Presentation 1: Old Eureka’s Historic Wicked Waterfront – The Rogues of the Lower Levels.

This fascinating presentation explores the lives of those who lived outside convention and the law and helped shape the rough-and-tumble identity of one of Northern California’s most remote port towns.

Learn about Eureka’s Waterfront Rogues. Meet the city’s early opium addicts and petty thieves, its brothel keepers, con artists and saloon men. Learn about violent confrontations that unfolded on the city streets and those who survived and thrived in this remote and wild frontier.  

These aren’t the legends of the Wild West you learned in school — they’re the true, often overlooked stories of colorful characters and events that unfolded on old Eureka’s wicked waterfront.

Presentation 2: Old Eureka’s Barbary Coast – Women of the Red-Light District

Learn about the little-known history of Eureka’s lower levels. Meet the madams and working girls who lived their  lives on the margins.  Learn about the fallen women who struggled daily to survive and others who thrived outside the law, as long as they stayed hidden from polite society.

Hear the stories of a world shaped by violence, addiction, and disease—where every day carried the threat of ruin and the hope of redemption. And discover who truly profited from the world’s oldest profession.

Hear these stories. Give voice to the women history left behind.