Bret Harte was an American short story writer and poet best remembered for short fiction featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the California Gold Rush. In a career spanning more than four decades, he also wrote poetry, plays, lectures, book reviews, editorials, and magazine sketches.
Bret Harte in 1872
Portrait of Bret Harte – oil painting by John Pettie (1884)
Portrait of Bret Harte by Napoleon Sarony (c. 1870). Housed at the National Portrait Gallery (United States)
19th-century publishers binding on a book by Bret Harte
Arcata is a city adjacent to the Arcata Bay (northern) portion of Humboldt Bay in Humboldt County, California, United States. At the 2020 census, Arcata's population was 18,857. Arcata was first founded in 1850 as Union, was officially established in 1858, and was renamed Arcata in 1860. It is located 280 miles (450 km) north of San Francisco, and is home to California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt. Arcata is also the location of the Arcata Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Land Management, which is responsible for the administration of natural resources, lands and mineral programs, including the Headwaters Forest, on approximately 200,000 acres (810 km2) of public land in Northwestern California.
Arcata Plaza
Arcata Plaza in the 1890s
Bank of Arcata on the Plaza
The Pythian Castle building in Arcata is on the National Register of Historic Places.