page_title: Orick, California
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Orick, California / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Ericson, “"The Orick Inn" Elmer L. Devlin, Propr., Orick, Humboldt Co., Calif., Everything New and Modern. Fine Place for Rest and Recreation. ,” by A.W. Ericson. This is the original building which burned down in 1918.
context_page_description: Orick is a census-designated place situated on the banks of the Redwood Creek in Humboldt County, California. It is located 43 miles north of Eureka, at an elevation of 26 feet. The population was 357 at the 2010 census.
  Rare minerals orickite and coyoteite were discovered at Coyote Peak near Orick.
context_section_description: O'rekw means "mouth of the river" in Yurok.  Orick evolved from the original word.  The Yurok people had 74 known villages in the area, O'rekw was one of five where jumping dances were held. At times spelled Or'eQw, it is important to note that there is no "Q" in the living Yurok Peoples language alphabet.
  Non-native settlers arrived with the gold rush, beginning in 1850 after the Josiah Gregg expedition discovered Humboldt Bay.  Orick was settled not only for being on the way to mining claims in the Trinity, but for five beach sand mining claims fronting several miles of beach in the Gold Bluff District.  The gold sands did not produce well, and the local gold rush was over by the 1870s.
  The first post office at Orick opened in 1887.
  The earliest wagons traveled along the beaches, but in 1894 the county - that time covering both the modern Humboldt and Del Norte counties - finished a wagon road between Eureka and Crescent City.
  Lumbering removed the trees in and around Orick and dairy farmers utilized the flood plain.  Until a bridge was built in 1903, Redwood Creek was always crossed by Swan's Ferry.
  Robert Swan was a local rancher and businessman who owned the ferry and the local store, which was bought out by native Eurekan Elmer L. Devlin (August 1, 1877 - ?) who built the original Orick Inn. Devlin's first building burned down in 1918 and was rebuilt by 1922. It was known for home cooked food, as well as hosting fishermen and notables including opera singer Madame Ernestine Schumann-Heink, actors Fred MacMurray and Ronald Colman and President Herbert Hoover.
  In 1924, the Redwood Highway reached Orick and by the 1930s connected all the way from San Francisco to Oregon.  Tourists arrived to see the giant redwoods.
  After World War II, Orick became a lumber and timber mill town in response to the post-war demand for timber.  The business boomed for about fifteen years until closed by the  consolidation of mills in larger towns and foundation of the Redwood National Park.
caption: The original Orick Inn
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