Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Arcata, CA

Arcata was first settled in 1850 as Union, a port and reprovisioning center for the gold mines in the Klamath, Trinity, and Salmon mountains to the east, and it very briefly served as the county seat.

Arcata was incorporated on February 2, 1858, and the town changed its name from Union to Arcata in 1860.

The name Arcata comes from the Yurok term oket'oh, meaning "where there is a lagoon," referring to Humboldt Bay; the Wiyot name for the place is Goudi'ni, and the site was originally the Wiyot settlement of Kori.

The 2020 census counted 18,857 residents in Arcata.

Arcata has about 7,900 households averaging only about 2.1 people each, and just 36% of its homes are owner-occupied — a profile shaped by its large student population.

Arcata is home to California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, which opened in 1913 as Humboldt State Normal School, a teacher-training college, after Arcata won a competition with Eureka to host the campus.

Cal Poly Humboldt is the northernmost campus of the 23-campus California State University system, set hillside at the edge of a coast redwood forest overlooking Arcata, Humboldt Bay, and the Pacific Ocean.

Arcata treats its sewage with constructed wetlands: the Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary, whose integrated treatment system was completed in 1986 and has grown to 307 acres, polishes the city's wastewater while providing habitat where more than 300 bird species have been recorded along the Pacific Flyway.

The Arcata Marsh won the Ford Foundation and Harvard Kennedy School Innovations in Government award in 1987 and has served as a global model for nature-based wastewater treatment.

A statue of President William McKinley stood at the center of the Arcata Plaza from 1906 until its relocation in 2019.