An often consulted series of books at the Historical Society is The History of Humboldt County Schools put together by the Humboldt County Office of Education. Volume II, which covers schools in the Eureka area, is now available. There is slight staining on the back cover, but is otherwise in very good condition.

       The book begins with a short general history of Humboldt County schools starting with the early Euro-American settlers in the 1850s up to the publishing date in the 1980s. We then go into an alphabetical account by area school districts.  With each school, we are given pictures of the buildings, and in most cases the teachers are listed along with their salaries and descriptions of the facilities.

       In addition to this factual material, accounts of some schools are embellished with personal reminiscences  by former teachers or pupils, newspaper reports and accounts of interesting events or situations in that school's history.  Examples include the playground at the Field's Landing school being overwhelmed by the nasty odor of  rendering blubber from  the nearby whaling station, the native vs. settler conflict that gave the Showers Pass school its name , and the Banner School teacher in 1909 who tired of boys throwing rocks at her horse and literally whipped her students into shape. The stories and history of most Eureka City schools are better recorded elsewhere, but for the lesser known and outlying schools this is a useful resource. 

       This book's presence for sale at the HCHS bookstore is an example of why we encourage the donation of used local history books for resale here. It makes many aspects of our history available and affordable to everyone.  Think about what you might have to contribute to this cause!