Sonoma County CA Archives History - Books .....Guerneville 1877
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 25, 2006, 3:56 am

Book Title: Historical And Descriptive Sketch Of Sonoma County, California

GUERNEVILLE.

   Guerneville is a lumber manufacturing village in the Russian River redwoods,
and situated about sixteen miles northwest of Santa Rosa. It was first settled
on the 1st of May, 1860, by R. B. Lunsford. It is located on the bank of Russian
river, on what is known as Big Bottom. Here stood the finest body of timber in
the State; the bottom is about four miles long, and was covered by a dense
growth of mammoth redwood trees, which, in the best localities, would yield at
least eight hundred thousand feet of lumber to the acre. The largest tree in the
bottom measured eighteen feet in diameter, and made one hundred and eighty
thousand feet of lumber. The tallest tree was three hundred and forty-four feet
nine inches in height. There was a hollow stump which stood just above the town,
in which twenty horses could readily stand. An estimate of the timber in the Big
Bottom appears elsewhere.

   Heald & Guern's saw and planing-mill is located in the town. It employs about
sixty men, and cuts between three and four million feet of lumber a year, making
mouldings, brackets, scroll work, &c. Murphy Bros.' saw and planing-mill is
located half a mile from the town; it cuts from twenty to twenty-five thousand
feet a day, and employs about forty men. R. B. Lunsford's shingle-mill, near by,
cuts from fifteen to twenty-five thousand shingles a day.

   There is one general merchandise store in the town, one grocery store, one
market, one boot and shoemaker, two hotels and one restaurant, one livery
stable, one blacksmith shop and one wagon shop, one church, one public school,
one lodge, (Enterprise, No. 356 of Independent Good Templars), and one
chair-factory, run by S. W. Faudre. J. W. Bagley is postmaster. A branch of the
San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad runs from Fulton on the main trunk to
Guernville. This road has just been completed, and connects the great Central
valley of Sonoma county with the timber section. This affords a fine opportunity
for tourists to see the redwood trees of Sonoma, second only in size to the
mammoths of Calaveras. Four miles from Guernville, Mount Jackson and the Great
Eastern quicksilver mines are located. A wagon-road is proposed, and will be
built from Guerneville to the coast, which will turn a large portion of the
coast-travel via Guerneville to San Francisco. It is said that the narrow-gauge
road will be extended from Moscow, its terminus on Russian river, to Guerneville.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORICAL
AND
DESCRIPTIVE SKETCH
OF
SONOMA COUNTY,
CALIFORNIA,
BY
ROBERT A. THOMPSON,
EDITOR OF "THE SONOMA DEMOCRAT."
PHILADELPHIA:
L. H. EVERTS & CO. 
1877.


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