Elk, Mendocino County, California

Elk (formerly Greenwood and Elk River) is an unincorporated community in Mendocino County, California.[1]

Elk
Unincorporated community
Beach in Elk
Beach in Elk
Elk is located in California
Elk
Elk
Location in California
Elk is located in the United States
Elk
Elk
Elk (the United States)
Coordinates: 39°07′49″N 123°43′04″W
CountryUnited States
StateCalifornia
CountyMendocino County
Elevation
[1]
135 ft (41 m)
ZIP code
95432
Area code707
FIPS code06-21992
GNIS feature ID1655992

Geography

It is located 22 miles (35 km) south of Fort Bragg,[2] at an elevation of 135 feet (41 m).[1]

Elk has a population of 208. It is located on the coast at the crossroads of State Route 1 and Philo-Greenwood Road. Albion, Little River, and Mendocino lie to the north, and Manchester and Point Arena to the south. Inland are Navarro, Philo, and Boonville.

History
Sunset in Elk
View of the ocean and the rock formations from Elk

Elk was originally called "Greenwood," after the Greenwood brothers,[2] early homesteaders and sons of mountain man Caleb Greenwood and his half-Crow wife, one of the rescuers of the Donner Party. When the post office was opened, in 1887,[2] there was already another Greenwood in California so it was called Elk Post Office. Eventually the name came to refer to the town. It is an outgrowth of an earlier town called Cuffy's Cove and the cemetery is located at that townsite 1 mile (2 km) north of Elk. When pioneer lumberman Lorenzo White was unable to reach a satisfactory deal with the owners of the lumber chutes at Cuffy's Cove to ship out his redwood product, he constructed a wharf out along a string of rocks in the center of what is now Elk. When he built a large steam sawmill and 3-foot (90 cm) gauge railroad, the new employment drained the town of Cuffy's Cove, which was eventually abandoned. The sawmill was producing 80,000 board feet (200 m3) of lumber per day by 1890. The mill was sold to Goodyear Redwood Company in 1916. Elk River Company took over the sawmill when Goodyear went bankrupt in 1932. The local redwood lumber industry economy collapsed when the uninsured sawmill burned in 1936.[3]

Greenwood - Elk Beach, Mendocino County, California

A new sawmill was built in about 1953 and another followed in 1963. These operated until the late 1960s, when the redwood and Douglas fir was mostly logged out. After some quiet times, the town has had a rebirth[4] as a recreation destination particularly as a result of the pandemic with people wanting to get out of the urban areas.[5] A couple of the larger old houses are now bed and breakfast inns, and the state has acquired Greenwood State Beach and the original mill site as a state park. The ZIP Code is 95432. The community is inside area code 707.

Elk Logging Railway locomotives
Number Builder Type Date Works number Notes
Baldwin Locomotive Works 4-4-0 1873 3495 originally North Pacific Coast Railroad #1; purchased 1876; scrapped 1903[6]
1 Lima Locomotive Works Shay geared 9 May 1903 800 built for L.E.White Lumber Company[7]
2 Lima Locomotive Works Shay geared 8 December 1904 957 built for L.E.White Lumber Company[7]
3
4 Lima Locomotive Works Shay geared 27 October 1917 2942 built for Goodyear Redwood Company[7]

Government

In the California State Legislature, Elk is in the 2nd Senate District, represented by Democrat Mike McGuire, and in the 2nd Assembly District, represented by Democrat Jim Wood.[8]

In the United States House of Representatives, Elk is in California's 2nd congressional district, represented by Democrat Jared Huffman.[9]

References
  1. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Elk, Mendocino County, California
  2. Durham, David L. (1998). California's Geographic Names: A Gazetteer of Historic and Modern Names of the State. Clovis, Calif.: Word Dancer Press. p. 55. ISBN 1-884995-14-4.
  3. Carranco, Lynwood (1982). Redwood Lumber Industry. Golden West Books. pp. 206–207. ISBN 0-87095-084-3.
  4. "Enjoy The Simple Life When You Visit This Tiny Rural Community In Northern California". OnlyInYourState®. August 4, 2023. Retrieved August 10, 2023.
  5. Tunstall, Jim; Tunstall, Cynthia. "Elk, a lovely little town that time forgot". SFGate. Retrieved September 20, 2021.
  6. Dickinson, A. Bray (1974). Narrow Gauge to the Redwoods. Trans-Anglo Books. p. 132.
  7. Koch, Michael (1971). The Shay Locomotive Titan of the Timber. The World Press. pp. 409, 414&448.
  8. "Statewide Database". UC Regents. Retrieved December 6, 2014.
  9. "California's 2nd Congressional District - Representatives & District Map". Civic Impulse, LLC. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
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