| Our History |
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- The Native People
- Historic Development
- The Plaza
- Transportation
- Historic Sites
- Historic Element (General Plan Chapter 5:2)
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Arcata, a Native American word: ar-ka-ta meaning something like "a place to land" and /or "o-ket-oh" meaning "where there is flat water". Native inhabitants, the Wiyot, lived for millennia along the lower Mad River, on the shores, islands, and streams of Humboldt Bay and along the lower Eel River. Their lifeways were shaped by an exceptional environment of land and waters which generously provided for both their survival and cultural needs. The Wiyot population was estimated at one to two thousand prior to explorers and adventurers discovering these shores and early settlers claiming and developing their land around the bay.
The displacement, disease, violence and cultural degradation accompanying white settlement brought almost total annihilation to the Wiyot peoples. The Wiyots survived however, and today are, for the most part, associated with three Humboldt Bay area rancherias. They are self-governing and involved in various tribal economic projects and in the revitalization of cultural traditions such as language, basket weaving and ceremonies, and in reclaiming ancestral lands. For more about the Wiyot people, their history, culture and current projects, visit the Wiyot Tribe website.
Historic Development
The first known event associated with the County's history concerns Hee-li, a Chinese junk captain, who was reputed to have mistakenly piloted his vessel across the Pacific Ocean until it reached the coast of Redwood country in 217 B.C. A Dr. Shaw, in 1890, supposedly unearthed proof of this in the Hoang-ho province of Shen-see. Others claim that the Hee-li story is legend masquerading as history. However, there exists some evidence to indicate that Chinese crossed the Pacific around 485 A.D., and there is definite proof that canoe passage across the Bering Straits was made.
In 1578, Sir Francis Drake entered the Pacific through the Straits of Magellan aboard his vessel the "Golden Hind", which was loaded with plunder from Spanish settlements. The following year Drake sailed into northern waters and was forced by the cold and wind to anchor in a "bad bay", contended by some historians to be Trinidad Bay, by others to be Bodega Bay.
The first influx of Russian fur traders into this territory occurred around 1700, as hunters sought new sources of sea otters. The Russian traders ranged as far south as San Francisco Bay.
In 1775, Trinidad Head was visited by the Spanish explorers Bruno de Heceta and Juan Francisco de la Bodega Cuadra, who impressed the local Indians with their firearms and were in turn impressed by the fertility of the area. In 1792, Captain George Vancouver led an English expedition which reached Trinidad Bay, only to leave "without least regret at quitting a station that I considered as very unprotected and unsafe roadstead for shipping".
The first discovery of Humboldt Bay by ship was made by Captain Nathan Winship in 1808 when he anchored his ship "O'Cain" inside the bay. He described Humboldt Bay as of considerable size and somewhat resembling the Bay of San Francisco, except that the entrance to it for vessels of large class is not convenient, and with strong southwest winds is even impossible for any kind of vessel. The depth of the entrance is two fathoms, and therefore, the ocean waves break into the surf. In 1831, the Indians of Humboldt Bay put up a spirited defense of their lands against the intrusions of the Hudson Bay Company not allowing its traders to establish an outpost here.
The 1849 gold rush brought Dr. Josiah Gregg with six others overland along the Eel River to Humboldt Bay and they "rediscovered" the bay again.
It was in 1850, during this gold rush period, the town of Arcata was settled; called "Union" for its first ten years. At the same time Eureka was established by the Mendocino Company, the competing Union Company established the north end of the bay as Union. In 1853, elections were held which divided Trinity County into Trinity County and Humboldt County. In 1854, elections were held for the Humboldt County seat. These election results proved so fraudulent (4828 votes were cast in Humboldt for Union, although only 800 voters were eligible) that the California State Legislature designated Eureka the county seat in 1856 instead of Union. Union was renamed in 1860 Arcata, after its original Indian name.
Arcata, like Trinidad, served as major supply centers for the gold mines on the Klamath, Trinity and Salmon Rivers. Union eventually took the lead in the packing trade and the Plaza became the center of activity for arriving and departing mule trains. By 1913, the Humboldt Normal School was founded which later developed into Humboldt Teachers College, Humboldt State College and now Humboldt State University. Mining had diminished after World War I in significance while lumbering and the educational institution became the main sources of economic employment.
The Plaza
The Plaza was laid out in the original plot of the town known as a commons. During the late 1850's and early 1860's at the height of the troubles between the white settlers and the Indians, the Plaza became a parade ground in the evenings where a citizen's military company drilled. The Plaza was also used for grazing cows by citizens. Each cow had a different cow bell and the sounds of these cow bells were heard in the early morning hours. Finally, the cows created sanitary conditions on the Plaza and by a vote of the citizens on May 6, 1901 the cows were banned from the Plaza.
By city ordinance, the Plaza was the only place in town where bars and liquor stores could be located which still accounts today for the large numbers of bars facing the Plaza. Not until 1870, were women and minors allowed to enter places where liquor was sold.
The Plaza served also in the early days as the staging area for the numerous pack trains of mules for the hinterland and the mines. Since 1850, Trinidad and Union (Arcata) came into existence as supply centers for the gold mines on the Klamath, Trinity, and Salmon Rivers there was strong competition for the function of the supply center for the mines. Eventually, Arcata took the lead in the packing trade and the Plaza became the center of activity for arriving and departing mule trains. The average train consisted of from 30 to 40 pack mules plus a mule for each packer, a kitchen mule and the bell-mare who led the train. The Plaza was the site of corrals and livery stables and many of Union's early-day residents were packers and owners of pack trains. As assessment record for 1876-77 for A. Brizard and Sacramento Moreno (his house still stands on the NW corner of 11th and F Street) lists pack saddles and riggings, two horses, and 67 mules valued at $3410. Tom Bair had his corral behind the Union Hotel (Arcata Music Shop - Globe Imports Building). Another corral was located on G Street between 10th and 11th Street (Humboldt Federal Building); and the Pioneer Livery Stable was on the corner of 8th and G Street (Bank of America building).
Through the years, the Plaza was more often the nucleus of good times. It was a natural ball park, a gathering place for town and national celebrations of holidays, the scene of huge 4th of July bonfires, of bicycle races, parades, Easter egg hunts, concerts, theatricals and fairs and the annual salmon bake. At its center a flag staff of a reported 113 feet height was erected, crowned by a Libert Cap made by the local tinsmith. On July 5, 1869, a new and elegant flag, 24 feet in length was purchased by the citizens of Arcata, and "unfurled to the breeze". The Arcata Union related that a young man celebrating the new year of 1899 climbed to the top of the flag staff and went to sleep, watched by all the people on the Plaza and expected to fall at any moment. He was rescued by another young man who went up to the cross trees and persuaded the climber to come down.
For many years, cannons had a place on the Plaza. In the early 1860's soldiers from Camp Curtis, north of town just east of the Arlington - Hwy 101 over-crossing of the railroad tracks, purloined a cannon from Eureka and brought it to the Plaza where it stood until 1878. Photographs taken in 1901 show a band stand apparently surrounding the flag staff in the center of the Plaza.
In 1905, Mr. George Zehndner was determined to make a gift to his town. He commissioned the Armenian sculptor Haig Patigian to make a bronze statue of the martyred President McKinley. Work on the bronze statue had just been completed in San Francisco when the 1906 earthquake struck the city and destroyed most of its central business district in San Francisco. It was feared locally that the bronze statue of McKinley would not have survived the disaster but it was determined that the statue had been saved. On July 4, 1906, the bronze statue was placed in the center of the Plaza and formally presented by Zehndner as "a gift to the City of Arcata for all time to come".
Early travel in the Humboldt Bay area was by foot, horseback or boat. The Indian trail connecting Arcata and Eureka (Old Arcata Road) was used by those wishing to travel by horseback but the trip was a difficult one and took a day. The wagon road was not built until 1862 because it was felt that a road could never compete successfully with the regular ferry which joined the two towns via the bay. Even with the wagon road, the trip to Eureka from Arcata took two to three hours.
In 1855, the Union Wharf and Plank Walk Company completed a wharf. Old pilings in the Bay across the mud flats to the deep-water channel in the north bay. A wooden railroad track set to a gauge of 45 inches ran from Union to the end of the wharf. Pilings from this old wharf are still visible in the mud flats near Arcata's boat launching ramp. The first "train" was a four-wheel car powered by a single horse. Passengers coming from Eureka to Arcata on the ferry, Gussie McAlpine, were met by the horse-drawn car and taken into Arcata to the depot located on the site of the present Post Office. In 1875, the horse-powered locomotive was replaced with a steam locomotive, called the Black Diamond. This is considered by many to have been the first railroad in the State of California.
The Arcata and Mad River Railroad was incorporated in July, 1881 as a successor to the Union Wharf and Plank Walk Company. At this time the existing track was extended through Blue Lake to Korbel. Known as the "Annie and Mary", it carried timber products agricultural products and passengers. On good-weather weekends, its cars were often filled with picnickers heading for Camp Bauer at Korbel. High school students living in Blue Lake rode the Annie and Mary to school in Arcata.
Passenger rail service between Eureka and Arcata was established in 1901 by the California and Northern Railroad Company with the rail line running across the mudflats along the present alignment of the Burns Freeway (Hwy. 101). The Arcata 1903 map shows the California and Northern Railroad Depot on the present site of the Post Office. Another railroad, the Eureka and Klamath River Railroad, passed through Arcata along E Street (presently the freeway south) to about 15th Street where it cut to the south. An advertisement in the Arcata Union paper dated February 16, 1903 lists the special rates for travel between Arcata and Eureka: 15 cents for a single fare, 25 cents for round trip. Students coming to Humboldt State Teachers College disembarked at the foot of the college hill on 17th Street and walked up the hill to Founders Hall. Rail connections from Humboldt Bay to Sonoma County and the San Francisco Bay area were not completed until about 1914.
The Overland Stage Route between Eureka and Sonoma County was completed in the late 1870's. These stages were often nothing more than open wagons with blankets for protection from the rain and cold. Traveling three days and two nights at an average speed of three miles per hour, they stopped only for meals and to change the horses. Horse stages continued to be used in many areas of Humboldt County as late as 1918.
The first Overland Auto Stage Company was incorporated in Eureka in March 1908. Leaving Eureka at 7:00 A.M., the auto stage arrived in Blocksburg in time for lunch, Bell Springs for dinner and a night's rest, and at Sherwood the next morning in time to catch the train for San Francisco. An auto trip on the highway between Eureka and Arcata was described in 1918 as a "time-consuming operation stretching the motorist's patience". The road was graveled in 1921 but not paved until 1925. It followed mostly the present alignment of the Old Arcata Road.
As the need for more rapid transit developed with an increasing amount of automobiles on the roads, there was a need for a more improved road between Eureka and Arcata. The Burns Freeway was completed in 1955, crossing the mud flats and thereby sealing off a large portion of Humboldt Bay in the Jacoby Creek floodplain. Since 1955, the Division of Highways (now CalTrans) studied possible freeway alignment through and around Arcata. One proposal was to pass around Arcata on its western perimeter, and another one was to utilize the old railroad pathway along E Street. In 1955, the Arcata City Council chose the E Street alignment in fear that a bypass around Arcata might detract from the local business climate in town. The current freeway routing was proposed since 1960 through the process of consultation with city and university officials. In 1971 and 1972, public hearings were held and the freeway issue became a very controversial issue, almost equally dividing Arcata citizens in pro and con the design to a 6-lane design and construction started in 1974.
With the emerging energy crisis and the increasing fuel cost, other alternatives for city transportation systems have been explored by the Arcata City Council. In 1971, a group of students from Humboldt State University developed an Arcata Bike Master Plan and were successful in a series of public presentations to win the unanimous approval of all civic organizations, the Arcata Parks and Recreation Commission and the Arcata Planning Commission, only to find final and formal resistance at the Arcata City Council level. In 1972, new city council members were elected favoring the adoption of the Arcata Bike Master Plan. Since 1974 a modified and much reduced Arcata Bike Master Plan has been adopted but implementation of the master plan was not foreseen in the immediate future due to lack of funds. The adopted master plan for bicycles calls for on-street bike traffic on specially designated and safe roads to avoid as much as possible conflicts between car and bike traffic. The idea of linear parks and bike paths and pedestrian paths and equestrian trails has not been implemented because of its costs of acquisition in the small flood plains of local creeks, notably Janes Creek.
Since 1972, legislative inroads have been made on highway funds and their exclusive allocation toward automobile traffic facilities. In 1973, SB 325 was passed which specified that a special quarter percent sales tax on gasoline would provide funds for alternate modes of transportation including bicycle traffic facilities, pedestrian facilities and public mass transit. In 1974, the City Council of Arcata chose to use its allotment of SB 325 for a public mass transit system. In April, 1975 the new bus service within Arcata city limits was inaugurated and named the Arcata & Mad River Transit System. Currently, two bus lines with a one-hourly service are operating with two small coaches and one coach in reserve. The operation of the A&MRTS is too young in order to proclaim its success but apparently, it seems to fulfill a need for a transportation alternative for the young and the older citizens as well as for the student population.
Within the city limits of Arcata there are a good number of older homes and places of historic value. Bret Harte, a writer later to become famous for his moving stories of 927 J Street. California mining camps, began his writing career in Arcata. He stayed in the original house at 927 J Street. This was in 1860, in the midst of troubles between whites and Indians. As a newspaper reporter, he felt compelled to condemn the deplorable massacre of the peaceful Wyiott Indians on Gunther Island by a small band of white men on the night of February 26, 1860. Harte, temporarily editing the local Arcata paper, The Northern Californian, wrote a courageous and scathing editorial on this atrocity, reminding his readers that "the secrecy of this indiscriminate massacre is an evidence of its disavowal and detestation by the community," Though he spoke for many citizens, his opinion was resented by a minority, placing him in considerable danger and resulting in his sailing for San Francisco and ultimate fame. He was 24 years old when he left Arcata.
Jacobs House - 986 12th Street 
See photo
Frank Jacobs, who built this home had his office in the little false front at 12th and The Jacobs House K Streets. Notice the letter "J" in the elaborate bas-relief over the front porch and the cutout design which trims the casing of a second floor window at the right. The decoration within each of the bagles is especially charming. Note the massive brackets at the gable eves, the shapes of wall shingles, and the drapery effect achieved by brackes and pillars at the back of the front porch. On the J Street side, the bay topped with a quasi-turret complete with pointed roof and finial is as unique as the diagonal treatment of siding here and there.
1102 12th Street Northern Redwood Lumber Office See photo
In the mid 1870's, when it was no longer practical to haul logs over poll and skid roads to the bay, railroads were to bring lumber directly to the ships. This office served the lumber yard which later developed on the "Annie and Mary" line, (Arcata and Mad River Railroad) connecting the mills on the river with the wharf that extended two miles into Humboldt Bay. Heavy brackets appear to support the false front of the building and the "carved" decorative spool-like trim under the porch roof has a special charm.
The Pythian Castle - 11th and H Streets See photo
The Knights of Pythia's North Star Encampment, a national fraternal organization that stressed charitable work, erected this imposing castle in 1885, at a time when lodges and churches substantially filled the need for social activities outside the home.
860 10th Street See photo
Lumberman James Kirk, from Canada, built this residence in 1901. In 1916 it was purchased by a dentist. By this time, stage transportation well-linked Arcata with the interior, but it was still a long, hard trip for patients from the mountains, who frequently were put up for the night by the dentist and his wife.
860 10th Street
In contrast to the house at 927 J Street, this one makes much of decoration. The conical roofs of the round tower and turret are trimmed with ornamental fish-scale shingles, which also cover the second floor exterior. The first floor has square shingles in an offset pattern. Tiny dentil (tooth-like) trim is used extensively and there is a border of raised floral design below the porch roof. Widows are dramatized with borders of small panes in geometric patterns, especially those centering the slant bays. Note the arched second floor windows and the hat-like cornices they wear. Tower and turret windows have carved glass, the only examples in Arcata of such elegance. Pairs of columns flank the rounded bay, and at the side entrance, they support a pediment (sort of filled gable). Both side and front doors are noteworthy.
974 10th Street See photo
Constructed: Side cottage - 1874; Main house - 1876
Known as the "Chapman House", this 1 1/2 story Italianate has a truncated hip roof (which once supported a captain's walk) and front pediment.
916 13th Street (The Bair - Stokes House) See photo
Constructed: 1888
Samuel and Joseph C. Newsm, the same architects responsible for the Carson Mansion in Eureka are credited for this beautiful Victorian.
902 14th Street (The Stone House) See photo
Constructed: 1888
Together with its counterpart at 980 14th Street, these are two of the purest examples of Queen Anne architecture in Arcata. Its original owner, Wesley W. Stone was born in Ohio in the mid 1800's, served with the Union army during the Civil War and came to Arcata with his wife, Celia Crippen Stone in 1886. Here he became president of the Bank of Arcata in 1916.
980 14th Street (The Jackson - Matthews House) See photo
Constructed: 1888
Built as the home for early lumberman, Elisha B. Jackson, it is the mirror image of the Stone House. The house remained in the Jackson family until 1946, when it was purchased by Robert W. Matthews.
1621 J Street (The Strobel House) See photo
The original house was constructed in about 1874, it was remodeled into a "modern house with gables" in 1904-05. One of the original two houses on this site was torn down to complete the current house when the two old houses were traded for a "steam merry-go-round".
1651 J Street (The Sorenson House) See photo
Constructed: 1902
Henry Sorenson was the original owner. A Denmark native, Mr. Sorenson came to Humboldt County as a boy and grew up near Blocksburg. He graduated from Eureka Business College and worked in the Dixon's Store in Loleta until 1902. That year he moved to Arcata and opened a "Satisfactory Store" known as Sorenson and Matzen. The house was built for him by his father-in-law, Jasper Reed, and his brother, Ben Sorenson. It has been called the "house of triangles", referring to its triangle pediments, dormer and windows.
1022 10th Street (The Nixon House) See photo
Constructed in 1858, this is the only house in Arcata built in the Gothic Revival style and is one of the oldest houses in the city. Its builder, James A. Kleiser, had many of its features (the diamond-paned windows, marble fireplaces and the entrance hall's newel post and banister) shipped from New York "around the Horn". Kleiser owned the house for less than one year. The next owner, J.A.B. Faulkner, lost the house due to delinquent tax payments and the house passed to ownership by local businessmen A. Jacoby and James Michael. In 1861 the house was bought by William Nixon with a purchase price of 500 sacks of potatoes and a $20 survey fee. The house remained in the Nixon family for 110 years.
| Last Updated ( Monday, 02 March 2009 ) |
