One of the most difficult things to do when trying to make change is to get people involved. If you do get involved though you can make a change. Here in Cheyenne County, just a few hundred people can completely change the future of this county. All you have to do is stay with it, and push for change.
I showed these graphs at one of our community meetings this past fall and was asked to show them here. We are going to have more meetings this Spring because we are going to give this community a voice and we are going to make changes. The top graph is the population growth from the US Census for Humboldt County. This is where my wife and I raised our kids, worked for the county, and built our business. We truly lived the American dream. The bottom shows Cheyenne County. This is where we have decided to retire and built another business and continue living the American dream.
Humboldt County is in northern California. Almost to the Oregon border. 270 miles north of San Francisco. It is huge, with almost 4,000 square miles of trees, rivers, and mountains. It has 4 major rivers and 6 smaller ones. Lots of problems, but the people here, are hard-working and community-minded.
Humboldt County was built on fishing and lumber. Both industries are mostly gone now. How did we survive and still keep growing? Community ideas and working together. California constantly changed environmental laws which killed our industries and destroyed our jobs and futures. During the time you see shown here, we lost over 10,000 jobs because of changes to California environmental laws.
In 1986 one of the largest mills located right in the heart of our county seat, Eureka closed. We lost hundreds of jobs and destroyed a major part of our downtown. What did we do? We lobbied a developer to come in and build the largest shopping mall, on that spot. Today, the Bayshore Mall is still the largest shopping mall for 200 miles in any direction. It has 730,000 square feet of shopping. We made a destination.
We lost several more companies over the next few years, destroying other small communities like Scotia, Rio Dell, Manila, Fields Landing, the pulp mills at Fairhaven, and Samoa. Mills and lumber companies were forced out by California regulations. They moved to Mexico. California built a pipeline taking water from one of our major rivers and sending it to Southern California. This killed our natural Salmon runs. We had a fishing fleet of over 300 commercial boats. They destroyed that through regulations, taking the water, and poor management. The industries were gone, but the areas bounced back. Manila created the Dunes recreational area. We created the marina district turning part of the downtown into a fisherman’s wharf recreational area like San Francisco had. We develop the old part of the downtown into what is now known as “Oldtown”. We added a Humboldt County Nature Center, and so much more. We created destinations. Tourism became our new industry. We bounced back because the residents wanted to save the area we all loved.
We look at Cheyenne County and all we see are possibilities. We could create so many destinations here if we just come together and do it. Long-time residents, you have such an amazing history. Please click the link below. This is from trip advisor. Manila was a rugged little lumber area right on the beach. It is now a recommended tourist destination. Beautiful sand dunes and walking beaches.
Fix up a couple bunkers to the north of Sidney. Add a few combines. Make a historical center about this area. Talk about farming, the army depot, and our history. Make a destination. Add a few buffalo, covered wagons some recreational areas and people will come. They will pull off I-80 and spend some time.
Eureka, where we raised our kids is now almost completely a tourist destination. Please click the links below and mouse around. Our motto was “ A Shared Commitment to Keep Our Community Healthy”. It continues to grow today. It is the people.
We have made so many new friends here in Sidney. One, in particular, is really amazing. Why? Because we were neighbors in the 1980s and 1990s in Humboldt County and didn’t even know it. We both decided to retire here, in Sidney. We found each other at the LB644 meeting this last fall in Sidney. We both spoke about the destructive nature of taxes. We lived 2 streets away from each other in Eureka. Eric who comments on this page is trying to get a dog park built here. We need to support that.
Share some ideas. Talk about it. Dream….
If we come together, and generate ideas we can make great things happen. Don’t listen to the nay-sayers who say “that will never work”. We need the dreamers and the doers. It can be done. Take an active part in our local government and economy. People are the engine that drives this area. As I look through the history of Sidney, it has always bounced back. It is time to bounce back from Cabela’s. This time though, let’s take that bounce a little higher!
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g8493974…