page_title: Sonoma Coast State Park
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Sonoma Coast State Park / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Duncan's Point viewed from the east
context_page_description: Sonoma Coast State Park is a State of California property in Sonoma County consisting of public access use on lands adjoining the Pacific Ocean. This extent of beach runs from a coastal point about 4 miles north of Jenner and continues for approximately 17 miles to the south to terminate at Bodega Head. The property lies along State Route 1 and consists of a number of named beaches including Arched Rock Beach, Gleason Beach and Goat Rock Beach. The ecosystem consists of alternating sandy beaches and rocky shoreline, with a marine terrace extending above the entire extent with an upland California coastal prairie habitat.
context_section_description: Some of the oldest natural history of this area related to mammals are a rock formation about one mile (1.6 km) south of the Russian River.  There is found a sea stack formation with prominent rubbing marks about two to four meters in elevation, a height too high to have been caused by modern bovids.  Mammoths are believed to have roamed here as recently as 40,000 years ago, and they are thought to have created these severe rubbing marks.  Mammoth fossil remains have been found at Bodega Head at the south end of Sonoma Coast State Park.
  Earliest known human settlement of this site was by the Native American Coast Miwok and Pomo tribes.  As early as 1849 archaeological finds were recorded on this property, and to date dozens of prehistorical kitchen middens and other types of tribal habitation finds have been made.  The property is part of the Mexican land grant Rancho Bodega. The Russians are thought to have begun logging the old-growth forests directly above the coastal prairie in the early 19th century.
  The underwater delineation of the property is considered to extend to 1,000 feet (300 m) from the shoreline.  While no shipwrecks have been discovered, the literature indicates that there are 17 vessels which may have been lost in these waters.  There are remains of numerous historic barns and other agricultural buildings on the coastal prairie indicating 19th century settlement by Europeans; at Duncans Point there are iron pins embedded in the sandstone bluffs as evidence of the active shipping industry here in the late 19th century and early 20th century.
caption: Duncans Point in 2009
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