It was coincidence that we arrived in the town of Eureka in Humboldt County on Halloween, October 31. As an Englishwoman of a certain age, Halloween means nothing to me, but we spent the day spotting ghouls and ghosts in shops and offices, and had lunch served by Wonder Woman. Halloween is a chance to dress up, and the people of Eureka didn’t disappoint.

Then we booked into The Eureka Inn, an enormous mock-Tudor building with a colourful history and a place on America’s National Registry of Historical Places. It opened in 1922 just as the Redwood Highway was completed and became the place to stay between San Francisco and Portland, Oregon. Hence its amazing guest list – Ronald Reagan, Shirley Temple, Humphrey Bogart, Robert Kennedy, Ringo Starr, Robert Plant, Laurel & Hardy, Carrie Fisher, Steven Spielberg, Sir Winston Churchill… you get the picture.

The hotel has flourished and fallen into disrepair on and off ever since. We stayed there when the owner, Californian businessman Li Bo Zhu, was working through a huge renovation programme. Everything in our ground floor room was new, but in keeping with the building’s history, and the redwood panelling in the lobby shone.

In January 2020, Zhu told journalists the 10-year renovation works were complete. In June it was announced that the property was becoming part of the Trademark Collection by Wyndham. This is an arrangement that enables independent hotel owners to benefit from Wyndham’s loyalty programme and worldwide distribution network.

The staff were friendly, and a few hours after booking in we had good reason to thank the young woman on the reception desk when she told us the hotel bar, The Palm Lounge, was having a Halloween party. One thing’s for sure, the Eureka Inn knows how to party!

There were two bands so live music played all evening, and no one seemed to mind that we were just about the only people not in costume. There were witches, ghosts, a very chatty clown (who had just retired to Eureka with his wife) and some truly inventive make-up involving fake blood. We couldn’t have met a friendlier bunch of people nor had a better night out in a town where we were strangers.

By the way, the town of Eureka is awash with houses straight out of The Addams Family, stunning but weird Victorian piles with architecture that beggars belief. One snippet I loved about the place is that it’s probably Duckburg, the fictional town where Donald Duck and all his chums live in the famous Walt Disney cartoons. Do give yourself time  for a thorough look around; there’s lots to see.

As if by magic, we woke up the next morning to thick fog. As we set off, the building was shrouded in mist. What more could you want? A real ghost would have been good, but the jury’s out about whether the place is haunted.

Verdict: Friendly and historic hotel in a great location for sightseeing around town. When we checked recently rooms were available from $125 per night.

Top picture: The inn was shrouded in fog as we left the next morning.