The Russian River : a historical perspective

the indians called It should be a key meaning the snake. The Russians called it slow avianca, meaning pretty little Russian girl and the spanish called it san sebastian river or El rio russo as people referred to the river as the place where the Russian colony was

the name Russian eventually took hold. The Russian river is about 100 10 miles long and its watershed encompasses almost 1500 square miles from the headwaters in the redwood and potter valleys of Mendocino County to the mouth that gender by the sea. The river has many faces.

It flows through rich farmland, wooded slopes and golden hillsides, steep rocky canyons open up to broad, flat valleys filled with alluvial soil, farms and small towns, gravel bars and beaches are scattered along the way. It makes a dramatic entrance to the pacific ocean where seals sunbathe

in good weather. We have everything here and you can still make a living. That's the best part. It's home. That's right. You know, good life, very good life. It's a wonderful place to bird watch and to study plants because there's so much of it available over

time. The river and its resources have supported an incredible variety of plants, animals, human cultures and economies. If you were to go to santa rosa 14,000 years ago and look around, you probably think you were on the Serengeti plains because of all the herd animals. And

in the grass is you would have seen these California lions, the big lion's. You would have seen sabertooth tigers Going back 8000 years ago or more, some 70 bands of Pomo Indians lived along the river where they hunted and gathered food as well as the highly

prized basket weaving materials that grew along the banks, archaeologists have estimated or inferred our people have been in that area Well over 8000 years. Ah On the other flip side of the coin are people believe we were created there. The coast miwok is also occasionally ventured

up the river from the pacific coast and enjoyed friendly relations with the promos. The Russians established fort ross on the Sonoma coast in 18 12. This was the first permanent occupancy of Sonoma County by non indians. This house was started in 1853. Uh there was nobody

out here except my great grandfather who was Louis Williams riding our and my great grandfather died from the effects of having his belly ripped open by a grizzly bear, which was just right up here on this hill. Raymond Clark, in his book out of the river

mist declares that on the Granville, big bottom there once grew the most voluminous and tallest body of living vegetable matter ever to have grown upon this earth at any place. And at any time this rich crop of trees lured the likes of thomas, heeled heels, Berg's

namesake and George gern, for which Granville was named to establish a highly successful industry. My great uncle, he was, he was involved in the sawmill business. A big sawmill saw mills sprang up along the river from Korbel to Duncans mills and up Austin Creek to casa

de oro. The need to transport these huge quantities of redwood inspired the extension of the railroad. By the turn of the century, the major lumber was logged out and the railroads turned to passenger service for revenue. There were long lines of people at the ticket office

on the san Francisco side wanting to buy tickets to get on the ferry boat and ride the trains up into the Russian river area because of its recreation. Their camp rose in and Villa santa Clare in Healdsburg were major attractions and magnificent water carnivals with floats

on the river dazzled locals and visitors alike. The 1920s and 30s were the Heydays along the river, with tourists coming up by the frequent train load to dance to the big band sounds of Harry James and Glenn Miller and to enjoy the beaches. Secretaries would come

up and stay at the resorts there and they needed a country boy to dance with. By the mid 19 thirties, the passenger business had been slipping away to the private auto and the last train on the Granville branch ran on november 14 1935 Flooding was a

fact of life along the river and in December 1937. The river had to come up and it was really high fact is, it was so high it was touching the houses and different articles, sheds and stuff were floating down the river and they were hitting the

train bridge and exploding, and you could just stand there and see the refrigerators and everything going down into the river. Gravel mining began in the 30s and 40s deepening the river in places, gravel removal also allowed boating and water skiing, both very popular in the 50s

and 60s. Meanwhile, agriculture was taking hold in the area in the 1880s and 90s, hops and olives were successful crops. Hops stayed a strong industry until the 1950s, when a combination of changing taste in beer and a mildew disease brought their two mice in this area,

with hops dying out. Prunes and pears were the major crops along the river, with many farmers also keeping cows and chickens. This agricultural bounty helped prevent great suffering during the Depression. Up to 17,000 acres were planted to grapes in Sonoma County before prohibition in 1919, during

which time the acreage declined temporarily after prohibition ended, the wine grape industry began to slowly grow again, and vineyards began to replace orchards. In 1908 diversions to the Russian river from the Eel River began after construction of Cape Horn Dam and Lake Van Arsdale in Mendocino

County, thus increasing flow during the summer months, no mountain power and water had sold out to pacific gas and Electric Company who constructed scott Damn about 10 miles upstream from Van Arsdale on the Eel River designed to catch the winter flood water from the eel river

to be diverted during the summer months through the turbines in potter valley and from that point on, there was a pretty good flow in the Russian river. Ceyote Dam was built in 1959. Purpose for the dam was a combination of flood control and water supply. The

dam never incorporated a fish ladder. The agreement being that there would be some sort of mitigation for the loss of fisheries and the mitigation was very slow in coming. Finally came in part with the establishment of warm springs hatchery and the advocates for the fish felt

that wasn't adequate yet. And so after many more years, they finally agreed to put in this imprinting facility, egg take and imprinting facility that it's here on the other side of the river. Some mail. How about a job? Got a real pointed face. Real thin through

here. Real firm feeling. Warm Springs Dam was built in 1982. The dam and lake Sonoma provide flood control recreational opportunities, a hatchery and a visitor center. The Russian River has always been loved for its rich resources, delightful recreation opportunities and scenic beauty. Mhm Mcdonald Creek, McDowell

Creek, McClure Creek, McNab Creek, Ostin Creek, Dutch Mill Creek. This is Falcon Creek. The Russian River watersheds about 1500 square miles. Um, the watershed is the area which contain the rain falls on and all flows out in a single stream. So it is formed of many,

many small tributaries. So all of the streams add up to create the whole watershed. The cumulative uh combination of all the different elements of climate as well as geology and it results in streams. We are in the upper part of the watershed, the more the headwaters

and in the north end of the watershed at this point, most of the drainage here is comes from the west side where the tributaries, the major tributaries are Forsythe Creek, uh york Creek, Ackerman Creek, Hensley Creek and then as you get down through UK, there's a

number of small streams that come through you. Kaya, 500,000 people, Half a million people being served from the Sonoma County Water Agencies distribution system. And then of course, in addition to that, you have uh folks in Greenville of course are drinking river water. Um, a lot

of people along the river. Geyserville, Cloverdale Yukiya, sure hopping. Well, that was 75 I think when it went over the levee, we lost about eight acres of land. I was sitting right out, took the vines, covered the vines up. It was the biggest mess you ever

saw scary. You hate it? I was about crying. We're glad our houses up on the hill and Russia, The Russian river was seen as sacred. The willow roots would grow long, they would just go trailers, long trailers And so I remember helping Elsie Allen when I

was a young man at the wall of ranch bridge at that time, people used to gather there to go swimming and just kind of have a general good time after, you know, on weekends and hop picking season. Apple picking and picking season. They would go to

the wall of Ranch bridge. You might as well say there was camps along the river from, I would say from tell me to bring you down to hop people camped along the river during harvest time at that time. You know, during, during, during our childhood, you

know, Russian River was open. You could go any place you wanted to, you could walk up and down there and and do anything you wanted. A lot of people think that the indian people just would go out down to the river and you know, grab things

and it wasn't like that was very, very particular science really. I don't necessarily think they thought of it that way, but it was something that they just knew, um, each family would have gathering sites where they would gather the different kinds of materials. The thing is,

is that these were like lovingly tended gardens. Now in 18 77 to 18 80 there was only one other location on the pacific coast that produced as much lumber as the Greenville area born. And I were born with an ax in our hands if you want

to go back to yes, because in those days, no chainsaws, all the old misery whip the old crosscut and you have to make all your wood from the summary because of wall wood stoves in that day. The logging industry reached its peak Uh in Sonoma County

and on the whole coast in the 50s, probably 55-58 wouldn't you say Bob? This is when uh the crop that grew from the Great Fire of 1923 Let it grow again. We start a little sawmill in 1940 writing castle there, right where the old railroad, which

has moved out now used to have its turnaround spot and where the meat market used to be that Bob Folks ran. My mother was born in san Francisco. My dad was born in Italy But it's people that come here and worked at the Italian Swiss colony

or work for other people who own property and and save their pennies and their nickels and finally got enough for a down payment on a piece of property of their own. I raised prune for 40 years. I was in the dairy business for 10 years. We

always had prunes along with the dairy during the war we had chickens cleaning all those eggs. We have a road around here called red winery road and there was a big red building there that was the winery that my grandfather made the wine there. He planted

the original vines and they were all taken out and prunes were raised there later, the area around Yokai has changed a great deal. It used to be all hey land for, for the animals and then they went into pairs and prudence and now everything is grapes

along the river. The train and the river were a vital part of everybody's life. Still the river still is for anybody who lives out here on big holidays like four July, everybody would end up going to the beach and many of them came down to the

mouth of the Russian River. So at one time there was a ferryboat. In fact, before they built the bridge, there was a ferry boat across the river at where Willow Creek is, where it comes into the Russian River. That's where my dad put the boat in

the water. The river was our recreation. We had three daughters after work. We'd all go down. Usually we took our horses down and I can remember swimming those horses in this huge pool that was there also standing one of the horses out about shoulder deep and

the kids diving off the horse's back. We'd have great days along the river. We had the boats and we do a lot of water skiing and we taught all the kids to water ski right here on the Russian river. Everyone who ever has ever taken a

canoe trip. If you ask him about it years later, they will always reflect back on certain aspects of it, what they did when they tipped over, what they lost on the river, what they saw. They have finite memories of the trip that they had, we had

kayaks which we made ourselves. In fact, my youngest son, my younger son when he was 16 years old, came down the entire Russian River, 110 mi of Russian River. It took him five days. He and a buddy from school slept on the banks of the river.

Of course night was a better time because you didn't, you didn't need a bathing suit call now and call it skinny dipping I guess mirabel park had Tommy, Dorsey, harry James, glenn, miller, carmen, Cavallero, bob wills and his texas, playboys. They, they had a large ballroom

that overlooked the river was built on piers overlooking the river. As as did rio Nido have a ballroom as well as ville, The old grove. That's where I met, my wife was in Gardnerville. Down the dances that I used to go down two or three times

a week. I always had, I had a car and the fellas up in those days, you didn't bring your girlfriend along because you didn't have enough money whereas it was, I was still in high school and couldn't afford the admission to the dance usually. But there

was a great big redwood stump right outside alongside of the bandstand and they have all those windows open in the summertime. So I take my bulldog and we'd sit on that stump and I heard some of the best music sit there to quit playing night after

night. That's that's a very fond millions of bullfrogs, lots of white egrets. I've seen bald eagles just downstream here. Jack rabbits, rabbits, a family of river otters, always blue herons, striped bass. In the early years, the Russian river provided a fantastic fishery. It's listed in the

literature as being ranked third in the state of California, providing for anglers and fishing in 42. There was a fellow by the name of Taft who wrote that, he thought that the population of Steelhead in the Russian river system was better than 800,000 fish. I talked

to one gentleman, Virgil Sullivan, who's now passed away and was probably the most outstanding fly fisherman on the whole Russian river. And one of his stories was that during the depression his mom told him to go down to the river and catch some steelhead and he

went down to the mouth of Willow Creek, which is down toward Jenner. And he said in two hours he caught 28 steelhead and he said he never, ever and he never will again and I believe that we'll ever have fishing like that. In fact there were

so many fish. But when his line would hit the water behind him on his on the false cast, he hooked some even when the behind him when he fly hit the water. Remember the ospreys were here Then the fish eagles that nest along the river. Remember

seeing those. And the yellow breasted chat was one that we were very interested in. It used to be able to hear to sing at night from our house up along the river. Yellow warblers and wood ducks were along the river quite commonly then. Remember all those

birds very well. I spent many, many, many, many hours and lots of dollars in lost tackle fishing in the Russian river. Um, I was the type of person that was interested in conservation at the time and when I would catch steelhead, I would turn them loose

and everybody else would just about throw me in the river. I would fish for bass and bluegill have sun perch, pike's anything, anything that will buy it to have fun like today. There's no holes like it used to be When we was fishing that right there,

we used to have fine deep holes and we stand around and fish the holes and maybe go another 100 yards down the creek, there'd be another hole. But now the rivers are straight. You just gotta walk quite a ways to find a good hole. There have

always been sea lions and harbor seals here at the mouth of the river. They've always been there. And that includes the period when there were lots and lots of fish in the, in the spiritual peace. The river can bring just by watching the water flow, watching

the animals and herons that come from it. A lot of indian people in the bird flies in the air, they'll give a prayer because it's going up. And so there's lots of chances to prey on the river and talk to the things that live there and

be with them. So to me it's a very special place. I'm glad that people are, people are trying to two write something that they that was done wrong, you know, But like I said, it's gonna take time to do it. It's just you're not gonna do

it like that. I think there's a lot of hope and that will probably be able to, maybe everybody will have to compromise a little bit. But I think in the long run we'll we'll have a healthy river. And when the creator said, I'm gonna put humans

down on this earth over here, ah the animals and the plants wanted to go with them. And so the creator said, okay, well I'll do that. You can go, but you have to come to some kind of agreement before you all go. You don't pick all

the berries off the Huckleberry bush because the Huckleberry bush was a favorite food for the bear. You know, the the humans, humans have to give me something in return besides that. So you gotta have a song, this is my favorite song. So the bear gives the

humans this song so that when they go out and pick the berries, they have to sing that song. Otherwise the bear standing over there waiting for them. If they don't sing, it is going to pounce on them and eat them up. And the song goes Otto

hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, hallelujah. And so that song that was created in the Before world. Now the humans have to sing that before they go out and pick the berries to appease the bear as well as the Huckleberry bush. See, so you take that story as a

metaphor for how indian people look at the environment and that's that's how that's how it was, you know, uh that you never over export something that's going to sustain you.