Timber Heritage Association, Samoa

About Timber Heritage Association

The Timber Heritage Association preserves and interprets Humboldt County's logging history through artifacts and exhibits housed in a historic railroad complex at Samoa, California. Visitors explore a collection accumulated over decades, including pieces that would otherwise have been lost, displayed within an 1890s roundhouse that once housed locomotives. The association offers Crew Car Speeder rides on the GRTA railroad corridor, allowing guests to experience the landscape by rail using authentic railroad equipment. The museum complex sits adjacent to the Hammond Lumber Company town of Samoa and the Samoa Cookhouse, integrating timber heritage into an authentic historical setting. The collection focuses exclusively on Humboldt County artifacts, chronicling the area's transformation through timber extraction and the steam donkey invention of 1881, which pioneered mechanized logging. A visit suits those interested in industrial history, logging heritage, and Northern California's relationship with the redwood forests that shaped the region's development.