Orick (formerly, Arekw, Orekw, and Oreq, Yurok: 'O'rekw [5]) is a census-designated place[6] situated on the banks of the Redwood Creek in Humboldt County, California.

At times spelled Or'eQw, it is important to note that there is no "Q" in the living Yurok people's alphabet.

Non-native settlers arrived with the Gold Rush, beginning in 1850 after the Josiah Gregg expedition discovered Humboldt Bay.

It was known for home cooked food,[11] as well as hosting fishermen and notables including opera singer Madame Ernestine Schumann-Heink, actors Fred MacMurray and Ronald Colman and President Herbert Hoover.

The business boomed for about fifteen years until closed by the consolidation of mills in larger towns and foundation of the Redwood National Park.

[9] On October 1, 1927, a circus elephant named "Big Diamond" collapsed five miles north of Orick after freeing ten "Honest Bill Animal Show" trucks mired in the new highway construction.

[12] Many years later, the elephants bones were unearthed, and originally misidentified as a mammoth, but newspaper morgues found and repeated the story of Big Diamond's demise.

A memorial plaque was placed near where the bones were found in May 1993 by E Clampus Vitus Eureka Chapter 101.

[13] Orick is part of the California Coast Range, lying close to the Pacific Ocean along U.S. 101.

It is about 15 miles (24 km) south of the current northern border of Humboldt County and an equal distance north of the town of Trinidad.

[15] Floods in 1950, 1953, 1955 and 1964 resulted in channel enlargement, excavation and the construction of earthen levees along each side of the lower 3.4 miles (5.5 km) Redwood Creek (Humboldt County) by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during 1966 to 1968 to protect the community of Orick.

The estuary sits at the western end of the flawed levee system known as the Redwood Creek Flood Control Project- Humboldt County (RCFCP- Humboldt County).The system is maintained by Humboldt County which determined that a general investigation is needed by USACE to consider reworking the system to a more natural condition while retaining flood control benefits.

[9] Tourists visit in both the dry and the wet seasons with attendance averaging 35,000 a month (low of 13,631 February, high of 70,215 August) in 2010.

[9] Redwood National Park Thomas H. Kuchel Visitor Center is located on US Highway 101 just before reaching Orick, California.

The Redwood National Park Southern Operation Center (SOC) is located directly in town on US Highway 101 across the road from the local market and US Post Office.

[36] The town is briefly seen in the 2018 film Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, a few miles away from the Lockwood Estate where the auction of the last dinosaurs takes place.