Humboldt's Centerville

Memorial cross for the wreck of the Northerner. Because of slides, the cross no longer stands at the top of the bluff, as it did for many years. The original cross was created by Warren Davis and William Orion Davis.

             Humboldt County, though officially “rural” is sprinkled with interesting communities. And the Humboldt County Historical Society is an ideal spot to learn about them. It has information files and books about well-known sites as well as some that are nearly forgotten.

            Centerville is an example of the latter. Today, visitors there may see a tumbled down building, an odd road-side cave and a broad beach for picnickers and fossil-hunters. They might say “Centerville? Center of what?” 

            In 1850, ships raced to our coast seeking the entrance to a reported bay where a town could be founded that would supply the inland gold fields. The Eel River delta and slough near Centerville were a failed guess.

            But soon after, the rich farm lands of the Eel River valley justified settlement in its own right. In 1852, Centerville was founded and soon boasted several homes, a hotel, a general store and a post office. The Centerville school (which has now been moved to the Ferndale fair grounds) taught area students from first through tenth grades. The still-extant roadside cave was first used to keep dairy products cool and then became a roadside shrine when the Moranda family installed an Italian statue of the Virgin Mary.

            As is often the case, the secret to Centerville’s prosperity was location. Before completion of the Wildcat Road, Centerville was the connecting hub between Eureka and settlements in the Mattole and Bear River valleys. The “road” that ran along Centerville beach had regular stage coach traffic but was often dangerous due to high tides and cliff slides. However, it connected wagonloads of oil from the briefly prosperous oil fields of the Mattole with the slough wharf at Centerville and thus on to Humboldt Bay and San Francisco. For a time, there was even talk about building a railroad from Eureka to Centerville to facilitate the oil boom.

            These dreams quickly faded, but Centerville did make several other splashes in Humboldt’s history. One occurred in 1860, when the paddlewheel steamer, The Northerner, heading for Humboldt Bay hit a submerged rock off Cape Mendocino. At first passengers and crew minimized the danger, but by the time the ship was off Centerville beach, water was pouring in. Storm winds and surf were rising, and though several lifeboats were launched, 38 passengers and crew drowned.

            What for its time was a major marine disaster was commemorated in 1921 when the Ferndale parlor of the Native Sons of the Golden West erected a cement cross on the cliff overlooking Centerville beach. The slide-prone area and the 1992 earthquake brought the cross down, and its later replacement suffers from the same instability.

            Centerville also entered the news in 1908 when a cannon brought to the beach to salute passage of the Great American Fleet, blew up with fatal results. A more positive Naval connection came in 1954 when the Centerville Beach Naval Facility opened to monitor the potential menace of Soviet submarines. The top-secret base became a small town, housing up to 500 people. When times and technology changed, the base closed in 1993 and some 40 acres eventually became public lands with walking trails and spectacular views now enjoyed by many.

            So Centerville did turn out to have been central to many aspects of Humboldt County history.