Founding year: the first Garberville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Garberville’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Garberville is more historic than 41% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Garberville’s overall grade.
Few California towns list much on the Register (a typical California town has 0.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Garberville’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (31% of California towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to B−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±9.9 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Garberville’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Prior to recorded history, the area was populated by southern Sinkyone people. According to notes by Goddard based on local Sinkyone informants, there was once a village at the current location of Garberville named sebīyedadûñ, translating to "rocks under ... ? ... place".
In 1853, a Spanish explorer, Antone Garcia, settled in the area near Town Gulch, which runs through modern-day Garberville. The first post office in Garberville opened in 1874. Jacob C. Garber, the town postmaster, later named the town after himself in 1879.
Timber was a major component of the economy before marijuana.
Passages that mention Garberville, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Humboldt County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present1915 · page 1255Read the page →
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Three local telephone lines with their central office in Garberville are owned and operated by Mr. Wood, and have been constructed by him. They are the lines connecting Garberville and Blocksburg, Garberville and Harris, and Garberville and Briceland. He also owns the building where the central office is located. This office does more business than any other office in the county save those at Eureka, Areata, Ferndale and Fortuna, and sometimes the Garberville office turns in a greater number of calls even than the Fortuna office.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Humboldt County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present1915 · page 919Read the page →
Read the text
ment. Miranda lies half way between Garberville and Dyerville (thirty-two miles apart), in the woods, and the store of the Garberville Mercantile Company, with its barns and sheds for the stage line, a schoolhouse and a few dwelling houses and the post office, constitute the town. Mr. Jones has charge of the stage station and store, and the Garberville Mercantile Company rents the ranch of five hundred forty acres at this point belonging to Mrs. Jones, which she acquired as one of the heirs of the estate of J. W. Monroe, her first husband. Upon this land the Mercantile Company
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Garberville, 1861 to 1940
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The Garberville post office opened in 1874, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Garberville rank for history?
Garberville is more historic than 41% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in Garberville?
19% of Garberville’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±9.9 points), against a typical 3.4% for a California town; the median home was built in 1973.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (6), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1925–1942
c. 1929
c. 1934