Humboldt County 



1VILL.IAM AYRKS 

 Secretary of the 25,000 Clnb 



HUMBOLDT COUNTY is prominently marked on the map as being 

 the most westerly point of the United States, and possessing the 

 most westerly port of entry and landlocked harbor of California by 

 at least one hundred miles. Its area of 2,244,480 acres embraces 

 within its limits an immense crude, undeveloped wealth in varied 

 forms, which together with adjoining territory that is immediately tributary 

 to Humboldt Bay, embraces redwood, pine, fir, and spruce timber, the 

 highest class of dairy, fruit, and farming lands, both of river bottom and 

 upland, petroleum, copper, chrome, gold-bearing quartz and placers, iron, 

 coal, asbestos, lime, shale, and clay. Served with a deep-water port and 

 endowed with untold natural wealth, yet Humboldt has been the least 

 exploited of any portion of the California coast, and therefore, on account 

 of easy accessibility, to-day presents a most inviting field for capital invest- 

 ment, operative enterprise, and labor. 



The Southern Pacific and Santa Fe have for several years been delib- 

 erately extending their lines to reach Humboldt Bay. At this time a third and 

 most important factor has come into the field in the promotion by railroad 

 men of a road directly to the east from Humboldt Bay, being the western 

 division of a road to connect at Casper, in Wyoming. So strongly has this 

 latter enterprise appealed to the people of Humboldt that they have under- 

 taken to raise a goodly bonus to assist in pushing the work through to 

 early completion, which bonus has for the greater part been already 

 subscribed. This projected line of road traverses one of the richest unde- 

 veloped sections of the United States, a distance of eleven hundred miles. 



Again, favoring a complete system of power interurban transportation, 

 the county is most admirably and evenly divided by five considerable rivers 

 — the Klamath, Redwood, Mad, Eel, and Mattole — and their tributaries. 

 From superficial indications there is scarcely a limit to our copper. The 

 purest crude petroleum known is taken from the lower end of the county. 

 Gold-mining, both quartz and placer, covers a large and promising field. 



But the inviting opportunity to build up homes lies in the possibilities 

 of the soil. The natural conditions favor dairy products near the coast, 

 where the moisture keeps the grass green and feed-crops growing, and 

 the cool and even temperature favors the manipulation of milk and cream. 

 Farther inland is a zone running the length of the county that is unsur- 

 passed for fruit. The excellence of Humboldt unirrigated fruit has been 

 demonstrated, for it forces its way into the market wherever presented. 



Equability and salubrity of the climate of Humboldt is a feature that 

 has never been justly set forth. It would be hard to conceive of a greater 

 range of favorable conditions within the same extent of territory than 

 here exists. It has been demonstrated that the humidity and even, medium 

 temperature of the climate, and pure soft water, are well-nigh perfect 

 conditions for the manufacture of textiles, and the county has, and can 

 produce, both wool and flax of very best quality. 



Looking over the field for operative Investment and enterprise, may be 

 enumerated the following as open and promising fields for exploitation: 



1. Interurban transportation throughout the county by means of elec- 

 tric railways; 2. Generation of electric power on a large scale and dis- 

 tribution of same; 3. Raising, canning and otherwise preserving of our 

 unirrigated fruits and vegetables; 4. Paper pulp, either to establish a 

 simple pulp mill and ship the product, or set up full paper factory plant. 

 Good material is practically inexhaustible; 5. Mining— gold-bearing quartz, 

 placer, beach sand, etc., but more particularly of copper, of which surface 

 indications promise inexhaustible deposits. 



Others could be mentioned, such as furniture, tannery, extracting of 

 tanin from our oak forests, woodenware, basket-willow production and 

 manufacture, and a dozen other minor industries for which material can 

 be had at our very doors. 



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