Humboldt Historian

Winter 2014: Volume 62, No. 4

Fire in the Mountain: The Beginning of the End for the Northwestern Pacific Railroad, Part II
Sean Mitchell
The NWPRR, longtime economic lifeline to Humboldt County, cannot recover after the disastrous 1978 Island Mountain Tunnel fire.

65 Years Later: The Eureka High School Class of 1949
Leo Chiantelli
Classmates of the “in-between” generation celebrate together in Eureka.

War Bond Rally at Holmes Flat: Who is the Interloper in this Picture?
Suzanne Forsythe
An interesting photograph from Velma Childs Titus

Charles H. King: From Trinidad Educator to Oakland Millionaire
Marvin Shepherd
Charles King reinvented himself in Humboldt, then went on to found King City.

Christmas 1964: The Flood
Rex Fisher
Seventeen-year-old Rex Fisher found himself on the front lines of power restoration in Bridgeville.

Humboldt Pharmacies: 1900 through WWII
Stan Cloney
The author shares anecdotes and antidotes from an earlier apothecary era.

The Island Mountain bridge basks in the evening twilight in this late 1990s photo taken by Dan Hauser. At the time he was the executive director of the North Coast Railroad. He did not know, nor did anyone know, that the north end of the Northwestern Pacific was passing through its twilight, as well. Part II of “Fire in the Mountain: the Beginning of the End for the Northwestern Pacific Railroad,” by Sean Mitchell, opens this issue.
— On the Cover