USA > California > Humboldt County > History of Humboldt County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 19
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HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY
Dyerville is an old town located at the forks of Eel river, forty-six miles south of Eureka. Near this town the railway crosses the river and on the opposite bank the new town to be called South Fork is being established. Back of these towns is a rich country. Most of the lands are covered with a thick growth of redwood as yet hardly touched for milling purposes. The open lands grow fine orchard crops. Out of the redwood belt hundreds of hogs are raised on the acorns and other natural foods. A contemplated road leads to the Mattole coun- try, where are valuable fruit lands. This road will bring the Mattole trade to South Fork. Another road already taps the Bull creek section, located on the South Fork of Eel river. Stock raising, fruit culture, hunting and fishing are the thain industries. Schools are provided. There is a good hotel at Dyerville, and a general store.
Blocksburg and Bridgeville are two of the oldest towns in the southern part of the county. Both are located on the overland road. Bridgeville is forty-eight miles south of Eureka and on the Van Duzen river. Blocksburg is seventy nules from Eureka. Both have hotel accommodations, schools and stores. The population is nominal. Stock-raising is a principal industry. Hundreds of turkeys are also annually raised in that section and driven to market at holiday time. This is the heart of a splendid apple country.
Alderpoint is one of the newest towns in the county, located on the over- land road and the Northwestern Pacific Railway, now building. It is in the extreme southern part of the county, eighty-one miles from Eureka. It has a natural location for a trade center. In the summer its climate is ideal. In the past surrounding lands have been used for grazing cattle and sheep. Many orchards are now being planted. There are school and hotel facilities and a number of small stores. There is only a small population.
Situated two miles north of Blue Lake, twenty-two miles distant from Eureka, located on and the present terminus of the Arcata & Mad River Railroad, is the town of Korbel, containing a population of some 300. Korbel is a mill town, the Northern Redwood Company owning the land and practically all of the industries. A large mill is operated there, and employs many men. Surround- ing level land is used for the growing of small fruits, poultry raising, etc. Aside from the lumber industry, the chief asset of Korbel is its scenic beauty. There is a large tourist hotel, perhaps the finest in the county, and hundreds of outsiders visit the resort each summer. There are excellent fishing and hunting. Nowhere in the county is the scenery of Korbel excelled. There are schools and the usual number of business establishments.
Blue Lake is an incorporated city situated twenty miles north of Eureka. It is on the Arcata & Mad River Railroad, which connects at Arcata with the Northwestern Pacific Railway. Within the school district there is a population of 1000. Surrounded by heavily timbered hills, and above the fog belt, Blue Lake has an almost perfect climate, unexcelled by any place on the coast. The fertile acres surrounding the town are used for dairying, general ranching, and the raising of berries and small fruits. These, with the lumbering industry, are the chief support of the town. The town is the principal distributing point for all of northern Humboldt. Mines on the Klamath and Trinity are supplied with the necessities through this gateway. The mining industry is largely undeveloped, and has an immense future before it.
Blue Lake has a grammar school, high school privileges. Catholic, Presby- terian and Methodist churchies. and the usual number of fraternal societies,
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social clubs, etc. There is a development board, newly organized. It has an excellent water system, an efficient fire department, electric lights, telephones and all modern conveniences. In addition to the daily train service, passenger auto trucks place the town in quick communication with the county seat. Trades in all lines are represented, the business district being such as is usually found in towns of this size. There is a weekly newspaper, the Blue Lake Advocate. Lands may be purchased at reasonable figures and newcomers are welcomed to the community.
Samoa is located on the peninsula across the bay from Eureka. The Ham- mond Lumber Company owns the town and operates immense saw mills, mould- ing mills, etc., employing some 500 men. The company has built a number of substantial houses for the workmen, and the population numbers about 250. Other workmen reside in Eureka. There is an hourly ferry service between the peninsula and the mainland. The peninsula is narrow and the Pacific ocean lies adjacent to the town, a favorite spot during the spring and summer. The dis- tance from Eureka to the wharf line at Samoa is approximately a mile and a half.
Carlotta is a summer resort located twenty-eight miles south of Eureka. It is on the Northwestern Pacific Railway, being the terminal of the branch line which connects at Alton, six miles distant. It is in the heart of the redwoods. Logged-off or open lands grow unexcelled berries and small fruits. Stages from Carlotta connect with the inland towns of southern Humboldt. Ranchers in that section outfit at Carlotta, thus making it an important shipping point. There is an excellent hotel there and the fishing and hunting are superb. The population is nominal. Opportunities are numerous for the prospective settler.
CHAPTER XIX.
Promotive Activities.
One of the most striking features of the development of Humboldt county during the last few years is the organization of a number of societies whose aim is the material advancement of the affairs of the county. As in many other instances of community development throughout the United States, the most important factor in this work is the education of public sentiment to a realization of the importance of maintaining a live organiza- tion in the field, ever ready to take advantage of each opportunity which makes for the betterment of physical and social conditions.
A few years before 1912, there had been several noticeable failures among business men to get together for the purpose of promoting the gen- eral welfare. At Eureka a real estate exchange was organized, but it was difficult to raise much money, so that after a few years the subscriptions lapsed and the organization went to pieces. Similar experiences had been met with in other communities, and the outlook was discouraging.
The Sunset Magazine, of San Francisco, and some other publications had done sporadic work in the line of advocating a get-together movement in the county and Jack London had come to Humboldt county to interest the people in a book, which he wrote for the purpose of bringing tourists into this section.
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Early in 1912-about June 16-Leigh H. Irvine, then managing editor of the Humboldt Times of Eureka, called a meeting of business men for the purpose of discussing the advisability of starting a promotion and develop- ment organization. They met at the office of A. J. Johnsen, a real estate agent, but the principal speakers said it would be impossible to raise any money. W. S. Clark, afterwards elected mayor, said $2000 could not be raised in two years.
Mr. Irvine called another meeting, however, and began a vigorous campaign in behalf of community development plans in the columns of the Humboldt Times. He was ably assisted in this matter by editors throughout the county, and by October 19, at a meeting of the Federated Commercial Bodies of Humboldt County, held in the rooms of the Chamber of Commerce, the eminent Judge George Rowe, a pomologist of national reputation, being present, Mr. Irvine made a vigorous address in favor of bringing somebody to Humboldt county for the purpose of starting its promotion activities.
A few weeks later a man of the name R. R. Wilson was brought from Seattle to take charge of the work. He remained for some months, and with the aid of a vigorous committee and newspaper support the committee raised pledges amounting to almost $55,000 for a campaign planned to last three years.
The following gentlemen took a prominent part in the work of that organization : William S. Clark, Eureka ; Dr. F. M. Bruner, Ferndale : C. D. Daly, Eureka; Henry Brizard, Arcata ; J. F. Coonan, Eureka ; Ralph W. Bull, Arcata : C. H. Palmtag, Eureka ; Leon Baker, Blue Lake; J. E. Merriam, Blue Lake; L. F. Puter, Eureka; Brousse Brizard, Bald Mountain; H. L. Ricks, Eureka; E. B. Bull, Ft. Seward; E. A. Leach, Eureka ; C. J. McCon- naha, Trinidad; L. C. Everding, Korbel; A. E. McLaren, Eureka; F. H. Bertsch, Loleta; C. H. Wright, Loleta; W. H. Perrott, Loleta; H. L. Jack- man, Eureka ; S. V. Morrison, Ferndale: Walter Coggeshall, Eureka; J. H. Ring, Ferndale ; B. E. Porter, Eureka; E. W. Haight, Fortuna; John Gaar- den, Fortuna; J. J. Krohn, Arcata; B. F. Stern, Eureka; G. H. Burchard, Arcata ; C. H. Elsner, Eureka; W. A. Preston, Arcata ; L. C. Morgan, For- tuna. Hundreds of others joined the movement later.
Under this organization vigorous work was begun for the purpose of inducing a farm advisor to locate in Humboldt county. Within a few months Dean Hunt, of the State University, detailed Prof. A. H. Christian- sen to visit Humboldt county and make it later his permanent home as farm advisor. He began his work, his expenses being paid by the Humboldt Promotion and Development Committee, which was the name of the organ- ization formed, but his salary has been and is still paid by the State Uni- versity itself. The work of the farm advisor has been considered one of the most important enterprises ever undertaken in Humboldt county, which obtained a great deal of splendid publicity by reason of the fact that it was the first county in the State to be favored and honored by having a special soil analyst and agricultural expert detailed to come and live among its people.
Professor Christiansen began his work about July, 1913, and worked thoroughly and vigorously in every section of the county, immediately establishing all kinds of farm plots for the elucidation of agricultural in- formation and the education of the public. In describing his mode of opera-
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tion recently he spoke as follows: "The plan which I am putting forth is, in short, this-that each center chooses a topic, say the first topic may be lime and its uses in the way of improving the soil. We would discuss lime from its formation in the crude lime rocks down to the various forms as they appear on the market, hydrated limes, water-slacked lime, air-slacked lime, caustic lime, calcium carbonate, calcium oxide, etc., following out the changes of one lime to another, and how one is converted into the other. I have planned to make this as simple and non-technical as possible, although dipping enough into chemistry so that when we speak of a carbonate we can do so and have the audience understand all we are talking about.
"My purpose is to fix the limes in the minds of each one of the farmers so he will know how much one lime is worth in terms of any other that may be on the market; how much lime rock for instance he would be justi- fied in using on his land : how much he ought to pay for this lime rock, as compared with what he was paying for caustic lime; how much air-slacked lime or hydrated lime he would be apt to get from a ton of caustic lime, etc."
The Professor is going into many other practical phases of agriculture and he says when each member of the agricultural centers which he is establishing is thoroughly at home with lime so that he will know a special kind of lime when he sees it, on what class of soil to use one class of lime and what kind would be benefited by another kind,-in short, how to know lime thoroughly,-then we would pass on, he says, to a subject like balanced rations and discuss proteids, carbohydrates, fats, and their relation to one another. He would then carry them into the question of balanced rations and the rotation of crops.
For carrying on studies of this kind, Professor Christiansen has been retained for two years in advance of the term that he had been engaged for, by resolution of the supervisors of the county, passed early in May, 1914, and will remain with the county.
Another important matter which was taken up by the organization was the question of good roads. Engineer Burrell, of the Federal Bureau of Highways, visited Humboldt county and gave several public addresses. Not only did he do this, but he drew an extensive plan of roads which was afterwards taken up by the people, although nothing substantial has been done at this date (1914) on the subject. The work, however, has roused public sentiment and led to other matters of great interest, as we shall see. This brings us to the state highway.
The State Highway question and the building of a system of county roads are closely interwoven. A great convention was called in August, 1913, for the purpose of discussing what was known as good roads in three states. The convention was called the Three States Good Roads Rally, and was attended by Governor Hiram Johnson, of California, and Governor Ernest Lister, of Washington. Governor West, of Oregon, could not come, owing to the fact that Secretary Franklin K. Lane, of the Interior Depart- ment, was at that time his guest at Portland, Ore. Hundreds of delegates came to the convention which held a great banquet at the Vance House and at that time there was born in the people the spirit and ambition of good road builders. Humboldt county had always been more or less famous, however, for the good character of its roads.
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Following the Three States Good Roads Rally there was more or less desultory talk about good highways, but it did not come into very promi- nent and active operation as a public movement until February, 1914.
A little before this time Leigh H. Irvine had been appointed Secretary of the Humboldt Promotion and Development Committee, and when he was called upon by Engineer Sommer, division engineer for Northern California, he discovered that there was apathy among the supervisors and the public at large, so a hurried meeting of the executive committee was called, prac- tically in the nature of a conference of the directors, and vigorous steps were taken to bring to bear upon the supervisors the influence of the heavy property owners in behalf of good roads. To cut the story short, it may be said that the vigorous work of the Promotion Committee saved the day and made possible the buying of $1,500,000 worth of bonds by the super- visors of the county for the purpose of guaranteeing a splendid state high- way from the northern boundary of Humboldt county to its extreme south- ern boundary. Fifty or sixty property owners were induced by the secre- tary and the committee to call upon the supervisors and a similar call one week later was made by fifty or sixty more prominent property owners, who were greatly aided by District Attorney Hill, who made it plain to the supervisors that it would be possible to buy the bonds to the amount desired by the committee, if certain methods were followed.
It was then necessary to explain to audiences throughout the county, and this was done by the secretary, who made it clear to a number of chambers of commerce, women's clubs, and other civic organizations, that the purchase of a million and a half dollars' worth of bonds would practi- cally cost the county nothing-that it would in reality work a great saving of funds for the county.
The difficulty which confronted Humboldt county, like that which con- fronted a great many other counties at that time, was that there was a general misunderstanding of the meaning of a bond purchase. The law was such that the State could not sell the bonds for less than par, but they were below par and a slow investment; so the State was compelled to rely upon its friends for the purchase of the bonds. By buying these bonds in lots or installments of $150,000 each, it was explained that the loss could not exceed five or six per cent of the sum, that being the difference between the market value and the par value of the bonds. Thus, after the people began to understand that they could get $1,500,000 worth of highways at a cost not to exceed $60,000 or $70,000, and that as soon as the highways were finished the State would have to take care of them and that the county would save about $50,000 a year in the upkeep, there was enthusiasm in favor of the bond purchase.
The Promotion Committee held a number of meetings with other organ- izations, had a number of committees appointed, and induced many organ- izations to pass resolutions in favor of the bonds, so that at the end of a few weeks there was a great change in the tide of public opinion, and the supervisors were cheered when they bought the first $150,000 worth of bonds.
As an evidence of the successful operation of modern promotive efforts it should be said that the fight was not then over. The committee realized that it would be necessary to make a specific contract with the State High-
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way Commission, under the terms of which they would guarantee that every dollar expended by Humboldt county for the purchase of bonds would be immediately expended, or expended as soon as possible, for the building of highways in Humboldt county.
To make this matter absolutely certain a committee consisting of Capt. Walter Coggeshall, C. H. Palmtag, Henry Brizard, and Thomas Hine, was detailed to go to Sacramento and San Francisco for the purpose of inter- viewing the State Highway Commissioners and inducing them to live up to the promises which the committee had made the supervisors and the people of Humboldt county.
Capt. Walter W. Coggeshall was chairman of the committee and on his return to Eureka he reported that the State Highway Commission had acceded to the terms of the contract as outlined by the promotion commit- tee, and that it was recorded in the minutes of the meeting of the highway commission that the commission would authorize the construction of high- ways in Humboldt county at all times to the extent of the purchase by Humboldt county, and under the terms of the arrangement made between the promotion committee and the supervisors.
About this time great activities throughout the county were noticeable in the way of promoting agricultural, industrial, and manufacturing inter- ests. The promotion committee began its work of attempting to get great paper-mills established somewhere in proximity to Humboldt bay. It ob- tained reports from expert makers of paper to the effect that the ordinary redwood waste, which is destroyed to the extent of hundreds of thousands of tons each year in the woods and around the mills, would make splendid paper by the sulphite process. A number of analyses indicated that the redwood waste gave a long fiber and that the bleaching presented no diffi- culties that could not be overcome on a practical and economic basis. It was shown that the paper is susceptible of a high polish and might be made into the finest grades of stationery and book paper. The results of the various experiments conducted at practical mills were in evidence in the form of a number of beautiful samples of wrapping paper, of a high grade of tough, glazed white paper, and of the very finest samples of paper for cor- respondence. The report of practical chemists and manufacturers indicated their absolute confidence in the practicability of a paper-mill in Humboldt county and some of them expressed the belief that with the completion of the jetties and the coming of the canal, freight rates would be low enough to enable the paper-mills around Humboldt bay, if established, to compete, if occasion should require, with the mills of the East on their own ground.
C. Stowell Smith, assistant District Forester of the United States De- partment of Agriculture in San Francisco, also made some experiments with paper and reported that the paper-making fibers from redwood were excellent if properly prepared-strong, fairly thick-walled, slender, and long -in fact, two-thirds longer than most fibers.
Immediately after these reports were made public in a number of speeches by the secretary of the promotion committee and by articles in the newspapers there was renewed interest in manufacturing in Humboldt county, and that interest is the most remarkable of the new commercial features and industrial activities of today.
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The Humboldt Chamber of Commerce, under the able management and secretaryship of Secretary George A. Kellogg, has always stood for the welfare of the county and has been foremost in those activities which look to the building up of great commercial enterprises. Secretary Kellogg, in the course of a number of years of active experience, has collected a large amount of statistics which are invaluable. He has always been remarkably accurate and free from the boost or boom spirit so unreliable and mislead- ing in many other communities of the United States.
The Chamber of Commerce of Humboldt county, as the pioneer promo- tive organization, has always deserved great credit for the thoroughness of its labors. Somewhat conservative in its plan of operation, it nevertheless stands as the fundamental organization making for the betterment of the county. The promotion and development committee is carrying on its activities as a branch of the Humboldt Chamber of Commerce.
Late in 1913 the Eureka Development Association, consisting of about three hundred members, was organized for the purpose of looking out specifically for the welfare of Eureka. It is today a prosperous organiza- tion under the secretaryship of Charles H. Roberts, a former newspaperman of Eureka. It spends several hundred dollars each month and its work in no way conflicts with that of the Chamber of Commerce and the promotion committee, whose activities are more specially county-wide, although neither organization is prohibited from doing anything within reason for the ad- vancement of the interests of any town in the county or of the welfare of the people at large, except that the promotion committee is not permitted to spend any of its funds for the purpose of advancing the interests of any special town.
All the towns and the districts of the county are active to a greater or less extent in the field of promotion and commercial activities. Loleta has a board of trade, which is doing effective work; Blue Lake has a develop- ment board, which is always active; Ferndale has a chamber of commerce that has taken part in many important enterprises; Fortuna has a board of trade which has never failed to be active at the right moment; and Arcata boasts of a chamber of commerce which did a great deal of effective work in obtaining the Normal School, and which is always wide-awake when the interests of Arcata are involved.
Besides these organizations every one of the commercial bodies of the county is a member of the Federated Commercial Bodies of Humboldt County. The dairymen have an organization which is active in that line, the lumbermen and shinglemen have their organization, and no field is neglected. Secretary Frank J. Cummings of the Dairymen's Association is a scholarly man and an efficient secretary in his line of endeavor.
It would probably be difficult to find any county in California of any- thing like the population of Humboldt that is giving more time and atten- tion to the development of its resources, or that is spending more money per capita each year for the activities of its commercial organizations. Eureka alone spends more than $2500 each month to maintain its many organizations of this character and carry on the work outlined by them.
To sum up the activities of all these commercial bodies, it might be said that they are trying to get ready for that new time which is certain to confront the people of Humboldt county when the state highway is com-
9
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HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY
pleted, when the Northwestern Pacific Railroad Company's trains begin to run from Eureka to San Francisco bay, and when the jetties are finished, the bay dredged, and the ships of the world will be able to come through the Panama Canal and land at the port of Eureka.
These organizations place much store on the fact that the great red- wood belt, the rivers, and the lagoons, together with many other spots of scenic beauty will lure tourists from all parts of California, if not from the world. They are trying to build up an interest in hotels and resorts, as well as in all other lines which will cater to the tourist trade. They are fond of calling Humboldt county the playground of the west and are doing everything in their power to build up a tourist trade in this direction. They base much of their hope in this line on the fact that the climate around Humboldt bay is the coolest summer climate on the American continent, the hottest day ever known having been one when the ther- mometer barely reached 85 degrees above zero.
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