Collection: Books and Periodicals

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Title: A Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California (1891) Collection Type: Books and Periodicals Publisher: Lewis Publishing Company Published: 1891 Copyright: In the public domain or published before 1925 Source(s): Google Books # of Pages: 713 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2024-07-22 00:25:09 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 03:11:29 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 06:30:36

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

Page: of 713  

140 HISTURY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. daunted, went on improving their town and increasing their trade with the mines. In 1860 the name of the town was changed to its present Indian name of Arcata, while the township retains the name Union. It would require many columns to give a full account of the early history of Arcata;—how the mining excitements, which doubled and trebled its population several times and as often left it smaller than before, of the wars and bloody fights and massacres; of the day-dreams of its fonnders which were destined to end in smoke; of the thousand and one incidents and reminiscences of pioneer days. Arcata is still an ambituons village of 1,200 inhabitants. In the southern part of the town is the depot of the Arcata & Mad River Railroad, and from this depot the railroad extends south over a vast mud flat or tide land, to a wharf two miles in length, which reaches to deep water in the bay. Here the steamer makes connection for Eureka, making three trips a day. Business establishments, churches, schools and societies worship here as in any other highly civilized town. Humboldt County is 108 miles north and south, but there are 175 miles of ocean frontage; and the greatest width is forty-eight miles. Rivers and forests abound throughout the county. Eighty miles of the Klamath River are in Humboldt or on its boundary line; Trinity River is for fifty miles of its course in the same. In April, 1850, the town of Reading was laid out on the Sacramento River by Major Reading asa supply point for the Trinity mines. Meanwhile the mines were fast filling up by men from the Sacramento Valley. When com. munication was opened between the new towns on the coast and the mines, which was not effected until May, there were about 2,000 miners on the river. It did not then take long to get the topography of the country straightened out. It was found that Eel River was by no means a highway to the mines, and that both Trinidad and Humboldt bays were of little use to the miners on Trinity River, who could communicate more easily and cheaply with the Sacramento Valley than with the sea. It was also found that the Trinity River, whose eccentric course had so deceived the early prospectors, did not enter the ocean at all, but was simply a tributary to the Klamath. Klamath City, laid ont in 1850 at the mouth of the river, had but a brief and inglorious career, on account of the shifting sand-bars below. In December, 1850, great excitement was created by the discovery of the Gold Rinff mines, on the shore near Trinidad, but they were never made to pay. In this year also, upon the division of the State into counties, the whole northwestern portion of the State, being almost wholly unknown at the time, was set-off as Trinity County, with Eureka as county-seat. In 1852, Klamath Connty was organized to include all territory north of Mad River, Trinity being south of that, and with this change Weaverville obtained the county government, Orleans Bar being county-seat of Klamath. In 1853, Humboldt County was formed, containing ull its present territory excepting the portion north of Mad River, which belonged to Klamath.° Klamath County seems never to have pros pered. In the early days Orleans Bar was a very rich camp and contained a large popula. tion. As the placers were worked out, however, population decreased, and, the county being heavily in debt, things were in a bad way. Finally in 1874, after a struggling existence, the county was blotted ont and its territory divided between Humboldt and Del Norte, the latter county having been formed in 1856. In January, 1853, the Government founded Fort Humboldt on the Bay, selecting the high bluff immediately fronting the entrance to the harbor, on which Bucksport was situated. There was nothing in the way of fortifications attempted except a slight earth-work, now almost indistinguishable. The barracks, ofticers’ houses, etc., are rapidly tumbling down, but are yet standing. The chief distinction that Fort Humboldt possesses is from the fact that Zieztenant Ulysses S. Grant, afterward the great General, was stationed there for a time.