Press release from the Arcata Police Department

On the morning of January 30, 2026, officers with the Arcata Police Department were dispatched to the area of Trail 5 in the Arcata Community Forest, between Diamond Drive and California Avenue, for a report of an adult male with facial injuries.

Responding officers located a 75-year-old, male, an Arcata resident, with severe head injuries on Trail 5. Emergency medical personnel responded, and the victim was transported to St. Joseph Hospital before being flown out of the area for treatment of life-threatening injuries.

Due to the severity of the injuries and the circumstances surrounding the incident, the Arcata Police Department’s Investigations Unit assumed responsibility for the case.

Through the course of the investigation, detectives determined the incident was an intentional assault and identified 51-year-old Shawn Kolpak as a suspect.

In the early morning of January 31, 2026, Arcata Police officers located Kolpak in his vehicle on the 700 block of 13th St. in Arcata. He was taken into custody without incident and booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on charges of attempted murder (Penal Code 664/187(a)).

This incident is believed to be isolated, and there is no ongoing threat to the public. Redwood Park remains open to the public.

The Arcata Police Department would like to thank community members who assisted in the investigation and helped ensure the safety of the community.

Anyone with information related to this incident is encouraged to contact Arcata Police Department Detective Sergeant Victoria Johnson at 707-822-2424.

Local medical professionals, along with other members of the community, held a candlelight vigil for Alex Pretti, the man killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis last week. Austin Allison, a nurse surgical technologist and a former member of the Eureka City Council, took the video above.

A bit earlier in the evening, students walked out of Eureka High to join a demonstration at the Humboldt County Courthouse. EHS student Candance Biane took a ton of pictures, and was kind enough to share them with us. You can find a selection of them below.

As a reminder: There’s another, 50501-led demonstration at the courthouse scheduled for noon today.

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A structure fire consumed the long-vacant apartment building at 833 H Street in Eureka last night. Emergency personnel were called to the scene after 1 a.m. 

This place had a troubled history. Long owned and managed by local slumlords Floyd and Betty Squires, the building was condemned by the city in 2018. The most recent Google Street View image shows its dilapidated state in October 2024. 

However, Facebookers note that contractors had been working on the structure recently, with more improvements scheduled to begin soon. 

The Outpost will update readers if and when more details are available. 

There is a traffic safety crisis on 4th and 5th Streets in Eureka. These streets are extremely dangerous for people walking, biking and rolling. While Caltrans has made some improvements to crosswalks, there are currently no plans for major safety improvements to 4th and 5th Streets.

Colin Fiske of the Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities (CRTP) joins the program to discuss how street design increases car crashes and pedestrian strikes and how Caltrans could immediately improve safety in Eureka.

Want to take action? CRTP is petitioning Caltrans to better prioritize road safety improvements on 4th and 5th Streets.

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John Morris never lived in Humboldt County. Two of his sisters, Harriet Tracy and Lucy Bartholomew, did. His first wife, Melissa Harmon, was a Eureka girl. John Morris was a traveling book agent for A. L. Bancroft. Humboldt County was part of his territory in 1871 and again in 1874.

Book selling was a lucrative job for a man willing to work hard and travel through unknown territory. Profits were high and expenses negligible, since he traveled on foot and frequently availed himself of the hospitality of settlers for his food and lodgings.

In the spring of 1871 he received word that Humboldt County was a fertile field for book sellers. His sisters, Lucy and Harriet, had joined Lucy’s husband, Mitchell Bartholomew, in Hydesville. This seemed like a good time to undertake a trip through the northern part of the state.

Times were not too good in the lumber industry that summer; his sales were limited to 20 books in Eureka. The cattle and dairy industries, however, were both on the rise, which meant good business for him in the Mattole region and the Eel River Valley.

As he traveled about Humboldt County he noted that the farmers had invested heavily and well in potatoes that year, putting as high as 400 acres in that crop. He was impressed by the diversity of the people of the county — the lumbermen from Maine and Canada, the Danes in the dairylands, the stockmen from the midwest and south, and the southern Europeans along the seacoast. He was impressed by the fact that all over the county he met rich and influential men — Judge Huestis, William Carson, George Williams, Jos. Russ and Captain Wasgatt.

He was warned that in the Mattole region most of the men had married Indian women and that neither the men nor their women could read. He tried anyway and came triumphantly back to Eureka with an order from every family in the Mattole. One man, he said was a graduate of Harvard and bought two books. Another, who could not read, bought a book when his hired man promised to read it to him.

Rohnerville was the most lucrative city in the county. There he sold 42 books in one day, the largest day’s sales he had ever achieved.

For the return trip to San Francisco he bought a horse and a revolver, loaded the horse with books, and started out from Hydesville overland.

He arrived at Garber’s on election day and found that little settlement crowded with ranchers in from the surrounding mountains to cast their votes. He listened to election speeches and sold most of his books to the men gathered there.

The next day he rode with the stockmen back to their mountain homes east of the Eel River. He described the Coyle place: “A small shanty, sides, roof and all of the roughest shakes I had ever seen. A nicely dressed, good looking young lady came out of the shake shanty. Mr. Coyle introduced me to his wife, asked me to get down and eat dinner with them. In 30 minutes we sat down to a sumptuous dinner cooked by this young wife: meats, fruits, preserves, everything good.”

That night it was on to the Beaumont Ranch, where he “found intelligent people. The Beaumont brothers were highly educated Frenchmen who could read the dead languages, and who had a fine library.” The next day he stopped at Armstrongs, where he sold three books.

All in all John Morris was very satisfied with his first visit to Humboldt County. He was impressed by the intelligence and resourcefulness of the settlers. He remarked, “Though like Coyle’s, the outside might look woeful rough, inside the house might be carpeted and have all the latest improved furniture, if only a man had money and pack-mules to get these improvements out to the ranches.”

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In October of 1874, John Morris returned to Humboldt for another book canvass. This time he particularly had Eureka in mind, the city where he felt he had failed to gain the confidence of his customers in 1871.

On this trip to Humboldt he sailed on the steamer Humboldt, which he felt offered better accommodations then the old Pelican.

Landing in Eureka, he immediately sought out his old friends of Nebraska days, James Gardner and his wife and their two daughters. Prudence (Mrs. John) Dodge and Elizabeth (Mrs. Franklin) Ellis. These families had known each other not only during the days in the midwest, but also in the Trinity mines, where the Morris family owned the hotel at Minerville. Mr. Morris says that John Dodge at one time owned the “big ditch built by Lt. Governor Chellis in Trinity Co.” It was John Dodge who owned an extensive tract of land in Eureka in the area of J Street, where he employed both his brother-in-law. Franklin Ellis and his father-in-law, James Gardner.

Will Dodge, whom many old timers will remember in the old home on J Street, was a baby at this time. The story goes that old Mrs. Gardner often cared for Will, and to amuse him would hold him up to the window to watch his grandfather working in the garden. “Look, Willie,” she would say, “Watch Grandpa dig, dig.” And so the boy grew up calling his Grandfather, “Grandpa Dig-Dig.”

John Morris took a room at the Dodge’s for $5.00 a week, with board thrown in. “Prudence was a good cook,” he said. This time he found Eureka a booming community — lumber mills were running at capacity. Shipbuilding and shipping were in full swing, and a number of shingle mills were running. There were sidewalks made of thick redwood boards, which were a boon to walkers and made it easy to travel about town. He found churches thriving, naming the Congregational, Methodist, Episcopal and United Brethren.

The day he spent selling at Carson’s Mill was one of the highlights of his stay in Eureka. He tells the story this way:

Carson’s Mill at Eureka was the most desirable mill to sell books, but I could never sell a book to William Carson.

One day, on going to Carson’s Mill, I found the crew idle. The mill had stopped. When the owner came round I made a friendly remark, “You have a fine mill, Mr. Carson.”

“Sometimes I think so, sometimes I think not.” This was one of the days he thought not, no doubt, for after all hands who wished had signed for a book and I was sitting on a big log outside the mill, I heard a voice over my shoulder that nearly bounced me from my seat.

“I have one request of you,” he said, “That you don’t talk books to my men during mill hours.”

John Morris assured Mr. Carson that he would never bother the men while they were working, and Mr. Carson wandered off, satisfied.

It was during this three months’ canvass of Eureka that John Morris met and married the lovely Melissa Harmon. John described his first meeting with Melissa: “As I watched Melissa sewing that evening, stitch by stitch she wove the web of her beauty vividly into my mind’s eye. To see her was but to admire, to know her but to adore.”

They were married three months later, on January 27, 1875. There were 25 people crowded into the Harmon house for the occasion, but the man who stood out in John’s memory was the minister, Mr. Ed. I. Jones. Of him he said, “I did not like the preacher who officiated. He was so smart, having studied law, and had the swell-head terribly.”

John and Melissa lived for two months at he brother, Charles, home while John finished his work in Eureka and Humboldt County.

The farmers were not doing as well this year, so business feil off some. But out at Ferndale he felt pretty successful with the Russ family. The ladies of the Russ family, he said, had become interested in church affairs, and they eagerly looked through his list of religious books, purchasing one called “Our Father’s House.” Two more books of importance he sold to J. J. DeHaven.

Rohnerville, Hydesville and the Island were all quiet this year and not too remunerative. At Table Bluff he met Mr. Howard, who, he claimed, owned the bedstead upon which General Grant slept at Fort Humboldt, and also Seth Kinman, maker of chairs for presidents.

Despite the fact that business was slow in the farming communities, John Morris cleared $800 that winter, “beside the value of my wife,” he added.

A sad postscript to John Morris’s marriage awaited him when he returned to Eureka to take his bride to his parent’s home in Napa County. While he was gone she had consulted Dr. Schenk and Dr. Hostetter. Both confirmed that she was a victim of consumption and had only a few years to live.

Sadly, he took her south, where she bore him a son, Vincent, and five years later she died.

Mr. Morris continued selling books up and down California for several years before buying a ranch on Howell Mountain near St. Helena and turning to full time truck farming. He visited Humboldt occasionally in the years to follow and later Vincent was a frequent visitor at the home of his aunt and uncle, Joseph and Harriet Tracy.

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Jefferson Mark Wiedemann
Sept. 7, 1951 – Jan. 17, 2026

It is with sadness that we announce the passing of Mark Wiedemann. Mark recently lost his battle with complications from non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Mark was born in Lexington, Kentucky, to Jeff and Dorcas Wiedemann. As the firstborn, he was later joined by siblings Randal (Martha), Holly (Bart), Britton (Erin) and Hope (John). He attended The Lexington School, Sayre School, St. George’s Prep School and Transylvania University, where he earned his undergraduate degree. He also attended the University of Kentucky and received a bachelor’s degree in nursing. He then moved to San Francisco, worked as a registered nurse, and obtained a master’s degree in environmental science from the University of San Francisco.

After serving as a critical care nurse, he returned to Lexington to earn a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Kentucky in 1991. He returned to California, where he met his wife, Jackie, and they married in 1991. They moved to Saginaw, Michigan, where Mark completed his residency. After a stint in Coos Bay, they headed south to Arcata.

They settled in Arcata, among the redwoods and surrounded themselves with nature and animals. Over the years, they cared for dogs, cats, chickens, goats and horses. He had a pet horse, Mr. Ed, and taught him to “count.” Mark’s passion for creation was fulfilled as he built a series of structures, including a woodshop, barn, hobby studio and greenhouses to grow grapefruit and winter tomatoes. He was a remarkable Renaissance man.

He recently built a massive redwood slab table measuring 9 feet long and 4 inches thick from wood milled on his property. Somehow, he moved it onto a deck 20 feet above the ground entirely by himself.

He was always fixing things and had a multitude of projects underway. He enjoyed growing vegetables, fruits and flowers, which were mostly enjoyed by wildlife such as deer and bears. He was also a beekeeper. Mark enjoyed woodworking, painting and tinkering for decades on his beloved “Blue Goose,” a 1950s GMC police/ambulance Carryall, restoring it to better-than-mint condition.

He dug steps into the hillside of his property and moved mountains of dirt while contouring his yard with a tractor. He created a water system that ran to his house, small orchard and greenhouse, all fully automated.

Mark’s conscientious care for his fellow human beings led him to practice family medicine and emergency medicine. Later, he focused on wound care. His compassionate nature extended not only to humans but to animals as well.

Mark’s Christian faith shaped how he lived, learned and treated people. He was a faithful member of Telios Christian Fellowship, attending Sunday services and midweek Bible study, later participating virtually. For many years, he also supported Monday Night Torah through his regular weekly presence and took part in other classes, including Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and close-up magic. He will be sorely missed by all who knew him.

He is survived by his wife, Jackie; his siblings; and nieces and nephews: Emily (Benjamin), Adam (Hannah), Paul, Seth (Taylor), Josh, Hannah (Craig), Brittjan (Rachel), Eliza, Christopher, William, Breanna, Emmie, Henry, George, Oliver, Lauren (Kevin), Alex (Lindsay) and Carmen.

A remembrance gathering will be held Feb. 14 from 2-4 p.m. at Telios Christian Fellowship, 1575 L St., Arcata. An additional remembrance gathering will be held in Kentucky at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the American Cancer Society.

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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Mark Wiedemann’s family. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.

Mom was born on March 12, 1941, in New Jersey. She and Aunt Edie moved with Grandpa and Grandma to Arcata when Mom was 11 or 12. She went to Stewart School in Arcata, and graduated from Arcata High School in 1959. In 1961, Mom married Dad, Tom Reynolds. They raised two daughters, Kathy and Dianne, in Arcata. We lived in three different houses lovingly built by Dad and made into homes by Mom.

Mom was a gourmet cook, extremely crafty, an excellent seamstress, could meticulously fix anything, and enjoyed working in her yard. When I got married, she amazingly made my bridesmaids’ dresses, altering the form-fitting pattern to each of their seven womanly figures. Mom was very active in our lives growing up, and taught us so much.

After raising her girls, in her early 40s, Mom enjoyed volunteering as a “Pink Lady” at the Hospital, served as the auxiliary president, and was able to do some traveling for conventions. During this time, Mom met and married her second husband, Joseph Del Grande. They were together for 37 years, when Joseph passed away in December, 2022. A couple years after their marriage, Mom went to work full-time as a cashier at Big Loaf Bakery in Eureka, then at Wildberries in Arcata, and finally cashiered at Blue Lake Casino. She worked there until she was 80. She and Joseph also really enjoyed playing at the casinos, when they weren’t preparing incredible meals at home for family and friends. They also traveled to Lucca, Italy to visit Joseph’s family.

Mom enjoyed time with her girls, her two grandkids, and four great-grandkids. She enjoyed the grandkids’ sporting events, and even traveled to Klamath Falls for college graduations. She really had a fun day, late this last November, meeting her new great-granddaughter, and playing with her grandson. Mom was so happy that day, with many smiles.

We had no idea she would be gone two weeks later. She passed away at 84, suddenly and unexpectedly, on December 13, 2025. We miss you so much, Mom!

Mom was so loved by her sister Edith Stromberg; daughters Kathy Wood (Larry) and Dianne Reynolds; her grandkids Thomas Wood (Tanya) and Jacqueline Eskra (Ross); her great grandkids Gregory and Daniel Wood, and Virgil and Maren Eskra; stepson Mark Del Grande (Angela); and step grandkids Mason, AJ, Sergio, and Aria; and nieces and nephews.

You are invited to join us in a graveside memorial service at Greenwood Cemetery in Arcata, on February 7, at 3 p.m. – followed by a gathering at her daughter’s house in McKinleyville.