Checking Out the History of this Wonderful Place Where I Live and Play, Guerneville CA.

Friday March 1, 2024 Guerneville CA.

It showered this morning but stopped for a bit when I got it going. I was going to go out and do some welding on my fuel transfer bracket,….But.

When I was ready to go out a big shower started to pour. Each time the rain stopped and I was ready to go out, the showers started again, so I was doomed to stay in the house most of the day.

History source

About a week ago when I was visiting with a neighbor up in the hills a guy that works in the Armstrong Park was up there and he informed me about a web page that was full of history that one could look up, old news paper articles.

The page was done with grants by the University of California, so is free to use.

Here’s the address for that page.   https://cdnc.ucr.edu/

The written history starts in this area around 1850 as that’s when the discovery of gold in the west brought people from the Eastern United States here in numbers and also a lot of emigrants from all over the world. Before that time, there were mostly a few Indians in the area and the Russians had a settlement by the ocean around 1812 for a short spell.

My great grand father was reported at the mercury mine in 1862  at five years old with his mother that ran a boarding house at the mine. No mention of his dad. I live in my great grand father’s house and have for most of my life. My play ground was Armstrong Park, the mercury mine area and Mt. Jackson and the surrounding area of Guerneville. I played with the kids of the early guys and grow up with them. I knew most of the early guys in the area that were left, when I was a kid.

Guerneville was a tourist town in the summer for the San Francisco Bay area, but in the winter, only the locals were left so we all knew each other mostly. And most of those people’s names where the descendants of the people that made the early history of this place. Of course, those same people that I knew where also the history of this place.

Anyway, I went to the web page and started typing in stuff I knew of the area. Mt. Jackson, Armstrong park and Armstrong  and such. I found that the mercury mine was actually two mines, Mt Jackson Mine and the Great Eastern Mine. I learned that at the time the mercury mine was the only mercury mine in the nation for a time and very important for war materials. I learned of Col. Armstrong whose ranch I now live on as my great grand father bought part of his ranch.

I learned that I was wrong about some of the stuff I thought I knew and learned a lot of stuff I didn’t know. The old timers names kept popping up that I knew as a kid and I learned what most of their history was that I didn’t know. I spent most of the day reading stuff and barely touched the subject.

It turns out that I’m one of the few people left that is part of that history as most of the rest have pasted on or are new to this area.

Rain stops for a bit

Late in the afternoon, the showers let up for a bit, so I went outside and let the chickens into the front yard.

Tools for the rig

I need to carry some tools on the new rig so I made this shovel holder and was working on a loopers holder but didn’t have enough  clamps.

Gathering eggs

I went out to the chicken’s pen to gather the eggs and these chickens followed me thinking I’d give them something to eat. They have plenty to eat in the yard and have it better than most chickens.

With more warming weather, the chickens are starting to  lay more eggs.

Rain picks back up

So, I went in and did more history stuff for the rest of the day. I barely touched the subject.

I’ve been very fortunate to have grown up and lived and played in this most wonderful spot in the world.

Nice day.