Humboldt County
Eureka - Deep Water Port Facilities
Even in good weather, Humboldt Bay is difficult, if not impossible, to see from the ocean. As a result, it is believed that the earliest Anglo-European seafarers that explored the Northern California coast did not know of it's existence. (There is a fascinating theory that the reason that no early explorer found the bay is that it was not there before the earthquake of January 26, 1700.) Native Americans living in the region knew of the bay, of course, and the Wiyot People lived all around it, but it was not until 1806, when Jonathan Winship, an American ship captain, sailed past in the Boston ship O'Cain, that an outsider discovered it. Winship was hunting sea otter and one of the O'Cain's boats actually entered the bay (probably manned by Aleut Indians). Winship named it the Bay of Rezanov. (Winship was working for Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov's Russian-American Fur Company at the time.) Winship did not believe that the bay could be used by large ships because of the difficult entrance. His discovery attracted little attention and was soon forgotten.
In 1850, two groups of people rediscovered the bay at roughly the same time. Gold had been discovered in the Trinity River two years before and it was suddenly necessary to develop a viable transportation route to and from the region that would bypass the laborious inland trails through the Sacramento Valley. Dr. Josiah Gregg, led an expedition west from Weaverville in the Trinity River gold fields to the coast and arrived at the bay on December 20, 1849. He named his discovery Trinity Bay, perhaps thinking that the river that he found there was the Trinity River. Gregg then walked south to San Francisco to report his discovery. On April 9, 1850, Douglas Ottinger sailed the schooner Laura Virginia to the entrance and First Mate H.H. Bunne took one of the ship's small boats into the bay. Ottinger and Bunne named it Humboldt Bay in honor of Alexander von Humboldt, the famous German scientist and geographer. Gregg died shortly thereafter and Bunne's name not only stuck as far as the bay's name went, but also went on to be used for the county surrounding the bay and many other things in the area as well.
As settlement increased in the region around Humboldt Bay, the bay itself began to be developed to better handle increased use by larger and larger ships. Almost immediately after the Laura Virginia arrived, lumber products began to be shipped south to San Francisco and a world wide trade in forest products quickly grew in importance. In 1881, the Army Corps of Engineers began dredging operations within the bay and it's entrance. Wharfs were develped at several locations within the harbor, jetties were built to protect the entrance, and a lighthouse was established in the Samoa Dunes. Today, Humboldt Bay is the most important protected harbor on the northern coast of the United States between San Francisco and Coos Bay. It still ships some forest products and is the regional center for commercial fishing. It is also an important recreational resource as well as a critical haven for migratory birds transiting the Pacific Flyway.
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