Eureka, CA news and local guide

For nearly 300 years after 1579, European explorers missed Humboldt Bay because its narrow entrance was hidden by geography and weather. Despite a Russian sighting in 1806, the bay, the second-largest in California, was not reliably located until an overland expedition in 1849, and on May 13, 1850, the Union and Mendocino exploring companies founded Eureka on its shore. Humboldt Bay was settled as a shorter supply route to the gold mines on the Trinity, Klamath and Salmon rivers, and though Eureka's deeper channels eventually made it the bay's main city, nearby Arcata led it until 1856. The name, Greek for "I have found it," is California's motto, and Eureka uses the state seal as its own. Settlers cut the Wiyot off from their food sources and took their land. Fort Humboldt was built on January 30, 1853, and in 1860, while Wiyot men were away during their annual World Renewal Ceremony, attackers believed to be mostly Eureka businessmen killed as many as 250 Wiyot, mainly children, women and elders, on Tuluwat Island. No one was ever punished, and half the survivors who sheltered at the fort died of starvation or exposure. In 2004 the city returned 45 acres of the island to the Wiyot Tribe. Sources Wikipedia: Eureka, California