The Navarro Ridge is an area with a lot of interesting history, and following is a story about a small bit of it.
Included are two images of the far western portion of the ridge, specifically Section 33, Township 16 North, Range 17 West, Mount Diablo Meridian. One is the circa-1866 government survey, while the other is a current view. Over time this area has been associated with farming, ranching, and (in earlier years) the dairy business in particular. Also included are images of the Navarro Ridge Cemetery dating to 1890 and the westward view from the lawn of an inn that in recent years has been known as the Fensalden Inn.
Each of the first two images has three blue dots. The first marks Biggar Rock. (More on that later.)
The second marks the point where the original Big River to Anderson Valley Wagon Road passed northeast of the center of Section 33. The third marks the area where Haskett Severance's Navarro Ridge Hotel once stood, and also where the north grade descending to the river began. At the time of the survey a man named Robert Tarwater was living there and claiming ownership, but it appears that he was rebuffed. It's interesting that the north grade does not appear in the survey, perhaps being more of a trail and not a true wagon road at that time. Looking closely at the current image the grade's starting point remains visible very slightly to the southeast of the third dot.
Each of the first two images also has an area outlined in black to mark a tract covered under a bounty land warrant issued to James Hanna, a veteran of the Mexican War. About three-quarters of it falls within the aforementioned Section 33, while the rest falls in Section 5 of the adjoining township and range. Hanna likely never set foot in California and simply assigned (i.e., sold) his patent to Edwin Brayton, who took possession of the tract in 1868 and sold it to William James "W. J." Biggers/Biggar in 1883. Hereafter I will refer to this property as the "Biggers tract."
W. J. Biggers/Biggar (1837-1916), his wife, and their firstborn of six sons arrived on the Mendocino Coast from Canada sometime prior to mid-1873 and lived as squatters on another tract east of Albion for a period of time prior to purchasing the Biggers tract. Two sons were later prominent in Mendocino County. Arthur Wilbur "A. W." Biggers (1870-1942) became a contractor and built a number of the bridges on the coast that were replaced beginning in the 1930s. He also built houses and other structures, two remaining examples being in Fort Bragg -- the IOOF Hall on Main Street and the Saint Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church on Fir Street. George Milton Biggers/Biggar (1880-1961) wound up a merchant in Covelo and served as a state senator from 1935 to 1947. Biggar Rock, which appears never to have been owned by anyone in the family, was likely named for William, but it's also possible that it was named for his senator son George.
Apart from farming and ranching, in June 1889 W. J. Biggers donated a small lot to be used for a church, and under the direction of Rev. Joel McKendree Clark the Methodist Episcopal church was built. It was dedicated in January 1890. In the interim Rev. Clark lost his wife in a wagon accident in August 1889, and according to a letter he wrote, "Her body was laid to rest in the yard in front of the new church we are building. She had expressed her desire to be buried in full view of the sea." In May 1890 a beautiful white bronze monument was erected over her grave. A man named Samuel Bolden died in that period as well and was also buried in the church yard, but later in the year it was deemed undesirable to have the church yard become a cemetery. Thus, Bolden was moved to Little River, while Alice and her monument were moved to a new cemetery about two and half miles to the east on land donated by another man.
This is the Navarro Ridge Cemetery on the south side of the road across from the Lord's Land, and there Alice (Templin) Clark remains, having enjoyed her view of the ocean for barely a year.
In 1892 W. J. Biggers also built the New American Exchange Hotel, and he and his wife ran it until it was destroyed by fire at the end of January 1898. The area at this time was referred to as "Biggersville" by locals as well as in newspapers at times, and the full property, i.e., the Bigger tract, was known as the Biggers Ranch. Biggers was arrested for arson in connection with the fire but was subsequently released. Just before the fire most all of his land, excluding in particular the small rectangular lot on which the hotel sat, was sold by the Mendocino County Sheriff in connection with bankruptcy proceedings, and just after the fire Biggers appears to have sold the (now largely vacant) hotel lot to his son Arthur. The hotel lot is marked with a blue line on the current image near the center of Section 33 based on descriptions I could find.
As to the other markings on the current image, the red line shows the route of the original wagon road, while the green line shows how it appears to have been modified a bit sometime prior to the early 1880s. The orange line marks the location of an inn that in recent years was called the "Fensalden Inn." Fensalden has no connection to the area that I know of and seems to simply be a name some past owner thought sounded good. I suppose it does. At some point a past owner, likely the same one, appears to have come up with a "legend" to help with marketing it as a destination. Despite ownership changing, this legend can still be found on TripAdvisor where it reads, "Sitting on the back edge of 20 acres of gently rolling meadows at 400 ft elevation, just 7 miles south of charming Mendocino Village, Fensalden Inn was originally a Wells Fargo Stagecoach stop in the mid-1800's." Another account adds that it was built as an inn and tavern. Hmmm… I wonder how the surveyors missed this place in 1866. Were they such unthirsty workaholics that they rambled on by such a fine establishment without noticing? I suspect what happened was that the past owner was told that the old wagon road had run by the place and went wild with his/her imagination. How can one blame them?
As to the Navarro Ridge Methodist Episcopal Church, Rev. Clark intended to name it for his deceased wife, and perhaps he did, but no newspaper account I have found mentions her name in connection with its name. From tax records and Rev. Clark's own writing (above) the church must have been located on a small lot adjoining the west side of the county road along the path of the green line south of Biggers' New American Exchange Hotel (and not right next door) but no further south than the bottom of the orange line. It also faced to the west.
The westward view from the lawn of the Fensalden Inn shows that the ocean is, in fact, in view from the area, and it certainly would have been from the second, if not the first, floor of the hotel as well. In any case, the church was out of use by 1900, as the furniture was moved to Fort Bragg near the end of that year. What became of the church building itself is a mystery to me.
In later years the Biggers tract was purchased by D. M. Pettit (from a Mendocino bank) in 1900, resold by him to Ed L. Hansen in 1904, and resold to Domenico Rossotti in 1910. In the interim Hansen had successfully sued to quiet the title to the small church lot. When Rossotti's estate was probated in 1938 the description of the land included the old hotel lot that had apparently never been rejoined on the books with the rest of the tract. Also, during Rossotti's ownership the county built a high bridge at Salmon Creek (aka Whitesboro) and changed the coast road to bypass the old portion between Salmon Creek and Navarro Ridge (as well as between Salmon Creek and Wendling until what is now Highway 128 was completed in the 1920s).
More on that in the future, but to connect the ridge with the new road the county obtained a right-of-way from Rossotti through what was then called Rossotti Gulch as well as one from Peter Nonella (who by then owned the land in Section 33 north and west of the Biggers tract) and built a road. Today that road is the portion of Navarro Ridge Road from the current Highway 1 to a point just south and east of the Fensalden Inn.
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