Foreword
The third grades at Sunset School produced this history of Arcata as a Social Studies project. The focus of the third grade curriculum is continuity and change. We chose to write about the continuity and change in our own community. This book is the product of our research and writing. It reflects what we have learned about the his tory of our community, Arcata. As explorers gathered information about the Humboldt Bay area, they noted the many compelling features of this place: the relatively mild climate, the abundance of game, edible vegetation and trees for building, the ease of access through the bay and the friendliness of the Wiyots. Later, gold-seekers would come to Northern California, the beginning of a massive movement west. Needing the services of suppli ers, lenders and transporters, the miners spread the word about the ideal conditions and opportunities for wealth to be found here, opening the way for rapid settlement by people wishing to move west.
History should be a story well told. It was in the oral tradition, from one generation to the next, that the indigenous people, the Wiyots, passed on their history and culture. But with the rapid loss of so many of their people following the influx of settlers, much of the evidence of Arcata's (pre-European) history has been left unrecorded. We were fortunate to have been able to interview one of the surviving descendants of these earliest of Arcata area residents, as well as the Humboldt State University ITEP Director, a native resident and member of the Hupa In dian tribe. As a result of this, we were able to record a small bit of what is known about their ancient culture. In an effort to preserve a part of Arcata's comparatively brief (European) settlement period, the third grades at Sunset School have captured here on paper the oral recollections of life in Arcata that were related to them by some of
The Union: A Record of Our Town
Monica Hadley..................................10
The Wiyots
Cheryl Seidner..................................13
Food and Medicinal Plants of Humboldt
County Indians
LoisRisling .....................16
Archaeologists Uncover Early History
Rebecca Howard.......................... .....l9
EarlySettlementsMap...........................22
The Arcata Police Department
Betty Hosterman ...............................23
The Arcata Fire Department
Archie Bernardi.................................26
The Minor Theatre
Louann Kinsey..................................29
Arcata and Local Railroad History
Marcus Mitchell-Brown........................32
A. Brizard Brings Service to the Area
Wally Appleton ................................35
Life in Arcata and Korbel
Marino Sichi ...................................39
Growing Up and Living in Arcata
Patti Hawkes ....................42
Lumber Mills of Arcata
BillNorris .......................................45
The Arcata School District: Over the Years
Oden Hansen, Robert Goss, and S. Lee Hawkins ..48
A Few of Our Historians......................53
Monica Hadley spoke to us about the Arcata Union newspaper, which is now 105 years old. The Arcata Union, a weekly newspaper, was founded in 1886 by Austin Wiley. Austin Wiley had come to California from Paris, Illinois during the Gold Rush. He was twenty-four years old. He didn't find any gold, so he came to Eureka. Here, he worked for the Humboldt Times newspaper. He and a partner bought it and he became the publisher. He left when he was elected to the 6tate legislature. Presi dent Lincoln then appointed him Superintendent of In dian Affairs for California. While he was superintendent, he helped end the "Indian wars" and formed the Hupa Indian Reservation. In 1886, Austin Wiley came to
Arcata and founded the Arcata Union newspaper, which he ran for ten years before "turning the paper over" to his sons, Reese and Fred. The Wiley family owned the paper for fifty-one years.
Gene Smith and Robert Matthews bought The Arcata Union from the Wileys, but only owned it for about a year and a half before Gordon and Monica Hadley bought it. The Hadley family published the paper for forty-seven years and sold it in 1986 when the paper was one hundred years old. There have been three owners since then. Patrick O'Dell owns it now.
Mrs. Hadley explained to us what the paper was like in the beginning. She brought several very old copies of the paper to show us. These papers only had four pages, the print was much smaller, and the size of the page itself was different in different copies. There were no photographs and the news was often a month old. There wasn't much local news and there were advertisements on the front page. Now the paper has 18-20 pages.
The advertisements showed that prices were different then. In one of the old papers, there were 5-button kid gloves advertised for 50 cents, men's suits for $15.00, Turkish towels for 8 cents each, and a yard of camelhair cloth for 47 cents! Flour was $4.50 a barrel.
The Arcata Union has had four locations. It began in a small building located behind the Jacoby Building, where they published a 4-page paper with a hand press. Then it moved Uptown" to the Vaissade building on H Street. From 1901-1976, it was at the corner of the Plaza in the building where Julie's Arcata Florist is today. In 1976, it moved to where it is now, on H Street. Mrs. Hadley told us that they had to take out one of the walls to remove the presses from the old building on the Plaza before they could be taken to the new building. She brought a picture of the building on the Plaza that shows the Plaza fenced in with cows around a gazebo. That building will become a historical landmark. It has been a
bar, a tailor shop, and a post office (Reese Wiley was the postmaster).
Mrs. Hadley told us about some of the important things that happened when her family owned the paper. Once, the newspaper office in Crescent City was damaged by water and that newspaper had to be printed in Arcata. Also, during World War II, Redwood Park was used by people living in trailers. Mrs. Hadley said, "It was a mess." The city council took over the park and improved it. This was very important news at the time.
For 39 years, Mrs. Hadley wrote a column called Party Line which was on a page called Women's News. It was about local news and her own ideas about things. She started writing the column after her husband asked a friend what would improve the paper. The friend said that a personal column would be good and her husband asked Mrs. Hadley to write it. In the summertime she asked guest columnists to write columns for her and over 120 people did! Before she began to write the column, she had been a P.E. teacher at Humboldt State (H.S.U.) for 13 years. She still writes a column for the paper every two weeks. This is a more serious column.
Monica Hadley taught us that newspapers are important to all of us. You can learn about what's happen ing today and what has happened in the past.
Cheryl Seidner is 3/4 Wiyot Indian. The Wiyots lived in the Arcata area and almost as far north as Little River, just south of Trinidad. They lived as far south as a little past Ferndale and east to the foothills and lower mountains. Her dad was from the Eel River area and her mom was from Indian Island in Humboldt Bay. One of her ancestors survived the Indian Island massacre on February 26, 1860. He was a baby when this occurred.
Cheryl Seidner brought lots of Indian baskets and shared them with us. Some of them were over 100 years old. One was a cooking basket. It had to be tightly woven or all the food would come out. The Wiyots cooked by putting hot rocks in the baskets and stirring the food so it, and the baskets, wouldn't burn.
Another was a burden basket. It was big and cone shaped. It was carried on the back and held on with a strap on the head. When the Wiyots picked up things they had to bend their knees, because if they leaned over, what was already in the basket would fall out.
The acorn pounding basket was shaped like a funnel and was put over a hole in a rock. The basket kept the acorn meal from shooting out while it was being ground.
The huckleberry basket had spaces in the weaving so the Wiyots could shake the bugs, leaves, and sticks out of the huckleberries.
Ms. Seidner brought 2 doll-sized baby baskets. She wa~ only 9 years old when she got them. Her mother never let her play with them. Now she's thankful, because she still has them. She said that the baskets were made of willow sticks. Regular-sized baby baskets are used today and they protect the baby from getting hurt.
Some of the baskets were made by her grandmother, who was an excellent basketmaker. When Ms. Siedner was 25, she and her grandmother gathered basket materials. It took 4 days. They had to soak the willow sticks, bear grass and ferns, so they would be easier to weave. Then her grandmother showed her how to start her first basket. Her grandmother made her take it apart five times because she wanted it to be perfect. Ms. Seidner didn't get it perfect, and she never did finish it, but she still has the unfinished basket.
Ms. Seidner also brought many old necklaces. They were made of periwinkle, abalone, clam and dentalium shells. Trader beads, juniper seeds, and pine nuts were also used. Long ago, the Wiyots put the juniper seeds and pine nuts in an ant hill so the ants would drill holes in them and eat out the insides.
All the shells and the trader beads were used as money. When Ms. Seidner was little, she called periwinkles "penny" winkles because she knew they were
worth money.
The necklaces weren't worn every day. They were worn in traditional dances and both men and women wore them. The movements of the dancers wearing many necklaces made clicking, rattling, bell-like sounds.
Cheryl Seidner's parents taught her to first be proud of who she is, Cheryl. They told her everyone is created by the Creator and is special. They also said there were only 800 to 1,000 Wiyots left and she should be proud to be one. Ms. Seidner thinks all people should find out about their own heritage and know about their own cultures.
Ms. Lois Risling is a Hupa Indian whose family has lived in this area for many years. She came to talk to us about how Humboldt County Indians used plants for food and medicine.
The Wiyot Indians of the Arcata area had many things to eat. They ate elk and deer. They caught salmon in the ocean and eel in the rivers. They also ate many native plants. One of their most important plant foods was acorns, which they traded shells and baskets for with the Indians to the east. Ms. Risling told us about the
kinds of acorns the local Indians used to make acorn mush, soup, bread and candy.
There are 57 different kinds of oak that grow in California. The Indians of this area ate the Tan Oak acorns. They ate this kind because it grows in this area, and are the sweetest acorns that grow here. Ms. Risling explained how acorns were gathered and prepared for use.
Acorns were gathered during the fall, because they were the driest then. Then the acorns were put outside to dry for about two days. Next, the acorns were cracked with a pestle. The acorns that were rotten or had been eaten by worms were thrown away. It took about a week to find enough good acorns.
The acorns were ground into a powder and then leached so the bitterness would be taken out. Then it was used to make many foods. Candy was made by sticking the acorns in the ground for six weeks to four months. When it was dug up, it looked like black licorice and was very sweet.
Many other native plants were used by local Indians for food and medicine, also. The Hupa Indians would crush manzanita berries into a flour for bread. They would boil bay laurel leaves and sniff the tea for sinus problems. Hupas used the berries to cure kidney problems. Madrone leaves would be chewed and then put on cuts or sores so there wouldn't be a scar. Boiled greasewood leaves were also used for poison oak and sores. These are just a few of the many kinds of plants that were used.
Ms. Risling also told us an old Coyote story that was told by her people. In the story, Coyote was lying in the grass when he saw some pretty girls dancing in the sky. He called up to them that he would come up to join them. Coyote went to his grandmother, who was a spider, and had her make him a huge net. Then he went to his friend Redwood Tree and gave him the net. When Redwood Tree bent down to pick up the net, Coyote jumped
in. The tree was so surprised he stood up, and Coyote went flying up into the sky. He landed right next to the pretty women. They told him to dance, and he danced and danced and danced. He got hungry, but he couldn't stop to eat. He got thirsty, but he couldn't stop for a drink. Finally, he was 80 tired that he begged to be let go.
As he fell, he saw his friend Eagle and called out for help. Although Coyote had stolen Eagle's fish many times, Eagle was a gentleman and he caught Coyote. When Eagle flew over Redwood Tree, he dropped Coyote into the Grandmother's net, and Coyote became badly tangled in it, especially his tail. So now you know, when you see a coyote, why he has such a messy tail.
Rebecca Howard came to tell us how the archaeologists dug up the site where the Arcata Sports Complex now is being developed. She explained that this area was at the edge of the bay and had been a marsh. Archaeolo gists were called there to dig first, because after a building was put there they could not go underneath it to find artifacts that may have been left there by the Wiyot Indians, the area's first inhabitants. If a building had been put there first, they might have missed a big part of the Wiyot Indians' history. Also, when taxpayers' money is put into a new building or project, the law says that an Indian from the tribe that lived in that area needs to be
present to help the people who are digging find and study artifacts that might be found. Artifacts that are found and studied are returned to the Indians of that tribe.
The archaeologists and their helpers found some artifacts left by the Wiyot Indians that told them about how this site may have been used. The archaeologists found some obsidian flakes and projectile points, and fishing net weights for making the net sink to the bottom so the fish couldn't get away. Since they didn't find very many, they guessed that this was a hunting camp area. If this had been a village site, they probably would have found such things as campfire rings, clam spoons, and other items that might be found in a living area. Some of the artifacts could be about one thousand years old. Archaeologists can tell how old obsidian points are by testing the dryness of the chips because obsidian starts to dry as soon as it is chipped. (Indians used hammer stones to break obsidian into smaller pieces. Then they used an antler to chip the obsidian into projectiles. Indians used pieces of leather to protect their hands from being cut by the sharp obsidian.)
Ms. Howard told us that many tools had been used to dig up the Wiyot artifacts that they found. First the bulldozers dug up the grass. One of the Wiyot Indians, who had been chosen to help the city, watched what they did and looked for artifacts. Artifacts were found, so they called an archaeologist to decide if they should dig. The archaeologists said they should, so they dug a row of ditches with shovels. Two or three inches of dirt were removed at a time. They put the dirt on a screen and washed and shook it. They looked at what was left on the screen to find artifacts.
The archaeologists found about 30 artifacts at the site. The items found will be studied and then returned to the Wiyot Indians.
We learned a lot about the Wiyots from Rebecca Howard. It was interesting to learn how archaeologists dig for artifacts.
Mrs. Betty Hosterman was born in the old Trinity Hospital and has lived in Arcata all her life. She was a teacher at Sunset School for many years. Mrs. Hosterman came to talk to us about the history of the Arcata Police Department, and what it was like to grow up as the daughter of one of Arcata's Chief of Police.
Many people came to Arcata when it was first settled because it was a center for trade routes and had good farmland around it. In 1850, there were only 190 people living in Arcata, and only 58 of them were women. By 1860, it had grown to 654 people. The Plaza was the
center of town life. There were twelve stores on the Plaza. Many of them had to do with horses, because they were the main forrn of transportation then. Some of the stores were: a saddle maker, harness maker, blacksmiths, and wagon shops. There was a gunsmith store, a jeweler, and a tinshop, too.
Arcata was growing so fast that the people decided they needed some rules. There was only one policeman in Arcata at that time, and he was called the Town Marshall. The Town Marshall did not have any special uniform until 1928. He had to provide his own transpor tation and pistol. The only thing the city gave him (be sides his pay) was a badge.
The Town Marshall had to make sure that the town's people obeyed the law. Some of the laws were: no loud noise, no fighting on public streets, no horse racing (for money or fun), no shooting of guns or pistols, and no bad language, especially in front of children and ladies. Anyone under sixteen had to be off the streets by eight o'clock at night. There were many laws about drinking and gambling, too.
Before the town had cars, the Town Marshall had to watch for people who were riding their horses faster than a trot. When cars arrived, it was unlawful to drive faster than 8 miles an hour, and no faster than 5 miles an hour around corners. If you were caught doing any of these things, you would have to pay no more than $50.00, or work around town to help pay your fine. Besides keeping the peace, the Town Marshall also had to put in and take care of all the wooden sidewalks and the street lamps, and collect the taxes.
In September of 1870, the first jail was built in Arcata, on 8th St. between "C" and "D." Later, in 1905, it was replaced by a second jail. It was a very small jail, only 20 feet square and 12 feet high. Its walls were 19 inches thick and had tiny windows with iron bars. It was
the Town Marshall's job to take care of the jail and its prisoners.
In 1876, the City Council hired a nightwatchman to help the Town Marshall. The nightwatchman was paid $40.00 a month and the Town Marshall was paid $50.00. On July 31, 1894, the Arcata Police Department was begun and the Town Marshall's named changed to the Chief of Police. The nightwatchman became the first regular policeman.
Mrs. Hosterman's father, L.T. Walter, became Chief of Police in 1925. He was Chief for 17 years. His office was in the old City Hall that used to stand across from the Arcata Hotel. Mr. Walter bought the first Police Department car in 1936. He also bought Arcata's second police car, and its first specially painted car in 1948.
Mrs. Hosterman remembered how fun it was when she was a little girl and she and her father would lead town parades. She also remembered her mother squeezing her hand so she would say "Hi" to the people they'd meet downtown. She brought in old pictures, Indian baskets, dolls and her father's badge to share with us that day.