In 1860 the Alderpoint area was first opened for homesteaders by the government. Thirty years later the first bridge was built over the Eel River. Then, in 1919, a new bridge was built and lasted thirty years. The old bridge was not safe because a flood in 1909 went three feet underneath it so it was rebuilt. In the same year President Benjamen Harris crossed the Eel River and stayed in the Blocksburg Hotel on the way to sign a treaty with the Yurok Indians.