Month: December 2025

Sonoma Bits & Bobs

These are a collection of sketches that are related in their location, the Sonoma Coast.

From Mammoth Rock to Fort Ross to the north and into the Russian River Valley to the former lumber town of Duncans Mills.

Fort Ross

One morning I drove half an hour north from my digs to Fort Ross State Historic Park. Fort Ross is a sketching touchstone for me and I have returned here with my sketchbook many times. This time I chose a different angle sitting on a rock outside the fort looking towards the Russian Church. I had wanted to sketch from a similar perspective on a previous visit, but I was foiled by rainy conditions.

Duncans Mills

I have wanted to sketch the train station and caboose at Duncans Mills for a while but I had not found the right perspective. There were always cars parked in front and around the station so I sat on the end of the caboose with the back of the station in the background. The narrow gauge line was to the right but is name a paved parking lot.

The narrow gauge railroad came to the lumber town of Duncans Mills in the 1870s and rail, both passenger and freight, until train service was discontinued in 1935.

North Pacific Coast Railroad Caboose No. 2. This narrow gauge caboose was built in 1877.

Sonoma Coast SP: Mammoth Rock

From my digs it was a short drive north to Goat Rock State Beach- Sonoma Coast State Park. My hiking/ sketching destination was Mammoth Rock. It was a blustery 30 minute hike to the large Mammoth Rock.

Wintery and windy weather is never an impediment to a good sketching experience. Driving, windy rain is another monster.

I found a perspective and started my sketch.

Sketching Bodega to Bodega Bay and The Birds

I wanted to sketch the actual bay of Bodega Bay but I wanted to find the right perspective (is there really such a thing).

I settled on a pullout near Spud Point Marina looking north.

It was near this location where Rose Gaffney’s house was located. Gaffney was a local rancher who led the protest against PG & E when they wanted to build a nuclear power plant at nearby Bodega Head.

Alfred Hitchcock wanted to use this location as “Mitch’s House” in his new film “The Birds” (1963). Gaffney was not a movie goer and had no idea who Hitchcock was.

The crew built a set with other outbuildings around Gaffney’s house. The house burned down in the late 1960s and the area today bears little resemblance to when the film was filmed here in the early 60s.

One filming location that has not changed since 1963 is the Potter Schoolhouse in Bodega (not to be confused with Bodega Bay, which is eight miles away).

This was the location used for the school during the corvid attack in The Birds.

The schoolhouse was built in 1873 out of local redwood. At the time of filming the building was no longer used as a school and the structure was derelict. Since filming took place the school was used as a bed and breakfast but now it is a private residence.

I pulled up on the street that the children ran down as they were attacked by a murder of crows. In the film they are running towards the Tides Restaurant in Bodega Bay. With a little movie magic, camera angles, and matte paintings it appears that the schoolhouse and the Tides are in the same location. In reality, eight miles separate the two locations.

While the school looks much the same, redwoods have now grown up around the schoolhouse and I included them in my sketch.

The Children’s Bell Tower

Spending time eight miles north of Bodega Bay meant that I could explore and sketch subjects off the beaten path (Highway One). I had been to BB many times but I had never heard of the Children’s Bell Tower. Being an educator I wanted to learn more about it.

The tower has a very interesting and tragic genesis that starts in Messina, Italy. It was here in 1994 that seven year old Nicolas Green and his family were vacationing in Italy.

Local Mafia mistakenly thought his parents were jewelers and followed the family’s car. They fired shots into the back of the car, a bullet hitting Nicolas in the head.

He was rushed to a hospital and he died the next day on October 1st.

A plaque near the Bell Tower honoring Nicolas Green.

The family donated his organs to help other Italian children. In the aftermath organ donations went up in Italy and many lives were saved.

A detail from one of the bells showing the impact the Green’s decision to donate Nicolas’ organs.

In the Green’s hometown of Bodega Bay, a monument was erected for their slain son.

A bell tower was constructed near the Community Center. The tower consists of 140 bells that were donated from churches, schools, families, and individuals all over Italy. One bell was donated by the Martinelli Foundry, they have been making bells for the Catholic Church for 1,000 years. This bell was blessed by Pope John Paul II and it crowns the tower.

The biggest bell is the Martinelli bell blessed by the Pope.

I walked out to the tower and started to sketch. Let’s just say it was complicated. For my first sketch I used a loose style with solid lines with a brush pen (featured sketch). I think I captured something about the tower but I wanted another crack at the tower so I returned the following morning after breakfast at the Tides.

The views from the panoramic windows as outstanding and the drama of wildlife beats anything on television. A roosting flock of marbled godwits and willet were sent into the air my marauding peregrine.

Roosting godwits near the Tides Restaurant.

I returned to the Bell Tower, warmed by the fall sun. A breeze off the Bay sounded the bells on the tower as I sketched.

My second sketch.

Hole in the Head

One sketching destination in Bodega Bay I planned to visit was Hole in the Head. The head being Bodega Head.

When you visit the Hole today it is a serene pond with gulls bathing, sparrows singing from the trees, turkey vultures rocking in the overhead currents, and reeds gently blowing in the wind. But the 160 foot hole has a complicated past.

Pacific Gas & Electric (PG &E) planned to build the first commercially viable nuclear power plant in the United States. And the site they chose for this new source of energy was Bodega Head.

In the late 1950s Bodega Bay was a fishing port surrounded by farms and grazing land. It was far from the tourist destination it is today and still a few years off from the film that put the area on the map: Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963).

After obtaining permits, PG & E started construction on the power plant by digging a 160 foot hole for the foundation. Local resistance to the nuclear plant started in 1958. This also coincided with a growing understanding of plate tectonics and earthquakes.

A pre-trip sketch gave me the opportunity to learn more about the hole in Bodega Head.

The plant’s location was two miles from the active San Andreas Fault. The fault that slipped on the early morning of April 18, 1906 creating the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. They also discovered minor faults directly underneath the planned plant site. This combined with the protest (dubbed the “birth of the anti-nuclear movement”) put a halt to plans and construction ended in 1964 with a very deep hole in Bodega Head.

Overtime, rainwater filed in the deep pit and it took on the appearance of a placid pond. There is a boardwalk that takes you to the edge of the pond and a fence that prevents any swimmers. Hole in the Head is no kiddie pool, it is all deep end.

I walked out to the boardwalk and sketched the view of the historic non-nuclear power plant that launched a movement.

Sketching the Hole in the Head.
Hole in the Head from another angle; on the left is the hole and Bodega Harbor on the upper right.

Sonoma Pre-trip Sketches

This year we have the week off for Thanksgiving and the north coast is calling.

After looking into many options I settled on a pad with a sunroom with amazing views on the Sonoma Coast between Bodega Bay and Jenner (the end of the Russian River).

This would give me the time to slow down and sketch an area which I had mainly driven through. Now I would put boots to dirt and sketch history, nature, and amazing coastal views.

That’s if my knee didn’t feel better. I’m at the age where I wake up with a new pain. First it was the left elbow and now the right. I woke up Saturday with pain in my left knee. How this happened I do not know. Perhaps I shouldn’t have played soccer with my students on Free Friday. Was it the left footed shot from the left wing? Yes I scored! Was it almost worth scoring against nine year olds? Maybe.

I made four pre-trip sketches, some are included in this post.

To help visualize the path of the San Andreas Fault through the land I would be traveling, I sketched it out on a map. At the bottom I drew from a famous photo of a train put on its side by the San Francisco Earthquake. It was taken about 30 miles away from the epicenter, near San Francisco, in the town of Point Reyes Station.