Humboldt Harbor Lighthouse

It was around the latter part of January 1932, my dad, T. J. Allen, told my mother, Martha, and me that we were going to move to northern California. He had been accepted into the United States Lighthouse Service as a 2nd Assistant Keeper [at the Humboldt Bay Fog Signal Station]. Prior to this, as far back as I can recall, he was chief engineer on the Southern Pacific Ferry boats that ran between Oakland and San Francisco before the Bay Bridge was built.

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.