Camp Meeker is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

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 seat of government and largest city is Santa Rosa. Sonoma County comprises the Santa Rosa-Petaluma ...

, United States, located on the Bohemian Highway, between

Occidental Occidental may refer to: * Occident (of or pertaining to) * Western world (of or pertaining to) Places *Occidental, California, a town in Sonoma County, California, US * Occidental Park, Seattle, Washington, US Other uses * Interlingue, a const ...

and Monte Rio. It has approximately 350 homes on properties ranging from a couple thousand square feet to many acres, some flat and sunny, some on steep narrow gauge railroad type one-way streets. The population hovers around 425. Set amidst

redwoods Sequoioideae, commonly referred to as redwoods, is a subfamily of coniferous trees within the family Cupressaceae, that range in the northern hemisphere. It includes the largest and tallest trees in the world. The trees in the subfamily are a ...

directly on

Dutch Bill Creek Dutch Bill Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed March 9, 2011 north-flowing stream in the hills of western Sonoma County, California, which empties into the Russ ...

, it gets an average of 55 inches of rainfall spread over about 69 average days during the winter season.

History

Camp Meeker takes its name from

Melvin Cyrus Meeker Melvin is a masculine given name and surname, likely a variant of Melville and a descendant of the French surname de Maleuin and the later Melwin. It may alternatively be spelled as Melvyn or, in Welsh, Melfyn and the name Melivinia or Melva may b ...

, a lumber baron who established several mills in the area c. 1866. Located on the

North Pacific Coast Railroad The North Pacific Coast Railroad (NPC) was a common carrier narrow-gauge steam railroad begun in 1874 and sold in 1902 to new owners who renamed it the North Shore Railroad (California) (NSR) and rebuilt the southern section into a standard-ga ...

(since abandoned), Camp Meeker was a center for logging the coast redwoods that built and then rebuilt

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

after the 1906 earthquake. After logging the trees, Meeker subdivided Camp Meeker into lots (each 25 ft by 12 ft (7.6m by 3.7m) with a one-room cabin) in 1898, they sold for $75. Around 1900, it was primarily a vacation place for people from San Francisco.

Facilities

Camp Meeker is the home of St. Dorothy's Rest, a retreat center and summer camp. Fire protection is provided by the Camp Meeker Volunteer Fire Department. In 2003, the department claimed that Camp Meeker was the only place in Sonoma County which places fire hydrants every . As of December 2001, one-year class wild

coho salmon The coho salmon (''Oncorhynchus kisutch;'' Karuk: achvuun) is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family (biology), family and one of the five Pacific salmon species. Coho salmon are also known as silver salmon (or "silvers") and is often ...

were spawning in Dutch Bill Creek. In 2002 Dutch Bill Creek was part of the captive broadstock program, and since 2006 juvenile coho have been released in the creek as a part of this program. In November 2009, Camp Meeker revamped its recreational park on Dutch Bill Creek by removing a WPA-era dam and installing a bridge in its place. The entire area was rebuilt b
PCI, Inc.
under contract with the Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District after years of study. Before becoming a village Camp Meeker was a lumber town followed by a summer enclave with the year rounders and the summer folk.

References

External links

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in California Unincorporated communities in Sonoma County, California