If you didn ‘t check it out on your odometer already, you are 200 miles from San Francisco on the Redwood Highway - U.S. 101 - and 63 miles south of Eureka, the county seat of Humboldt County and approximately 160 miles south of the Oregon border.
In population, the Southern Humboldt trade area has about 15,000 people. Garberville and Redway, the hub cities of the area, have populations of about 2,000 each. Both communities are unincorporated.
Garberville is about 24 miles from the coast and Redway is two miles closer. Both sit at about 500 feet elevation. The highest point in Southern Humboldt is King Peak, a few miles inland from Shelter Cove, with an elevation of 4,087 feet.
The climate of the area compares favorably that in the Mediterranean. It is wet in the winter with rainfall averaging about 65 inches a year. Snow has been known to fall in the winter starting at levels between 400 and 500 feet and above. Winter frost is not uncommon.
The economy is largely tourism based, with
Southern Humboldt is served by a hospital and emergency room, a skilled nursing facility, two medical clinics and advanced life support paramedic ambulance service. Other medical features include a pharmacy, dental and optical care, chiropractic services, physical therapy, acupuncture, holistic healthcare and a veterinary clinic with an animal boarding facility.
Two airports serve Southern Humboldt. There is a county-owned facility in Garberville with a 3,000- foot paved runway. The other airport is in Shelter Cove, which has a 3,400- foot paved airstrip with no services.
The region is served by Southern Humboldt Unified School District, which covers an area of 775 square miles - roughly half the size of the entire state of Rhode Island. There are six elementary schools serving grades kindergarten through 7, and one high school serving grades 8 through 12. The region also has four preschools, four private schools, branch classes of the College of the Redwoods in Eureka, and Heartwood Institute.
Fire protection services include several volunteer fire departments and judiciously placed stations of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Upholding the law in Southern Humboldt are the California Highway Patrol, which has a regional office in Redway; a substation of the Humboldt County Sheriff ‘s Department; a Sheriff ‘s Search and Rescue Team; a branch office of the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Eel River Justice Court in Garberville.
Maintaining parks and related facilities in the area is the responsibility of the Eel River Sector of the California State Department of Parks and Recreation for properties; and the Bureau of Land Management for federally maintained properties in King Range and the Lost Coast.
Volunteerism is alive and well in Southern Humboldt, with service clubs and organizations including Garberville Rotary Club, Soroptimist International of the Redwoods, Kiwanis Club, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post, American Legion Post, ESA Sororities, Parent-Teacher Associations, 4-H Club, Garberville- Redway Area Chamber of Commerce, and a variety of social, political, fraternal, and special interest groups.
Various congregations in both denominational and non-denominational churches represent believers of all traditional faiths - Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish - as well as several other spiritual persuasions. Consult the Worship Directory elsewhere in this Visitor Guide for specific names and locations.
The Mateel Community Center in is the gathering place for assorted meetings, entertainment performances and numerous other community gatherings. Similar use is made of the Beginnings in Briceland.
Communications in the region consist of telephone service by Verizon and AT&T, cable television by Wave Communications, FM radio by KMUD, 91.1 MHz, internet service by 101Netlink and Wave Communications and printed media by Redwood Times, a weekly newspaper, and The Independent, an alter native weekly publication.
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