Harte in Humboldt

Considering the beauty of the area, it’s not surprising that Humboldt County has had more than its share of artists and writers. But perhaps the one who made the biggest historical splash was Bret Harte.

            As a young man, Harte followed his family from New York to California in 1854. After traveling around and holding various jobs, he took a steamer from San Francisco to the small town of Arcata, then called Union, where his sister and her family lived.

            Working for a while as a tutor and school teacher, he then joined the staff of a newly formed newspaper The Northern California. The town had just lost its position as county seat to neighboring Eureka, and its one newspaper had moved there as well. Union residents wanted a paper of their own. On the small staff, Harte began working the printing press but quickly moved on to reporting and writing poems for the paper.

            Soon he was trusted enough to be made acting editor whenever his boss had to be out of town. It was one of those times that became a turning point in Harte’s career – and brought an end to his three years in Humboldt County.

            On Feb. 26, 1860, local white vigilantes massacred over sixty members of the Wiyot tribe who were conducting a religious ceremony on an island in Humboldt Bay. Shocked by this savagery, Harte wrote a long, outraged editorial headlined, “INDISCRIMINATE MASSACRE OF INDIANS, WOMEN AND CHILDREN BUTCHERED.”

            The scandalous story was picked up by San Francisco papers and many around the nation. Equally outraged, however, were some locals who thought the killings largely justified and feared that Harte’s story besmirched their town’s reputation. Violent opposition arose, including threats of lynching. The newspaper editor returned and, with apparent regret, accepted Harte’s resignation.

            The young man returned to San Francisco to begin what became a stellar literary career. By its end, he had published numerous popular stories of the rowdy west filling over twenty volumes. Many were set in Humboldt County, but others, though set elsewhere in frontier California, made use of the kind of situations and people he mingled with here – miners, woodsmen, Indians, gamblers, traders, Chinese, ranchers, and dance hall girls.

            Over the years, Arcata has been the center of lively passions and controversies. Decades before the recent dispute over the fate of a certain statue in the center of Arcata’s plaza, some locals suggested that it be replaced with a statue of our brave and humane literary great, Bret Harte. Not a bad idea.