Meet the Humboldt Historians!
Saturday, May 20th
1-3 PM at the Clarke Historical Museum
240 E Street, Eureka
Saturday, May 20th
1-3 PM at the Clarke Historical Museum
240 E Street, Eureka
Come celebrate Humboldt's rich history with those who write about it!
May is National Preservation Month, and the Clarke Museum and the Humboldt County Historical Society are celebrating with a joint fundraiser featuring local authors who've written and published widely on almost every aspect of our county's history.
Attendees will have the opportunity to chat with the authors about their favorite titles, order new books, and get their own copies signed. There will also be a panel session with the authors focused on why recording and writing about local history is so important. There'll be delicious hors d'oeuvres prepared by local chef Chris Cassaro and complimentary non-alcoholic beverages as well as wine and beer.
Tickets to the fundraiser are $100 each, or $85 for members of the Clarke Museum or the Humboldt County Historical Society, and all proceeds will benefit both organizations.
May is National Preservation Month, and the Clarke Museum and the Humboldt County Historical Society are celebrating with a joint fundraiser featuring local authors who've written and published widely on almost every aspect of our county's history.
Attendees will have the opportunity to chat with the authors about their favorite titles, order new books, and get their own copies signed. There will also be a panel session with the authors focused on why recording and writing about local history is so important. There'll be delicious hors d'oeuvres prepared by local chef Chris Cassaro and complimentary non-alcoholic beverages as well as wine and beer.
Tickets to the fundraiser are $100 each, or $85 for members of the Clarke Museum or the Humboldt County Historical Society, and all proceeds will benefit both organizations.
The following authors will be on hand to announce new books and talk about other books they've written:
(Scroll past the purchase links for more info about our attending authors)
**Unfortunately, Julie Clark will not be able to attend the event due to a work conflict.
- Ray Raphael
- Julie Clark**
- Alex Service
- Susan J.P. O’Hara.
- Lynette Mullen
- Katy Tahja
- Jon Humboldt Gates
- Cutcha Risling Baldy
- Barry Evans
- Kathleen McCovey
(Scroll past the purchase links for more info about our attending authors)
**Unfortunately, Julie Clark will not be able to attend the event due to a work conflict.
Purchase Tickets Below!
Ray Raphael is an American historian and author of twenty books. He is noted for his work on the American Revolution, the Constitution, and the regional history of Northern California. He has published books on subjects as diverse as male initiation rites, education, regional history (Northwest California), and timber politics. His first book, An Everyday History of Somewhere, won the Commonwealth Club award for the best book of the year about California. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate from Reed College, he holds masters degrees from the University of California at Berkeley (Political Philosophy) and Reed College (Teaching Social Science and History). In addition to teaching at Humboldt State University and College of the Redwoods, he has taught all subjects except foreign languages at a one-room public high school in his remote community.
Currently, Ray serves as an associate editor for the Journal of the American Revolution and is preparing a comprehensive set of decision-centered, document-based lesson plans on the Founding Era for the Constitutional Sources Project (ConSource). He lives in northern California, where he hikes and kayaks.
Currently, Ray serves as an associate editor for the Journal of the American Revolution and is preparing a comprehensive set of decision-centered, document-based lesson plans on the Founding Era for the Constitutional Sources Project (ConSource). He lives in northern California, where he hikes and kayaks.
Julie Clark works for the Bureau of Land Management and is currently the Headwaters Forest Reserve ranger. She has conducted many Falk and Humboldt County lighthouse presentations to Humboldt County residents and portrayed some of the Falk and lighthouse residents in living history events. She holds a Master of Arts in social sciences from Humboldt State University. She is the author of two local history books, Images of America series, titled Falk: Lumber Company Town of the American West” and The Lighthouses of Humboldt County.
NOTE: Julie Clark will not be able to attend the event due to a work conflict.
NOTE: Julie Clark will not be able to attend the event due to a work conflict.
Alex Service grew up in Indiana, but she is descended from four generations of Californians. She has her B.A. in East Asian Studies from UCLA and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Medieval Studies from the University of York in England. Alex has been curator of the Fortuna Depot Museum since 2009, having previously worked in museums in Massachusetts, Virginia and Wyoming. With Susan J.P. O'Hara, she has co-authored five books of Humboldt County history. Her current research focuses on Asian experiences in 19th-century Humboldt.
Growing up in southern Humboldt county, Susan Pritchard O’Hara has long had an interest in the history and native cultures of the region. After graduating from South Fork High she received her Bachelor of Arts in both History and anthropology from University of California at Santa Cruz and her Master of Arts in History from U.C. Santa Barbara. She received her teaching certificate from Cal Poly Humboldt and has taught grades K-12 at Rio Dell Elementary and Southern Humboldt Joint Unified school districts. She currently teaches history and English at Casterlin High in Southern Humboldt. Additionally, O’Hara has written ten books on local history. Most recently she collaborated with Dr. Alex Service, director of the Fortuna Depot Museum in Fortuna, on the 100 year history of the Fortuna Rodeo, In and Around the Arena.
Lynette Mullen is a Humboldt County project manager, writer and historian. While researching the history of Scandia Hotel in Eureka, Mullen uncovered the story of Virginia Jeffray. Jeffray, abandoned by her husband in 1914, struggled to raise her seven children alone and narrowly escaped “a life of shame” in one of Eureka’s many brothels. Jeffray’s plight inspired Mullen’s research and this presentation on Eureka’s Early Red-Light District. She is also writing a book on the subject.
Katy Tahja is a proud graduate of Humboldt State College class of 1970. A retired librarian, she has now written five books of north coast history and docents at the Kelley House Museum in Mendocino. She loved her years driving a bookmobile in the Klamath Trinity region in the early 1970’s. Her two books on Humboldt were Humboldt State University, done for the college’s centennial and Logging Railroads of Humboldt and Mendocino Counties.
Jon Humboldt Gates is the author of five non-fiction books, including his most recent historical work – Before the Dolphins Guild – a narration of two historic submarine wrecks, including the 1916 wreck of the USS H-3 submarine on Samoa Beach.
Jon got his literary start recording and narrating oral history interviews with older Humboldt County people in the 1970’s and 1980’s as well as chronicling his numerous solo journeys across North America and the USSR. His archives of oral history provided the basis for his first two books; Falk’s Claim – The Life and Death of Redwood Lumber Town (1983); and Night Crossings – Rogue Waves on the Humboldt Bar at Night (1986).
The author also penned, Firestorm (2018), about surviving a massive wildfire near Santa Rosa, and It’s Warm in Siberia, his stories of a solo journey across the USSR in 1984 (Second Edition 2023). Also, during his 35-year career as a market journalist, Jon conducted thousands of interviews in supply chains around the world. He eventually became Director of Research for the international firm, OTR Global. Jon is a fifth-generation native of Northern California and the Pacific Northwest. He and his wife now live near the Columbia River in Oregon.
Jon got his literary start recording and narrating oral history interviews with older Humboldt County people in the 1970’s and 1980’s as well as chronicling his numerous solo journeys across North America and the USSR. His archives of oral history provided the basis for his first two books; Falk’s Claim – The Life and Death of Redwood Lumber Town (1983); and Night Crossings – Rogue Waves on the Humboldt Bar at Night (1986).
The author also penned, Firestorm (2018), about surviving a massive wildfire near Santa Rosa, and It’s Warm in Siberia, his stories of a solo journey across the USSR in 1984 (Second Edition 2023). Also, during his 35-year career as a market journalist, Jon conducted thousands of interviews in supply chains around the world. He eventually became Director of Research for the international firm, OTR Global. Jon is a fifth-generation native of Northern California and the Pacific Northwest. He and his wife now live near the Columbia River in Oregon.
Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy (Yurok, Karuk, Hupa) was born in Humboldt County and is an enrolled member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe. According to her biography, she grew up practicing the traditional ways of her people and values the lessons and knowledge that she gained from these experiences. She received her Ph.D. in Native American Studies with a Designated Emphasis in Feminist Theory and Research from the University of California, Davis.
Dr. Risling-Baldy is an incredibly active scholar on all things related to the intersection of feminism, social justice, history, politics, colonization, and California Indians, and has also published creative writing in the As/Us journal and News from Native California. She has also previously published articles in the Ecological Processes Journal, the Wicazo Sa Review, and the Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education and Society journal. Her most recent book is titled “We Are Dancing For You” and explores the revitalization of women’s coming of age ceremonies in Northern California. This books received the titled of "Best First Book in Native American and Indigenous Studies" at the Native American Indigenous Studies Association Conference 2019. She is also a co-founder of the Native Women’s Collective, a non-profit organization that supports the continued revitalization of Native American arts and culture. Dr. Risling Baldy is an associate professors and currently the department chair of the Native American Studies program at HSU. During the Pandemic, she has been hosting a variety of presentations and serving on panels for discussions related to Native relationships to the land, land return, land acknowledgment and more.
Dr. Risling-Baldy is an incredibly active scholar on all things related to the intersection of feminism, social justice, history, politics, colonization, and California Indians, and has also published creative writing in the As/Us journal and News from Native California. She has also previously published articles in the Ecological Processes Journal, the Wicazo Sa Review, and the Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education and Society journal. Her most recent book is titled “We Are Dancing For You” and explores the revitalization of women’s coming of age ceremonies in Northern California. This books received the titled of "Best First Book in Native American and Indigenous Studies" at the Native American Indigenous Studies Association Conference 2019. She is also a co-founder of the Native Women’s Collective, a non-profit organization that supports the continued revitalization of Native American arts and culture. Dr. Risling Baldy is an associate professors and currently the department chair of the Native American Studies program at HSU. During the Pandemic, she has been hosting a variety of presentations and serving on panels for discussions related to Native relationships to the land, land return, land acknowledgment and more.
Barry Evans describes his writing career as follows: “I came out of engineering school (University of London, 1963) knowing essentially nothing about history, so I’ve been on a 60-year catch-up odyssey. Until I came to Eureka 22 years ago, my interest was all “big-picture”: birth of civilizations, origin of languages, the late Bronze Age collapse, seven wonders of the ancient world, Homer and Troy, King Arthur and other Great Myths.
In contrast, Humboldt presented a whole new take on history for me, recent and local. For instance, the Tuluwat massacre, the Northwestern Pacific Railroad, harvesting of 95% of the original redwoods, roots of local Indian languages, stories from Humboldt’s cemeteries. Much of what I’ve learned has made its way into my regular Field Notes column for the North Coast Journal and The Humbook (soon to be followed by Humbook Two).
Our local history is with us today, and needs to be retold and acknowledged if we’re to learn anything from the past. Fortunately our county is rich in resources, including the Clarke Museum, the Humboldt Historical Society and the Humboldt Room in the library. Not forgetting our several passionate and knowledgeable local historians who have generously shared their knowledge with me!”
In contrast, Humboldt presented a whole new take on history for me, recent and local. For instance, the Tuluwat massacre, the Northwestern Pacific Railroad, harvesting of 95% of the original redwoods, roots of local Indian languages, stories from Humboldt’s cemeteries. Much of what I’ve learned has made its way into my regular Field Notes column for the North Coast Journal and The Humbook (soon to be followed by Humbook Two).
Our local history is with us today, and needs to be retold and acknowledged if we’re to learn anything from the past. Fortunately our county is rich in resources, including the Clarke Museum, the Humboldt Historical Society and the Humboldt Room in the library. Not forgetting our several passionate and knowledgeable local historians who have generously shared their knowledge with me!”
Kathleen McCovey is a member of the Karuk Tribe, and a culture-bearer and knowledge-holder of Karuk life-ways and ecological knowledge. She lives in Happy Camp, California, where she was born and raised in Karuk traditions. Her grandparents Ernest and Esther Spinks taught her how to fish, hunt, cure, and prepare meat to be stored for the winter. A Karuk herbalist, Kathy teaches the gathering of edible, medicinal, and ceremonial plants. She worked as an anthropologist for the US Forest Service since 1990. She earned her BS in archaeology/anthropology from Fresno State University, and an MA in environment and community at Humboldt State University. She served as cultural adviser for Salmon Is Everything and played the role of Rose in the 2006 and 2007 productions. Currently, Kathy works with the Karuk Tribe, teaching Karuk fire practices and traditional ecological knowledge practices on the Klamath River community.