Shell Beach - The Sea Ranch Beach
- Address: Sea Ranch, California, USA
- Website:www.vom.com
Shell Beach
Sea RanchCalifornia, USA
Shell Beach Details
Descriptions from Across the Web
- Early Years Indians For hundreds of years before Europeans ever saw the northern Sonoma coast, the gentle Pomo Indians made seasonal treks to the coast to hunt, fish, and gather foodstuffs. The Pomo lifestyle epitomized the philosophy, " Live lightly on the land." Pomo houses were simple, cone-like dwellings of sticks and bark. They loved singing and dancing and games. They played ball and swam, and enjoyed daily saunas in their small sweathouses called "temescals." These were dug into earthen mounds and fires built inside. Contests were held to see who could remain inside the longest, before rushing into a nearby stream to cool off. The temperate environment made few demands. Simple grass skirts and animal skins were enough clothing in winter. The sea provided a rich harvest of salmon, crab, abalone, clams and mussels. Berries, nuts and acorns were plentiful on land. The rough seas and rugged terrain of the North Sonoma coast provided splendid isolation and provided an important barrier, fending off the ships of the white man until 1812. Russians In the spring of 1812, Ivan Kuskov, a peg-legged officer of the Russian American Fur Company, was the first white man to walk this coast. With a group of 120 Russians and Aleut Indians, he was looking to establish a trading station and base to hunt sea lions and otters. Although Spain claimed this territory, none of its subjects had ever visited; so Kuskov did not seek any permission for his endeavor. He gave the nearby Indians three horses, three pairs of breeches, , three blankets, two axes and a handful of beads in exchange for the 1000 acres to establish Fort Ross. In contrast to the Pomos, Kuskov and his men struggled to obtain a livelihood by tilling the soil, planting orchards, raising livestock, logging redwoods, and harvesting sea otters. When the sea otters were nearly depleted in 1839, the Russians sold their holdings and departed. The new owner, a Swiss rascal named John Augustus Sutter, also owned large areas in the Central Valley, where gold was later discovered, setting off the California Gold Rush. Germans Ernst Rufus, a German officer in Sutter's bizarre militia , was given an area north ... more on goingtothebeach.com
Other Web Resources
- www.vom.com
- http://www.visitannapolis.org
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