THE story of the bodega bay

circa 1886-1940

By Jan Webber

   The young man leaned against the bow railing of the old wooden lumber schooner and stared at the island like mass of land that rose out of the sea before him. "It looks like a cake" he thought; "A cake with green icing". This is how John Bell Simpson first saw Bodega Bay, California. It was late summer, 1886. He was twenty years old. To the left, an old pier badly in need of repair jutted out into the flat water. It was the only sign of man. It was to this pier that the schooner tied up and John Bell Simpson stepped off, and here he stayed until his death in 1940.

 

     The Land. The community of  Bodega Bay was actually located at the end of a narrow peninsula on the north end of Bodega Bay, California. Rocky bluffs and steep hills topped with coastal redwoods were the dominant feature of the landscape. Viewed from a certain perspective it did look like a cake.

                                                                                  The pier is scratch built. The boat is from Sheepscot.

  The People an Buildings.  When  Simpson arrived Bodega Bay was nothing more than a pier and a few small shacks. But Simpson had a vision. He would build a town. A resort where the San Francisco elite could hide away. A place where they could experience the beauty and wonders of northern California. A relative back east staked Simpson the funds to buy out the small failing lumber company and it's land holdings and he began his dream.

     First Simpson built a small narrow gauge line up to the redwoods. He formed the Simpson Logging and Sawmill Company, logging just enough redwoods to fund his dream. Next he had a standard gauge line built east to connect with the Southern Pacific Railroad and the outside world. He bought an old lumber schooner to move boards down the coast. He called his new empire the Bodega Bay Railroad and Navigation Company. It was 1889 and he was on his way to building his dream.

     After a trip back east to meet with his investor, Simpson returned and built the Taj Hotel. He was inspired by a book he had seen back east. It was a book on Roman architecture with it's great stone columns and arches. Unfortunately he had little cash, but he had lots of wood. And so the Taj was built complete with Roman columns and arches. All in redwood.

     Bodega Bay never really took off. A few wealthy patrons vacationed there but without beaches, boardwalks or other attractions, business never climbed above a trickle. A couple of men's clubs came to hunt or hike but mostly they spent their time at the Taj's bar. And so eventually the town of Bodega Bay became home to a collection of characters well suited to life at the end of a finger of land that dipped into the Pacific Ocean.

    Lee & Li Chang. Husband and wife, or brother and sister. Nobody ever really knew. In 1900 they built Chang's General Merchandise& Laundry and later a restaurant. They did quite well considering neither ever spoke English.

    Minnie Billy. A Choctaw Indian from Mississippi She was rumored to have run away from her husband and seven children. She started the Dancing Rabbit Mine. She Claimed to be mining Opals although no one ever saw any. She eventually left town still owing a lot of money to the Scotia Supply Company.

     Mose Crindle's   Scotia Supply. Purveyor of mining and lumbering equipment and supplies. Mose, a widower, came west when his wife died. He was a gentle, generous man who gave everyone credit. It was his eventual undoing. He closed in 1930 when he went bankrupt. He had IOU's from the locals totaling over $30,000.

     Red's Redwood Furniture. No one ever knew where Red was from. He liked it that way. He built fine furniture that he sold down south in the cities. He sold a lot of furniture but wasted most of his money at the Taj's bar. He was said to have had a long running affair with Minnie Billy before she disappeared.

     The Belly Brothers. The Belly  brothers came on the schooner with J.B. Simpson. In 1888 they built the fish packing plant that clung to the bluffs on the bay. In 1912 they added an addition to store the fish meal they produced. They were frequent companions of Red's at the Taj, to the very loud objections of their wives, both of whom eventually left them.

      Captain Jack. A seafaring man, Captain Jack first came to Bodega Bay in 1905. He had spent his whole life at sea, mostly in the south pacific.On a subsequent visit in 1908 he discovered an ancient totem pole grove near a place called Otter Cove by the locals. He convinced J.B. Simpson to lease him the land and he built a very unusual "A frame" home  like the huts he had lived in in the south pacific. He sent for his wife, a native of the Solomon Islands, and settled down. They had a peaceful life together until her death in 1924. Jack stayed on. Every afternoon he walked the tracks to Lee Chang's Cafe' for supper and then walked back to sit among the totem poles and watch the sunset. He followed his wife in 1933.

       The Redwood Station and overlook. In 1928 the town banded together and built the station and overlook to encourage the tourist to come see beautiful Bodega Bay. Unfortunately the crash of 1929 killed any hope of making money on tourists.The buildings languished into disrepair.

        John Bell Simpson.  Though he never became very wealthy or saw his dream become completely true, Simpson had a happy life. He married and had several children. The children went back east to college and never returned to stay in Bodega Bay. Simpson and his wife kept the town alive until his death in 1940. His wife closed the Taj Hotel in 1942 and moved to Tennessee to live with her son and grandchildren. The town died after she left. The fish were depleted and the usable timber was gone. Except for ten acres around the station and lookout Bodega's resources were gone.The rails were pulled up for scrap for the war effort and the sea eventually claimed the buildings on the bluffs. The rest of the town rotted away in the winds and fog of the Pacific coast. In the late sixties the state of California turned the redwood grove and the totem poles at Otter Cove into a state park. Eventually an old hippie named Larry became caretaker. He's still there.

         Jan Webber is the creator of the Bodega Bay Railroad. Jan taught art at Mississippi State University for twenty five years. He retired in 1993 as the department head. After a thirty year hiatus he started modeling  again. The Bodega Bay is his third layout in eight years and as this one nears completion Jan is talking about a new project.

                                                                                 BACK