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The original inhabitants of the area now known as Humboldt County include the Wiyot, Yurok, Hupa, Karuk, Chilula, Whilkut, and the southern Athabascans, including the Mattole and Nongatl. Humboldt County was formed in 1853 from parts of Trinity County.
The first recorded
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entry by people of European origin was a landing by the the Spanish in 1775. The county derived its name from Humboldt Bay, which was entered by a sea otter hunting party in 1806, but was not
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rediscovered until 1849. In 1850, Douglas Ottinger and Hans Buhne entered the bay, naming it Humboldt in honor of the great naturalist and world explorer, Baron Alexander von Humboldt.
The area around Humboldt Bay was once solely inhabited by the Wiyot Indian tribe. One of the largest Wiyot villages, Tolowot, was located on Gunther Island (AKA Indian Island) in Humboldt Bay. Founded circa 900, it contains a shell midden 6 acres (24,000 m²) in size and 14 feet (4 m) deep. It was the site of the
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February 26, 1860 massacre of the Wiyot people that was recorded by Bret Harte, then living in Arcata. Between 60 and 200 Wiyot men, women, and children were murdered that night. Tolowot is now an archeological site, designated "Gunther Island Site 67", and is a National Historic Landmark.
On February 5 and 6, 1885, Eureka's entire Chinese population of 300 men and 20 women were expelled after a gunfight between two Chinese men wounded a 12 year old boy and killed 56 year old David Kendall. After the shooting, the Chinese were informed that they were no longer wanted in Eureka and would be hanged if they were to stay in town longer than 3 p.m. the next day, and were put on two steamships and shipped to San Francisco. No Chinese were killed in the expulsion, and it was followed with another Chinese expulsion during 1906 in a cannery on the Eel River, which expelled 23 Chinese cannery workers after local loggers objected to their presence. However in Orleans, many white landowners sheltered and purchased food for Chinese mineworkers until after racial tension passed.