Fieldbrook, California

Fieldbrook is a small (population roughly 200) unincorporated town located in Humboldt County on California's North Coast, approximately 300 miles (480km) north of San Francisco and 65 miles (100km) south of the Oregon state line. Located on the edge of the dense redwood forest, the area was once the domain of the thriving lumbering companies, as is the case with the rest of the forest. Fieldbrook is six miles (10km) east of the larger unincorporated seaside town of McKinleyville (population 15,000), site of the Eureka-Arcata Airport (a regional airport with more than twenty daily flights to Sacramento, San Francisco, Portland, Oregon, and Los Angeles) approximately ten miles (16km) northeast of the harbor city of Arcata (population 18,000), home of Humboldt State University, and about thirty miles (50km) north of the city of Eureka (population 28,000), the Humboldt County seat. This puts Fieldbrook at the northern edge of the McKinleyville-Arcata-Eureka-Fortuna corridor along US Highway 101, where about eighty percent of rural Humboldt County's population lives and most of its businesses are located. The ZIP Code is 95519. The community is inside area code 707.

Fieldbrook is located at the right-angle bend where Murray Road becomes Fieldbrook Road. In the mid-1990s Fieldbrook was a stereotypical sleepy country hamlet, with junk cars sitting in weedy yards along the main road in one block and goats grazing alongside a church in the next. With the decline of the local timber industry, the diaspora of telecommuting professionals, and the sudden emergence of the North Coast as a retirement destination, Fieldbrook with its mild weather (summer temperatures seldom exceed 75F/24C and winter nights rarely drop below 38F/4C) has recently been undergoing gentrification. Sprawling ranch-style (single-story) homes on isolated five-acre lots wedged between timber tracts are selling for $500,000, and at least one 40-acre timber tract has become a gated community.

The few blocks of paved and unpaved roads that comprise Fieldbrook proper include modest homes, an elementary school and two churches, as well as a general store, a winery and an apple orchard that host public events. Larger residences whose owners identify with the Fieldbrook community continue south along Fieldbrook Road as it heads inland and uphill 6 miles (10km) to the small city of Blue Lake (population 1,200) at the foot of the Coast Range. The road connects there with State Highway 299, a rather adventurous winding route that crosses the mountains and connects with Interstate Highway 5 in Redding, about 90 miles (150km) east.

Fieldbrook is very nearly on the north bank of the Mad River, which flows into the Pacific Ocean between Arcata and McKinleyville. Although the Mad River supplies the water to much of Humboldt County's population, that small population does not have a significant impact on the river's flow. The water table is very high in its vicinity and very little land is suitable for building--as suggested by the name "Field-brook." The north side of Fieldbrook Road is second-growth (multiple thinner trunks sprouting from the stumps of harvested trees) redwood forest with the occasional clearing for a house, and the logging rules allow the forest canopy to maintain a height of 200-300 feet (65-100m). A narrow zone adjacent to the road is maintained as an unlogged buffer, presenting the illusion of virgin forest to tourists, but even on the north side of the buffer, in any given year the majority of the timber tracts have been growing for at least seven years, comprising a wilderness if not exactly parkland. The region abounds with wildlife and residents routinely find deer and elk grazing in their yards, foxes and raccoons digging through their garbage, the occasional black bear checking for an unlocked pantry, or a cougar prowling for a tasty little dog.

Politics

In the state legislature Fieldbrook is located in the 2nd Senate District, represented by Democrat Pat Wiggins, and in the 1st Assembly District, represented by Democrat Patty Berg. Federally, Fieldbrook is located in California's 1st congressional district.

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