City of Eureka Community Conversations - Eric Hollenbeck with Blue Ox Millworks

Meet Eric Hollenbeck of the City of Eureka's Blue Ox Millworks.

Transcript
I'm Eric Hollenbeck, co-owner of Blue Ox Millworks with my wife, Viviana. We are in our 48th year of business. We're a predominantly a working Victorian job shop. We make architectural mill work for buildings all over the United States. We are also a school for at risk students. We've done that 22 years now. We've had a veteran’s program. We have done unbelievable projects all over the U.S. Oh, and we're open for tours because we're a at working job shop.
I'm born and raised in Eureka. I'm a native. So where I grew up, in fact, I grew up 10 blocks from here. So Eureka is a really unique place. You know, I didn't realize it growing up, of course, cuz I was little. 63% or better of the buildings that were here when I grew up 65 years ago are still here and there is a continuity in that, there is a history in that, that for me, is really important.
I do work on buildings that I grew up under the shade of. That adds a continuity to life. That's an important thing to me.
Our school program, I told you, we started 22 years ago. It's for students that are having a hard time in the traditional sit-down setting. And we started that because I'm one of those kids. I left school when I was 16 and started working in the woods cuz I can't read, they told me I was stupid. So I figure if I'm stupid, I may as well go to work in the woods. They're great kids. There's nothing wrong with the kids. They're just doers and not sitters, like me. They have to be moving. They gotta be doing stuff. They gotta be adding to life somehow with their hands.
So we just finished eight episodes for discovery+ and they're editing it right now. It's gonna come out on the Magnolia Network and I'm really excited about how wonderful they made Eureka look.
It was important to me and Viv when we said yes, we would do this with them, that we show Eureka to the outside world cuz we're, let's face it. We're behind the Redwood curtain and the Redwood curtain is holding up fine. It's doing great. It's done what it's done for the last 150 years. It's doing wonderful. So if we could get it out, what we have here in this wonderful place that we live in. But then a new thing dawned on me and that is what if for the locals, the program could get across the concept of what a wonderful place we lived in. That would be a win-win. That would be a home run, as far as I'm concerned. If we could see ourselves – cuz we take that drive from Eureka to Arcata – there are people in the world that would kill to have that drive. You got the bay, and all of the waterfront on one side, you've got the fields and the cows that blend into the hillside of timberland on the other side, as far as you can see it's to timberland, that's all that it is! What an amazing place we live. And the network is pushing really hard to show that. And that, that excites me.