Press release from the U.S. Department of Energy:

In support of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced today that it has selected 12 local governments and tribes to receive over $31 million in funding through the Communities Sparking Investments in Transformative Energy (C-SITE) funding opportunity. Under DOE’s new Local Government Energy Program, C-SITE supports the implementation of high-impact clean energy projects in disadvantaged communities, energy communities, and small- and medium-sized jurisdictions.

“The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to ensuring that every community in the country is able to take advantage of the benefits of the clean energy economy,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “By investing in energy projects in smaller, disadvantaged, and energy transition communities, these grants will reduce energy costs, increase resilience and create jobs and economic opportunity in places that have historically been left behind by federal programs.”

“The James A. Henry building was already going to operate as a health clinic and early childhood education center for the people of the Westside, and now it will also be an energy efficient resilience hub,” said Chattanooga, Tennessee Mayor Tim Kelly. “This grant was only possible because of our Climate Action Plan and the hard work of the Chattanooga Housing Authority. I want to thank the Department of Energy for recognizing the need for investment on the Westside.”

C-SITE was launched with a goal to fund projects that spark additional investments in communities and deliver direct benefits to workers and residents, such as workforce agreements and protections, reduced energy costs, improved air quality, and improved quality of life. Selected communities are investing in variety of clean energy approaches and technology areas including building efficiency and electrification, clean transportation, energy infrastructure upgrades, microgrid development and deployment, renewable energy, and workforce development.

In addition to grant funding, selected recipients will receive technical assistance to support project implementation. Notably, selectees will be able to receive a Community Energy Fellow, a DOE-sponsored clean energy professional that will be located in the host community for 18 months to help build capacity and support project outcomes.

“We are thrilled by this opportunity to assist our underserved residents and communities with energy conservation and electrification improvements,” said Hennepin County Housing Program Manager Mike Jensen in Minnesota. “This project will reduce energy costs, improve health outcomes, and help protect families from future energy cost increases and the expected effects of climate change. Alongside our partners Sabathani, the Minneapolis American Indian Center, and the cities of Minneapolis and Brooklyn Park, Hennepin County will be able to preserve housing for residents living in climate vulnerable communities while investing in community renewable energy.”

This first round of 12 selectees will engage over 32 different partners ranging from housing organizations, workforce training centers, and community-based non-profits. The projects selected demonstrate a range of benefits that could be models for other communities including:

• Transforming liabilities into assets, such as turning vacant lots into housing

• Modeling new approaches, such as deploying agrivoltaics in a small rural community

• Reducing operational costs and building resilience, such as creating resilience hubs

• Funding workforce opportunities, such as training unionizing local apprentices for e-bikes maintenance

• Sparking investments, such as creating new business models for municipal or tribally-owned utilities

Learn more about the 12 selectees:

City of Chattanooga, TN will create a community resilience hub by renovating and expanding a closed school to provide employment services, including roof insulation, high performance windows, LED lighting, and an efficient chiller. (Award amount $2,900,000)

Town of Greenville, FL will install agrivoltaics systems, retrofit community buildings with energy-efficient technologies, and host education trainings and workshops to enhance resilience and economic stability. (Award amount: $3,000,000)

Hennepin County, MN will provide residential audits, weatherization, energy efficiency upgrades, and solar installation in disadvantaged communities, and deploy renewable energy on two resilience hubs, while creating opportunities for training and green job creation. (Award amount: $2,500,000)

City of Highland Park, MI will install and maintain 30 solar powered streetlights to improve public safety and make other energy investments to reduce costs and create economic opportunities. (Award amount: $2,500,000)

Hopi Utilities Corporation in Arizona will add a behind-the-meter, grid-tied Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) to store excess power from an existing microgrid to build energy resilience, decrease reliance on diesel generators, and reduce high costs of unreliable energy for the Hopi Tribe. (Award amount: $3,400,000)

Native Village of Kotzebue in Northern Alaska, in collaboration with Kotzebue Electric Association, Kikiktagruk Inupiat Corp., Inc., the Northwest Arctic Borough, and Atautchikun, LLC., will invest in local, tribally-produced renewable solar energy and leverage decommissioned wind turbine infrastructure to improve resilience and reduce energy costs. (Award amount: $3,350,000)

City of Milwaukee, WI will develop 25 all electric, Net-Zero Energy Homes on existing vacant lots in three disadvantaged communities using off-site construction of panel systems. (Award amount: $3,400,000)

City of New Orleans, LA will work with Louisiana Green Corps to expand the existing bike share system to provide a reliable, convenient, and affordable public transportation service by and for New Orleanians and train a new generation of e-bike mechanics to service the fleet. (Award amount: $1,700,000)

Orick Community Services District, CA will establish a resilient microgrid with solar and storage to provide reliable power to critical facilities (water pumping station, community hall, fire station, grocery store). (Award amount: $900,000)

Raton Public Service Company in Raton, NM will complete Phase 2 of a municipally-owned utility solar energy initiative by constructing 750kW of solar capacity and installing photovoltaic panels, inverters, and the necessary electrical infrastructure to integrate the expansion into the existing grid. (Award amount: $2,000,000)

Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians in Minnesota will invest in an innovative, behind-the-meter microgrid system to provide electricity for a secondary school complex, building towards a larger cooperative network and energy sovereignty and resilience in rural, tribal communities. (Award amount: $3,150,000)

Region Five Development Commission, MN will provide inclusive clean energy financing to four pre-identified projects rural communities in central Minnesota, including a school solar project and a tribal electric vehicle project. (Award amount: $2,500,000)

For more information, visit the Local Government Energy Program website or email LGEP@hq.doe.gov.

New data shows nearly 186,000 people now live on the streets and in homeless shelters in California, proving the crisis continues to grow despite increasing state and local efforts to stem the tide.

That’s according to an exclusive CalMatters analysis of the latest results of the point-in-time count, a federally mandated census that requires counties to tally their unhoused residents over the course of one night or early morning in January.

The count is up slightly from last year’s tally of about 181,000, and up 8% from 2022 (the last year most California counties counted people living in encampments). But there’s some good news: The rate at which the homelessness crisis is growing appears to have slowed. It grew 13% between 2019 and 2022, 13% between 2017 and 2019, and 16% between 2015 and 2017.

And homelessness actually dropped significantly from 2022 in at least nine counties – bucking what for some was a yearslong trend of increases. At least four other counties saw their populations remain relatively steady.

CalMatters’ analysis is based on data from the 32 counties that have reported it so far this year.

In counties that made progress this year, officials say they added more shelter beds and affordable housing – much of it through federal funding related to the COVID-19 pandemic or other new state money.

“Folks got serious,” said Kari Howell, a program manager for the Homeless Services Division of San Luis Obispo County, which saw a 19% dip in homelessness compared to 2022. “Service providers started to get the support they needed from local communities that allowed them to further expand the work they were doing. I think we’re really proud, while also simultaneously acknowledging there’s so much more work to do.”

But experts warn these numbers should be taken with a grain of salt. The county that reported the biggest increase in homelessness (San Joaquin) and the one that reported the biggest decrease (Sacramento) both changed the way they counted this year – calling into question how accurately this count can be compared to prior years. And in every county, experts warn the tally is likely an undercount, as volunteers are sure to miss people sleeping tucked away out of sight.

“Ever since the (point-in-time count) became a mandate we’ve been railing against it,” said Christy Saxton, director of health, housing and homeless services for Contra Costa County. “Because it’s incredibly flawed. Everyone has a different methodology.”

Those challenges point to a bigger dilemma: Voters and politicians alike repeatedly report that homelessness is one of the most important issues facing California, but it’s hard to address the problem without knowing its full scope.

Sacramento and San Joaquin counties saw big changes. Or did they?

Homelessness doubled in San Joaquin County this year compared to the county’s last count in 2022. And the number of people sleeping outdoors — not in a shelter — increased nearly a whopping 160%. No other California county saw such a massive increase.

But the huge change raised questions.

Community leaders say the increase is, at least partially, part of a broader trend of more people landing on the streets in the Central Valley. Kern County saw the state’s second-worst increase: Overall homelessness grew 67% compared to 2022, and the number of people sleeping outside increased 128%. Fresno County didn’t count its unsheltered homeless population this year, but it saw a nearly 80% increase in overall homelessness from 2019 to 2023.

Activists in the Central Valley blame rent increases, which, unlike in big cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles, are rarely moderated by local rent control rules.

The Rev. Nelson Rabell, a pastor in Stockton who also serves on the board of affordable housing organization Faith in the Valley, blames the recent influx of people moving to the region from the Bay Area in search of cheaper housing. Families in his congregation keep coming to him with the same story: Their landlord kicked them out and wants to remodel their home to attract Bay Area renters with more money, he said.

“They’re always on the brink,” Rabell said of those displaced families. “One check away. Someone gets sick, or you have a landlord trying to take advantage of the situation. They’re one month away from being homeless.”

But there could be another factor behind San Joaquin County’s massive increase in homelessness: A major change in the way the county counted.

This year, instead of doing the count itself, San Joaquin County used data firm Applied Survey Research, a company also used by nine other California counties this year.

“They’re always on the brink. One check away. Someone gets sick, or you have a landlord trying to take advantage of the situation. They’re one month away from being homeless.”
— Rev. Nelson Rabell, board member, affordable housing organization Faith in the Valley

In a change from last year, the county also assigned volunteers to every census tract in an effort to count all homeless people. And their numbers skyrocketed.

“Knowing how many people are living unsheltered is very disheartening,” said Krista Fiser, chair of the county’s continuum of care, “but most people involved with the county feel confident that it is a significantly more accurate count.”

The new methodology likely doesn’t account for the entire increase. “Anecdotally, you can see it’s getting worse,” Fiser said.

But because of the data discrepancy, officials don’t really know how much worse.

A questionable decline in homelessness in the capital

Activists have raised similar questions in Sacramento County, which saw the state’s biggest drop in homelessness. Overall homelessness fell 29% compared to the county’s last count in 2022, and the number of people sleeping outside dropped 41%.

But Loaves & Fishes, a nonprofit that provides food and other services for homeless communities in Sacramento, says its programs served more people this year than last year. It questions whether the point-in-time count numbers are too good to be true.

“These numbers are incredibly difficult to believe and further highlight the trust issues with local government that our guests have consistently expressed over our many years of service,” the organization said in a June news release.

Like San Joaquin, Sacramento County changed the way it counted. Instead of using Sacramento State University, the county hired Simtech Solutions – a data firm that also counted for more than a dozen other California counties this year. Sacramento made the switch because officials liked the idea of being part of that broader cohort, said Trent Simmons, director of data for Sacramento Steps Forward, the nonprofit that leads the county’s count.

Simmons stands behind the reported drop. Though the vendor was different, the method they used was the same as in 2022, he said.

“When we point to a lot of other contextual data around the count, it all does point to the same direction,” he said. “We see an increase in services, we see more people housed, more shelter capacity, more permanent housing capacity, we see more funding, we see more service providers in the system.”

Problems with the homeless point-in-time count in California

The feds tell counties throughout the country to count their unhoused populations at least every two years using a point-in-time census, which generally takes place over the course of one night in January. In California, the counts generate tons of fanfare. Armies of volunteers fan out to tally every person they see sleeping in a tent or a car, and mayors, city council members and other elected officials often join in. They also count everyone spending the night in a shelter.

The results are crucial. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development uses the data to help determine how much homelessness funding to give each county. But the numbers also have come to serve as a framework around which states base their understanding of the homelessness epidemic. State and local politicians constantly reference them in speeches: Decreases allow bragging rights, and increases are lobbed as ammunition at opponents.

The data also factors into legislation. Sen. Catherine Blakespear, a Democrat from Encinitas, introduced a bill last year that would require local governments to provide enough housing for their homeless populations based on their most recent point-in-time count. While that provision is no longer on the table, the counts continue to come up time and time again in legislative hearings.

Most California counties that conducted a count this year released the results this summer. Thirteen counties, including Santa Clara, didn’t count this year – they counted last year and will count again in 2025. Another 13 counted this year but haven’t yet released their results. CalMatters compiled and analyzed the results available for each county. In reaching the statewide total, if there was no 2024 data, CalMatters used the most recent data reported to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The feds eventually will compile the data into a national report, but that likely won’t happen until the end of the year. When it does, its total for California may be different from CalMatters’ total, because it will include data that wasn’t yet reported at the time of publication.

The federal agency recognizes the limitations of its mandatory count, saying it’s not meant to capture the “entire universe” of people who are homeless throughout the year. But, according to spokesperson Andra Higgs: “There is no other data source available that provides a more accurate count of both sheltered and unsheltered homelessness across the country.”

There are ways local officials can make their counts more accurate, such as calling people on housing waitlists to ask where they sleep, or using school data to contact families of homeless students, said Peter Connery, vice president of Applied Survey Research – a nonprofit consulting firm that conducted counts for 10 California counties this year.

But the problem, Connery said, is that most counties conduct the counts on a shoe-string budget, using staff who already have a full plate of other responsibilities. His firm charges between $50,000 and $185,000 for a count, depending on the size of the county. Those prices include paying people who are or have been homeless to help.

Counties do the best they can with what they have, Connery said.

“Does every county do an optimal job of it? I would say no, they don’t,” he said.

Did cracking down on encampments change homelessness numbers?

As officials in cities throughout California experiment with new ways to manage homelessness, they eagerly awaited the results of this year’s point-in-time count to see if their efforts paid off.

In San Diego, Mayor Todd Gloria didn’t get the reduction he was hoping for after cracking down on street encampments and directing people to “safe sleeping” sites. The number of people sleeping outside without shelter increased 6% in the city compared to last year (unlike many other California jurisdictions, the city and county of San Diego count every year instead of every other year).

San Diego banned homeless encampments across a wide swath of the city in July 2023. To give people somewhere legal to go in a city without enough shelter beds or housing, city leaders opened sanctioned camps where people sleep in tents purchased by the city, and safe parking sites for people living in RVs. The 749 people living in those sanctioned camps and parking sites are still counted as homeless and “unsheltered” by the feds, meaning they don’t help San Diego lower its unsheltered point-in-time count numbers.

Gloria called that “frustrating.” He sent the Department of Housing and Urban Development a letter this summer asking the agency to re-classify both types of sites as shelters.

“I believe the streets are better today than they were a year ago,” Gloria told CalMatters.

In the city of Los Angeles, where Mayor Karen Bass has made clearing encampments a priority, homelessness dropped 2% this year from the year before. It’s a small decline, but it’s the first time in six years the city has seen any decrease. The number of people living on the street without shelter dropped 10%.

Bass drastically changed the way the city clears encampments in December 2022, when she launched Inside Safe, a program that moves people from camps into hotel rooms. More than 2,700 people have come indoors through that program, according to LAist. But a CalMatters investigation found officials have struggled to provide the medical and mental health services participants need, and to move people from the temporary hotels into permanent housing.

“Ever since the (point-in-time count) became a mandate we’ve been railing against it. Because it’s incredibly flawed. Everyone has a different methodology.”
— Christy Saxton, director of Health, Housing and Homeless Services for Contra Costa County

People living in those temporary hotel rooms are still classified as homeless by the federal government.

The number of people sleeping outdoors dropped nearly 45% in Napa County from 2022 – the biggest decrease in unsheltered homelessness of any California county. City and county officials say that’s because they’ve gone to great lengths to snap up state and federal funding.

In 2022, the county received just under $100,000 per year for permanent supportive housing from the feds, said Jennifer Palmer, the county’s director of housing and homeless services. Now, they rake in more than $400,000.

“We’re really decided that is the greatest need in the community,” Palmer said.

In two years, the county also added 95 new shelter beds, more than doubling their supply.

But in some areas of California, the funds they used to make gains against homelessness have dried up. Homelessness decreased in Santa Cruz County by nearly a quarter between 2022 and 2023. Then it plateaued this year.

The county received nearly 400 new federal housing vouchers in 2022 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But while those have been used up, people continue to lose their homes faster than the county can pull people out of homelessness, said Robert Ratner, director of Housing for Health in the county.

“We’re not going to see progress in the (point-in-time) count if that is the continuing dynamic,” he said.

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

Janice Kaye Barham went home to her Lord on September 4, 2024. Born in Iowa on January 8, 1941 to Reed and Arlene Diltz, Jan moved to Humboldt at the age of 11. She married her husband Dale Barham at the young age of 17 and had two children, Cherri and Tyrone, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Janice devoted her life to serving Christ and was an active member of McKinleyville Baptist Church for many years. She served in the McKinleyville Elementary Schools as an aide for almost 50 years and got great joy from helping children learn, especially two of her great-grandchildren, who attended school while she was there. Her great-grandchildren knew to always expect a spelling or math quiz from their Nana! Some of her favorite times were teaching bible study at church. She also fostered many youth while her own children were growing up.

Jan loved spending time in her garden and doing arts and crafts. Her grandchildren and great-grandchildren have many memories of helping her feed the birds and watering her flowers in her backyard. She was always very thoughtful in making handmade cards for every special occasion or holiday – we will miss receiving her colorful drawn-on stickered envelopes in the mail. She was also very proud of her poetry.

Besides the Lord, no one came between her devotion to her husband of 63 years, Dale, until his death in 2022.

Jan is survived by her daughter and dedicated caretaker Cherri (husband Eric), son Tyrone (wife Mona); grandchildren: Nicole (Sean), Jessica (Lorenzo), Erik, Tyrone Jr and Terran; and great grandchildren: Ashton, Zoey, Hunter & Kenzi.

The family would like to thank the staff at Timber Ridge McKinleyville for their kindness and her close friends and bible study group.

We will miss you Nana and your signature red sun hat.

Hebrews 13:5 “…God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

Robert John Kamberg
October 27, 1958- September 5, 2024

Robert John Kamberg was the only living survivor of John and Soraida Kamberg of Grizzly Flats, California.

As I sit here watching you take your final breaths I have been thinking about our 44 years of marriage. From high school sweethearts to grandparents. I wouldn’t have wanted to spend it any other way or with anyone else. We have three amazing children Robert “Bobby” Kamberg (Elicia) of Camden, South Carolina, Steven Kamberg (Samantha) of Eureka and Stephanie Kamberg of Eureka, and along with them comes our beautiful grandchildren Hayden Kamberg, Hallie Jean Skillings, Killian and Koah Kamberg and Russell Hann. They were his pride and joy.

Robert lived mostly in Humboldt County with a short time in the Santa Rosa area and when he enlisted in the Marine Corp. He was really proud of that, “Once a Marine Always a Marine” was his saying. One of the things he was most proud of was working for the railroad. He referred to that as his dream job. He was good at what he did and always provided for his family, even when it took him out of the area to work.

Buddy, as his extended family called him, was always there if they needed someone to talk to. He would soon have them laughing with a stupid joke he had told. He will be missed by his best friend Mike Wright, who he considered a brother to him.

As the youngest child of his family he was the last to pass. Both parents, brother Rodney and Lenore Kamberg, have since left this earth. He also is now with his mother-in-law who passed away a year ago, Jean Vanderklis. Robert leaves behind his wife, Debra, father-in-law Piet Vanderklis, nephews PJ and Matt Vanderklis and other family members. He was worried most of all about his beautiful dog, Midnight. I think they could read each other’s minds. She will continue to live in the family.

As for me, my love. There is a hole in my heart that will never be filled until we meet again. Always and forever, Bob and Deb!

California Department of Parks and Recreation release: 

California State Parks, in cooperation with CAL FIRE, are planning to begin a series of prescribed burns in Prairie Creek and Humboldt Redwoods State Parks starting as early as mid-September and possibly through November. Smoke and flames may be visible from the Newton B. Drury Parkway in Prairie Creek State Park and Mattole Road at Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

Forest management and prescribed burns are designed to reduce the encroachment of conifer trees and shrubs into prairies, as well as reduce fuel loads in the forests to lessen the likelihood of catastrophic wildfire. These proactive measures not only protect park infrastructure but also significantly reduce the chance of a catastrophic wildfire, potentially saving hundreds of thousands of dollars while ensuring a safer environment for both the park and neighboring communities.

For thousands of years prior to European settlement and colonization, local Native American tribes regularly used fire to manage the various landscapes of our parks, shaping the ecosystems we see today. These traditional practices continue to play a vital role in sustaining the natural systems and biodiversity of the area. Returning fire helps to maintain these natural systems that can be threatened by a lack of fire and continue an ongoing resource management program designed to maintain prairie grasslands, enhance forage for wildlife, control exotic plant species, and maintain our old-growth forests for generations to come.

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

Jean Etherton | HCSO

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office needs the public’s help to locate missing person Jean Marie Etherton, age 63, of Eureka.

Etherton was reported missing by her family on Sunday, Sept. 8 at about 7 a.m. Etherton was believed to have walked away from her residence, located in the 6000 block of Walnut Dr., Cutten, in the early morning hours of Sept. 8. Etherton’s family advised law enforcement that she may have been having a mental health crisis, and they suspect that the wooded area near their home may likely be her location. Her family also reported that Etherton had walked away from her home one other time last week and was located in the McKay Tract. Etherton was last seen wearing leopard print leggings, pastel pink and purple slippers, and possibly a pastel tie-dyed hoodie.

We are asking our community to please be on the lookout for Etherton in the Cutten and Elk River areas as well as the McKay Tract Community Forest. We are also urging the public to please refrain from the wooded area north of Ridgewood Dr. and south of Lundbar Hills due to the ongoing Search and Rescue (SAR) K-9s tracking in that area.
The Sheriff’s Office is actively coordinating the SAR operation.

Sheriff’s deputies are searching the trails on ATV, on foot and utilizing thermal drones. Deputies are also searching the public roadways. The Sheriff’s Office has called in the use of the U.S. Coast Guard to search from the air. HCSO has also called in the California Rescue Dog Association (CARDA) volunteers; the Humboldt County Sheriff SAR volunteers are also assisting with the coordinated search.

Anyone with information for the Sheriff’s Office regarding Jean Etherton’s possible whereabouts should call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251.

Cal Poly Humboldt release: 

Nearly 100 years after the Humboldt County logging community of Falk became a ghost town, the National Park Service announced its addition to the National Register of Historic Places this year.

The designation is thanks to decades of excavation and research from faculty, staff, and students at Cal Poly Humboldt’s Cultural Resources Facility (CRF) and Anthropology department, and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

The 19th-century town, now an archaeological district, is in the Headwaters Forest Reserve.

Above: Falk in its heyday | Photos: BLM; Below: Falk location in the Headwaters Forest Reserve.

The recognition officially acknowledges the town’s local, state, and national significance, and is part of a nationwide effort to identify and protect America’s historic and archeological resources, according to the National Parks Service, which oversees the register.

It joins nearly 60 other sites in the county—including Hotel Arcata, Fernbridge, and parts of old town Eureka—on the register.

Like many communities along the North Coast, the town started as a lumber camp. In 1884, entrepreneur Noah Falk established the company town by building a mill and an entire community to support it, according to the Humboldt County Visitors Bureau. With a population of 400, Falk had its own post office, cookhouse, school, general store, dance hall, and a railroad. Called the Bucksport and Elk River Railroad, it connected Falk to the town of Bucksport, now the site of the Bayshore Mall. The mill shut its doors and the once thriving community was abandoned as a result of the Great Depression. Much of the town’s structures were later demolished.

As the forest reclaims the town, only the ruins of Falk remain. Interpretive signs mark some of its remnants on the Elk River Trail. One restored building, a locomotive barn, stands as the BLM’s education center.

The former town is now an archaeological district that has offered opportunities to learn about extractive industries and the history of life on the North Coast.

Between the late 1990s and 2012, Cal Poly Humboldt faculty and student interns and volunteers with the CRF conducted research at the site, according to Mark Castro (‘10, Anthropology), Cal Poly Humboldt Anthropology instructor and co-director of the CRF.

The facility specializes in historic preservation, and offers services such as: archaeological surveying, GIS, remote sensing, site mapping, excavations, construction monitoring, historical research, heritage interpretation, and ethnographic consulting, according to the CRF.
As an undergrad, Castro participated in the excavation of the town’s engine house and a bachelor’s cabin, and conducted research on the pianos found in Falk.

Undergraduates earned much needed archaeology practical skills by participating in excavations; working with different agencies including the BLM; taking museum-quality photos; developing site sketches, aerial maps and timelines; and collecting, identifying and cataloging artifacts. The process has yielded hundreds of historic artifacts, now used for learning purposes.

For example, students learn how to date sites throughout Falk with artifacts like round or square nails and glass bottles found during excavations, Castro explains. By examining the items, they learned about residents’ lifestyles—what they ate, what medicines were available to them, and more.

Other items found on site include medicine bottles, kitchenware, logging tools and equipment, and instruments.

While there are not currently any active projects at Falk, the BLM artifacts continue to provide valuable learning opportunities for Cal Poly Humboldt students.

In addition to hands-on experience, the research was also integral to the establishment of the site as a historic place. The recognition, says Castro, helps preserve and protect Falk for current and future generations.

“We can bring the story of Falk together,” Castro says.

PREVIOUSLY:

• (VIDEO) HUMBOLDT OUTDOORS: A Look at the Historic Ghost Town of Falk