A small Wiyot community at Table Rock reservation commemorates the 1860 massacre every year. To this day Humboldt Bay has remained a place apart, remote from currents and events that have wrought drastic changes in other coastal areas. The entire region has suffered severe hardship with the decline of the two major industries, timber and fishing. This may make for a charming story now, but it is not helpful to a community that hopes to attract some new, fast-moving industries. In conventional terms the Humboldt Bay area is an economically depressed community.
Jobs are scarce and many people struggle hard to survive.
But from another point of view, this beautiful area has great potential. It has retained an environment that can provide a kind of life many people long for and can no longer find in prosperous, densely developed coastal areas. It's quiet here. You can step out on the shore and see no other people at all. Wildlife abounds in the smooth bay waters, broad mudflats, and wet diked meadows.