Ettersburg (also, Etter) is a locality in

Humboldt County, California Humboldt County () is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 136,463. The county seat is Eureka, California, Eureka. Humboldt County compri ...

. It is located west-northwest of Phillipsville, at an elevation of .

History

A post office operated at Ettersburg from 1902 to 1906 and from 1915 to 1965. The settlement is named for its founder, horticulturist

Albert Etter Albert Etter (1872–1950) was an American plant breeder best known for his work on strawberry and apple varieties. Early life and education Albert Felix Etter was born near Shingle Springs, California, Shingle Springs in El Dorado County, Calif ...

Development of Ettersburg

Albert's German-born mother, Wilhelmina (Kern) Etter (d. 1913) was skilled at cultivating plants, and Etter showed a talent for hybridizing plants in childhood, working with

apples An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

peaches The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and the glossy-skinned, non-fuzzy varieties called nectarines. Peac ...

dahlias ''Dahlia'' ( , ) is a genus of bushy, tuberous, herbaceous perennial plants native to Mexico and Central America. Dahlias are members of the Asteraceae (synonym name: Compositae) family of dicotyledonous plants, its relatives include the sun ...

, and

strawberries The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown hybrid plant cultivated worldwide for its fruit. The genus ''Fragaria'', the strawberries, is in the rose family, Rosaceae. The fruit is appreciated f ...

by the time he was twelve. He attended public school and by the end of his teens was looking out for a site where he could continue his plant-breeding experiments. On a fishing trip to the Mattole River Valley, he found a section of land above Bear Creek and in 1894 he staked a claim to it. This area along the

Pacific coast Pacific coast may be used to reference any coastline that borders the Pacific Ocean. Geography Americas North America Countries on the western side of North America have a Pacific coast as their western or south-western border. One of th ...

in the King Range has wet winters and hot summers, and Albert later attributed his success partly to his choice of location. The site where Albert developed his ranch was subsequently named after him, first as Etter and then as Ettersburg. Etter managed the ranch with three of his brothers, George, Fred, and August; and another four of his siblings also lived nearby. While Etter focused on plant breeding, his brothers oversaw other kinds of farming and stockkeeping operations. The ranch holdings, operated under the business name Etter Brothers, eventually reached 800 acres in size. Although the Etter Brothers firm and the Ettersburg Experimental Place became internationally known among plant breeders, and Etter renowned as "the Luther Burbank of Humboldt County", they never made more than a modest living from the land. For one thing, they were far removed from the main trucking and rail routes, and for another, new plant hybrids were not protected by the patent system until 1930.

Geography

Ettersburg is located west-northwest of Phillipsville, at an elevation of . Nearby cities are: Shelter Cove (8.4 miles south-southwest), Redway (9.3 miles east), Garberville (11 miles east/southeast) Benbow, (12.2 miles ESE), Weott (13.3 miles NNE), Redcrest (18.3 miles N), Alderpoint (20.6 miles E). According to the USGS Site Map, the city has a drainage area . Ettersburg is in the Lost Coast region which includes

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

coast, and several rivers. The location of Ettersburg on U.S. 101 is northwest of

Sacramento Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...

and north of

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. The next big city is Eureka, principal city and county seat of Humboldt County. The city is only away with access the coast and increases in elevation slightly as it spreads north, south, and especially to the east. The city then gives way to hills and mountains of the rugged coast range, which quickly exceed in elevation.

Climate

Ettersburg experiences mild to warm (but not hot) and dry summers with some rainy days, with not many average monthly temperatures above . According to the

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

system, Ettersburg has a

warm-summer Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...

, abbreviated "Csc" on climate maps. There are cool winters during which intense rainfall occurs. It has warm, dry summers with moderate rainfall through the summer months. Snow in Ettersburg is very rare, occurring every 20 to 30 years in winter months. Average January temperatures are a maximum of and a minimum of . Average August temperatures are a maximum of and a minimum of . The record high temperature was . The record low temperature was . Average annual precipitation is . There are on average 120 days with measurable precipitation which makes Ettersburg a Mediterranean climate. Ettersburg's Köppen classification and climate is similar to locations such as parts of Balmaceda, Chile, in high elevations of

Corsica Corsica ( , , ; ; ) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the Regions of France, 18 regions of France. It is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the Metro ...

, Haleakala Summit in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

and the Cascades or Sierra-Nevada-ranges.

Education

Ettersburg once had an Elementary school from 1980 to 2012 serving 3 Grades. The next school district is either in Shelter Cove, Whitehorn or in Garberville.

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite book , last= Durham , first= David L. , title= California's Geographic Names: A Gazetteer of Historic and Modern Names of the State , year= 1998 , publisher= Quill Driver Books , isbn= 978-1-884995-14-9 , url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Yfa0hmE7yocC , page= 57 {{GNIS, 252673, Ettersburg "The Ettersburg Apple Legacies"
Greenmantle Nursery website
/ref>
{{cite web , url=https://www.cde.ca.gov/schooldirectory/details?cdscode=12630406101893 , title=Ettersburg, CA , access-date=26 July 2020 , date=July 2020 {{cite web , url=https://california.hometownlocator.com/ca/humboldt/ettersburg.cfm , title=Ettersburg (in Humboldt County, CA) Populated Place Profile , website=HomeTownLocator {{cite web , url=https://waterdata.usgs.gov/ca/nwis/nwismap/?site_no=11468900&agency_cd=USGS , title=USGS 11468900 MATTOLE R NR ETTERSBURG CA , website=National Water Information System: Web Interface , publisher=USGS Former settlements in Humboldt County, California 1902 establishments in California