Having been a resident of this county for nearly 30 years, I thought I might by your aid become, to a limited extent, a public benefactor, especially to the homeseeker. I propose to give to the readers a general idea of the topography, soil, climate, health and resources of Mendocino County.
The oldest settlement in Mendocino County was made in Anderson Valley by Walter Anderson in the year 1851. He came to California in 1846, being one of the typical pioneers of the mighty West. Mr. Anderson resided in Anderson Valley with his family until 1862. Then, becoming old and feeble, he removed to Ukiah to live with his son-in-law, L.B. Lamar, cousin of the distinguished L.Q.C. Lamar, late Secretary of the Interior — where he died in 1866.
Anderson Valley is one of the most picturesque and lovely valleys that nature seems to have favored. It is situtated 30 miles northwest of Cloverdale, 20 miles west of Ukiah City — the county-seat of Mendocino — and 18 miles east of the Pacific Ocean. The Navarro River, which heads about 16 miles north of Healdsburg and runs about 50 miles nearly parallel with the ocean and then empties into it, drains the watershed of Anderson Valley township. This river and its tributaries drain about 180,000 acres of Mendocino’s best lands, including about 60,000 acres of as fine redwood, tanbark, oak, laurel, madrone, fir, chestnut, oak, white and black oak, etc., as is grown in California.
The valley is about 18 miles in length by, say, from a half to two miles wide, settled by as thrifty, hospitable people as can be found anywhere. It is bounded on the west by a high range of hills covered with a heavy growth of fine redwoods, tanbark, oak, etc. On the east are open grassy alluvial hills on which herds of fine-wooled sheep find abundant pasture summer and winter and produce the wools of California which always command the highest prices in the San Francisco market. This is the principal industry of this township.
We also raise a great many hogs, which usually find plenty of acorns and are grown at a trifling cost. Wheat, oats, barley, rye, hops and corn and all kinds of garden vegetables are grown in abundance, and the land is well-suited for apples, pears, peaches, plums and prunes. Our crops are grown without irrigation, our rainfall being never less than 20 inches and generally 30 inches and frequently more, which insures us against drought and makes us independent of canal rates or riparian rights. Hardly a quarter-section but has from 1 to 6 springs of the best of water. Our flouring mill is run by one of the mountain streams.
As to the adaptation of our locality for a fruit country, I refer the reader to Dr. S. F. Chapin, who was State Inspector of Fruit Pests. He visited our locality about three years ago. His address is Auburn, California. A great deal of the timber lands when cleared are the most productive and grow the finest of fruits. I have known of parties slashing down the timber and in the fall burning it out and sowing crops down in the ashes without plowing or harrowing and raising fine crops of grain.
There is no healthier place on the face of the earth, in proof of which I submit the following: No cases of diptheria, smallpox or scarlet fever have ever been known in this valley. Not more than three cases of typhoid fever; less than 12 children under 15 have died, and but three young men and about the same of young women.
It seldom snows in the valley and never falls more than about three inches when it does and usually melts away in a few hours. Being just out of the fog belt, and yet near enough to the moist Pacific air, gives us a climate free from excessive heat and cold. Our resources are yet undeveloped, but we expect to grow into one of the finest areas of olive, French prune, Bartlett pear and plum and peach producing portions of California.
Hitherto we have been too far from railroad or water transportation for any other products than stock and wool, so that our resources have been lying dormant and undeveloped, but with the S.F. & N.P. railroad building within 17 miles, and the prospect for the Santa Rosa and Benicia railroad extending into our valley where they can reach 150,000 cords of the finest of tanbark and two billion feet of the coming house-finishing lumber of the world, the future of this locality should attract the home-seeker and the money-maker as well.
In the valley are five school districts, Boonville, the principal village, has two general stores, a hotel and livery stable, two blacksmith shops, a post office and express office, and contains a good church and schoolhouse, and has about 150 inhabitants. The U.S. mail and express depart each way every day except Sunday.
Valley land can be bought at from $50 to $100 per acre; hill land from $7 to $20, owing to locality and productiveness. Considerable good land is still subject to location. It is mountainous and mostly covered with brush and timber, but a great deal of it, if the proper energy and judgment were exercised, would make comfortable homes. Game abounds and the streams afford fine sport for the fisherman, there being plenty of mountain trout.
(This article was first printed in the Pacific Rural Press, later known as the California Farmer, on March 17, 1888.)
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