We took a spin south of Eureka today, visiting the communities of Scotia, Fortuna, Loleta, Rio Dell, Fernbridge and the almost adjacent Ferndale. Some smart aleck must have come up with two Fern-somethings across a bridge from one another.
This part of the world supplied lumber at a furious rate for about 80 years but the production has substantially diminished recently. Many lumber baron types and their minions must have lived in the beautiful Victorian and Craftsman architectural style houses and buildings built here in Humboldt County and there are some superb examples in all these communities but the best assortment is in Ferndale.
Peggy and I cruised the streets of Ferndale checking out the magnificent structures. We drove quite a few miles but covered almost no distance since most of our foray was circling the blocks to see all the great houses. As we drove away from downtown, we noted some of the grand old houses are vacant and falling into disrepair. When not properly maintained, they look remarkably similar to the Haunted House at Disneyland.
We hit the grocery store and diesel station to fill up before our departure from Eureka tomorrow morning. We like the Mad River RV Park and the architecture here but Eureka itself is ugly, there are homeless everywhere, food is expensive and we just didn’t have the imagination to be interested in this locale. Time to go.
We took some Ferndale pix you can see if you click here