Page 13 The Ferndale (California) Enterprise

There’s more to explore ... For an exciting ridetry “TheWildcat”Thirty miles oftwists, turnsand dips

Photo courtesy of the HannafordsFern Cottage is located just outside of Ferndale, toward the beach on Centerville Road.

From its facade, FernCottage looks like a cozyVictorian English house.Walk around it, however,and you will see a ram-bling 31-room home builtin three phases by Hum-boldt County pioneersJoseph and Zipporah Russfor their large family.

One of the few homesin California owned andoccupied by the samefamily for over a century,Fern Cottage is on theNational Register of His-toric Places. Please call707/786-4835 for tour andevent information.

Inside, Fern Cottagetoday looks much as it didafter the original sectionwas built in 1866. The sec-ond section was added in1878; the third in 1897.Originally, Fern Cottagehad eight rooms, but asthe family grew, more andmore were needed (theRusses had 13 children in

all).Though well

appointed, Fern Cottagewas not a mansion but aworking farmhouse forthis large family, and itwas the nerve center of theextensive Russ enterprises:50,000 acres of ranches(26 in all) for dairy andbeef cattle and sheep; tim-ber, a sawmill, a slaugh-terhouse, a chain of meatmarkets, a general store inFerndale, and a bank.

Located on green dairypastures that line thebanks of the Eel River,Fern Cottage sits on a siteselected by Zipporah Russ.One day, riding across thisrise, she said to her hus-band, "This is where Iwould like to have ourhouse."

Joseph Russ had sailedaround the Horn fromMaine, arriving in SanFrancisco in March 1850.Zipporah Patrick, at age

14, accompanied her fam-ily from Pennsylvania ina covered wagon in 1852.They were married inDecember 1854.

For years Fern Cottageresounded with the laugh-ter of children. Theyoungest to live to adult-hood, Bertha Russ Lytel,was born in the house andwas the last to live there.She died in 1972 at age 98.Fern Cottage today isowned and operated bythe not-for-profit FernCottage Foundation.

Joseph Russ becameactive in public affairs andwas elected to the Cali-fornia State Assemblythree times. He was in themidst of his third term in1886 when he died.

At that time he wasunder consideration tobecome the RepublicanParty’s nominee for gov-ernor.

A visit to Fern Cottage

and its two-and-a-halfacres of gardens will giveyou a taste of life in the lat-ter half of the 19th cen-tury. The furniture andfurnishings include thosethat Zipporah and JosephRuss themselves chose fortheir home.

Others were addedover time, including somechoice “Craftsman” piecesfrom the workshops ofGustav Stickley.

Beautifully-preservedperiod gowns ofMrs. Russand her daughters are dis-played in several rooms ofthe house.

There are two newly-restored rooms this year.The Toy Room, with anarray of toys from the1870s through the 1940s isnowondisplay on the sec-ond floor. Farther along onthat floor is Mrs. Russ’sCompanion’s Room. Dur-ing her final years, in the1920s,Mrs.Russ had a live-in companion. That lady'sroom was just off Mrs.Russ’s dressing room andhas now been fullyrestored.

FernCottage hasmanysurprises for the modernvisitor and tells a vividstory of American enter-prise and the building ofthe young state of Cali-fornia.

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Fern Cottage showcases early Victorian life;historic home just a few minutes from town

One long block west ofthe intersection of MainStreet and Ocean Avenuestands an iron sign on twotall wooden posts, pro-claiming "Cape Town —Petrolia." The sign standsnext to what looks like acountry lane meanderingin from the left. But thisis no country lane; it's thebeginning of "The Wild-cat" — 30 miles of twists,turns, dips and rises andsome of the most spectac-ular ocean scenery inAmerica.

The Wildcat had itsbeginning well over a cen-tury ago as a trail acrossthe big cattle and sheepranches that cover thecoastal hills, peaks and val-leys between Ferndale andthe Bear and Mattole Val-leys. Then, in the 1880s,Chinese workers — orig-inally brought to thiscountry to build railroadsthroughout the West —carved a narrow track outof the sand hills above Fer-ndale to make a road forstagecoaches and wagons.

The country laneaspect of The Wildcatevaporates soon after youhave turned onto it. Youclimb quickly aroundnumerous curves underthe sandstone cliffs thatwere once the bed of theocean. From there youcontinue to climb for fivemiles through dense Dou-glas fir forests (but withoccasional views of thehighest Coast Range peakssome 50 miles to the east).You reach a crest of sortswhere Bunker Hill Roadcomes in from the left,then you wind your waydownward toward BearRiver and Capetown. Ifyou've been in the fogcoming up, you'll be look-ing down on white billowsof clouds at this point. Or,if it's a clear day, you'll seethe Pacific Ocean in thedistance.

You pass ranch afterranch on windswept ridgetops and moors; they havesuch names as SpicyBreezes, Mazeppa, CapeRanch, Dublin Heightsand Ocean House. AtCapetown, whose one-room school house (nowin disrepair) was the lastone to close in HumboldtCounty (about 60 yearsago), you cross the BearRiver and begin climbingagain. On top of the nextcluster of mountain topsyou suddenly look out —

and down — at the vast-ness of the Pacific, its rowsof breakers methodicallyrolling in toward shore asfar south as you can see. Asyou descend toward sealevel, off to the right is aGibraltar-size rock just off-shore from Cape Mendo-cino — the farthest westernpoint in the contiguous 48states. It looks just as itmust have when the Span-ish explorer Vizcaino andhis crew spotted it nearly400 years ago.

Crossing a small creek,you pass Ocean House, theonly residence you will seealong this 10-mile stretchof coast. Offshore, on abright day, chances areyou'll spot several wind-surfers maneuvering theirboards not far from a largerock that, in silhouette,looks as if it must be theghost of Admiral Dewey'sflagship.

A few miles farthersouth, the road winds upMcNutt Gulch to gentlefarmland, ending at Petro-lia, near the site of Califor-nia's first drilled oil wells(1864). Just beyond the vil-lage is the wild, undammedMattole River, now under-going watershed restora-tion to rebuild stocks oftrout, steelhead andsalmon. Just across theriver, turn right on Light-house Road and follow itfive miles to its terminusbehind the dunes of Mat-tole Beach. The Bureau ofLand Management main-tains the beach and the vastKing Range ConservationArea that covers 66,000acres of the Coast Rangefrom this point south for30 miles.

Stop for lunch in Petro-lia or buy supplies for a pic-nic at the beach. If you stayovernight, consider a hikethe next day to the decom-missioned lighthouse atPunta Gorda, three milesdown the beach from theMattole Beach parking lot.

Caution: even on warmdays, the wind blowsbriskly, so dress accord-ingly. And, the ocean, whilebeautiful to see, is too coldand the riptides too strongfor bathing. Beach strollingis another matter. Themouth of the Mattole — atrickle over the sand dunesin summer — is about half-a-mile north of the park-ing lot. The summer duneshold a large lagoon withmany shore birds.

Or, if tea beckons backin Ferndale, you can letThe Wildcat take yourbreath away twice in oneday by returning after yoursojourn in Petrolia and theMattole Valley.

Planning a picnic? Stop by the LoletaCheese Factory for all the fixin’s!

It’s the cheese thatcounts at Loleta CheeseFactory in Loleta, justacross the Eel River fromFerndale.

Bob and Carol Laf-franchi founded LoletaCheese Factory in 1982in the small town ofLoleta. The idea startedwith Bob when he wasteaching agriculture edu-cation at Eureka HighSchool. He began to leadhis dairy class studentsthrough the maze ofcheesemaking, and therest, as they say, is history.

Bob and Caroldecided cheesemakingwas what they wanted todo with their lives, thatis, manufacturing supe-rior quality cheese, andin the process, contributeto the economy of Hum-boldt County.

They are located inthe 1919 Bertsch build-ing, which they boughtand remodeled as a fac-tory. As a family-runbusiness, Loleta Cheese

is dedicated to the pro-duction of great-tastingcheese. Loleta Cheese ismade in small batchesusing traditional recipesto ensure old-fashionedflavor, making over 2.6million pounds of cheesea year.

Their medal-winningcheeses, 38 varieties, arenoted for having a richcreamy taste and asmooth natural texture.

In 1995, LoletaCheese became the firstcheese factory in Cali-fornia to make organiccheese. Today they pro-duce a variety of four dif-ferent organic cheeses.

The cheese factoryhas developed a follow-ing for its varieties of fla-vored cheddar and jackcheeses. A few favoritesinclude smoked salmoncheddar, jalapeno ched-dar, garlic jalapeno jack,havarti with herbs andspice, garden jack, andhickory-smoked jack.

A fun part of a visit to

Loleta Cheese Factory isthe treat of watchingcheese being made andtasting all the varieties.As an additional attrac-tion, Loleta Cheese hascreated a beautiful gar-den for visitors to enjoyall year round.

To get to the LoletaCheese Factory, take theLoleta Drive off-rampfrom 101 and follow thecurves. The factory isopen daily from 9 am to5 pm. Visit us online formore information.

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