In some ways, Fortuna is the archetypal American small town - in a Humboldt sort of way.  The Arcadia "Images of America" series book that is for sale at the Historical Society bookstore certainly shows that.  "Fortuna and the Eel River Valley" was written by Alex Service and Susan O'Hara on behalf of the Fortuna Depot Museum.

       With some 200 well-captioned historic photographs, we are shown the area from the 1850s and the first Euro-American settlers, up to the lively close-knit community it is today.  Though it went through several name changes, the town of Fortuna (now the third largest city in the county) was all about farming in the lush Eel River Valley and lumber in the surrounding hills.  And although some of the earliest to this area originally came to find gold, many of them actually made their fortunes supplying commercial goods to the inland miners.

       In this book, transportation to and through Fortuna is well covered with the dirt wagon roads, the paved auto roads, and the Northwestern Pacific Railroad connecting Humboldt to the outside world, as well as the ferries and bridges that allowed crossing the Eel.  The massive floods of that river left many photographic and living memories.

       Almost more powerful than economy, transportation and floods, what this book shows is the area's human history from the earliest settlers, to the schools, businesses, social clubs, timber workers, sports teams, fire fighters and bands -- all the things that make a community. Perhaps the most quintessential is the annual rodeo.  Running for over a century now, as the event's organizers are quoted as saying "the good old days are still happening every day at the Fortuna Rodeo". A glimpse of all of this is captured in this book.