This is the Carson Mansion**, in Eureka, California. It was built by a lumber baron in the 1800's using Chinese immigrants, who were most likely paid hardly anything. There's quite a bit of history surrounding the Chinese population here in Humboldt County. Interestingly enough, when I tried to research it for a link, there wasn't as much as I would have thought. The reason for that, I suspect is that it not exactly good press for the area. Sometime after the completion of this huge mansion, there was a shooting between rival Chinese groups***(tongs) and a local councilman was caught in the crossfire and killed. The fallout from that was pretty incredible; the entire Chinese population was loaded onto barges and shipped out, probably south to San Francisco. I believe they first arrived here as part of the workforce that built the railroad. At any rate, this mansion was home to the Carson for a long time, then was sold to a group called the Ingomar club. More intersting stuff there; women were NOT allowed to join, nor even go into the house!! Today, the house stands largely unoccupied, used for formal dinners, weddings, parties, etc. I suppose this kind of history isn't too unusual; I found odd there was so little written about it~~dirty little secrets, I guess!! BTW, this is my 400th post, I have no idea how that happened so fast~~~ blows my mind!!! **click here ***click here