*** Source: History and Business Directory of Humboldt County, Lillie E. Hamm, November 1890, Eureka, Cal. *** ---page 97--- [ad] Demorest Patterns and all kinds of Fashion Books at J. E. Mathews [ad] HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY 97 but a small number of the countless hordes who came in quest of it. Success, suffering and despair were impartially distributed. Those who failed in the search of gold saw amid the general excitement of the day that there was other wealth besides that of the mine. They turned their attention to other interests: agriculture, stock raising, lumber, mercantile, and other industries, and thus began in a small way the material prosperity of the Western Empire. Forty years have elapsed since those days, and a second vision appears--of the California of to-day. It is a reality. The busy sound of hammer and saw, the hum of machinery, the sound of the falling tree, is the constant music in the ears of an industrious people. The countless farms devoted to fruit, to stock and grain, are the wealth of the State. Prosperity is at its zenith, and the California of 1890 is greater wealthier, and more prosperous with its manufactures, agriculture and other avenues of industry, than in the era of gold-seeking. From a wilderness have grown cities, towns and prosperous villages, and one of the former is EUREKA, the county seat, of Humboldt, and the center of trade for Northwestern California, which embraces a territorial area equal to several of the States of New England. Although this territory is but sparsely settled, still the time is not far distant when Humboldt will have as many inhabitants, and with its great natural resources, will possess a wealth greater than any three States on the Northeastern Atlantic seaboard. Eureka with a harbor second only to that of San Francisco, on a coast line of 1,300 miles, and several prospective railroads heading in this direction, and being the center of trade and the natural entrepot of a country plethoric with the gifts of a generous nature, presents advantages that have no superior. Give this city ten years and the present will form but a shadow of the metropolis that will then exist. We look in vain for a city so happily situated to command the attention of the capitalist, the enterprising and the energetic. Let a reader take up a map of the Atlantic seaboard; let him measure the distance between the great cities and what will be the result? He will find that they are situated from 200 to 300 miles apart. Let him then turn to the Pacific Coast, and he will then find that Eureka is about 200 miles from San Francisco, or to be more exact 203 miles. Then again examine the survey of the coast, and it will be found that Humboldt Bay is the only harbor of safety where vessels may ride at anchor and receive cargo, between San Francisco and Puget Sound. Then as to foreign trade Eureka must ere long come in for a large share of the commerce of South American ports, Hawaiian islands, Australia, Mexico and China, for the schooner and ship loads a this port with lumber of the above- mentioned countries and will, as soon as overland communication is effected, bring cargoes from those lands to be reshipped here to the East and interior points. This fact alone is worthy the highest consideration. It is well to remember that the vessels engaged in the lumber traffic can afford to bring cargoes cheaper from foreign ports where the lumber product of this county finds a market than vessels that are specially engaged for the purpose indicated, hence we feel justified in saying, that, give Eureka connection with the transcontinental roads and it will [ad] Gibbard & Lever Manufacture DOOR AND WINDOW FRAMES, BRACKETS SCROLL WORK, TURNING, ETC. ETC. Factory Second & L Streets. [ad] ---end---