We were looking forward to visiting Fort Humboldt because we are Civil War re-enactors representing the 4th U.S. Regulars and we knew that U.S. Grant had been stationed there. The fort grounds were accessible, and there were a couple of buildings, but everything including the museum was closed when we came in the middle of the day. We saw that there were signboards, so we thought we would take a walking tour by ourselves.

The first signboard we came to had a photo of a guy who was wearing what would not pass for a Federal uniform by even the sloppiest historian, his musket held in his right hand somewhere between Shoulder Arms and Support Arms, a sword in his left hand (reasons unclear), modern shoes on his feet, and a sneer on his face. The sneer was because, (as we gathered from the sign board), he loosely represented the California Volunteer Militia left at the fort after the Federal troops left to fight the Civil War, and therefore his agenda was the state's (California State, we presume) policy of "Indian removal and extermination".

Interesting.

Other signboards pictured a woman, (in a tee-shirt but wearing a shawl and a Little House on the Prairie sunbonnet), variously representing a laundress and Harriet Simpson, and the California State Militia (still with the California State goal of exterminating Indians in mind), gathered for muster -- we assume -- wearing a variety of costumes including one that looked uncannily like a Confederate uniform.

Finding people in historically inaccurate costumes to photograph MAY be excusable for a museum, (I don't say it IS excusable, I merely say that we don't know what was up the day the signboards were designed -- maybe the people responsible for checking facts were down with the flu when the deadline for submitting photograph proofs came 'round), but the propaganda in the wording of the signs was heavy-handed indeed. A reading of the signboards gave us to understand that 1.) Harriet Simpson considered herself the only "lady" at the fort. 2.) The town directly beneath the fort used to be called Bucksport. This was because in 1849 when the Greg party got there, after being feted and feasted by the local population, an ungrateful guy named Buck carved his name on a tree, thereby claiming the town as his own. 3.) By 1860 Bucksport was a boom town with a large transient population, including Scandinavians, Irish, people from New Zealand and Australia, African Americans, and Chinese. 4.) In February of the same year, a group of "white vigilantes" murdered hundreds of Indian women and children in their sleep. 5.) When the U.S troops left the fort to fight the Civil War, they left the California militia in charge. Some Indians came to the fort for protection. Not having the facilities to protect them, the officer in charge "build a corral". Somehow, according to the signboard, this led to the California soldiers [raping and beating] the Indians.(The brackets were the devise of the signboard). 6.) The Federal soldiers at the Fort drank too much.

One appreciates that the writers of the signboards had a point they wanted to drive home, but it was all a bit too heavy handed. The attention to historical detail was so poor at the first signboard that we didn't anticipate much attention to accuracy, anyway, but it would have been nice. Balance would have been appreciated, too.

Not at all recommended for anyone interested in Fort Humboldt itself, but the logging half of the park was very nicely done.