The brothers behind the Duncans Mills name

Twenty years before they arrived, John Cooper constructed the county’s first commercial sawmill on Mark West Creek, near its confluence with the Russian River. Its blade was powered by a waterwheel. Of course, California’s Indigenous tribes had already been using redwood for millennia to build homes and structures as well as boats, using boards cut from fallen trees.

The Russians, too, discovered that redwood makes high-quality lumber. At Fort Ross, they used it for homes, a church and the fort’s defensive palisade. They set up hand-powered “whipsaw mills,” consisting of a long pit with a framework built over it. Once a log was split and placed on the framework, one man stood underneath and another on top, the two of them drawing the whipsaw up and down. Two men could produce the equivalent of 20 eight-foot two-by-fours.

General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo built Sonoma County’s second water-powered sawmill in 1839, in what is now Glen Ellen. Five years later, Stephen Smith installed California’s first steam-powered mill in Bodega. Soon after that, hand-in-hand with the Gold Rush, came a huge building boom. Mills sprang up all over and timber became a major industry, even in the East Bay.

Such was the scene when the Duncans arrived. They built their first mill at Salt Point in the 1850s but soon moved to the mouth of the Russian River, near modern-day Bridgehaven. Logs cut upstream were floated to the mill. By 1862, the settlement had enough people to establish the Duncans Mills post office, the first one along the river between Healdsburg and the Sonoma Coast.

At nearby Duncans Cove, the lumber was loaded onto ships. Duncans Mills location was perfect — both for getting timber to the mill and getting the finished product to market. Unfortunately, the site had one big problem — it flooded regularly. So, when the first railroad reached the river in 1876, Alexander decided to move. Samuel had died before this leaving Alexander to run the business. He loaded his mill, the post office, homes and other buildings onto barges. The whole town, including its name, migrated four miles upstream.

With railroad access, Duncans Mills became the first real tourist destination along the river. People came from the Bay Area to swim, fish and hunt. Arriving visitors had a choice of two hotels and could get a drink at Orr’s, said to be the best saloon north of the bay.

The 1906 earthquake toppled several buildings. Around that time, mills were closing as the old-growth forest was logged out. Without work and seeing no future, people left. The town again found itself flooding regularly. Willows swallowed the old train station. The town that had once floated was now literally sinking into the Russian River.

Just as Duncans Mills seemed on the verge of disappearing altogether, the town experienced a modest resurrection. In 1971, the willows were pruned and the train station was restored faithfully enough to win a statewide award. Tourists started showing up, restaurants opened, and lodging became available. The town that floated and sank, had risen again.