Samoa, CA

Samoa is a census-designated place in Humboldt County, California, United States. The 2020 census counted 229 residents. Samoa is located in the northern peninsula of Humboldt Bay and is the site of the Samoa Cookhouse, one of the last remaining original lumber camp–style cookhouses. The name Samoa is used interchangeably to refer to the peninsula it occupies. Taken together, these details give a newcomer a usable picture of Samoa, where its history, geography, and current gathering places meet. For Samoa, the memorable detail is the way older history and current gathering places share one local map. The nongovernmental settlement was named Brownsville after James Henry Brown, a dairy farmer who settled his ranch on the present site of Samoa in 1865. Eureka and Klamath River Railroad was chartered in 1893 to connect the Samoa sawmill and associated worker housing facilities to Arcata and timberlands near the Mad River.