New book tells story of Sonoma Coast

Author and historian Simone Wilson has been writing her way around Sonoma County for more than 25 years. She chose to write her latest book about the Sonoma Coast because, she said, it is more than just “a pleasant expanse of sand with people sunning themselves near snack bars.”

The Sonoma Coast is a rugged stretch with diverse wildlife and ecosystems, like ospreys and tidal estuaries. Her book is a photographic journey through this unique and beautiful place that showcases the area’s modern history through its people, places and community.

Wilson, who was born in Berkeley and grew up in Pasadena, moved to Sonoma County in the 1980s. She worked as a journalist for several local newspapers, including the counterculture Sonoma County Stump, the Paper (which later became the Bohemian) and the News Herald weekly. Her journalism background, layout and typography skills, and love for research (which she says is “kind of like a treasure hunt”) led her to create three other books for Arcadia Publishing’s historical Images of America series about Petaluma, Santa Rosa and the Russian River.

“Sonoma Coast” is her fourth Arcadia book and the first about this area for the Images of Modern America series, which focuses on history from the 1960s to the present. Wilson uses her own photographs as well as photos she’s borrowed from local archives like the Sonoma County Library, the Western Sonoma County Historical Society and the Fort Ross Conservancy, and local photographers including John Hershey and the late John LeBaron. There are seven chapters focusing on distinct aspects of the area, but the common thread throughout the book is the people who live and work on the Sonoma Coast.

“It would have been easy to make this book about the trees and the flowers,” Wilson said, “but what makes the place tick is the volunteers and the involved business people.”

Wilson envisions this book as a guide for tourists, but also for residents of the different coastal communities. To that end, each chapter is heavy with photos of people.

The first chapter, called “Natural Treasures,” is filled with beautiful color photos of wildlife, but also highlights people from organizations like Whale Watch Bodega Head and the California Native Plant Society. Also featured is Jesse Longacre, a popular park docent during the 1980s and ’90s.

Another chapter called “Coastal Commons” takes its name from a quote by the late Bill Kortum, a large-animal veterinarian and environmental activist to whom the book is dedicated. “Without being able to share the coast, the only commons we have in California is the freeways,” Wilson remembers Kortum saying.

This chapter illustrates some of the epic movements that protected the coastal environment with, for example, an impressive photo of the hole dug for the nuclear reactor core in Campbell Cove on Bodega Head in 1962. Kortum, along with local residents Hazel Mitchell and Rose Gaffney, helped lead the protest against PG&E to halt a nuclear reactor at this location, which is also on top of the San Andreas Fault. The community prevailed and today the site is a duck pond known as “The Hole in the Head.”

Similarly, people have worked very hard to maintain two-thirds of the Sonoma Coast as parkland.

“I won’t say we’re ‘lucky’ because it’s not an accident,” Wilson explained. The chapters about these parks have stunning photos of many of the state beaches, a photo of Bill Kortum in front of the trail named in his honor and more photos of people enjoying the parks. The images represent the myriad community members who have called this place home for centuries, like Native Americans from the Pomo tribe, Russian Orthodox clergy and descendants of the original families who ranched at Fort Ross.

Wilson, an avid mushroom hunter, birder and kayaker who worked with the nonprofit Coastwalk California for more than 20 years, says her experience of the coast is “more about the parks” and her appreciation for them is evident in these chapters.

The photos of local artwork show how integral art is to the Sonoma Coast. Nationally known artists are featured, like sculptors Benny Bufano and Bruce Johnson of Timber Cove, whose redwood and copper sculptures can also be found at the Wells Fargo Center. Wilson said she also wanted to focus on art that “cycles into the community.” There is a statue of a fisherman created by Sebastopol artist Alanna Roth that memorializes commercial fisherman who lost their lives at sea. And there is a photo of Bruce Hasson’s Children’s Bell Tower sculpture in memory of a local boy, Nicholas Green, who was shot and killed during a trip to Italy in 1994. As an honor to the family, who donated the boy’s organs, the people of Italy sent church and school bells for the 18-foot monument.

Wilson, who is officially retired, said she is happiest doing projects, but only those she is passionate about. It makes sense why a book about the Sonoma Coast, a “gorgeous place that is just remote enough to retain its character,” would be her choice as a labor of love.

Wilson will sign copies of her book “Sonoma Coast” at 4 p.m. Oct. 31 at Four-Eyed Books in Cypress Village, Gualala, 884-1333.