Cazadero

TIMBER, TRAINS, AND TREMENDOUS RAINFALL

Cazadero—named from the Spanish cazadero (“hunting place”)—grew up in the late 1800s as an Austin Creek redwood logging community, with small mills and timber camps scattered through the surrounding canyons. Its biggest boost came when the narrow-gauge North Pacific Coast Railroad pushed up the Russian River and Austin Creek and reached Cazadero in 1886, hauling redwood lumber out and bringing workers and visitors in; in the early 1900s the line was absorbed into the Northwestern Pacific system, and Cazadero became known as a true “end-of-the-line” town. As a remote, heavily wooded area, local fire protection became essential early on—Cazadero’s volunteer fire service grew out of that need and has long been a community cornerstone, protecting homes, campgrounds, and timberlands across a wide rural district. And then there’s the weather: Cazadero is famously one of California’s wettest places, often seeing roughly 70–90 inches of rain a year in the surrounding watershed, which helps keep the hills lush and green. Today it remains a small, rural redwood town—quiet, scenic, and proudly off the beaten path—still shaped by its logging past, creek country, and neighborly self-reliance.