Eel Valley History

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Springville Renamed Fortuna!

Jul 3, 1888

First Post Office for Springville (Fortuna), Called Slide

May 24, 1876

Springville was originally a company town and the few people that resided there all worked for the mill. But there was a need for supporting services and gradually the area became more settled. By ...

Star Hotel Opens in Springville (Fortuna)

1876

William McKinney named the Star Hotel building in honor of the Starar brothers who owned a ranch near the Mad River. McKinney was impressed with the brothers because they kept a herd of elk in a fe...

Town of Springville (Fortuna) Established

May 5, 1875

This name was used because of the many springs in the surrounding hills. On May 5, 1875, the town of Springville was filed with sixteen lots. Although the town was called Springville, the post offi...

Springville Mill Company Organized

Oct 12, 1874

This was the first beginnings of the settlement later known as Fortuna. Henry Rohner, Alexander Masson, M. N. Weber and G. F. Gushaw organized the Springville Mill Company, which helped to estab...

Rohnerville Mills Supplies Most Lumber Used in the Eel River Valley

Jan 1872

-- West Coast Signal, January 10, 1872 -- "Rohnerville Mills - We learn from A. Martin, proprietor, that during the past year the above named mills sawed something over one million feet of lumber....

Rohnerville Becomes the Third Largest Town in Humboldt County

Oct 1870

From Humboldt Times, Feb. 19, 1870. Rapid settlement and commercial development during the next ten years brought Rohnerville some distinction as the third largest population in Humboldt County ...

Mary and Salmon Brown Move to Rohnerville

1870

Traveling almost the width of the continent, from upper New York state to California, abolitionist John Brown's widow Mary, her three daughters, and Salmon and his family came by wagon to Red Bluff...

Eel River Jocky Club Builds a Mile-long Race Track in Rohnerville

Apr 1866

The most colorful story in Rohnerville history is that of the Eel River Jockey Club's race track and fair grounds, where local horsemen and townspeople congregated for afternoons of sulky and saddl...

Pacific Lumber Company (PALCO) Established

Jun 1, 1863

Pacific Lumber or PL (as locals have known it for generations) began during the heat of the US Civil War in 1863 when A. W. McPherson and Henry Wetherbee purchased 6,000 acres (24 km²) of timberlan...

Major Flooding in Humboldt County and the Eel River Delta

Dec 1861 to Jan 1861

The first flood of record occurred in December 1861 and January 1862. Torrential rains hammered the Humboldt Coast in late December. Devastating floods ensued

Humboldt Second Ranked California County in Lumber Production

Jun 1860

By 1860 Humboldt was the second ranking California county in production of lumber, sawing 30,000,000 feet per year. In Humboldt the principal lumber sawed was redwood, spruce, and fir, and small qu...

Salmon Fisheries Thriving on the Eel River

Apr 3, 1858

From the Humboldt Times (3 April 1858) [From the Price Current and Shipping List of San Francisco]--The Salmon fisheries of Eel River in the northern part of the state are of much importance, bo...

Henry Rohner Builds a Trading Post at Eel River (Rohnerville)

Jun 6, 1856

The Humboldt Bay region of northern California, about 300 miles north of San Francisco, was first settled in the spring of 1850 as a supply center for gold mining camps on the Trinity, Klamath and ...