How Sonoma County’s Goat Rock got its name

A Sonoma County resident was curious about the origins of Goat Rock beach's name. “How did Goat Rock beach get its name? I was out there today, again, yes there is a rock — quite a big one, but still — no goat” the reader said. The question came in as part of the North Bay Q&A series, which collects and answers readers’ questions about life in the region.

Goat Rock is on the coast, just south of the Russian River’s mouth near Jenner. The surrounding landscape of sea stacks, marine terraces and the natural bridge at Arch Rock offshore were all shaped by tectonic forces and wave action.

Once upon a time, when the top of Goat Rock was at sea level, ocean waves eroded it flat. Then geologic forces uplifted it to where it sits today, more than 100 feet above the water. At an estimated rise of 1 to 3 inches a century, that journey has taken many thousands of years.

According to local lore, Goat Rock’s flat, grassy top was used to pasture goats in the early 20th century. While it’s hard to imagine a herd of cows or pigs scaling the precipitous trail up the cliffs to get there, goats would have no problem — they’re champion climbers, the Alex Honnolds of livestock. Having reached that perch, they could graze in peace, well protected from predators.

There’s no hard evidence for that story, but the history of goats in Sonoma County, the United States and the world supports it.

Ten thousand years ago, Neolithic farmers in the mountains of Iran, Iraq and Turkey started keeping ibexes, the ancestors of the domesticated goat, for the milk, meat, hides and other things they could provide. Goats’ legendary climbing abilities are due to the shape of their cloven hooves and the fact that each toe can move independently, allowing them to use very narrow holds. A video of a goat herd casually climbing the face of a 160-foot dam in Italy went viral in 2018. Making it up Goat Rock would be no big deal.

The 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, where the first dairy goat show in America was held, sparked a surge in the popularity of goats in the United States. Locally, the mention of “goats” in The Press Democrat doubled between the 1890s and the first decade of the 20th century, and then more than doubled again in the 1910s. The sharpest uptick was in 1917, the year the U.S. entered World War I.

As part of the war effort, the U.S. Food Administration success

fully encouraged citizens to cut back on consumption with slogans like “Food Will Win the War.” Articles appeared in The Press Democrat touting the benefits of goat milk and meat. The University of California recommended multiplying the state’s goat population “many times over,” noting that they were rarely bothered by coyotes or tuberculosis and that it was entirely possible “to keep a goat in the suburbs.”

“Goat Rock” doesn’t show up on maps before World War I, so it could have earned its name during that conflict. There’s no way to be sure. One thing that is certain is that goats have been used to clear land for millennia. Today that talent has new relevance — last summer, Caltrans hired 400 goats to eat the brush along Highway 101 between Healdsburg and Geyserville as a fire prevention measure.

Even with climate change, Goat Rock, with its toes dipped in the cold Pacific, seems about the least likely place in Sonoma County for a wildfire.