Humboldt Bay
Humboldt Bay ferries, owned by the Cousins Company. Undated.
Humboldt Bay and its entrance are central to our county’s history. The bay in its current form didn’t exist until 1700 when a massive earthquake enlarged an existing lagoon, also realigning the tributaries into it and the exit from it. Local Native American stories as well as geologic evidence confirm this.
For more than a century, those native inhabitants had this new bay largely to themselves – partly because the bay entrance was well disguised. From out to sea, waves breaking along the shallow bar and the view through to the bluffs beyond gave the impression of an unbroken coastline. In 1805, one Russian ship did find the entrance, but their report was not acted upon until 1849 when the discovery of gold in the Trinities set off a scramble to find a suitable port to access the gold fields.
The bay entrance, however, continued to be a problem. Often fog-enshrouded, it was also shallow and narrow. Ships could only safely enter if the tides and winds were right. Over the years, a number of ships wrecked spectacularly at the entrance. The rusted remains of some can still be seen today.
As near-bay communities grew in prosperity – first through gold and then through timber and dairy – it became essential to provide safe reliable entry to the bay’s ports. In the 1880s, federal funds were found to dredge the channel and begin constructing jetties on the north and south spits. The jetties were to keep sands from the spits out of the channel and to direct the tides to more forcibly clean out the bay entrance.
The first efforts at jetty building involved piling rock rubble on vegetative mats to form a sea wall. Use of larger rocks and then concrete blocks were tried next. Rail lines were built along both spits to carry the building materials and machinery that included large derricks. The community was so excited about these ongoing efforts that a “Humboldt Bar Celebration Day” and parade were held particularly honoring the local Congressman who arranged for the project.
But our Humboldt tides, waves and weather continued battering the jetties, and over the years repairs frequently had to be made. Then in the 1970s, a technology new to America was tried – the dolos. These were huge pressed-concrete objects shaped like enormous cufflinks that weighed over 40 tons each. Today these interlocking shapes continue to maintain our extended spits – even as our ocean continues to batter at them. Anyone visiting the spits today – for fishing or taking in the magnificent view – can tell that it remains an ongoing battle, requiring ongoing maintenance.
Other measures, of course, were needed to maintain our bay. A lighthouse was built on the north spit in 1856 and continued in use until the 1920s. Its guidance function was taken over by the tall fog horn towers that now stand by both jetties. On-going dredging continues to be required in our perpetually shallow bay.
In many ways, that bay has always been central to our life here. The Wiyot depended on it for fishing. And now commercial shipping by sea remains essential, while commercial and sports fishing, and even tourism bought by cruise ships are integral to our economy and way of life.
As in many things, it is a story of balance between the needs of the environment and those of human society. For those of us who live in Humboldt County, a fairly happy balance seems to have been struck.