Loleta, California

Loleta (Wiyot: Guduwalhat) is a census designated place in Humboldt County, California. and 15 mile (24 km) south of Eureka at an elevation of 46 feet (14 m). and the community is inside area code 707.

European settlement began in the early 1850s although Wiyot people had inhabited the area for generations. Potato farming was the biggest agricultural use of land until the 1870s, when depleted soil and declining prices caused a turn to dairying. The town was originally known as Swauger or Swauger's Station, for local landowner Samuel A. Swauger. although this is apparently contradicted linguistically made notorious by a National Geographic blog post. However, a 1918 list of place names collected by Kroeber and Waterman two years after Kroeber's 1916 publication

The Eel River and Eureka Railroad reached Swauger's Station from Humboldt Bay in 1883. opened in the town proper in 1893, and dairying continues to be a major economic influence. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway reorganized Loleta's railroad as the San Francisco and Northwestern Railway in 1903 and then completed the Northwestern Pacific Railroad to San Francisco in 1914.

Located 1 mile (2 km) from the Eel River, which drains 10 percent of the total California watershed, and four miles from the Pacific Ocean and Humboldt Bay, fishing has also been a significant economic factor in the local economy. In the early years of the 20th century, fish buyers from San Francisco congregated in Loleta every fall to bid on the salmon catch, which averaged $50,000. There are two Humboldt County parks located near Loleta, generally to the west toward the Pacific Ocean: Crab County Park and Table Bluff County Park as well as several beach, dunes, and wetlands Public Land Areas. The Aleutian Cackling Goose (Branta hutchinsii leucopareia) has in recent years extended its spring staging area to Loleta. Flocks of over 400 individual birds may be seen in March.

The 2010 United States Census Whites make up 82.1 percent of the population of 783 (less than the 807 inhabitants the census recorded in 1880).

Loleta is the seat of the Loleta Union School District, and home of the Loleta Elementary School, a public K 8 school.

Although agriculture and dairy have been salient factors in Loleta's economy, most residents work outside the community in neighboring cities. Downtown Loleta had a cheese factory which closed in December 2019, a grocery store, a meat market, a bakery (closed March 2014), a realty office, and a post office. The Loleta Elementary school, two churches and the firefighter's pavilion, managed by local volunteer firefighters are closer to U. S. 101. The Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria is headquartered in Loleta, where they operate the Bear River Casino.

Loleta and Eureka were locations for filming the 1982 horror movie, Halloween III: Season of the Witch; scenes inside "the Silver Shamrock Novelties factory" were filmed in a former milk bottling plant for Familiar Foods on Loleta Drive at Railroad Avenue. "Drive," Season 6, Episode 2 of the hit show The X files, features Loleta momentarily near the end of the episode.

There is disagreement as to the origin of its name. One story is that its derived name, lalōekā, is the Wiyot name for the trail on the top of Table Bluff. Another story is that the name was derived from the Wiyot for 'Go F Yourself.' A third story is that the name is Wiyot for "Let's have intercourse." and
Federally, Loleta is in .