Russian Gulch Our Mission The mission of California State Parks is to provide for the health, inspiration and oaring sea caves, Mendocino Headlands education of the people of California by helping R to preserve the state’s extraordinary biological a rare pygmy forest, Van Damme diversity, protecting its most valued natural and cultural resources, and creating opportunities ocean views from State Parks for high-quality outdoor recreation. Victorian windows — welcome to Mendocino area state parks.

California State Parks supports equal access. Prior to arrival, visitors with disabilities who need assistance should contact the park office at (707) 937-5804. If you need this publication in an alternate format, contact [email protected]. CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS P.O. Box 942896 Sacramento, CA 94296-0001 For information call: (800) 777-0369 (916) 653-6995, outside the U.S. 711, TTY relay service www.parks.ca.gov

SaveTheRedwoods.org/csp

Russian Gulch, Mendocino Headlands, and Van Damme State Parks Along Highway 1 • Mendocino, CA (707) 937-5804

© 2003 California State Parks (Rev. 2017) O n the Mendocino coast, the air smells The Russian colony had failed by 1841. of salt, and the crashing waves create a The Fort Ross property had various owners continuous resonance. The tall bluffs at this until 1906, when the fort and acreage were spot north of San Francisco resemble the acquired by the State for restoration, rugged shores of the east coast, but with an reconstruction, and interpretation. unmistakable California flair. Victorian-era The Lumber Mills communities that overlook the sea reflect the The brig Frolic sank off Point Cabrillo with its New England roots of their builders who, in San Francisco-bound cargo in 1850. Attempts the ordinary course of life, added volumes to at salvage were largely unsuccessful. California’s colorful history. Little River, Van Damme State Park However, would-be salvagers, who had MENDOCINO AREA STATE PARKS of plenty, native groups often gathered to hoped to find treasures for the taking, looked Two miles north of Mendocino, Russian Gulch share the bounty. When Russian and Aleutian around at the enormous stands of redwoods State Park’s collapsed sea cave cuts 200 feet fur trappers arrived here in the early 1800s, nearby and realized that they had found their into the headlands to form the boiling surge they were likely the Pomo’s first contact with fortune. Within two years, they had built a known as the Devil’s Punchbowl. Mendocino non-natives. sawmill at the mouth of the Big River. is embraced on three sides by unmatched When the Pomo were drawn into the In 1984 an archaeological team from San views from Mendocino Headlands State mission system in the early 1800s, their Jose State University discovered fragments Park. Van Damme State Park, beginning at way of life was forever altered. Within of Chinese porcelain in housepits of a former the mouth of the Little River, has a protected a generation or two, direct conflict and Pomo settlement. This was the first indication cove for divers, a fern canyon for hikers, and exposure to European diseases nearly that the Frolic’s cargo may have been a unique forest of Mendocino pygmy cypress. decimated them. Today about 5,000 Pomo partially salvaged by local native people. The climate here is temperate year-round. descendants, who still occupy parts of their San Francisco engineer Harry Meiggs built Winter rains and cool summer fogs that ancestral lands, gather the raw materials the sawmill at Big River in 1852. By the early usually burn off by mid-morning provide the to make some of the world’s finest Native 1900s, Big River had become an important moisture necessary for the thriving coastal American baskets and to pass on this ancient lumber town. redwood trees. skill to the next generation of artisans. In 1864 Little River was founded as a MENDOCINO HISTORY European and American Settlers mill town to supply lumber to build San Francisco. Heavy logging diminished local Native Americans Settled by emigrants from all over the world, timber resources; by 1893 the Little River Mill The Pomo date back about 3,000 years on the Mendocino area has a long history of had closed, so businesses, services, and the the North Coast. They built their main village entrepreneurial exploitation. In 1812 a ship school were abandoned. of redwood bark houses at the mouth of owned by the Russian-American Company Near Russian Gulch, several small, Big River. The Pomo hunted large and small entered a cove beneath the bluffs of what short-term mills operated until the area game, caught fish and shellfish, and gathered would become North America’s southernmost became “logged over,” but the mills’ pier seaweed, acorns, and various seeds. Russian settlement, Fort Ross. In the 1830s, was used for passengers and freight into the Whatever they could not obtain locally, they the American and Hudson’s Bay trappers next century. acquired in trade with other groups; in times passed through seeking mammal pelts. Gulch . . . set aside for one of the proposed wetlands areas farther inland. Bishop State Parks.” In 1933 the State acquired the pine and coastal redwoods grow along the land, and on October 21, 1934, Russian Gulch river. The Little River provides habitat for State Park was dedicated. steelhead, coho salmon, stickleback, and The source of the name “Russian Gulch” is both prickly and Coast Range sculpin. Red uncertain. Possibly cartographers charting the alder, willow, grand fir, and western hemlock RUSSIAN GULCH STATE PARK area named it for its proximity to Fort Ross; are part of the riparian plant community, and Devil’s Punchbowl, the park’s most famous others suggest the name came from a fort the park’s Sitka spruces grow at this species’ feature, formed when pounding waves deserter who settled in the area. southernmost limit. Local birdwatchers may sight a yellow warbler, belted kingfisher, forged an inland tunnel and left a hole VAN DAMME STATE PARK Swainson’s thrush, or northern spotted owl. 100 feet across and 60 feet deep. At high Park History tide, roiling waves crash around the cave’s William H. Kent, the first permanent The park was named for Charles Van Damme, American settler in the area, joined the gold interior, producing a reverberant echo. The son of Belgian settlers. Van Damme became photogenic Frederick W. Panhorst Bridge rush in 1850. In 1853 he went to work at the a successful businessman in San Francisco, Little River sawmill and later bought land in rises gracefully 100 feet from the bottom of then returned to Little River to buy 40 acres the gulch. The park has nearly a mile and the area now partially encompassed by Van of redwood forest to create public picnic and Damme State Park. Between 1864 and 1893, a half of ocean frontage; its craggy beauty camping facilities. He left this land to the rivals any point along California’s coast. In lumber operations became Little River’s State. In 1934 this acreage, combined with commercial foundation, and the industry’s the spring, the park’s foggy headlands bloom most of the upper Little River drainage lands, with acres of wildflowers. land holdings came to include much of what became Van Damme State Park. is now the park. Park History Van Damme habitats include marine, The panic of 1893—a five-year economic Lumber operations around Russian Gulch coastal beach, coastal bluff terrace, pygmy depression—hit the American west were modest: shingles, split lumber, and forest, redwood forest, and riparian, with particularly hard. Of 156 national bank railroad ties. In the early 1880s, several failures that year, 66 were in the Pacific states homesteaders filed claims on the land, and western territories. By 1900 the mill and some of it was farmed. Until well into operation was completely shut down. the 1900s, Russian Gulch was a fishing boat harbor and stop for freight and passenger MENDOCINO HEADLANDS STATE PARK ships. In the mid-1920s, F. O. Warner, a Los This 347-acre greenbelt, on the headlands Angeles real estate developer, purchased between Highway One and the Pacific Ocean, land around Russian Gulch to open a resort; surrounds the town of Mendocino. Sheer visitors realized that Russian Gulch was an bluffs rising from a rocky shoreline form the ideal place to spend hot summers. In August park’s southern section. The historic Ford 1928, the Mendocino Beacon reported that House (built in 1854) Visitor Center sits on the Native Sons of the Golden West had the south side of Mendocino’s Main Street. launched a movement “to have Russian Van Damme sawmill Most of the shops on the town’s picturesque RECREATION principal street have excellent ocean views. Visitors can enjoy hiking fern canyons, Park History miles of trails, horse camping, a 36-foot Mendocino was the first of several north waterfall, scuba diving, bluff-top coast towns founded between 1851 and picnicking, camping, and a bicycle trail, 1920—the height of the lumber industry. among many choices. German immigrant William Kasten was bound Camping—Russian Gulch and Van Damme for the gold country in 1850 when his ship State Parks have campgrounds—reservations fortuitously ran aground off the Mendocino are highly recommended from spring through coast. In 1851 he filed papers claiming land fall. Call (800) 444-7275. he called “Port of Good Hope.” Diving and Fishing—Russian Gulch’s rocky Those who built Mendocino’s Victorian ledges attract abalone divers. The well- buildings found their fortunes in the protected dive site at Van Damme has magnificent stands of coast redwoods. In shallow areas and offers beginners gradual 1854 Jerome B. Ford, superintendent of the entry from the shore. Abalone divers need The Ford House Visitor Center first sawmill in Mendocino and founder of a valid California fishing license and report the town, built a home overlooking the Pacific card. See www.wildlife.ca.gov. NOTE: flows into the ocean, and extends east to for his bride. Today the Ford House Visitor The beauty of the Mendocino coast is inland ridges. Once this area rang with the Center exhibits tools, a scale model of 1890 tempered by its unpredictability and sounds of logging operations. Today the Mendocino, Native American artifacts, and danger. Dive only in designated areas, and jarring logging noises have been replaced photographic images that interpret the town’s heed the warnings on the parks’ map. by bird and animal sounds and the splash history. While Mendocino is known today for Kayaking and Canoeing—The Big River has of canoes and kayaks going to sea. Park art galleries, shops, and inns, its well-tended an outlet to the sea, sea caves, and a great terrain encompasses coastal brackish marsh, view of historic Mendocino. At Van Damme, Victorian architecture still conjures up a time mudflats, coastal and valley freshwater tide pools and sea caves provide adventure, when transportation was by horse, and each marsh, coastal scrub, riparian forests, Bishop while at Russian Gulch, home had a water tower and an outhouse. pine, grand fir, Mendocino pygmy cypress, canoes and kayaks take The State acquired a portion of the coastal conifers, coast redwoods, and mixed you from the cove’s calm headlands in 1957, and in 1974, through the hardwoods and conifers. waters into the ocean. support and advocacy of the local residents, Big River’s estuary protects the habitats of Interpretive Activities— the land around the town became Mendocino 27 threatened or endangered animal species Summer interpretive Headlands State Park. and 21 rare, threatened, or endangered activities include staff-led Big River Property plant species. Some threatened species are hikes, campfire programs, In 2002 California State Parks acquired slowly reappearing. This project and other and Junior Ranger programs. 7,334 acres of land between Russian Gulch protected lands form a 74,000-acre corridor Times and locations are and Van Damme that begins near the that allows wildlife to roam freely between posted in each park. Mendocino Headlands, where the Big River existing parks and preserves. Black-tailed deer Legend Russian Gulch, Mendocino Headlands, Paved Road STAY ALIVE! Unpaved/Service Road and Van Damme PLEASE REMEMBER State Parks Trail: Accessible STAY ALERT! Trail: Hike • Stay back from • All features of the Trail: Hike & Bike

Trail: Multi-Use to Russian Gulch SP bluff edges. & Fort Bragg parks are protected Accessible Feature • Large rogue Boat Launch: Vehicle by state law and may Campfire Center waves can sweep

Campground you out to sea not be disturbed Campground: Environmental during ALL or collected. Campground: Group Heeser Drive ke Rd La seasons and tle Lit Campground: Hike & Bike

Lansing St Lansing ocean conditions. Campground: Horse • Anglers over the age

Locked Gate • Bluff- and ocean- Lake Street Natural Trail of 16 must have a Main St related deaths Parking Mendocino Headlands Bluff Trail are common. valid fishing license Picnic Area Ranger Station • The water is very in their possession. Restrooms cold, swift, and RV Sanitation Station to Van Damme SP unforgiving. Showers • Do not gather dead Waterfall or down wood.

to Fort Bragg County Rd 409 Purchase firewood at campground.

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Pygmy Forest Self-Guided age of 18 wear Trail bicycle helmets. Little River Airport Rd © 2002 California State Parks (Rev. 2017)

SAFETY TIPS FOR ABALONE DIVERS Survive to enjoy your catch! ACCESSIBLE FEATURES Russian Gulch and Van Damme both Check local conditions—Always check the weather Buddy up—Always dive with a partner. Make a dive plan PLEASE REMEMBER THAT THE have accessible picnic areas, campsites, forecast and ocean conditions before diving. and stick to it. Stay together! OCEAN AND THE ABALONE and restrooms. Mendocino Headlands Check yourself out—Honestly assess your capabilities Get a lift—Drop your weights if you get tired or into wILL BE THERE TOMORROw. has accessible restrooms next to Ford in light of weather and water conditions. Are you trouble. Hang your weight belt on your dive tube any MAKE A GO/NO-GO DECISION House and on Heeser Dr. For updates, in shape? Are you sober? Is your equipment in time you need a break. Don’t overweight! Carry no more YOU CAN LIVE wITH! visit http://access.parks.ca.gov. good shape? than 10% of your body weight.