If you’re looking for a mind blowing road trip – might we suggest Humboldt County as in the towns of Eureka, Fortuna and Arcata. We loved these fun facts collected by the folks at the Eureka-Humboldt Visitors Bureau so much we had to share. The best in my opinion, just might be the last one. I know have a deeper understanding of the origins and possible inspirations for my favorite cartoon.
Fun Facts for Reporters Pad
• Half the remaining old-growth redwoods are in Redwood National Park and along the Avenue of the Giants.
• The world’s tallest tree, in Redwood National Park, is 380 feet high, six stories taller than the Statue of Liberty.
• The 20 tallest trees in the world are all redwoods in Humboldt County.
• Redwood National & State Parks is one of few places designated both a World Heritage Site and an International Biosphere Reserve.
• Fern Canyon in Redwood National & State Parks, which starred in the second Jurassic Park movie, has sheer 50-foot walls draped in luxuriant ferns and delicate waterfalls.
• Look for Roosevelt elk, North America’s largest, in Redwood National & State Parks, which shelters one of the largest populations of this rare species.
• The Redwood Coast has three living drive-thru trees, all right off Highway 101.
• The Avenue of the Giants, 3½ hours north of San Francisco, is considered one of the top forest drives in the world.
• At 10,000 acres, the Rockefeller Forest in Humboldt Redwoods State Park is the single largest stand of old growth redwoods.
• The One-Log House along Highway 101 south of Garberville is comprised of a single redwood trunk.
• The second-most viewed amateur film ever is the 1967 Patterson-Gimlin footage of the Bluff Creek Bigfoot.
• The California county with the most Bigfoot sightings is Humboldt.
• The term Bigfoot was coined by a Eureka newspaper after a series of mysterious encounters in 1958 with the legendary man-ape near Willow Creek.
• Humboldt County has more artists per capita than any other California county.
• Eureka has been ranked number one by the annual best-selling book 100 Best Art Towns in America.
• Known as the Victorian Seaport, Eureka has more Victorian buildings per capita than anywhere in California.
• The most photographed Victorian home in the nation is the Carson Mansion in Eureka.
• Eureka was the inspiration for Duckberg, the hometown of Disney characters Scrooge and Donald Duck.
• The oldest operating passenger ferry in the United States is the Madaket in Humboldt Bay.
• The Samoa Cookhouse, the last surviving lumber camp style eatery in the West, has served hearty meals since 1893.
• The Eureka Inn once hosted three U.S. presidents at the same time: Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.
• The entire Victorian village of Ferndale has been designated a state historical landmark, the only town to have such a distinction.
• Ferndale boasts the world’s tallest living Christmas tree, which, curiously, is not a redwood.
• The town of Ferndale lays claim to the westernmost bar in the continental United States.
• The town of Fortuna hosts the West’s oldest rodeo each July.
• The Hoopa Valley in Humboldt County is California’s largest Indian reservation.
• Two-thirds of all oysters consumed in California originate in Humboldt Bay.
• Two million birds make their permanent or migratory home in Humboldt Bay, California’s second largest, which is along the Pacific Coast Flyway.
• The oldest continuously operating movie theater in the nation is the Minor Theater in Arcata.
• California’s oldest county fair, which takes place each August in Ferndale, began in 1896.
• The longest stretch of undeveloped beachfront in the continental United States is California’s Lost Coast.
• The abandoned Punta Gorda Light Station, a popular Lost Coast hiking destination near Ferndale, is known as the Alcatraz of lighthouses.
• Humboldt is packed with public parks, including four federal, 10 state, 16 county and dozens of city recreational areas, reserves, beaches and forests.
• The town of Orick in Redwood National Park is known as the Burl Art Capital of California.
• The world’s tallest totem in the town McKinleyville is 160-foot high.
• The SpongeBob SquarePants creator studied marine science at Humboldt State University and drew inspiration for the show’s Krusty Krab café from working at a local eatery, Stars Burgers.
• Photos courtesy Don Forthuber (top) and Loren Clarke (middle)
