A history of Samoa,
then and now
Postcards, papers and photographs of Samoa from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Prior to private settlement of the area, the north spit at the entrance to Humboldt Bay was used by a series of federal government projects including the 1851 to 1892 Humboldt Harbor Light; in 1862, a prisoner of war camp for Native Americans captured in the Bald Hills War; the Humboldt Bay Life-Saving Station in 1878; and the stonemason finishing yard and trans-shipment point for foundation stones for the St. George Reef Light from 1883 to 1891 at Paysonville.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Samoa’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
2 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewCoast Guard Surfboat USSMilwaukee…, 1917: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Samoa
See all 1 →Samoa, decade by decade
1990s
Nothing in Samoa is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Samoa has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is D. C. McDonald Building in Eureka, 1.3 miles away.
Samoa and the nearest listed places
How a place gets listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as USS Milwaukee (C-21) stranded (1917) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (6). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.