[22] The headquarters of both the Six Rivers National Forest and the North Coast Redwoods District of the California State Parks System are in Eureka.

An extensive collection of intricate basketry of the area's indigenous groups exists in the Clarke Historical Museum in Old Town Eureka.

[35] Incoming settlers began encroaching on Wiyot people by cutting off their access to ancestral sources of food in addition to the outright theft of their land.

The Wiyot men had left the island during their annual World Renewal Ceremony, so the victims were primarily children, women, and elderly tribal members.

Remaining Wiyot people took refuge at Fort Humboldt, but they were not given adequate living accommodations, and so half of them died from starvation or exposure.

[27] In 2004, the City of Eureka voted unanimously to return 45 acres (18 ha) of Tuluwat Island to the Wiyot Tribe as an act of reparation, representing a historic victory for the Land Back movement.

[39][40] Eureka's first post office opened in 1853[41] just as the town began to carve its grid plan into the edge of a forest it would ultimately consume to feed the building of San Francisco and points beyond.

[31] By the time the charter for Eureka was granted in 1856, busy mills inside the city had a daily production capacity of 220,000 board feet.

Eureka was at the apex of rapid growth of the lumber industry because of its location between huge coast redwood forests and its control of the primary port facilities.

Dozens of movable narrow gauge railroads brought trainloads of logs and finished lumber products to the main rail line, which led directly to Eureka's wharf and waiting schooners.

[citation needed] A bustling commercial district with ornate Victorian-style buildings rose in proximity to the waterfront, reflecting the great prosperity experienced during this era.

This nexus of culture behind the redwood curtain still contains much of its Victorian architecture, which, if not maintained for original use as commercial buildings or homes, have been transformed into scores of unique lodgings, restaurants, and small shops featuring a burgeoning cottage industry of hand-made creations, from glassware to wood-burning stoves, and a large variety of locally created art.

[49] Eureka's transportation connection to the "outside" world had changed dramatically after more than half a century of stage rides or treacherous steamship passage through the Humboldt Bar and on the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco.

[50] Debate continues among four stakeholders: timber owners, domestic processors, consumers and communities, on the impact of log export on the local economy.

[56] Consolidation of buyers and landing facilities resulted in local vulnerability to unexpected events, leading the city to obtain grant funding for and complete the Fishermen's Terminal on the waterfront which will provide fish handling, marketing, and public spaces.

[56] The area regularly experiences large earthquakes as it is situated on the southern end the Cascadia subduction zone and near the San Andreas Fault, which interface around the Mendocino triple junction.

[58] After two seconds, it became a violent "jumper", making objects fly;[59] the mostly vertical shocks from the ground led to broken windows in shops, overturned shelving in homes and stores, and damage to architectural detail on a number of historic buildings.

The city marina is on one of three islands at a narrow point on the 13-mile-long (21 km) bay and increases in elevation slightly as it spreads north, south, and especially to the east.

In addition to two deep-water channel docks for large ships, several modern small-craft marinas are available for private use, with a total capacity of more than 400 boats.

The Redwood Transit System provides bus transportation through Eureka and connects to major towns and places outside the city, including educational institutions.

The Amtrak Thruway 7 bus provides daily connections to/from Eurkea (with a curbside stop at 6th and C Streets) Martinez to the south, and Arcata to the north.

The development will contain an intermodal transit center, including car share facilities and regional bus connections, in addition to 31 affordable apartments.

[104] The reduction in major forest products manufacturing in recent decades has left the area with a 45 MGD surplus of industrial water.

[107] Eureka is also the site of the only comprehensive private and county-operated mental health emergency and hospitalization facilities north of San Francisco within California.

[citation needed] Institutions of higher learning include the College of the Redwoods and California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt in Arcata.

The California State Historical marker, #477, designating Eureka, is located in Old Town, one of the nation's best-preserved original Victorian-era commercial districts.

Because of northern isolation and unfavorable economic conditions in the latter part of the twentieth century, much of the post-war redevelopment and urban renewal that other cities experienced did not occur in Eureka.

[citation needed] Sequoia Park Zoo includes Eureka's largest public playground and a duck pond, in addition to gardens and examples of the area's many varieties of rhododendron bushes.

[137][138][139] Though Eureka has been the base for two major daily newspapers at different times in its 150 years, only the Times-Standard, owned by the Colorado-based Media News Group, survives.

On August 26, 2006, the Blue Ox Millworks launched KKDS-LP, a low power FM station focused on youth and community issues.