Eureka, California

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Eureka is the county seat of Humboldt County, California, USA. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 26,128. Eureka was founded in 1856, and soon became an important port city for northern California's logging and commercial fishing industries.

Located on Humboldt Bay, Eureka is part of the Redwood Empire.

Because of its proximity to Redwood National Park and Humboldt Redwoods State Park, Eureka is a popular tourist stop with many restaurants and motels. Of particular interest in Eureka are its harbor; historic Old Town, with its ornate, Victorian-style architecture; and the Humboldt Botanical Garden.

Eureka was voted as the #1 best small art town in John Villani's book "The 100 Best Small Art Towns In America".

Every 1st Saturday night of the month, Eureka Old Town sponsors an "Arts' Alive!" gala. More than 40 Eureka business as well as local galleries display local art to the public. Drinks and snacks are provided, as well as live music and performance art by musicians, jugglers and poets.

Eureka is the midpoint stop in the three day long kinetic sculpture race, a zany, 42 mile long race of artistic, bicycle powered machines that must prove themselves able to traverse mud, water, sand, gravel, and pavement.

Publications providing news to the Eureka area include the Times Standard, The Eureka Reporter and the Humboldt Sentinel, all produced in the city. Regional publications covering Eureka include the Northcoast Journal and the Lumberjack, both based in neighboring Arcata. All of Humboldt County's television stations (KIEM, KVIQ, KAEF, KEET) are based here, as well as commercial radio stations (KFMI, KRED and KATA.

Nearby institutions of higher learning include the College of the Redwoods and Humboldt State University. CR recently built a satellite campus location downtown.

Bayview, Cutten, Myrtletown, and Pine Hills are all census-designated areas within the Eureka metropolitan area.

For more than a decade, Eureka has been battling with a growing methamphetamine problem. The City also recently completed construction of a Multiple Assistance Center to provide transitional housing for a portion of the growing homeless population.

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Geography

Eureka is located at 40°47'24" North, 124°9'46" West (40.790022, -124.162752)Template:GR. Eureka is located on Humboldt Bay along California's northern coast.

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Demographics

Image:CAMap-doton-Eureka.png Image:Eureka.gif According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 37.4 km² (14.4 mi²). 24.50 km² (9.4 mi²) of it is land and 12.9 km² (5.0 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 34.60% water. As of the census2 of 2000, there were 26,128 people, 10,957 households, and 5,883 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,067.5/km² (2,764.5/mi²). There were 11,637 housing units at an average density of 475.5/km² (1,231.3/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 82.46% White, 1.63% Black or African American, 4.21% Native American, 3.55% Asian, 0.33% Pacific Islander, 2.71% from other races, and 5.10% from two or more races. 7.77% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 10,957 households out of which 25.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 34.8% were married couples living together, 14.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 46.3% were non-families. 35.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.26 and the average family size was 2.93.

In the city the population was spread out with 22.4% under the age of 18, 11.6% from 18 to 24, 28.9% from 25 to 44, 23.5% from 45 to 64, and 13.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 98.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.7 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $25,849, and the median income for a family was $33,438. Males had a median income of $28,706 versus $22,038 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,174. 23.7% of the population and 15.8% of families were below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 29.6% of those under the age of 18 and 11.1% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.

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History

The Wiyot and Yurok are the farthest-southwest people whose language has Algonquian roots. Their traditional homeland ranged from Mad River through Humboldt Bay (including the present cities of Eureka and Arcata) to the lower Eel river basin. Inland, their territory was heavily forested in ancient redwood. Their stretch of shoreland was mostly sandy, dunes and tidal marsh, not rocky cliffs, such as begin a bit further south.

Indian Island, formerly called Duluwat Island, was and is the center of Wiyot world. On the island a ceremonial dance was held to start the new year. The ceremony was called the World Renewal ceremony. All people were welcomed, no one was turned away. The ceremony lasted seven to ten days. It was held at the village site of Tutulwat on the northern part of the island. Traditionally the men would leave the island and return the next day with the day's supplies. The elders, women and children were left to rest on the island along with a few men.

They ate mostly clams and acorns and made long carved log canoes. Healers and ceremonial leaders were mostly women, who got their powers on mountain tops at night.

The Indians of the Humboldt Bay region were among the last in the United States to be contacted by whites. Spanish missions extended only as far north as San Francisco Bay. The Russian fur traders, whose 18th-century invasion in search of the sea otter devastated the Pomo, were unintersted in their sandy shorelands, not a sea-otter habitat. Destruction came to them at last with the invasion of Americans following their victory in the Mexican war.

Humboldt Bay was finally discovered by the seafaring exploration of Douglass Ottinger in 1850. White settlement followed immediately. A military post called Fort Humboldt was founded February 9, 1853. Among the miners, farmers, ranchers and loggers pouring into California, many settled at what is now Eureka. Relationships between the local whites and Indians became hostile, marked by raids and vigilante justice.

On February 25, 1860, the Wiyot experienced a tragic massacre which not only devastated their numbers, but has remained a pervasive part of their cultural heritage and identity. World Renewal ceremonies were being held at the village of Tutulwat, on "Indian Island" about a mile and a half offshore from Eureka in Humboldt Bay. The leader of the Humboldt Bay Wiyots was Captain Jim. He organized and led the ceremony to start a new year.

A group of Eureka men came to the island in the early morning after the ceremony was completed for the evening. They were armed with hatchets, clubs and knives. They left their guns behind so the noise of the slaughter would be only screams -- which don't carry far -- rather than gunshots. This was not the only massacre that took place that night. Two other village sites were raided, on the Eel River and on the South Spit. Reports of the number of Wiyots killed that night vary from 80 to 200.

The 1860 massacre was well documented for history and was reported in San Francisco and New York because a young American writer who would later use the pen name Bret Harte was working as a printer's helper and assistant editor at a local newspaper at the time, and his boss was temporarily absent, leaving Harte in charge of the paper. Harte published a detailed account condemning the event, writing, "a more shocking and revolting spectacle never was exhibited to the eyes of a Christian and civilized people. Old women wrinkled and decrepit lay weltering in blood, their brains dashed out and dabbled with their long grey hair. Infants scarcely a span along, with their faces cloven with hatchets and their bodies ghastly with wounds."

On the contrary, the Humboldt Times editorialized, "For the past four years we have advocated two—and only two—alternatives for ridding our country of Indians: either remove them to some reservation or kill them. The loss of life and destruction of property by the Indians for ten years past has not failed to convince every sensitive man that the two races cannot live together, and the recent desperate and bloody demonstrations on Indian Island and elsewhere is proof that the time has arrived that either the pale face or the savage must yield the ground."

The Times apparently represented the mainstream opinion in the area at the time. An investigation failed to identify a single perpetrator, although those who did the killing were rumored to be well known. Harte quit his job one month later and moved to San Francisco, where an anonymous letter published in a city paper is attributed to him, describing widespread community approval of the massacre.

The Wiyot people were decimated. They were corralled at Fort Humboldt. This was another California case of the Army protecting Indians from their own violent citizens. Survivors were herded mostly to Round Valley, establishd as an Indian ("reservation") within California.They kept escaping and returning to their homeland.

By 1850, there were about 2000 Wiyot and Karok people living within this area. After 1860 there was an estimated 200 people left. By 1910 there were less than 100 full blood Wiyot people living within Wiyot territory. This rapid decline in population was due to disease, slavery, target practice, protection, being herded from place to place (survivors' descendants describe this as "death marches"), and massacres.

In February 1886 around 300 Chinese were driven out of Eureka's now destroyed Chinatown when given 24 hours to leave town. Chinese were banned from Eureka and eventually purged from Humboldt county when racist fervor spread. In 1906 there were no Chinese in Humboldt County.[1]

Eureka remained the center of a remote frontier area accessible only by sea and stagecoach until construction of a railroad to San Francisco in 1914. The Redwood Highway (U.S. 101) reached Eureka in 1920.

In a step towards making amends for the 1860 massacre, in June of 2004 the Eureka City Council transferred 67 acres of Indian Island back to the Wiyot tribe. Tuluwat, the sacred Wiyot village of Indian Island, is currently being restored by the Wiyot tribe. Eureka businesses have stepped forward to donate supplies and trash barges, and the citizens of Eureka have donated to a Tuluwat restoration fund. It is hoped that soon the Wiyot will be able to once again perform their traditional world renewal ceremony upon the island, perhaps by 2007.[2]

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Architecture

Image:Pink lady in eureka.jpg Because of its northern isolation, much of the post-war redevelopment and urban renewal that other cities experienced bypassed Eureka. As a result, Eureka is resplendent with examples of 19th and early 20th century architecture and historic districts. David Gebhard, Professor of architectural history of Santa Barbara has remarked that Eureka is a west coast Williamsburg, Virginia, preserving extensive Victorian, Colonial Revival and Greek Revival neighborhoods.

Approximately 16% of the city contains important historical structures. 13 distinct districts have been identified which meet the criteria for the National Register of Historic Places. Among them are the 2nd Street District (10 buildings), 15th Street district (13 buildings) and the O Street district (43 buildings). Hillsdale Street, a popular and well-preserved district, contains 17 buildings of historic interest. In all, some 1,500 buildings have been recognized as qualifying for the National Register. The Eureka Heritage Society, a local architectural preservation group founded in 1973, has been instrumental in protecting and preserving many of Eureka’s fine Victorians.

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Points of interest

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References

  • "The 100 Best Small Art Towns in America", by John Villani; ISBN 1562614053
  • "Eureka: An Architectural View", by The Eureka Heritage Society, Inc; ISBN 0-9615004-0-9
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External links

Template:Mapit-US-cityscale Links to research about Eureka

Template:Cities of Humboldt County, Californiade:Eureka (Kalifornien)

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