In Search of the North Pacific Coast
In August 1996 Boone Morrison made a pilgrimage, tracing the route of the North Pacific Coast starting in Saucilito and ending along the banks of the Russian River. Here calls his report;
GLIMPSES OF THE GHOST
Saucelito to Fairfax: Basically nothing of note remains save a few places where broad gauge NWP tracks are in place along the old ROW. A new jogging trail from Mill Valley across the marsh to Saucelito is on the old ROW, but little else can be seen.
Whites Hill to Tocaloma: The south portal of the new (1904) "bypass" route through whites hill is still in place, though access is via a fire road (the ROW) that is privately held. If you want to look at the entry point drive out of Fairfax about two miles until you come to the sign for the "Henry Bothin Youth Center" on the left as you are headed north. Turn in (be prepared for "no parking" signs and questions from Youth Center folks). The youth center gate is on the left and a gate on the fire road is to the right. The sign says "welcome to the Marin recreation area...", but that is a sham, since about fifty yards farther along is another gate stating that it is private property, keep out! At any rate, you are standing on the ROW and the tunnel mouth is about a mile and a half ahead of you.
After being thrown out of this area you can continue on over the hill and reach San Geranimo valley, site of Woodacre, San Geranimo and Lagunitas. As you drive the flat of the valley to the right at the base of the hills you can catch glimpses of the original (pre 1904) ROW. Continue along the main highway until you have just passed the golf course on the left. At the end of the golf course you will see a new church on your left (The San Geranimo Valley Church) and a left turn off the main road. Take this turn. Immediately after the turn you can again turn right into a parking area behind the church and its pre-school. Just north of the church is the San Geranimo depot. Remember, this is all private property and you should respect that fact.
After looking at the depot you can go back out of the parking area, but this time turn to the right and immediately left again onto the original road that runs through the Woodacre residential area behind the golf course. You are headed back to the south. You are basically on the ROW at this point and will note that it is Railroad Street. Not surprising. Continue along this street about a mile and you will come to the entry to the Marin County Fire Department Headquarters complex. Somewhere along this drive I was told the old Woodacre depot was in place, now covered with shingles. Somehow I managed to miss it. The entry road to the Fire Department complect is also the ROW and if you take the road to the left of the entry you can parallel the old ROW and come to the back of the Fire Department buildings. Here is the beginning of the cut that lead to the tunnel mouth, which has been blasted closed in recent years.
Returning to the main highway, continue to Lagunitas, about two miles farther along. On the right you will see a brick building with a stucco facade and a singular curve to the false front. Despite its present garish paint job this store was in place as early as 1890 and is seen in two different photographs in NGR. The north wall has a wonderful Lucas Dairy sign painted on it that is worth a look. The depot was in the clear area approximately 50 yards farther along and across the present road.
Continuing on from Lagunitas you will pass through Samuel P. Taylor State Park. Here the ROW is visible along Paper Mill Creek for several miles. Initially it is on the right as you travel north, across the creek from the highway. About three miles into the Park there is a footbridge crossing the highway that rests on old NPC abutments. You can park a few yards south of this footbridge and walk into the nearby picnic area. As you enter the area look up to your left and you will see the ROW with signage as a horse/hiking trail. If you wish you can follow it in either direction for several miles through the canyon.
Continuing from Taylor State Park take the signs to Tocaloma. Now no more than a fork in the road, there are some barns and a house that were likely (no confirmation) there in RR days. The ROW swung to the right, largely following the route of the present road and to its left. If you wish, leave your vehicle near the road junction and follow the signs to the Trans Marin Hiking Trail. Again, this is the ROW and can be followed south for several miles, eventually connecting to the portion in Taylor State Park. The northern direction from here is on private land and is not open to the public.
From Tocaloma to Pt. Reyes Station the ROW is difficult to follow but in Pt. Reyes town there are a number of interesting glimpses to be found. Coming in from Tocaloma you will arrive at a junction and should turn left towards the center of town, you will be on Fourth street. Turn left again at the main street (A Street) and follow it. On the left is the original depot, now restored and used as the Post Office. Of note in Pt. Reyes is the NPC era freight wagon now displayed on the canopy roof of the feed store next door to the station. It is typical of many seen in photos of both NPC and SPC freight stations.
Many of the buildings on the opposite side of the street are from NPC days and are an excellent example of the architecture of the time.
The other railroad building in town is the second engine house, built in 1920 when the line south of here was broad gauged. Follow the main street, this time to the north. Look for a prominent light blue victorian building with two towers. This was a school and appears in several NPC era photographs; it is really wonderful. Across from it is the engine house, a rather plain building exhibiting almost no railroad lineage at all. The open area to the south of the building was the site of the turntable and to the north one can just make out the ROW curving off towards Tomales Bay.
Pt. Reyes Station to Tomales: Take the road back the way you came to enter Pt. Reyes and then turn left onto Highway 1 north. The road curves inland (east) and when it returns to the west you will be along the shores of Tomales Bay. Stop at the first pull-off spot after you have come to the bay and look back south. You can clearly see the long straight causeway that was the ROW. It looks like a dike across an inlet, with an opening for the tidal flow. These are to be seen at regular intervals as you travel north. Several spots have trestle pilings in place, but access is difficult. Watch out for the poison oak!!! If you do go down to the ROW do also watch out for the rising tide!!! We got trapped and had to wade a waist deep muddy stream to get back again.....
For the hardy these forays down to the ROW can be fun and in some spots there is wood cribbing still in place, though badly deteriorated at this late date. There is also evidence of dry laid stone walls along the bay side of the raised ROW. Likely the stone walls and cribbing were to protect the ROW fill from wave action and the present condition indicates this was needed. We photographed and measured a number of the trestles, cribbing and such to determine how they were made.
Driving along the bay the ROW appears in many places, so keep your eyes open. Do be aware that Calif drivers like to treat this stretch of road as though it was a freeway, so watch your mirrors carefully and pull over for the race drivers! There are many pull off spots so you should not have to park on the roadway at all.
The next spot of note is Marshall. Here nearly all the buildings are of RR vintage. The road is the ROW and about the only structure missing is the depot itself, which is rumored to have been on pilings in the Bay! The terrain did not provide much flat land, so this is no surprise.
About three miles beyond Marshall is the site of Hamlet, marked by a single yellow farmhouse on the right of the highway. You can spot it by the large palm (!) trees next to it. Directly opposite this house a small gravel road leads to the edge of the Bay where you will find a row of deserted
houses on stilts...a real ghost town! The roadway in front of the houses is the ROW and continues in both directions for some distance. It is unlikely that many, if any, of these buildings date from the RR days, but they certainly are typical of the type.
Back on the highway the last spot before the crossing of Key's Creek was Ocean Roar. A small group of private buildings marks the spot, though silting of the bay in the 120 years since the NPC was constructed has totally obscured the fact that they once landed a locomotive here from a sailing ship! This is true all the way up Key's Creek as well, which was said to have been navigable in the 1870's nearly to the town of Tomales. Today it is hard to believe.
Rounding the bend as the highway turns eastward up Key's Creek watch for the large round bridge piers marking the crossing of the ROW at this point. Traveling up Key's Creek towards Tomales keep an eye out and you can see the ROW across the creek from the present highway. About half way up is the site of Camp Pistolisi, now called Camp Tomales. This is private property and permission is difficult to arrange. Along this stretch also is the tunnel and long fill seen in the engraving in NGR, though that also is on private land and permission must be obtained before attempting to enter the area. The tunnel is intact and the ROW quite easy to spot for most of this part of the drive.
As you arrive in Tomales the ROW has swung off to the north some distance, making its way along the hillside and actually entering the town headed south. The depot site is an open area amidst new homes and the large hay barn is long gone. Many of the buildings in the town, however, do date from the railroad days. If you are ready for lunch the Angel Cafe, located in a historic building, is a good bet....nice folks and the food is good.
Tomales to Monte Rio: This section is through open rolling land that was once the heart of Sonoma's dairy industry, a major source of freight for the NPC. Leaving Tomales the ROW is hard to spot. It is generally on your left as you travel north and about one mile outside town a guardrail marks the entrance to a long tunnel that goes under the road and the hills to the right, eventually emerging in a pasture at the right of the highway about a mile farther along. From Tomales all the way to Occidental the ROW appears now and again alongside the road, or in the fields near it.
At Fallon, now just a crossroads, one can see the Creamery building (now only one story tall), the adjacent store and post office, and a small water tank on the hill, all of which date from RR days. Several other buildings in the area (a grain barn and a cattle barn across the road) quite likely date from the period, though historic photos I have seen do not show them.
From Fallon to Valley Ford the ROW appears and disappears at various points, though sharp eyes can definitely follow it. Just outside Valley Ford there is a turn to the left on Middle Road which curves out into the low area south of the town. About 3/4 of a mile out this road it bends to the right and just beyond the bend you will see a high fill on the left that is the ROW. Looking to the right (towards Valley Ford town) you can see a single remaining bent from the trestle known as "Wind Bridge". This is the same spot shown in the Appendix to NGR in the photo with Ted Wurm, and Al Graves.
In Valley Ford itself there are several buildings that date from RR days, but no sign of ROW or RR buildings. The depot is long gone. Between Valley Ford and Freestone was a station known as Bodega Roads. Considerable effort has gone into finding out where this was and the bestguess at this point is near a junction of Bodega Highway and Valley Ford Freestone Road. We are told in NGR that "it is little more than a crossroads...", so this would fit. No ROW is visible until about a mile farther on towards Freestone. Approaching Freestone be sure to take the junction (a left turn heading north) onto the Bohemian Highway that leads to Occidental since the otherroad leads east to Sebastopol.
At Freestone the store and one house seen in the photo in NGR remain, though the store has been remodeled somewhat. The ROW is quite clear and a modern water tank and firehouse now sit next to it. Several other buildings in the town are clearly from the RR era, though none of them are seen in the published photos.
Between Freestone and Occidental there is evidence of the ROW, but second growth forest has obscured much of the bulk of it. We did visit the site of Brown's Canyon trestle and found the remains of the unusual center pier seen in both the photo and the engraving in NGR. This is on private property (several owners are involved) and considerable effort was involved in arranging access. At the south end of the trestle site (we didn't look to the north since we did not have permission to enter the area) the ROW is clear for some distance and leads to the site of another, smaller trestle. The large stumps along the ROW show clearly the size of the trees in earlier days.
Nearing Occidental the ROW is largely obscured and all traces of it within the town are long gone. Several prominent buildings, including the large church on the hill, do survive from RR days and a comparison with the photos in NGR makes it easy to identify them. A restaurant ( "Howards Restaurant") has been established in one building seen in several historic photos and they have a number of wonderful historic photos of the railroad and the town on display, many of them unpublished. The food looked good (we had eaten earlier) and it is definitely worth a stop.
>From Occidental it is a short distance to the canyon of Dutch Bill Creek and the start of the real Redwood country. As you drive the canyon note the dirt track on the other side of Dutch Bill Creek from the road. This is the ROW. The site of Tyrone is long obscured by second growth and modern vacation homes, but if you follow the turn off at Tyrone Road you can see the flat area which must have been the site of the mill. The huge Redwood stumps speak silent volumes about what this scene must have been before 1900.....
The tunnel between Tyrone and Monte Rio is closed by rock slides, but the ROW leading to it is quite clear, running initially on the right (as you travel north) high above the present road, crossing (an old abutment can be seen) the road and continuing along the left side of the creek.
In this area the Bohemian Highway (on which you are driving) is on the old ROW much of the way and the old County Road is across the creek, to your left headed north. At Monte Rio there are a few buildings left from RR days and the site of the major hotel can be discerned from the concrete retaining walls and foundations in the hillside behind the fire station. Here was the junction between the NPC and the broad gauge NWP. The NWP crossed the river here, but the narrow gauge continued down Moscow Road on the south side of the river. Again the massive stumps remaining in the second growth forest indicate why the financiers of the NPC were willing to invest. Much of the re-building of San Francisco following the 1906 earthquake and fire was done with lumber from this area.
A few miles farther along you will come to the bridge across the river at Duncans Mills. This modern bridge is on the alignment of the two railroad bridges (the first, a wood Howe truss was swept away in a flood in the mid 1880's and the second, a steel truss was replaced for highway widening).Immediately adjacent to the pier of the new concrete bridge one can see both sets of piers from the old bridges. The rock fill is from the steel bridge and the stub pilings are from the first Howe truss.
If you want you can wait to cross the river at this point and instead continue down Freezeout Road along the south bank of the river. This road is on the old logging ROW and again the size of the stumps tells the whole story. There are no obvious RR remains in this area but it is good for a sense of the ambiance of the Redwood logging scene. You will have to turn around and return to the junction at Duncan Mills to cross the river.
Duncan Mills to Markam/Willow Creek: At Duncan Mills the narrow gauge and broad gauge came together at a busy interchange. The large mills provided freight traffic and the two lines delivered thousands of vacationers each weekend to the area. The original narrow gauge depot has been beautifully restored and is a museum. The museum seems to be only occasionally open, which is too bad as a peek in the windows indicated there is a lot of very interesting stuff on display. Immediately adjacent to the depot is NPC caboose #2, the same one in the drawing in the appendix to NGR. We are told that the color (a very bright orange) is correct and was discovered on some hidden material exposed during restoration. The caboose has been beautifully restored, though the trucks are not original in comparison to several photographs. An examination of the car also indicates that there may be several errors in the published plans (NGR) that warrant correction. Also adjacent to the
depot are two 36' wooden boxcars and a coach from the broad gauge P&SR RR (Petaluma and Santa Rosa, an electric line).
Don't be fooled by the building across from the depot which appears to be an historic freight house. It is actually a very nice modern effort to replicate a typical building of the period. Look closely, it is made of plywood!!
Across the highway from the depot site are several commercial buildings which date from the RR era. The red store building to the west of the small town center is shown on early maps, as well as two in the main grouping of buildings. These are all occupied and in various stages of good repair.
The huge mill was located in the large empty field formed by the angle between the Bohemian Highway and the River Road intersection. A single farm building (likely not from RR days) occupies this once busy spot.
Traveling down river towards the coast one passes the site of Markam, now an open pasture with a gated ranch road occupying the former ROW into the valley. This is private land and entry is prohibited. We are told nothing remains of the mill sites at Markam and Laton.
Farther along is the bridge crossing the river just south of Jenner. Crossing the bridge to towards the south brings you to a restaurant on the left side and just beyond it the turn off to Willow Creek Road. The valley of Willow Creek is all a natural preserve and entry is sometimes restricted, depending upon fire conditions. The road is normally open about 3 miles in and it is a lovely drive, though no remains of either RR or logging can be seen.
Duncan Mills to Cazadero: Heading out of Duncan Mills to the east (up river) watch for the turn off to Cazadero on the left. The road runs along the west side of Austin Creek and the ROW largely along the east side. Glimpses of the ROW can be seen, but new growth and later development have largely obscured most of it. A sign and several vacation motels mark the site of Elim Grove, a spot one mile from the end of track. Arriving at Cazadero one is driving on the ROW and in the center of town (such as town is!) a firewood mill occupies the site of the yard, turntable and depot. A few buildings in the town date from RR days, but most evidence has been totally obscured by time and change.
I am sure that on susequent visits I will find even more, but I was truly amazed at how much remains if one knows what to look for. As advertised in 1900, the progression of landscape from Marin up the line to Cazadero is truly wonderful....some of the best scenery in California, if you ask an old Sonoma native! It is clear why early vacationers and excursionists loved the ride.... heck, I would love it NOW! Please feel free to direct questions my way if you think I can be helpful, or correct any mistakes I have made. The more we learn, the more we know!!
With Aloha,"Boone Morrison".(boone@aloha.com)
Return to "The Birth of California's Narrow Gauge" page
Copyright Randy Hees, 1996
Page created by: hees@ix.netcom.com
Changes last made on: Sun Sep 22 14:55:05 1996