Bookstore

All profits from bookstore sales support our non-profit organization. Purchasing a book about Humboldt County History, gifts, or ephemeral items from our bookstore is a great way to support the work we do!

Back issues of the Humboldt Historian are available in the bookstore or by phone order. Due to the wide variation in shipping and handling costs, issues cannot be purchased online. Please call (707) 445-4342 during open hours to place your order. Bulk discounts are available!

We do have a selection of used books which are not included on the website. If you’re looking for a particular book, please give us a call. We’ll be happy to check the shelves for you! We mail books out on the Friday following your order.

Members receive a 10% discount on all regularly priced books.
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Book of the Month - November 2024
Two Peoples, One Place
$23.95 - 20% off the regular price of $29.95
One of the best overall histories of Humboldt County, with a significant emphasis on local indigenous peoples.

 

Scotia & Rio Dell

Scotia & Rio Dell

from $22.49

By James Garrison. On the banks of the Eel River, amongst towering redwood forests, lie the towns of Scotia and Rio Dell. Their histories inseparably intertwined, these two towns formed a large community supporting the needs of local settlers and industry. Where Scotia was orderly and tightly controlled by Pacific Lumber company management, Rio Dell developed a reputation for its remote setting, rowdy lumbermen, and bootlegged whiskey. Member Price: $19.79

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        Some of the most popular books for sale at the Historical Society bookstore are in the Arcadia "Images of America" series, each with its some 200 photographs and informative captions. These include many Humboldt communities from north to south.  On the southern end, there is Scotia and Rio Dell  by Scotia native and local historian, James Garrison.

       Garrison tells how land that was once Wiyot and then called Eagle Prairie spawned many communities being settled as rich farming land by people who initially came to Humboldt seeking California's fabled gold. He explores the commercial growth of Rio Dell, transportation along the Eel River and slide-prone Scotia Bluffs, and the region's notable character such as Seth Kinman. Then we see how timber felling and milling took over the area, and how what was originally Forestville became Scotia as a result of many of its lumber workers coming from Nova Scotia.

       That somewhat isolated community quickly became a "company town" (one of the last in the U.S.) where Pacific Lumber paternalistically cared for its workers with its own stores, theater, sports arenas, and hospital.  Also we learn how during Prohibition and strict company propriety those Scotians who wished to partake of liquor, gambling and prostitution crossed the river to the southern end of Rio Dell called, appropriately, Wildwood.

       Throughout, we follow transportation from horses to trains and river ferries to bridge building. Also the spectacular devastation caused by two major floods is well covered.  We end with the world-view and economic differences that led to the end of the company town concept and the turn of the 20th/21st century Timber Wars -- the fight between maximum exploitation and environmental preservation.

       Like all of Arcadia's Humboldt books, Scotia and Rio Dell shows not just the buildings and events of and area, but the human histories and close ties that make every community unique.

We Are Dancing for You.jpg

We Are Dancing For You

from $27.00
An Everyday History of Somewhere by Ray Raphael Everyday History Back.jpg

An Everyday History of Somewhere by Ray Raphael

from $22.49
Pacific Coast Highway in California Pacific Coast Hwy Back.jpg

Pacific Coast Highway in California

from $22.49
In the Land of the Grasshopper Song

In the Land of the Grasshopper Song

from $19.75
The White Boy and the Indians: A Memoir of Reservation Life, the Depression and the Okies

The White Boy and the Indians: A Memoir of Reservation Life, the Depression and the Okies

from $15.25