The Samoa Dunes and Beach - An Overview

Samoa is a peninsula. It encompasses various locations. It includes the Samoa Dunes, the Samoa Beach, the community of Manila, and parts of the Arcata Bottoms. The entire peninsula is only about 10 miles, but seems much larger when you're driving down it. It's 3 feet above sea level, which means it's at risk of tsunamis. 

The Samoa Dunes is up near the entrance of the Humboldt Bay. It houses many key areas of Humboldt's history, and is a well-known spot for various activities. This is a two-blog series. This blog will highlight the history of the dunes, and the next will be nature photos of an area called the North Jetty. Please note that I took two different trips out for these blogs, and am using photos from both trips here. A few photos will have foggy weather, while a majority will be on a sunny day. 

While it's always more fun to explore on a foggy day, the sun did help highlight the areas I'm about to show you. 

Be sure to click on this photo and zoom in to read. A visitor's guide.

If you grew up in Humboldt County and have a heart for adventure, you probably know the dunes for their amazing trails to ride ATV's, dirtbikes, and dune buggies. 

They love to ride around in the dunes, on the trails, and go around the sand. Seeing people riding looked pretty great and it made me wish I had been raised having that kind of fun. 

Then you have families who walk the trails. 

Of course, there's the truly brave. Surfer's who go out into the ocean where there's been a greater concentration of recorded shark activity. The last attack in this area was on October 31st, 2012. The waves are also strong, huge, and can be viscous. However, they love doing it, and it truly can become a part of who they are.

Two memorials of well-known surfers that were tied into the local surfing community. 

"Big Wave Dave" (Dave Hargrave) - who died in the water of the North Jetty for undetermined reasons. He was a local surfing legend who was loved by many.

He was also a witness to the shark attack that occurred in 2012 to a 25-year-old victim. Luckily, this victim ended up living. 

The other memorial I am taking a guess on, and I apologize if this isn't accurate. 

William Edward Lydgate (aka “The Referee”) who passed away from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. He had a passion for surfing and the North Jetty was so special to him, his family held his funeral at this place.   

May these two rest in peace.

Let's move on to the bunkers.

When you're walking around the dunes in Samoa, it's easy to find old, abandoned bunkers. I'll show you all of the ones I was able to find. I made up little names for each.

(The Viewpoint Bunker - you can climb to the top and see out to the ocean. This is where I got the photo of the ATV circle marks in the sand).

(The inside of the viewpoint bunker).

These are remnants of World War 2 fortifications that were built up due to the fear that the Japanese would launch an attack on Eureka, which was the only deep water port between San Francisco and Portland. 

(The Hobbit Bunker - side view, top view, and front view).

This was a concern especially due to a Japanese submarine, which had sunk the tanker Emidio near Humboldt Bay just two weeks after Pearl Harbor. 

(The Graffiti Bunker)

The local coast guard was put under command of the US Navy. Coast guardsmen and national guard cavalry men would routinely patrol the beaches on horseback. 

(The Meadow Bunker)

The base included many bunkers that would store ammunition, fuel, barracks, garages, and firefighting gear. 

                                              

(The Crumbly Bunker - or the Bullet Hole Bunker - You decide) 

Among the fortifications was also a spot where the US Navy would be able to launch submarine spotting planes. 

(The One-with-the-Earth Bunker)

The base housed a mooring facility for airships which could accommodate airship blimps.

(The Invasive Species Bunker)

Finally, the base was deemed a surplus after the war. It was decommissioned and returned to civil authorities.

(The Rusty Ruin Bunker)

There is other leftover equipment from the base. Most of it is just foundations.

I could not find what foundation remnant this was. Overall it's round in shape, maybe indicating it had a water tank on top of it. There are historical photos of the area where you can see the building that was on top of it. They can be found here: http://www.militarymuseum.org/NAAFEureka.html

And I just wanted to note here, that when standing on the Hobbit Bunker, I could see a view of the old pulp mill in Samoa. This is the view around the Samoa Dunes - mountains, oceans, and history. Perhaps this could be a future blog...

This brings me into our next segment of what random things will you find on this beach?

Tons of regular glass and sea glass.

Various pieces of wood (which may have some history written on it).

Huge pieces of wood where you can't determine if they're from a shipwreck or not.

Broken pottery with barnacles on it.

Two posts in the middle of the dunes.

Tires!

And last but not least....

All of the rusty contraptions everywhere.

My best guess to most of the rusty ruins that are scattered along on the Samoa Dunes and Beach, is the amount of vehicles (of all kinds) that break down and get swept away by the sea. This happens fairly often. In the last month I've seen two news stories of cars getting stuck and the ocean taking the car away. It must bring remnants of them back to shore, or leave it behind. 

This was a curious piece of rusted mechanics on the beach. A little girl had gotten her ATV stuck on it. It is the remnant of a rusted boiler from a ship called the SS Corona from 1907.

Remnants of sunken ships is not a shocking concept to think about though for this area. This Jetty was put here to be a channel from the Pacific Ocean and the Humboldt Bay. Ultimately, despite efforts to make the opening of the Humboldt bay more manageable for ships, local mariners considered the opening to Humboldt Bay between the North and South Jetty's as the "graveyard of the Pacific" - accounting for the sinking of several ships. 

In this general vicinity, a noteworthy incident occurred in 1917 when the submarine USS H-3 was grounded on the beach on the North Jetty. While trying to pull the submarine off of the beach, another ship - a cruiser the USS Milwaukee - was also run aground. A local engineering company was able to roll the submarine to the other side of the bay and relaunch it with temporary tracks. Unfortunately for the cruiser, it couldn't be saved. It was beaten apart by the waves and was never salvaged. On low tides you can sometimes see some of the rusted remains of the cruiser in the sand.

I could not get photos of the remnants of the Milwaukee. There isn't much, and both times I went it wasn't low tide. When I do go back, if I can get a picture of it, I will insert it here.

While there is a history of sunken ships and stranded submarines, this channel was created so large shipping vessels could come into the bay. And they do come in sometimes. There may be a cap as to how big of ships can make it through this channel, but I've personally seen freighter ships coming through while I walked along the North Jetty.

With this responsibility on the Humboldt Bay, there comes a lot of equipment and resources to maintain it. 

This is a coast guard station that's been running on the same site since 1878. Called the Humboldt-Bay Life Saving Station, it's operations run all along the Humboldt Bay and North Coast.

These are navigational, watch, and signal towers from the U.S. Coast Guard. There are various ones on the beach and Jetty itself.

A fog horn for ship's navigation. You can actually see this fog horn in the background of Bill and Dave's memorial photo. Even in this video, it was a foggy day. You can see why it might get so bad, ships rely on the foghorns from these Jetty's to help them find their way through the fog, and stay straight in the channel. 

The last portion of the Samoa Dunes is the Jetty's. By definition, a jetty is "a breakwater constructed to protect or defend a harbor, stretch of coast, or riverbank." The North and South Jetty are the breakers of the ocean to allow the channel for large vessels to get through to the bay. My next blog will be focused on walking up the North Jetty, and the nature I see there. For now, here is a quick look at the end of the North Jetty, and a close up the dolos. 

You can see the watch tower at the end of the Jetty. This is the one in the above photos that says "North" on it.

These are dolos. Dolos are made out of concrete and are poured into a steel mold that's shaped almost like an anchor, but others would say they look like those old toys called jacks. They can be as heavy as 80 tons, and they help manage waves in channels like these. They were put in by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. 

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This is the Samoa Dunes and Beach. There is a lot of history that covers this land, and even with how long this blog is, I probably haven't even talked about a fraction of historical details that have taken place here. It is a beautiful place to walk on, and a great place to have fun at. Be careful going during a windy day or a storm though. 

If you want to take a walk in a place riddled with history, beauty, and nature in our sweet Humboldt area, this is the place to go.