Large birdseye view of Eureka, California, published for the Humboldt Times.
Includes a large panoramic view of Eureka and Humboldt Bay, with a key locating 79 locations. and text describing the virtues of Eureka and Humboldt County. The surrounding vignettes show a mixture of important commercial buildings, stately residences, maanufacturing and Riverfront Commerce.
The view is extremely rare, with only 1 example identified by OCLC (Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley). Reps locates a copy at the Society for California Pioneers and the California Historical Society.
Eureka, California, located on Humboldt Bay, the second largest bay in California, was largely unknown to European explorers. With the exception of a description of the Bay by Russian Explorers in 1806, the Bay was largely overlooked until its "discovery" in 1849. Shortly thereafter, Eureka was founded on its shore by the Union and Mendocino Exploring Companies. The city and the bay grew quickly during the gold rush era, as the town's proximity to the mines in the Trinity region and as an alternate route to the diggings to the south made the City and Harbor an attractive option to the San Francisco Delta.
Many of the first immigrants who arrived as prospectors were also lumbermen, and the vast potential for industry on the bay was soon realized, especially as many hopeful miners realized the difficulty and infrequency of striking it rich in the mines. By 1854, after only four years since the founding, seven of nine mills processing timber into marketable lumber on Humboldt Bay were in Eureka. A year later 140 lumber schooners operated in Humboldt Bay, supplying lumber to other booming cities along the Pacific Coast.
Eureka soon also developed a thriving fishing industry. Salmon fisheries sprang up along the Eel River as early as 1851, and within 7 years, 2,000 barrels of cured fish and 50,000 pounds of smoked salmon were processed and shipped out of Humboldt Bay annually, primarily from processing plants on Eureka's waterfront, which exist to this day. By 1858 the first of many ships built in Eureka was launched, beginning an industry that spanned many of years.