Humboldt Harbor Lighthouse: Only Yesterday

The population explosion of San Francisco and central California due to the Gold Rush created a tremendous demand for lumber to construct new houses and commercial buildings. Although there were lumber trees in the Bay Area and up in the Sierras, the tall redwood and Douglas fir trees in the Humboldt Bay area provided the most abundant and economical supply. The Bar Channel into Humboldt Bay is as dangerous as any on the west coast, but the Bay is broad and fairly sheltered. Humboldt Bay is also the only major harbor of refuge between San Francisco Bay and Coos Bay, Oregon, a distance of four hundred miles.