Descriptive Summary
Administrative Information
Biography
Scope and Content
Descriptive Summary
Title: Fountain Humboldt County History Collection,
Date (inclusive): 1850-1903
Collection number: Mss65
Creator:
Susie Baker Fountain
Extent: 0.5 linear ft.
Repository:
University of the Pacific. Library. Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections
Shelf location: For current information on the location of these
materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
Language:
English.
Administrative Information
Access
Collection is open for research.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Fountain Humboldt County History Collection, Mss65,
Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
Biography
Humboldt County was formed in 1853 from Trinity County. It lies on the northwestern coast
of California and contains Cape Mendocino, the westernmost point of mainland Unites
States outside Alaska. The county has three principal rivers, the Klamath, the Eel and
the Trinity, as well as three major bays, Trinidad, Arcata and Humboldt. Gold mining
flourished in the heavily forested county during the 1850s and 1860s, and, as a result,
there were many battles with local Indians, culminating in the massacre of 1860. These
altercations led to the establishment of Fort Humboldt (1853) and the creation of the
state's largest Indian reservation at Hoopa Valley. For the past one hundred twenty-five
years lumbering has been the principal industry of the region. The County Seat is Eureka
(1856).
Scope and Content
This is a narrative history of Humboldt County (1850-1903), published serially in the
Blue Lake Advocate, (1964), and collected in an unbound scrapbook by the author, Susie
Baker Fountain. The collection also includes letters written (1903-04) by Eleanor E.
Tracy, a Humboldt Co. schoolteacher, that were compiled and annotated for publication in
the Blue Lake Advocate, (1964), by Harriet T. DeLong.