Humboldt County has seen its fair share of famous people pass through- the first one that comes to mind is Ulysses S. Grant, who was stationed at Fort Humboldt for a time. Being a rural outpost on the “wild west”, Humboldt County also saw its fair share of infamous passers-through though. Recently I found out that Baby Face Nelson stayed over in Eureka while on the run for a period of time (check out our Prohibition exhibit this fall for more on that). Infamous faces with smaller profiles made their appearances here too though, and their stories can be just as big and flashy as the bigger names.

During summertime festivals in turn of the century Eureka, a man known as “the Great Fer-Don” made an appearance in the county. He was your typical showman, parading into town, doing a few shows, and moving along. The Humboldt Historian article mentioning “the Great Fer-Don” (Entertainers, Hucksters, and Stunts by Glen Nash) ends with Fer-Don traveling southward when the weather began turning sour, so I tried to follow the tracks. Turns out Fer-Don’s story is a decades long one spanning the entire west coast involving muckracker journalism, arrests, warrants, changing identities, fame, and obscurity. Eureka was just one chapter of his story.

“The Great Fer-Don” started his life out as John Ferdon. He started out in the con game at age 14, working with a man known as Nevada Ned who solve a concoction of sweetened condensed milk and cocaine as a cold remedy. He branched out on his own as a showy Quaker known as “The Great Kamama” by selling bottled of liquid (water with some alcohol and food coloring) that would expel monstrous tape worms from patient’s bodies. Other “Quaker” con-men came on the scene, Ferdon had 50 run ins with the law for illegally practicing medicine as his Quaker persona and Ferdon changed his act. In 1906, news came from Europe about a special form of medicine that allowed doctors to heal patients without surgery. Ferdon found his new act.

Fer-Don may have been a showman by trade, using flashy European medicine and the local newspapers to legitimize his “work” in treating local residents, but one con man who passed through Humboldt County took his con the extra mile. “Chief White Elk” had a career that spanned the country and overseas with a larger than life persona, disguised as a veteran and a Native American Chief, when he was, in reality, neither of those things.

Laponte became Longboat, Tom Longboat, a famous Canadian marathon runner and member of the Iroquois Nation. Laponte hosted running clinics and other events as Longboat, who at the time was fighting in World War I overseas. The real Longboat found out about the con and Laponte shape shifted into his most famous form: Chief White Elk.  

“Chief White Elk” continued with his con and traveled to Canada and Europe raising money for bogus causes and skipping town when the gig was up. He married again, tried to meet the queen of England, met with Benito Mussolini under the pretense that the chief was the first and only American Indian fascist, was arrested in Italy and Switzerland, returned to the States, selling his gold teeth for cigarettes, and, after a few more years of traveling around in different versions of his "movie star, educated Indian" guise, had two heart attacks, one which landed him in the hospital while he was in Eureka, and died from pneumonia at the age of 62 in 1944 in Phoenix, AZ. 

Resources used in this post include:
Entertainers, Hucksters, and Stunt by Glen Nash, Humboldt Historian, March-April 1986
A Big Welcome to the Flimflam Man and On Tuesday the Monster Came to Town by Jeff Elliot from I See From the Papers
Edgar Laplante: Imposter by Rupert Taylor
Living History: Chief White Elk was a show-stopper in Salt Lake City by Ardis E Parshall, Salt Lake Tribune
War Bonds Rally at Holmes Flat: Who is the Interloper in this Picture?, Humboldt Historian December 2014
Newspaper clippings found through UC Riverside's California Digital Newspaper Collection, which can be accessed here
"The Black Lies of Chief White Elk" in Both Sides of the Bluff, Jerry Rohde
​See also:
Snake Oil, Hustlers and Hambones: The American Medicine Show by Ann Anderson
King Con:  The Bizarre Adventures of the Jazz Age's Greatest Imposter by Paul Willetts
White Elk, Black Shirt by Paul Willetts, Powell Books

According to Ann Hunt from the Humboldt County Historical Society, early celebrations in the count around 4th of July typically focused on two goals: celebrating the Declaration of Independence and having a social event. Fourth of July festivities included reading the declaration of Independence to a gathered crowd, speeches, horse races, and dances. Balls were very popular for early 4th of July celebrations, oftentimes catered by local hotels. These events attracted the very dispersed settler population to socialize by attracting people into town to eat, dance, talk, and celebrate together. The first county-wide 4th of July parade in 1861 was led by Seth Kinman in his buckskin suit, who was followed by school children, fraternal groups including the Sons of Temperance and Oddfellows, local woman Nellie McGeorge dressed as the Goddess of Liberty, and military officers.  

Celebrations were scaled down in the depths of the Civil War, as residents wondered how there could be celebrations while so many people were dying in the war, and while the settlers were anxious about the local “Indian Wars”. Fireworks and bonfires were retained as important events to hold in celebration of the holiday and were noted to have a lightening effect on those that viewed them- some attendees also took up tossing flaming balls soaked in camphene (a type of lamp fuel) around the Arcata plaza while the bonfire burned in the center. Another popular form of fiery entertainment (that has its own fascinating history worth doing research on) was packing an anvil with black powder and lighting it, causing an explosion- a kind of improvised and very dangerous sounding firecracker.

In 1864, many locals felt helpless towards the skyrocketing death rate of soldiers fighting in the Civil War due to unsanitary hospitals and living conditions. An anonymous newspaper editorial encouraged townspeople to donate to the cause of improving conditions for the Union Army via supporting the US Sanitary Commission. Support for the Sanitary Commission was strong in Humboldt County, events typically held to celebrate the 4th were turned into fundraisers for the Sanitary Commission. These fundraisers raised the equivalent of $13,000 in 2018 dollars in a county with a settler population of about 2,000. Women were heavily involved in these events, and these 1864 Sanitary Commission events marked the earliest ones where women were taking more visible roles as community builders. The U.S. Grant Quilt, currently on display in our quilting exhibit, was made around this period and auctioned to raise funds for the Sanitary Commission.

Reference Articles:
Ann Hunt, 4th of July in Humboldt County, 1855-1865 Humboldt Historian, Summer 2012
Glen Nash, Entertainers, Hucksters, and Stunts Humboldt Historian, March-April 1986

Electricity and the arrival of the electric streetlight proved to be revolutionary developments across the country, and the electric light in Eureka was no exception to that.

Oil lamps hung from the ceilings of many a Eureka home, and they carried similar risks to the usage of oil lamps in industrial settings- they could malfunction, break, and burn a house down. Mrs. Harriet Tracy, a Eureka resident, was a quick convert to installing electric lights in her home as soon as the option was available.

In the fall of 1893, 14 year old Joe Tracy recorded in his diary that electric power lines had reached the Tracy family home at the corner of 13th and J In Eureka. The power came from a power plant at 1st and C streets called the Eureka Steamlight Plant (which accidentally burned down some years later). He notes that the early wires in the house “suspends the light and consists of about 20 fine copper wires insulated with a very thin covering of gutta percha. This (is) covered with cloth woven around it. Two strands of this are twisted together.” The family could afford the expensive lights in multiple rooms in their house: the kitchen, parlor, dining room, sitting room, and hall. Each light was 16 candle power and the whole setup cost between $0.25 and $0.60 cents per month to operate (between $20 and $30 per month in today’s money).

Once the lights were installed though, they didn’t always function without a hitch. The wires were thin, and Joe mentions a few months later that a wire had broken and had to be replaced. About a year later, the family’s supply of light bulbs ran out and Joe had to walk out to the electric works in search of bulbs- but he found that the offices where their bulbs originally had come from had closed. The only other shop with the proper light bulbs had run out of stock, so the family had to take back out their old oil lamps until a new shipment came in.  

An offshoot electrical company, organized by many of the same men that established the first electrical service in Eureka like John Vance and William Carson, was formed in 1902, called the North Mountain Power Company to specifically power the Humboldt Transit Company Streetcar system. This company also came up with an idea to construct an electric railroad connecting Eureka’s timber mills to Sacramento to improve their lumber transportation system, which relied on ships at the time. It would take a lot of electricity to operate, so the first step was to create a hydroelectric system near Weaverville. In 1904 when construction began, work was very slow due to the waterlogged roads between Redding, where the needed generator equipment was located, and Weaverville.

It’s a pretty plain looking house, an old one from the turn of the century for sure, probably broken up into apartments now like so many of the old Victorian homes around town (including mine!). It’s a somewhat strange looking building, the building being perfectly symmetrical except for a recent addition to the back of the home.

This exhibit was created and curated by Community Curator Hannah Denton. Text and Photos are also by Hannah Denton.

The Clarke has around 10,000 photos in the collections, which is about 17% of the total collection. The photos span from the earliest days of the county to the present and include a wide variety of subjects. They're some of my favorite items to work with because they can tell so many stories and illustrate change in the community- and the sometimes surprising continuity over time.

This month, we'll be taking a closer look at our photo collection-what's in it? What does it look like? We'll also be checking out ongoing work happening with the collections including our scanning project and research being done by members of the community to better understand one of the photographers who appears in our collection. We'll also highlight a new photography exhibit opening at May's Arts Alive in the Victorian Room!

This week, we hear from the Clarke's Education and Interpretation Committee that attended the yearly Basket Weaver's gathering in Happy Camp. The trip was part of a series of trips the committee is making to reach out and connect with tribes and communities that are stakeholders in the work being done at the Clarke.

We were able to meet with members of the Karuk Tribe’s People’s Center Advisory Committee.  The People’s Center is the Tribal museum and Gift shop.  We were able to make inroads on cultural exchange ideas such as exchanging exhibit pieces (as permitted by our policies) and sharing photos and documents from a digital perspective in cases where original pieces cannot travel.  We also discussed their digital library and the possibility of digitizing videos, CDs, etc. through cooperation with the Karuk Tribe.  We look forward to collaborating with our tribal partners.

At registration, we had some time to talk with Denna Dodds whose basketry work is currently on display at the Clarke. The weekend’s festivities then began with an opening prayer before a potluck dinner.  It was sung beautifully by Jamie Peters, a Karuk tribal member.  Dinner was followed by a night of Bingo fun, then everyone headed to their accommodations to rest up for Saturday.  

We had a great learning experience to share with visitors to the Clarke, and we made some new friends along the way.

Thank you to Lynn Sturgis for writing this article, and Shirley Laos and Dina Fernandez for editing. Photos by Lynn Sturgis.

Volunteers play a huge role in day-to day museum operations and are very important to the long term operation of the Museum. In celebration of April as National Volunteer Month, I'd highlight some of our fabulous volunteers and the work they do here.

I began volunteering at the Clarke Historical Museum in July of 2018 and I have been working on a project to catalog and relabel the museum’s rock and mineral collection. I found out about the opportunity during the opening of The Redwoods Provide(d) exhibit and through Katie Buesch, who is the Registrar-Curator for the Main Hall Collections. I also know Katie through the Religious Studies major at HSU—she is a wonderful volunteer supervisor and friend!

This has been my first experience volunteering in a museum setting and I absolutely love it! The staff and other volunteers at the museum are super kind and welcoming and it is really interesting to learn a bit about the museum’s collections and about some of the local area’s history. Also, working with the rocks and minerals provides an experience that is special to me, because I also majored in Geology at HSU and I feel that there is so much we can learn through studying rocks. Rocks carry with them a story that tells of their journey from their formation to how they traveled to the surface of the Earth and into our hands. And through the study of rocks (petrology), I have learned a bit about how to interpret and convey these stories. From my perspective, I would say that stories are inherent to the way that we, as humans, understand and interact with the world. I think it is incredibly valuable to have a place like the Clarke Historical Museum in our area to facilitate the sharing of various stories from the past and I feel lucky to have the opportunity to volunteer there!

The Native American collections at the Clarke are more than a beautiful collection to view while visiting. We have hosted weavers and regalia makers over the years to go through the collections to gain insight on ways of making and inspiration for the creation or repair of newer basketry and regalia items.

Denna Dodds, a Karuk tribal member and 2014 & 2017 recipient of the Victor Thomas Jacoby Award, visited the Clarke Collections in the Fall of 2018 to assist with finishing a large open weave utility basket with handles.