Anderson Valley is a sparsely populated region in western

Mendocino County Mendocino County (; ''Mendocino'', Spanish for "of Mendoza) is a county located on the North Coast of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 91,601. The county seat is Ukiah. Mendocino County consists whol ...

in Northern California. Located approximately north of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, the name "Anderson Valley" applies broadly to several rural, unincorporated communities in or near the alluvial terraces along Anderson Creek and other tributaries to the

Navarro River , name_native_lang = , name_other = , name_etymology = , image = Navarro_River.jpg , image_size = , image_caption = The Navarro River near its mouth. , map = , map_size ...

. It is named after William Anderson, an early European settler to the area.

Geography

The name "Anderson Valley" applies to a region stretching from Boonville (located on Anderson Creek) and

Philo Philo of Alexandria (; grc, Φίλων, Phílōn; he, יְדִידְיָה, Yəḏīḏyāh (Jedediah); ), also called Philo Judaeus, was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt. Philo's de ...

(located on Indian Creek) to Navarro (located on Soda Creek). Rancheria, Anderson, Indian and Soda creeks are tributaries to the

Navarro River , name_native_lang = , name_other = , name_etymology = , image = Navarro_River.jpg , image_size = , image_caption = The Navarro River near its mouth. , map = , map_size ...

, which flows north and west through the coastal range to the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

; Dry Creek flows south into the Russian River watershed in

Sonoma County Sonoma County () is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, its population was 488,863. Its county seat and largest city is Santa Rosa. It is to the north of Marin County and the south of Mendocino ...

. The main stem of the Navarro River begins less than a mile south of Philo at the confluence of Anderson Creek and Rancheria Creek. The mouth of the Navarro is south of

Mendocino, California Mendocino ( Spanish for "of Mendoza") is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Mendocino County, California, United States. Mendocino is located south of Fort Bragg at an elevation of . The population of the CDP was 9 ...

. Encompassing , the Navarro River watershed is the largest coastal basin in Mendocino County. The area is not seismically active, though a minor fault runs along the Valley floor. The climate is tempered by cool marine air. Steep hills and mountains surround rolling to nearly level alluvial terraces. The dominant natural vegetation is a mixed forest of

Coast Redwood ''Sequoia sempervirens'' ()''Sunset Western Garden Book,'' 1995:606–607 is the sole living species of the genus '' Sequoia'' in the cypress family Cupressaceae (formerly treated in Taxodiaceae). Common names include coast redwood, coastal ...

, various native oak varieties, and

Douglas fir The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Oregon pine, and Columbian pine. There are three va ...

. Elevation ranges from sea level to . The average annual precipitation ranges . The average annual temperature is about , and the average frost-free season ranges from 220 to 365 days. Towards the coast the summers are cool and moist with frequent fog, while the interior Anderson Valley proper features a warm to hot summer climate similar to nearby interior regions, with daytime highs occasionally in excess of .

History

Early Native American inhabitants of Anderson Valley were speakers of two of the seven

Pomoan languages The Pomoan, or Pomo , languages are a small family of seven languages indigenous to northern California spoken by the Pomo people, whose ancestors lived in the valley of the Russian River and the Clear Lake basin. Four languages are extinct, an ...

. The Late Pomo of what is now the Yorkville area spoke the

Central Pomo language Central Pomo is an extinct Pomoan language spoken in Northern California Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Sp ...

. The Tabahtea (Tah-bah-tay) Pomo of the Boonville area west to Navarro spoke the Northern Pomo language. These residents occupied nineteen known village sites, with an estimated population of 600 in 1855. The early European American settlers of Anderson Valley arrived after 1850. They practiced subsistence farming and expanded into resource extraction economies based on

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

harvesting and

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals ...

ranching. Some of the first European American settlers included Henry Beeson (who took part in the Bear Flag Revolt), his brother Isaac Beeson and William Anderson, their stepbrother, for whom the valley was named. The first wave of European American settlers included the Ornbaun, Hutsell, Barnett, Clow, Gschwend, McAbee, Rector, Burgess, Rawles, McGimsey, Witherell, Irish, Holgooden, Hiatt, Ball, Prather, Smalley, McSpadden, Wallace, Conrad, O'Barr, Bowen, Nunn, Vines, Buster, Farrer, Counts, Shields, Lawson, Williams, Donelly, Plaskett, Leonard, Hawkins, Stephens, Robinson, Tift, Perkins, Elliott, Ponad, Gasklii, Brayton, and Connard families. John Gschwend established the first water powered lumber mill along the Navarro River in 1857, and Thomas Hiatt built the first steam powered lumber mill in 1877 near present-day Boonville. In 1880 a human population of around 1,000 maintained 75,000 head of sheep and 20,000 head of cattle. Commercial production of

apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

s and

hops Hops are the flowers (also called seed cones or strobiles) of the hop plant ''Humulus lupulus'', a member of the Cannabaceae family of flowering plants. They are used primarily as a bittering, flavouring, and stability agent in beer, to whi ...

began before the turn of the century, along with the development of

Boontling Boontling is a jargon or argot spoken only in Boonville, California, Boonville in Northern California of the United States. It was created in the 1890s. Today, it is nearly extinct, and fewer than 100 people still speak it. It has an Internet Ass ...

, the local folk language. The 1940s and 1950s were boom years, when industrial automation and modern highway transportation enabled rapid liquidation logging of the remaining redwood forests. Many commercial lumber mills were established to work the brief timber boom. By the 1960s the sheep, timber and apple sectors of the economy were in decline. Large tracts of land were removed from production and subdivided. The first commercial vineyards for

wine grapes This list of grape varieties includes cultivated grapes, whether used for wine, or eating as a table grape, fresh or dried (raisin, currant, sultana). For a complete list of all grape species including those unimportant to agriculture, see Vit ...

were planted.

Marijuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...

production flourished with the influx of many new residents from the urban counterculture in the 1970s. By the 1980s the timber industry was reduced to two small specialty mills (lath and decorative fencing), the sheep industry to four working ranches of modest size, and the apple industry to a small fraction of its former planted area. In 1989 Sean Donovan of Boonville established

KZYX KZYX (90.7 FM), is a National Public Radio member station in Philo, California. The studios are located at 9300 Highway 128 in Philo, CA, and the transmitter is located on Cold Springs Mountain (near Philo, CA) in the State of California Departm ...

, a community-based non-commercial,

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

affiliated station.

Wine industry

A wine boom began in the 1980s, leading to the eventual establishment of the

Anderson Valley AVA The Anderson Valley AVA is an American Viticultural Area centered on the Anderson Valley in Mendocino County, California. It is known primarily for its Pinot noir and sparkling wine production. Lying from the Pacific Ocean, the AVA is prone to ...

, specializing in Alsatian varietals, pinot noir and sparkling wine. The wine industry is currently the dominant contributor to the Anderson Valley economy, and major producers include Lazy Creek Vineyards and Roederer Estate. The major annual wine events are the Pinot Noir Festival held on the third weekend in May and the International Alsace Varietals Festival in late February. In addition to wine, there is a successful

microbrewery Craft beer is a beer that has been made by craft breweries. They produce smaller amounts of beer, typically less than large breweries, and are often independently owned. Such breweries are generally perceived and marketed as having an emphasis o ...

, the

Anderson Valley Brewing Company Anderson Valley Brewing Company is a brewery founded in 1987 in Boonville, California. Its name is derived from its Anderson Valley location in Mendocino County. History Anderson Valley Brewing Company was founded in 1987 by David Norfleet an ...

, on the outskirts of Boonville. Like much of Mendocino County, the hospitality industry is a natural adjunct to boutique alcohol production. Fine restaurants and quality lodging are in good supply. The pleasant natural environment and rural lifestyle attracts artists, writers, musicians and a variety of skilled crafts people. As in similar pastoral regions dependent upon a low-paid work force in the farm, hospitality and service sectors, degraded tenant housing is available for local employees, while upscale real estate inventory is generally priced beyond the typical household budget of resident unskilled laborers.

Communities

* Boonville * Navarro *

* Yorkville

References

External links