Numbered references are to the tour section of the book.
For centuries before the coming of early settlers to this area, its main population, primarily Miwok and Pomo Indians, pursued a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. When early Spanish, Mexican and Russian settlers arrived on the Sonoma Coast from the 1500s on, they initially existed as fishermen, trappers, traders or small farmers, then expanded into larger-scale farming and ranching. In the area now known as Occidental, agricultural activities were made impractical by the thick forests and deep canyons of the inland ridges, but after the Gold Rush of 1849, this same wealth of trees became the source of much of the lumber used in building the burgeoning city of San Francisco. Although there was little gold to be found in western Sonoma County, there was most definitely a cash crop, in the form of redwood trees, on them thar hills. As their mill activities expanded, the Meeker Brothers put crews to work on or near what is now the current townsite, building houses for the families of mill and railroad workers.