Setting is a critical part of bringing events and people to life in historical fiction. Only by conveying weather, terrain, smells, sounds, and other details of how people lived can the writer hope to immerse a reader in the historical backdrop of the story. To accomplish that and to construct a realistic world, I need to visualize it myself, see the story’s characters moving around in it, enter that world myself.
I visit the actual locations, if possible, and consult numerous histories, newspapers, diaries, maps, photographs, and drawings. In the course of my research, I occasionally stumble over a real gem, something that provides a key piece of the puzzle or otherwise helps complete the construction of the place in my mind. Such was the case with a survey that revealed 1866 Greenwood, Mendocino County frontier town otherwise known as Elk.
Finding the 1866 Greenwood Survey
Shoreline of Modern Day Elk
Greenwood is situated between Greenwood Creek and the Navarro River, thirteen miles south of the town of Mendocino. It’s one of four locations used in my novel The Standing-Ground.
When the residents of Greenwood petitioned for a post office in 1887, it was assigned the name Elk because a Greenwood post office already existed in El Dorado County (more on that in a minute). The names Elk and Greenwood have been used interchangeably ever since.
While reading through a 1970s study conducted when the beach at Greenwood was about to become a state park, I found a reference to a survey of Greenwood and Cuffey’s Cove (one mile north of Greenwood) that had been conducted by the Surveyor General in 1866. After contacting numerous State and Federal agencies, I was able to obtain a copy of the survey from the Bureau of Land Management.
Greenwood and Cuffey’s Cove weren’t even towns in 1866. The area was a sprawling, loosely defined settlement consisting of farms, timber cutting operations, and at least one hand-cut railroad tie outfit. A large sawmill had been in operation on the Navarro River since 1861, but the area was otherwise undeveloped.
I’ve been to Elk many times and, from reading local histories, had a rough idea of what it looked like between 1851 and 1870 when the first sawmill went into operation. But the histories weren’t specific about where certain settlers lived and didn’t provide other important information, like the location of roads. The 1866 survey showed many of those details and helped correct a number of inaccurate assumptions.
Since the complete survey is much too large to include on a website, I’ve clipped several sections that contain important details.
Section 1: The Navarro River
Mouth of the Navarro River (click for larger image)
The first thing I noticed was the spelling of the Navarro River. It’s labeled as Navarra on Mexican land grants, presumably a carryover from early Spanish exploration. In the diary he kept of his overland trip through the area in 1852, Jerome Ford called it the Navata River. Then again, Ford had a penchant for misspelling names. I haven’t tracked down the origin of the name or it’s correct spelling because it’s incidental to my story. I use Navarro in deference to a modern audience and explain the other variations in the author’s notes.
The dotted line north of the river is the road to Andersen Valley (a recent name for that area in 1866) which appears slightly north of current day Highway 128. The road follows what is now known as Navarro Ridge Road and was originally built by John Gschwend to service his sawmill. The house and school adjacent to the road are too close to the mouth of the river to be part of Wending Woods (modern day Navarro), so people connected with the Navarro Mill at the river may have lived there. Traveling north of the river was more feasible after 1862 when a toll bridge was constructed. The bridge is indicated with a dashed line on the map.
Also of note is the dashed line skirting the coast which was the wagon road that ran south to Point Arena and beyond, roughly along the route of modern day Highway 1. Further inland, we see markings for a few scattered homes, the trail to the logging grounds, and cow pastures.
Section 2: Cuffey’s Cove
Cuffey’s Cove (click for larger image)
A few settler names appear in this section, such as Captain Tucker (and his surprisingly large garden) and Doyle’s Creek which was probably named for Dinny Doyle, who later operated a lumber chute at Cuffey’s Cove.Conspicuously absent is James Kenney’s house, which should appear somewhere east of Doyle’s Creek. Kenney is generally credited with laying out Cuffey’s Cove and owned much of the land there. Also of note is the wagon road leading to timber, most likely used by James Kenney and another railroad tie producer named John Kimball.
Section 3: Greenwood, Bonee Ranch, and Clift’s Ridge
Greenwood and Clift’s Ridge (click for larger image)
At the very top of the map is the Donahue House. Michael Donahue owned most of the land by the 1870s. The creek labeled Donahue’s Creek is now known as Greenwood Creek.
The name Greenwood still in evidence everywhere around modern Elk comes from four brothers who settled in the area around 1854, though that date is often disputed. They were the sons of a pioneer from El Dorado County who is credited with saving members of the Donner party. The other town of Greenwood, the one with the post office of that name, is in El Dorado County and is named for the elder Greenwood.
The Greenwood brothers spread out south of the creek but the majority of their land was adjacent to the dashed line labeled as the Greenwood Trail and was later purchased by a man named Bonee. The area is still called Bonee Ranch. The B. Greenwood house is identified south of the trail and belonged to the oldest brother, Britt. Oddly enough, the Greenwoods packed up and left before their namesake town materialized. Their land passed through numerous hands, including Donahue.
In 1887, when San Francisco Lumber King Lorenzo White was unable to acquire James Kenney’s lumber chutes at Cuffey’s Cove, he bought up much of Donahue’s land and built one of the largest lumber mills on the coast. Lorenzo wasn’t a stranger to the area. In 1858, he owned land above (east of) the Greenwood brothers that he’d purchased from a whaler friend of his named Osro Clift. The area is still known as Clift Ridge or Cliff Ridge.
Melding Present and Past
Once I was able to fix some of the history and personal stories to actual places on the map, the entire area came even more to life for me. I felt more confident about where my characters would go and how. I felt better able to describe the landscape in a scene. More importantly—and this is why I love understanding the history of a place—I can walk through modern Elk and see it, simultaneously, as it is now and how it was then. I can walk along the margins of history and see both sides.
Any idea when your book will be published? I would love to read it, as I’ve lived in the area many years. It sounds really interesting.
I’m always glad to hear from Mendocino County folks. I’m in the process of rewriting at the moment. As I mentioned to another commenter, I’m fictionalizing many of the historic figures and will be playing with the timeline slightly to make a more compelling story. I’ll have an author’s note explaining which fictional characters were inspired by real people but I’m willing to bet Mendo folk will figure it out on their own.
— Keith
I’m curious about some background on the Greenwood Ranch. Apparently there was a family named Nobles that lived there and some of the male family members purported to be owners of the ranch. They were later run off by another family that declared the Nobles family were only hired hands and they were the true owners. I met a descendant of the Nobles family who said the remaining 22,000 acres of the ranch was sold in 1934.
Fran,
I may have come across some mention of the Noble family while researching the area——the name rings a bell–but I don’t know anything about the land dispute you mention. I quickly scanned a local history of Elk and the 1880 History of Mendocino County without success. I recommend you check with Kelley House Museum in the village of Mendocino. The have an online search tool for their archives, though not everything has been thoroughly cross referenced. You may try emailing or calling them regarding your question. Any first names or dates would also be helpful. Since this is about property, you may be able to find some hints using the Mendocino County Assessor’s online search, depending on how far back this dispute occurred. Finally, the Mendocino Beacon was the best source of local news dating back to the 19th century. I believe they have an online search tool as well but accessing the archives will cost a nominal fee. The California Digital Newspaper Collection is free and includes some local Mendocino County papers. Other papers can be found on Newspapers.com which is free to search but requires a subscription to access.
Best of luck!
I am looking for info. on Dominico Rossotti, John Guenza and the Albion Ridge Hotel later known as Roma Hotel in Elk Ca.
Michael, I’ve never come across any mention of the Albion Ridge Hotel but I can suggest some resources.
The first is the Greenwood State Beach Visitor Center which serves as a museum for the town of Elk and the lumber mill. More importantly, the ranger who is often staffing the museum is from the Ross family that was involved with the mill at the turn of the 19th century. The center has limited hours and is closed during the winter.
The second is the Kelley House in the town of Mendocino. They have an extensive physical archive they make available to the public (with prior reservations) and an online search for the archive. I found a photo of the hotel and a Rossotti reference so that may be the ideal place to start.
Lastly, the Held-Poage Library in Ukiah is the research facility for the Mendocino Historical Society. As with Kelley House, it’s best to arrange a visit in advance, explaining your area of interest so they can have materials waiting for you.
If you are unable to visit any of these places in person, most of them will conduct research for you for a reasonable fee. The links I’ve provided include contact info.
Best of luck.
Just stumbled across your page. Fun stuff. I live in the San Geronimo valley, once Whites valley. We still have Whites hill. Are there any photos of Lorenzo and family? I admin a FB history site for our valley and enjoy finding tidbits of info. Thanks. Steve.
I never connected Lorenzo to White’s Hill, probably because I don’t spend a great deal of time in that area. Funny. I have yet to find any photos of him but there is this sketch of him from his obit in the July 4, 1896 San Francisco Call.
I have numerous tidbits about Lorenzo, many of them not particularly complimentary. Two are related to Marin County. Lorenzo drove some or all of the cattle from the Rancho Geronimo to Cuffey’s Cove in Mendocino where he claimed his own ranch on Clift’s Ridge. Some question if he owned the cattle or if he stole them.
The other matter is covered in the post linked above. While at Rancho Geronimo, Lorenzo hired a recent immigrant from Ireland named Jane Sheridan as a live-in housekeeper. Not long after, Jane was pregnant with Lorenzo’s oldest child Nellie (later Helen). The two never married but lived as common law spouses for many years. When Lorenzo left Jane for another woman long after he’d become wealthy, he claimed she was only a housekeeper, not a wife, and tried to walk away from the relationship. She sued him in a trial that lasted years and eventually prevailed.
And those are just a few samples of the many unsavory tales of Lorenzo Eastlick White.
Thanks for dropping in. I’ll check out your FB page.
I too fell in love with Elk a number of years ago and have visited many times. I do hope to visit again. I am a semi-fiction writer that bases my stories on historical events. Currently I am searching for information on the 4 ships operated by L.E. White Lumber Company. There are a few questions I have on these ships but have been unsuccessful so far. Maybe you know where I might find answers. 1. What was the fuel used to sail the ships? Were they run via a wood burner boiler? I have read they were steam schooners, but I have no other info. 2. Is there a place online I can go to learn about the crews of these ships? 3. What was the average number of crewmen? And lastly, 4. What was the position and average pay of the crew?
Hi, Merri. I’m happy to find another admirer of the Mendocino Coast and someone interested in its history. Most writers I know that blend history with fiction would call themselves historical fiction writers as nearly all of us incorporate real people and events.
As for Lorenzo White’s ships, it’s complicated. First, the Greenwood mill was not Lorenzo’s first. He operated a mill with his brother just south of Albion in what was called, with all due modesty, Whitesboro. It is now a residential enclave at the mouth of the Salmon River. He may have had interests in another mill but those details are fuzzier in my memory. The point is that he probably had more ships than those four, if that’s of interest to you.
The first lumber schooners serving the coast were powered only by wind. They were often under 200 feet in length, two masts, and manned by a crew of 6-12, particularly after the introduction of the steam windlass that made a smaller, leaner crew viable. Those doghole schooners were slowly replaced by steamers. The steamers used as packet ships during the early days of the gold rush used wood and, later, coal. By the time steamers were visiting the doghole ports, San Francisco had become a major whaling port, so whale oil was used. The wind-powered schooners were still being used well into the 20th century, however.
As to how to learn about the crews, one resource is the book The Doghole Schooners by Walter A. Jackson, published in 1977. It lists ships, captains, crews, and accidents. But it doesn’t list everything. One resource is old newspapers and many of California’s early papers can be found online in the California Digital Newspaper Collection. Papers published arrivals, departures, and some manifests. I would also recommend contacting the California Historical Society and National Maritime Museum in San Francisco. Both have rich archives of the period. And Lorenzo was a resident of the Bay Area (SF, Palo Alto, Berkeley) for much longer than he was of Mendocino.
Depending on where you live, you might also check with The Kelley House in Mendocino, the Held-Poage Research Library in Ukiah, and the Mendocino County Museum that has an archive in Willets. Another great online resource is the Mendocino Model Railroad and Historical Society in Fort Bragg. They have an amazing collection of information about that era.
As for positions and pay, well into the 20th century, sailors signed articles of agreement with the shipping company or captain. These contained details about the term of service, pay, rations, and responsibilities. Finding these is challenging but there are a few floating around. It’s also possible that some operations relied on a handshake agreement.
Good luck with your research and thanks for dropping by.
Hi Keith, thanks for your rapid reply. I have had the pleasure of a quick visit to the Kelley House as well as emailing them a few times. They are very helpful.
Unfortunately all of my research as of now must be online due to timing, money and disability, therefore I am unable to visit the other museums you mention. I appreciate the online suggestions. I will definitely check them all out.
The story I am currently working on is an unplanned sequel to my first, “Teachers”. Maybe you might enjoy checking it out. It is a story that basically takes my reader through the life of the disabled. A life that is much more than a condition. And just to keep the book from being a dry, boring read I created characters that live within Ft, Bragg and 1880’s Elk, jumping back and forth in a comical way. I do hope this next story will be just as accepted. The title comes from the idea that we teach each other our lives in a kind and loving way. There are no teachers in the book.
Thanks for sharing your authorship of “historical fiction writer.” I like that much more that semi-fiction writer. Maybe if I come up on a question I am unable to answer I might reach out to you again.
If you want to check out my book it is known to be written by my initials, M. J. King. The cover has a photo I took during a stay at Elk Cove Inn. A beautiful shot of the cove.
Respectfully,
Merri
Merri, I’ll check out your book when I get the chance. I’m sorry to hear you’re unable to visit the sites I listed in person. Some of them have online records searches, such as California Historical Society and Kelley House. Some online searches do not reflect the entire archive (such as Kelley House). Depending on the nature of the search and number of artifacts, most will retrieve the material for you and make copies for a nominal price. Check with each site separately. Good luck!
I just received a copy of Dog-Holed Schooners, it is very interesting. However a truthful statement is it is not a complete listing of schooners sailed in and out of Mendocino County. I could not find any mention of the Alcatraz. The ship that crashed into Mile Rock. That is the particular ship I am interested in gleaning more info on. If you know of any other websites, I would appreciate anything you could share.
Respectfully,
Having remembered reading about the Alcatraz, I did a quick internet search. I thought I remembered it sinking in Point Arena, but was wrong. It sank in Greenwood (Elk) on May 12, 1917. An article appeared the following Monday in 5/14/1917 SF Examiner detailing the accident. It had a crew compliment of 20 men, all were safe. BUT the Alcatraz was, by that time, owned by the Goodyear Lumber Company, which was a later iteration of the L.E. White Lumber Co. The operation passed out of the White family several years after Lorenzo’s death. That’s a much longer story and one in my queue for writing. The Kelley House online search reveals a number of letters and photos concerning the Alcatraz. Once you get the artifact#, you could email them for copies of the photo. Their prices are very reasonable. The Online Archive of California (mentioned in my last reply) also has archives that are not online. You could contact them for more info.
Good luck.
I have written Kelley House for more info. The collection of photos are wonderful of which they are happy to share copies. However I still fall back to my question of what was life like during an average voyage (prior) to the wreck. Sadly photos would not answer that. However, you were able to tell me they had a crew of 20 on the night of the wreck. As always thank you. My search goes on!
My paternal grandparents were married in what was called the Drew House (now the Elk Cove Inn) on January 17, 1900. He was, at the time, Superintendent of the L.E.White Lumber Co.
When he came back as a partner in the Goodyear Lumber Co. in 1924 they lived in what is now the Harbor House.
I notice a few minor inaccuracies in the two map segments shown. Did not previously know, however, that the “Greenwood Trail” came down the small ridge between Bonée Gulch and Kentfield Gulch. That ridgetop is still clear almost down to the creek.
Thanks for that insight into the Drew House, Chuck. I haven’t come across that name before. I found the map helpful because I’d been trying to imagine how travelers at the time would enter the area from the south. Charlie Fletcher’s ferry service was the main conveyance across the Navarro to the north until Tichenor and Byxbee built their bridge, but didn’t know where they would cross Donahue/Greenwood Creek.
Hi Keith,
Enjoyed your article. I own The Elk Cove Inn & Spa – originally was LE White’s guest/employee house, as you probably know. Next time you are in Elk, stop by. Would love to meet you.
Elaine Bryant
Elaine,
I’m happy to hear you liked the post and will definitely drop in next time I pass through Elk.
It may interest you to know that the opening scene of my novel (in progress) takes place in that house, a meeting between Lorenzo White and my main character just prior to the building of the L.E. White Mill. I have at least one citation from that time describing the house as the superintendent’s residence and I’m latching onto it for the purpose of my story. My MC is being offered the superintendent’s position.
Thanks for dropping in.
Is Harbor House Inn on Covey Cove?
Jeff, Harbor House is on Greenwood Cove and is still within Elk. Just. Cuffey’s Cove is the next cove over and can be seen from Harbor House. The only thing left in Cuffey’s Cove now are the 3 conjoined cemeteries you pass on the west side of Highway 1 when traveling towards the Navarro River from Elk.