Most of Orick was built recently: 8% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1959. Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1945 on, and old-book passages.
O'rekw means "mouth of the river" in Yurok. Orick evolved from the original word. The Yurok people had 74 known villages in the area, O'rekw was one of five where jumping dances were held. At times spelled Or'eQw, there is no "Q" in the living Yurok people's alphabet.
Non-native settlers arrived with the Gold Rush, beginning in 1850 after the Josiah Gregg expedition discovered Humboldt Bay. Orick was settled not only for being on the way to mining claims in the Trinity, but for five beach sand mining claims fronting several miles of beach in the Gold Bluff District. The gold sands did not produce well, and the local gold rush was over by the 1870s.
Passages that mention Orick, 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 1147Read the page →
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started out for himself in the world, working first in a saw mill and later logging in the woods about Humboldt bay, until 1905, when he gave up working in the woods and commenced dairying independently at the town of Orick, after a short time removing to Del Norte county, where he continued the same occupation for a period of six years. Returning to Orick, he carried on dairying" there as foi/nerly, applying himself closely to the business and thereby making a success of it, he being an energetic and indefatigable worker. Having rented a part of the Cornelius Thompson
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Humboldt County, California1915 · page 1147Read the page →
Read the text
started out for himself in the world, working first in a saw mill and later logging in the woods about Humboldt bay, until 1905, when he gave up working in the woods and commenced dairying independently at the town of Orick, after a short time removing to Del Norte county, where he continued the same occupation for a period of six years. Returning to Orick, he carried on dairying there as foiAierly, applying himself closely to the business and thereby making a success of it, he being an energetic and indefatigable worker. Having rented a part of the Cornelius Thompson
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 1052Read the page →
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Thompson lived near Loleta, after which he located a homestead on Bald Hill, twelve miles east of the town of Orick, where he improved the farm and took up stock raising, also purchasing the adjoining land, thereby acquiring a fine ranch of six hundred forty acres, besides one hundred sixty acres of timber land which he owned, his wife also being the possessor of the same amount of timber land. In 1907 he sold his Bald Hill ranch, and later also the three hundred twenty acres of timber land, and purchased two htmdred forty acres, two miles north of Orick,' on Prairie creek, which he has trans-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Humboldt County, California1915 · page 1052Read the page →
Read the text
Thompson lived near Loleta, after which he located a homestead on Bald Hill, twelve miles east of the town of Orick, where he improved the farm and took up stock raising, also purchasing the adjoining land, thereby acquiring a fine ranch of six hundred forty acres, besides one hundred sixty acres of timber land which he owned, his wife also being the possessor of the same amount of timber land. In 1907 he sold his Bald Hill ranch, and later also the three hundred twenty acres of timber land, and purchased two hundred forty acres, two miles north of Orick, on Prairie creek, which he has trans-
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
Orick, 1887 to 1972
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.
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.
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (6), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
1920
1972
1972
