Modern-day Eureka is forged from a rugged logging and mining past, perched on the edge of the largest protected bay on the West Coast between San Francisco and Puget Sound. Its geography made it a vital port in the city’s rise, a gateway for redwood, gold and goods flowing through Northern California. Today, the seat of Humboldt County is home to just over 25,000 residents, but for many travelers, it’s often a drive-thru — its western edge carved by Highway 101, lined with chain hotels, familiar food franchises, a concrete-block courthouse, the backside of a historic downtown and a fading shopping mall. 

Appearing amid the ordinary blocks, the essence of Eureka lives on through an unmistakable roadside landmark that has become a source of community pride. A three-story replica of a Vaughan claw hammer materializes along 101’s western edge. The metal head gleams against the matte finish of its hickory handle, eucalyptus shadows shifting across the installation. This giant hammer marks the entrance to Pierson Building Center, a hardware store that embodies the do-it-yourself camaraderie that binds the region and whose namesake built thousands of nearby homes.

Bill Pierson — son of Ernest, known to most as Ernie — now helms the store. He described his dad as “truly an entrepreneur,” who laid the foundation, positioning his company as one of the region’s most prolific homebuilders. Bill studied art, but it was his vision that gave Eureka its most unusual landmark. What began as “a really cool sign” became “as close … to an icon as the store would ever have.”

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Ernie Pierson was shaped by America’s Great Depression. From a young age, he hustled his way forward selling coffee door-to-door. A teenaged Ernie even struck a deal with Humboldt County’s most powerful lumber baron, William Carson, for access to a freshwater spring — the start of a bottling company that delivered water across Eureka.

A quiet corridor at Pierson Building Center, in Eureka, Calif., with two employees at work and the key-copying kiosk nearby, on July 20, 2025.

A brief stint in Humboldt State University’s pre-law program ended, as Bill told it, when Ernie realized, “If I continue this idea of being an attorney, I’ll spend all the rest of my........

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