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History of Hippies - Part II - Hippies in Humboldt
by Nicholas Pablo

September 27, 2009

There is not much of a record for any sort of Hippie Movement in Humboldt County before the very late 1960s. In fact, many of the revered historical hippie achievements in Humboldt County came in the mid to late 1970s. This movement coincided more with the Helen and Scott Nearing influenced back to the land movement than the San Francisco Hippies per se. However, records from Takilma in nearby Southern Oregon show a northern hippie movement beginning in 1968 : “In the winter of 1968, hippies began moving into the Illinois Valley as part of the back to the land movement, notably into Takilma, Oregon, an unincorporated community located 10 miles southeast of Cave Junction.” see source

It appears that in much the same way the hippies moved into the cheaper priced areas of the proposed highway in San Francisco,  Humboldt County, especially Southern Humboldt, was a cheap discount for the back-to-the-land settlers. The land values had been wiped out by over-logging and over-fishing to the point where profits were no longer being made. There was also a massive tsunami and flood in 1964 that did extensive damage to the regions waterways. While all this left an ecological disaster it also provided cheap land for disgruntled San Francisco hippies hoping to escape the mainstream-media created circus of the Haight-Ashbury.

California had quite a grassroots history of hippie-like nature-based rebellion beginning with german immigrants in the turn of the century. Groups like the Wandervogul, nature boys, and similar naturemensch-style youth groups settled in Southern California during the 40s and 50s. These groups preceded what is normally considered the start of the hippie movement with the beatniks. In fact, Jack Kerouac in his books refers to these groups :

" In  "On The Road" Kerouac noted that while passing through Los Angeles in  the summer of 1947 he saw "an occasional Nature Boy saint in beard and sandals"."

How much of this german-based nature movement of organic foods, ecological principles, vegetarian foods, living off the land and withdrawing from mainstream culture was here before the arrival of the San Francisco hippies is hard to determine. It is clear that these wandervogul ideals have become the heart of what remains of the Hippie Movement in Humboldt.

Another important reference in pre-1970s hippie influx is the State of Jefferson Movement. While some may have heard of this obscure reference in passing the full history is often hidden. The State of Jefferson movement was in all actuality a fully-fledged effort to succeed from the nation in 1941. This Southern Oregon based movement actually declared independence from both Oregon and California on Dec 4, 1941. This historical and revolutionary date has been wiped from memory by the attack on Pearl Harbor only 3 days later that brought the entire movement to a halt. Well, that and the only US Mainland attack by a Japanese Pilot near Brookings, OR (the center of the movement) in 1942.

This shows a revolutionary-like hippie mindframe in the Humboldt County region much earlier than is evident from easily accessible records. There is a long history of Humboldt State University in the area which most certainly added to the liberal and progressive shift in thought over the years. The student-run Humboldt Film Festival began at HSU in 1967. The Grateful Dead played for the HSU students at the Eureka Muni on January 20, 1968. HSU Professor George Allen also began the Arcata Marsh aquaculture project in 1969. There were also massive Vietnam War protests on HSU campus in October of 1969.

Many of the new back-to-the-landers established communes on the north coast. One of the most famous was the Black Bear Ranch Commune started in 1968. The first big celebration at the commune was the autumn equinox in 1969. Thirty members had survived their first intense Siskiyou County winter and were swollen with enough rural bravado to invite up all the extended family from the Bay Area and beyond.

“In some ways things did care for themselves at that first big celebration. The San Francisco Diggers by the score appeared in trucks and buses and gypsy wagons. They knew that hospitality was a two-way street and brought enough food, not just for the Equinox celebration, but also to carry us isolated Black Bears through the entire winter. By then everybody had heard that we’d been snowed in most of the previous winter — an epic like the Donner Party except with vegans playing all the parts.

Others came, too. Anarchists from Lower East Side New York via New Mexico. I think a few of the Black Maoists from the East Bay, with their golf bags full of rifles and shotguns. A handful of Hells Angels in a Chrysler convertible. ” (view source)

Many of these travelers may very well have become the modern day residents who saw the unique opportunites of this relatively remote area. There are some indications that the growing of marijuana in the county began as early as 1969. There is a poster for the Annual convention of Humboldt County Growers Coop with judges Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg, Jerry Garcia, Geroge Carlton, Jerry Rubin and Richard Alpert that was supposedly held on September 19, 1969 at the Humboldt Grange Hall in Eureka.

Many of the festivals, organizations and community movements also began in late 1969 and on into the early 1970s. Hobart Brown held his first Kinetic Sculpture Race on his son’s tricycle in 1969. The Student Mobilization committee, the International Socialists and the Women’s Liberation began protesting the Anti-War Apathy at HSU in April of 1970. The Mad River Beach Park was also officially opened that year. In 1971 the North Coast Open Door clinic and Tim McKay’s North Coast Environmental Center both opened.

“In 1971, a group of students from Humboldt State University developed an Arcata Bike Master Plan and were successful in a series of public presentations to win the unanimous approval of all civic organizations, the Arcata Parks and Recreation Commission and the Arcata Planning Commission, only to find final and formal resistance at the Arcata City Council level. In 1972, new city council members were elected favoring the adoption of the Arcata Bike Master Plan. Since 1974 a modified and much reduced Arcata Bike Master Plan has been adopted but implementation of the master plan was not foreseen in the immediate future due to lack of funds” (view source)

Some major events happened between 1972 and 1974. 1972 brought the official renaming of Humboldt State College to CSU – Humboldt. That was later changed to Humboldt State University in 1974. During 1972 construction was officially started on the new highway 101 that was to run right through the middle of Arcata’s E street. This brought heated local discussions and controversy not so dissimilar to the San Francisco Haight Ashbury freeway fight. In addition, 1974 was the year the first North Country Fair was held by the Same Old People in Arcata.

In 1976 the nuclear plant on Humboldt Bay was officially shut down due to seismic fault studies. The following year, in 1977, the Dell Arte physical arts school was started in Blue Lake. The Mateel Community Center was formed in 1978 at the old Garberville Fire Hall. In 1979 the first farmer’s market was held at a vacant lot in at the foot of F and 7th Streets in Arcata. Also in 1979, the citizens of Arcata passed an initiative allowing the Redwood Forest to be used for recreation, sustainable forestry, and as wildlife habitat. All of these organizations and locations are now firm fixtures of the hippie-based community in Humboldt.

Other notable hippie cultural additions to Humboldt occurred after the 1970s had ended. In 1983 Reggae on the River was started as a benefit to rebuild the Mateel Community Center which was burned down by an arsonist. In 1985, Maxxam Corporation, based in Houston, Texas, took over the Pacific Lumber Company, in Humboldt County, California. This takeover was accomplished with consolidated shares and junk bonds, and then Maxxam dumped a huge sum of its debt onto Pacific Lumber, forcing the company to log it's forests at an unprecedented rate, and targeting the Old Growth Redwood and Douglas Fir forests. In response, the North Coast Earth First! movement was formed.

On May 28, 1987 the people-powered KMUD Radio began radio transmissions in Southern Humboldt. Also that year, David R. Couch and eleven other community members got together to fund the Arcata Marsh Interpretive Center (AMIC). Several craft beer breweries also opened up shop. The Humboldt Brewery, Lost Coast Brewery and Mad River Brewery all began in the late 1980s. In 1989 the Blue Ox Millworks began hosting classes for local high school students.

The 1990s brought the arrival of Phish playing Redwood Acres on April 21, 1992. Apparently they couldn’t make the show the day before. In 1997, Timber protesters were pepper-sprayed at Pacific Lumber Headquarters in Scotia. Later that year Julia Butteryfly Hill began living in her Redwood Tree. She lived up in “Luna” with Earth First support from December 10, 1997 to December 18, 1999 to prevent loggers of the Pacific Lumber Company from cutting it down. 1998 was also the successful Anti-Walmart campaign that kept the big corporations out a little longer.

In the 2000s (or the George Bush years) Humboldt County  became a hot-bed of anti-government policies with the ladies in black and the veterans for peace starting up their weekly silent protests. There were also ordinances passed to oppose the Patriat Act and to formally indict both George Bush and Dick Cheney as war criminals. While completely symbolic, these acts continue to speak toward the revolutionary mindset of the area. 2001 also brought 2 other sad events to Arcata. That year the infamous music venue Café Tomo was forced to close and the beloved Marino’s Bar burnt to the ground.

There can be no doubt that the strongest remnants of the old Hippie Movement remain in Humboldt County and the surrounding areas. Much of this is probably due to the remote physical layout of the area. Indeed, it is quite a State of Jefferson where many things go that do not in other places. Much of this recent attention has been placed entirely on the marijuana culture that permeates the area. Indeed, that is one of the major modern influences of the old hippies trying to make a living back on the land. Yet, the true revolutionary spirit of the area is not properly explained by simply saying it’s all about the herb. Northern California is a land of its own with self-determined social and political forces that keep it one of the only pristine natural wild west areas that remain.