chose Barack Obama over John McCain, 62 percent to 34 percent; they voted no on Prop. […]

A tall man in costume runs up and down the aisles of the theater at something near full speed, blowing a saxophone in time with the brass-and-percussion chorus on stage. They’re performing the raucous, upbeat finale — "We’re in the spirit. The holiday spirit!" — and the saxophonist’s impressive foot speed doesn’t seem to affect […]

They call it Black Friday. The day after Thanksgiving is one of the best days of the year for retail — it’s the day that heralds the start of the all-important holiday shopping season; only the Saturday before Christmas surpasses it in overall sales. Retailers everywhere are hoping you’ll come to their business to find […]

Humboldt State University is in trouble — serious trouble, though you wouldn’t know it to walk around the campus. Students still happily yak on cell phones in the quad, hike up and down the Founders Hall stairs and file into the environmentally cutting-edge new Behavioral and Social Sciences building. No, the trouble lies deeper than […]

“I’m gonna be the last man snackin’,” M. R. Robinson grins as he indicates his storeroom. Sixtyish, short with clipped silver hair and a ramrod back, Robinson looks more like a military man than the artist and master carpenter he currently is. Last year, Robinson foresaw the recent economic downturn and, worried that events might […]

On Oct. 28, a dense fog poured into the towns around Humboldt Bay, stuffing the spaces between buildings with a white, impenetrable ground-to-sky murk. You couldn’t see 10 feet in front of you, and if you happened to be out on the Samoa Peninsula and stopped your car just across from where the Evergreen pulp […]

Oct. 7, 2008. The white-erase board on the wall says 29 days until the election. This is my first day volunteering for Obama’s Campaign for Change in Steamboat Springs, Colo. The newest polls for this state show it’s 44-44, Obama v. McCain. According to those who spend a lot of time studying the way states […]

Parents gathered on the rock-hard bleachers at Eureka High, cheering their linebacker sons and cheerleader daughters, live in a different Eureka than the one inhabited by the tattooed women over at the Shanty, downing PBRs and flaunting their bruises after a gloriously brutal Roller Derby match. The Eureka of art patrons sipping wine at the […]