Garberville is a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

in Humboldt County,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. It is located on the South Fork of the Eel River south-southeast of

Eureka Eureka often refers to: * Eureka (word), a famous exclamation attributed to Archimedes * Eureka effect, the sudden, unexpected realization of the solution to a problem Eureka or Ureka may also refer to: History * Eureka Rebellion, an 1854 g ...

, at an elevation of . The population was 913 at the 2010 United States Census. It is approximately 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 ...

, California, and within a fifteen-minute drive to

Humboldt Redwoods State Park Humboldt Redwoods State Park is a state park of California, United States, containing Rockefeller Forest, the world's largest remaining contiguous old-growth forest of coast redwoods. It is located south of Eureka, California, near Weott in ...

and a sixty-minute drive to

, the county seat. Garberville is the primary town in the area known as the Mateel Region, consisting of parts of the

Mattole The Mattole, including the Bear River Indians, are a group of Native Americans in California. Their traditional lands are along the Mattole and Bear Rivers near Cape Mendocino in Humboldt County, California. A notable difference between the Ma ...

and Eel River watersheds in southern Humboldt and northern Mendocino counties.

History

Prior to recorded history, the area was populated by southern Sinkyone people. In 1853, a Spanish explorer, Antone Garcia, settled in the area near Town Gulch, which runs through modern-day Garberville. The first post office in Garberville opened in 1874. Jacob C. Garber, the town

postmaster A postmaster is the head of an individual post office, responsible for all postal activities in a specific post office. When a postmaster is responsible for an entire mail distribution organization (usually sponsored by a national government), ...

, later named the town after himself in 1879.

Geography

Garberville is located at . The town is stretched out in a small forested valley bisected by

U.S. Route 101 U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101 (US 101), is a major north–south highway that traverses the states of California, Oregon, and Washington on the West Coast of the United States. It is part of the United States Numbered Highway Syst ...

, at an elevation of . The nearby King's Peak rises to .

Climate

The Köppen Climate Classification subtype for this climate is '' Csb'' (Mediterranean climate), characterized by cold, rainy winters and hot, dry summers.

Demographics

The 2020 United States census reported that Garberville had a population of 818. The population density was . The racial makeup of Garberville was 646 (79.0%)

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 2 (0.2%)

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 21 (2.6%) Native American, 22 (2.7%) Asian, 2 (0.2%)

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 33 (4.0%) from other races, and 92 (11.2%) from two or more races.

Hispanic or Latino ''Hispanic'' and '' Latino'' are ethnonyms used to refer collectively to the inhabitants of the United States who are of Spanish or Latin American ancestry (). While many use the terms interchangeably, for example, the United States Census Bureau ...

of any race were 85 persons (10.4%). The census reported that 96.8% of the population lived in households, 2.3% lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 0.9% were institutionalized. There were 396 households, out of which 59 (14.9%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 104 (26.3%) were married-couple households, 31 (7.8%) were

cohabiting Cohabitation is an arrangement where people who are not legally married live together as a couple. They are often involved in a romantic or sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. Such arrangements have become incr ...

couple households, 131 (33.1%) had a female householder with no partner present, and 130 (32.8%) had a male householder with no partner present. 196 households (49.5%) were one person, and 81 (20.5%) were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.00. There were 165

families Family (from ) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictability, structure, and safety as ...

(41.7% of all households). The age distribution was 135 people (16.5%) under the age of 18, 47 people (5.7%) aged 18 to 24, 250 people (30.6%) aged 25 to 44, 205 people (25.1%) aged 45 to 64, and 181 people (22.1%) who were 65years of age or older. The median age was 43.4years. For every 100 females, there were 99.0 males. There were 456 housing units at an average density of , of which 396 (86.8%) were occupied. Of these, 212 (53.5%) were owner-occupied, and 184 (46.5%) were occupied by renters.

Economy

Marijuana cultivation has replaced timber as the economic driver of Garberville and neighboring Redway. There is a Cannabis College in Garberville, and the town has been called "the

marijuana Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...

heartland of the U.S." by

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

Reggae on the River Reggae on the River was an annual reggae festival active from 1983 until 2019 in Humboldt County, California. It was frequently held on the last weekend in July or on the first weekend in August. It is back on Aug 2-4 2024. History Reggae on th ...

, an annual music festival, is held near Garberville. Nearby, the 1925 Tudor Revival Benbow Inn is on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. The local economy has seen a fall as the years of cannabis legalization have seen most of the farmers of the 215 era leave and the influx of trimmigrants has dropped dramatically. Many businesses lie empty or boarded up. There is still some cannabis tourism but it is not the boon that it was once thought it would be due to regulations. Th
Ganjier
program is located in Humboldt County which serves to train people in the art of cannabis assessment much like a sommelier in wine. Because of their program over 150 people travel to the Garberville area to visit farms, learn about assessing cannabis, and most important; they learn about regenerative farming and the community that still remains.

Government

Politics

In the

state legislature A state legislature is a Legislature, legislative branch or body of a State (country subdivision), political subdivision in a Federalism, federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of ...

, Garberville is in , and . Federally, Garberville is in .

Incorporation attempts

A proposal to incorporate Garberville as a city was dropped after county supervisors declined to form a Municipal Advisory Committee due to concerns over the associated costs. A group of local residents once attempted to qualify a "Sequoia County" initiative to secede from both Humboldt and Mendocino County with Garberville as the new county seat, although the campaign ended without gathering enough signatures. A local chapter of the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

was formed in 2006.

Education

The Southern Humboldt Unified School District was created from 19 separate school districts in 1948 and currently serves about 800 students in an area of . The district has five elementary, one middle school, one high school and one learning center. * Redway School * Whitethorn School * Agnes Johnson School * Casterlin School * Ettersburg School * Miranda Junior High School * South Fork High School * Osprey Learning Center

Media

Garberville is home to the weekly ''Redwood Times'', run by

Media News Group MNG Enterprises, Inc., doing business as Digital First Media and MediaNews Group, is a Denver, Colorado, United States–based newspaper publisher owned by Alden Global Capital. As of May 2021, it owns over 100 newspapers and 200 assorted othe ...

as a sister publication of the daily ''

Times-Standard The ''Times-Standard'' is the only major local daily newspaper covering the far North Coast of California. Headquartered in Eureka, the paper provides coverage of international, national, state and local news in addition to entertainment, sport ...

'' from Eureka. A second weekly, the locally owned ''Humboldt Independent'', was founded in 1997 and closed in 2024. Redwood Community Radio, KMUD, broadcasts from Garberville at 91.1 FM.

Infrastructure

Transportation

U.S. Route 101 bypasses the town, with exits 639 and 642 at Garberville and Redway, respectively. Humboldt Transit Authority serves from Garberville as far north as

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...

. The Amtrak Thruway 7 bus provides daily connections to/from Garberville (with a curbside stop at 924 Redwood Drive), Martinez to the south, and

Arcata Arcata (; ; ) is a city adjacent to the Arcata Bay (northern) portion of Humboldt Bay in Humboldt County, California, United States. At the 2020 census, Arcata's population was 18,857. Arcata was first founded in 1850 as Union, was officially ...

to the north. Additional

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

connections are available from Martinez station. Garberville Airport is a public airport located southwest of town.

Utilities

Garberville's ZIP Code is 95542. The community is inside

area code 707 Area codes 707 and 369 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the northwestern part of the U.S. state of California. The area codes serve part of the northern San Francisco Bay Area, as well as the North Coast. ...

. The Garberville Fire Protection District, has three engines and a utility truck, self-contained breathing apparatuses and radios.Garberville Fire Protection District Municipal Service Review
, September 2008, Humboldt Local Agency Formation Commission The Garberville Water Company supplies drinking water to residents and maintains 27 fire hydrants on its water lines. The Garberville Sanitary District is not the same as the water company, but provides sewers in the core of the fire district. Some releases of water have contained one or more toxins.

Health care

The Jerold Phelps Community Hospital is administered by the Southern Humboldt Community Healthcare District. Garberville recently added a local pharmacy at the top of Sprowl Creek Road and they are working on adding a clinic at the same location. Redwoods Rural provides health and dental care to local residents.

Notable residents

*Major League Baseball player Marshall Brant was born in Garberville.Marshall Lee Brant
BaseballReference.com, USA Today, 2013

References

External links

* https://www.elevatethemagic.com
Garberville-Redway Area Chamber of Commerce

history and photographs *