Vanishing Humboldt

The scythe of time has cut deeply into the Humboldt countryside, leaving ruins, remnants, and emptiness where towns, buildings, and other structures once stood. With camera in hand, we’ll search for signs of the “Bucksport to Goose Lake Prairie Wagon Road,” once the main thoroughfare between Humboldt Bay and the Eel River Valley. We’ll try to trace the site of Centerville, at one time a larger town than its then-tiny neighbor, Ferndale. We’ll look longingly for the Carlotta Hotel, a popular but ultimately doomed vacation and dining spot along the lower Van Duzen. The winnowing progression of the decades will be compressed into less than an hour’s image-filled time.