Fort Humboldt

Fort Humboldt was established in 1853 by the 4th U.S. Infantry on a bluff above Humboldt Bay and served as a military post during the violent conflicts between Gold Rush settlers and the region's Indigenous peoples. Captain Ulysses S. Grant had a brief, unhappy posting here in 1854 and resigned his commission. The Army abandoned the fort in the late 1860s, and it is now Fort Humboldt State Historic Park; the old hospital is the only one of the original buildings still standing, beside exhibits on the logging era.

Travel and ghost-story writers center the reports on that hospital: a post commander said to have died of malaria in 1859 is seen looking out of a window, visitors describe mysterious sounds, and some say the spirits of soldiers who died of wounds or disease still walk the halls.