Humboldt State University (HSU) is located in Arcata, California. The town and university are bordered by California's north coast and surrounded by the redwood forest. HSU enrollment is approximately 7,000, with many of those students majoring in programs in the College of Natural Resources and Sciences. The Departments of Biological Sciences and Wildlife Management provide classes (e.g., Zoology 354, Herpetology) and programs for undergraduate and graduate students interested in herpetology. These two departments have five professors, including the Dean of the college, whose research has focused primarily on amphibians and/or reptiles.

"But I must confess that the subspecies [Taricha granulosa mazamae] is associated in my mind principally with an unsuccessful trip that Bodenstein and I made to Crater Lake in search of mazamae in larval stages. On the return trip our ancient automobile broke down on a desolate stretch of coastal highway south of Crescent City. During a miserable night in the car, and a barely more tolerable three days in the densely fog-bound village of Trinidad, spent waiting for new car parts, our devotion to newts dipped to an all-time low." From Of Scientists and Salamanders by Victor Twitty (1966).

Trinidad is located 10 miles north of Arcata.