Food and Drink of Humboldt County

Exhibit Duration: February 02nd - August 31 2024

An interior photo of the Oberon in Eureka with four employees at the ready behind the bar.

Breweries, Bars, & Brawls!

A Prussian Immigrant opened Humboldt’s first brewery in 1857 in union (renamed Arcata). The business opened to much acclaim but closed its door in 1859. John Wagner’s Arcata Brewery Distillery opened in the exact location shortly after. Eureka ultimately had thirteen breweries before local prohibition in 1920, which illegalized the sale of alcohol. Many of those breweries rebranded as soda companies.
Local saloon owners were no stranger to scuffles. Perhaps the most infamous was the fight at the Oberon on 2nd Street in Eureka. In 1910, Jack London, the author of Call of the Wild, became involved in a heated political discussion with Stanwood Murphy, the Pacific Lumber Company owner in Scotia, CA. Their opinions led to an intense brawl; the bartenders locked the doors, and the fight lasted over an hour. Both men spent the next few days in the hospital “licking their wounds.”

Raising the Steaks: Livestock in Humboldt

The first cattle herd in the country came from beyond the Mississippi River, arriving in 1853 with Reed and Kinman, & setting on the bear River ranges. By the 1860s, there were thousands of cattle roaming the county. East of the redwood belt, which stretched to the coast, were bald hills with plenty of pasture for early cattle to graze. So much of the land was used for grazing that humboldters complained that not enough was sold for small farms. Joseph Russ, an early pioneer, made a fortune on the low-cost grazing lands, and early settlers, like Federick Tuttle and Peter E. Petersen, devoted hundreds of acres, often the majority of their property, to grazing.

What’s with the Giant Chickens?

Pepperwood's Frank Egerer created these two stunning redwood chickens, which he prominently displayed at the entrance to his property. At the height of his poultry farm's production in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Egerer had 2,000 hens. Unfortunately, in 1955, a catastrophic flood swept both chickens downriver. Luckily, Herb Sorensen of McKinleyville found and rescued them from the silt and debris. After cleaning and repainting them, Sorensen kept the chickens at his poultry farm near Miller Farms in McKinleyville for many years. Today, the Carmesin Family, owners of the "Carmesin Compound" poultry farm in McKinleyville, are proud to own these beautiful sculptures.

Humboldt’s Once Eggsquisite Poultry Industry

It is speculated that poultry arrived in Humboldt county as early as the mid-19th century. By 1865 the population had grown to 8,100 chickens, 123 ducks, 175 geese and 303 turkeys. numbers grew more exponentially with more settler’s arrival, and demand increased. By 1916, the Humboldt times called the county "one of the best sections in the world for raising poultry."Following WWII (1945), the poultry industry began to falter due to a several factors, which included:
- Fewer young individuals entering the business.
- Importing eggs was cheaper than importing chicken feed.
- The lack of an aggressive adverting campaign.

A herd of cattle on the move through the streets of Eureka in approximately 1890.