In the 19th century, Americans’ fascination with the occult made fortune tellers and mediums common entertainment at fairs, lecture halls and private parties. Newspapers across the country carried stories of remarkable psychic predictions and spirit manifestations. Journalists also regularly exposed practitioners as frauds, but this did little to temper the faith of true believers. In […]
history
Posted inNews
Humbuggery in Humboldt, Part 1
“We have been told that Eureka is the best town for fakirs on the coast and it is a ‘good thing’ as any first-class fakir will testify who has tried it.” — The Daily Standard, March 8, 1900 Though technology has evolved, human nature has not. Like today’s confidence men and women, scammers of Humboldt’s […]
Posted inField Notes
Why Isn’t ‘Eleven’ ‘One-teen?
And why isn’t twelve “two-teen”? Why do bagels come in dozens? Why are there two sets of 12 hours in a day? And why 12 inches to the foot? Like much of northern Europe, England once had a hybrid system of counting based on both 10 (decimal) and 12 (duodecimal). Today, almost all our daily […]
Posted inNews
The Siren’s Song Returns at Jim Dunn’s
In October of 2025, Liz Sibley stood in the shell of Jim Dunn’s Cosmopolitan at 301 Second St., the wood plank floor newly oiled and light from the street slanting in on a half-built stage. The bar’s brass footrail lay at its base, yet to be re-attached. At the center of the triptych of mirrors […]
Posted inField Notes
Cermeño’s Shipwreck
The European settlement of what we now know as the city of Trinidad began when two Spanish Navy captains, Bruno de Hecata (commanding Santiago) and Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra (commanding Sonora), landed there on June 9, 1775. Two days later on Trinity Sunday — hence the name — they erected a wooden […]
Posted inField Notes
Bridge of Spies
“[Gary Powers] performed his duty in a very dangerous mission and he performed it well, and I think I know more about that than some of his detractors and critics know ….” — CIA Director Allen Dulles Standing on a hill recently, overlooking the Glienicke Bridge near Potsdam, Germany, several thoughts came to mind. While the […]
Posted inNews
Eureka’s History of Brothels and the Week’s Gigs
This week we’re talking about the first of a two-part history of brothels in Eureka and how the women of the red-light district kept the city in the black. And we’re running down some noteworthy music shows around the county. Hit subscribe for weekly updates on Humboldt stories.
Posted inField Notes
Nefertiti, the Second Monotheist
Her life-sized bust rates a room of its own in the huge museum, sitting on a plinth within a 20-foot-high glass enclosure. Her discoverer, German Egyptologist Ludwig Borchardt, called her “the epitome of tranquility and harmony.” She was found (actually by an Egyptian workman under Borchardt’s supervision) on Dec. 6, 1912, in the ruins of […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
The Flammarion Engraving
“That good anchorite, who boasted of having been as far as the end of the world, said likewise, that he had been obliged to stoop low, on account of the joining of the sky and earth in that distant region.” — Francois de la Mothe Le Vayer, 1662 The lovely engraving of a pilgrim — […]
Posted inNews
Event Sunday to Commemorate 140th Anniversary of Chinese Expulsion
In memory of the 140th anniversary of the government sanctioned expulsion of Chinese residents from Eureka, the Humboldt Asian and Pacific Islanders in Solidarity (HAPI), a DreamMaker Program of the Ink People Center for the Arts, is hosting an informal gathering, altar and walk at the Eureka Chinatown Mural on Sunday. The expulsion, which took […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
A Brief History of Dildos
“Thou … madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them.” — Ezekiel 16:17, KJV Along with notable human achievements such as the invention of the plow and the wheel, we should also celebrate a much older innovation, by tens of thousands of years: the dildo. In 2005, a team of researchers […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Humboldt Bay Timeline
Humboldt Bay (Wigi, to the Wiyot people) is actually a lagoon, the largest protected large body of water between San Francisco and Puget Sound. It’s about 14 miles long and varies in width between a few hundred yards and 5 miles, with an area between 11 (low tide) and 24 (high tide) square miles. What […]