Place: The story behind Annadel's name

Annadel State Park is named for Susana “Annie” Hutchinson, whose family owned the area in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The name, a contraction of “Annie’s Dell,” was in use by the 1880s, when it was given to a railway station on their property (a ‘dell’ is a small, wooded valley).

While an outline of Annie’s life can be sketched from existing records, many details remain a mystery. Both her parents, Samuel and Elizabeth, were Irish immigrants who came to California in the early 1850s. Drawn by the lure of gold, Samuel had better luck raising cattle and selling the meat to the miners. Annie, their first child, was born in 1856 on their Sutter County ranch.

Annie was 15 when her family, which now included five brothers and sisters, including Mary, moved to Sonoma County. The family bought 2,700 acres stretching from Bennett Mountain down to where Oakmont now sits, and up into the Mayacamas. They ran sheep in the hills, cattle in the flats, planted hops and even made Swiss cheese.

What was it about Annie that led someone, perhaps her father or a railroad worker, to name the place after her? One theory is that she loved to roam the hills of what is now the park, though the record is too meager to confirm this. Soon after the train came through, Annie met and married Dr. Florence Ottmer and moved to Eureka.

A well-liked family doctor, he was especially remembered for his tireless efforts during the ?flu pandemic of 1918. ?Ottmer was also an animal lover who spent much of his free time wandering the fields ?and forests studying birds.

Both Annie and Florence seem to have ?had generous spirits. With ?no children of their own, they adopted two orphans and welcomed the neighborhood kids ?to play in their yard. The Ottmers had a parrot who would imitate the children’s voices as they played, and later their parents’ voices calling them home.

When patients knocked on Dr. Ottmer’s office door, they often thought they heard Annie cheerfully saying “Come in!” only to find that it was the parrot.

Annie and Florence both died in Eureka in 1919. The following year, a child named Henry Trione was born 20 miles away, in Fortuna.

We can’t be sure how Annie would feel about the proposal that she share the park’s name with him. But it is hard to imagine that someone who made space for orphans, neighborhood kids, her husband’s patients and a talking parrot would not also gracefully make room for Henry Trione. As the park’s greatest benefactor, he loved the place too.