Palmer’s Point and Fort Humboldt

Posted by Karen on 24-May-2009

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Yesterday was a gloriously full and long day and I decided to sleep in and laze about this morning instead of going down to the cold waterfront and watching the 2nd day start of the  Kinetic Grand Championship race. So, to start off my lazy day, I drove over to Palmer’s Point, the southern point of Patrick’s Point State Park. It’s a seal hangout spot and I enjoyed watching them for a bit.  I drove to Eureka, listening to KHUM Radio, thinking I might catch up with the race somewhere along the line, but other than the water launching, there isn’t really any spot to sit and watch them, they are racing along the roads and highway today.  There was an car accident that they tried to blame on the race, but no sculpture was involved–some yutz decided to just stop dead in the middle of the highway to look at a scuplture and he got rear-ended, which is not the racer’s fault. I didn’t see any of it, but the radio gave excellent play-by-play reporting of the incident. I saw a half-hidden sign for Fort Humboldt State Historic Park, and you know me, I love the historical parks, so off I go. Fort Humboldt was a remote military post established in the 1850’s to help keep peace between settlers, gold miners, and native Indians and to provide protection as needed. The most famous person stationed there was Ulysses S. Grant, famed Union General of the Civil War and our 18th President. Of course, he was stationed there long before he became famous and it is here that he actually resigned his military commission and returned to civilian life until the Civil War. It’s a lovely park, there is a museum, plenty of open space where families were having fun picnics and an outdoor logging museum on the grounds.  I thoroughly enjoyed my walk around and chats with friendly people.