Welcome to the Russian River Historical Society website!
We are a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and archiving the history of this wonderful area.

The organization was formerly the Monte Rio Historical Society but has recently expanded to cover all the Russian River communities.

9/3/2007

Russian River Historical Society Awarded
Sonoma County Community Foundation Grant  

In late July the Russian River Historical Society (RRHS) received the news that it had been awarded a Grant valued at $ 5,000 from the Sonoma County Community Foundation.  “We’re so pleased,” says Jane Barry, President of the Russian River Historical Society, “we’re going to use the entire $ 5,000 to buy a new computer, software and CD’s so as to be able to catalogue our acquisitions, artifacts, photographs, oral and visual histories and historical documents”. As the RRHS prepares to move into its new space in the newly renovated Monte Rio Community Center, the Grant will be of great benefit to the local citizens and serious students of the local history in that the RRHS will be able to better organize and record its varied collections. 

Founded in 1983 as a non-profit membership organization, the RRHS collects and preserves oral and visual histories, biographies and autobiographies of and about the local citizens and towns. “Most people simply do not realize the importance of documenting the local history of their area; and the history of the Russian River is so rich that a few of us work hard at making certain it is preserved, because if it isn’t then it will be lost. And, if it’s gone, it becomes extinct, and extinct is forever,” says Russell Gaughen, Vice President of the RRHS. Barry, Gaughen, Barbara Hadden and local published historical author, John Schubert, are some of these “few” good and dedicated people who have kept the Russian River Historical Society alive and working. 

Many of the local citizens, young and old, get to enjoy learning about their history at the quarterly pot-luck workshops and gatherings produced by the RRHS Board. “It’s a lot of hard work to keep a group like this going, and the work has mostly fallen on the shoulders of the Board, our mates and too few other local citizens. We are constantly seeking new volunteers to join our Society so that the work can be more evenly distributed, but everyone today is so busy and involved in so much that they just don’t seem to have the time to join still another group,” Barry adds, “but we’re tenacious. Anyone interested, please call Jane Barry or one of the other Board Members. We really do need more people to help.” 

The Society is especially looking for volunteers who will be able to begin inputting information into the new computer, assist with the new newsletter that has been created by John Schubert, as well as interviewing people so as to grow the library of oral histories. Other citizens who might have old photographs, documents or the like are encouraged to contact one of the Board Members, or call Jane Barry directly. “Last but certainly not least, we’re also looking for a building so that we can finally have a real home for the Russian River Historical Society’s artifacts and historical collections,” says Barry. 

For more information or to volunteer, or donate documents, artifacts or a building to the Russian River Historical Society contact the Society’s President, Jane Barry, at 707.865.1234 or jbarry@russianriverhistory.org, or visit the RRHS website at: www.russianriverhistory.org 

11/06/2006
Help Keep Us on Track  - Your Membership Dues Are Due

In Memory of Charter Member Dawn Pedoria.
Be sure to view his collection that he made available to the Society.

We are currently under remodel at the Koret Club.  It is estimated to take six months to a year for completion.  We will have a beautiful remodeled room with revolving display cases and cabinets to store our artifacts and memorabilia.  The room will also be available for small group meetings. This down time will give us the opportunity to begin digital archiving.   As you know we are always looking to expand our collection and thank you to those who have contributed to our archives. In lieu of events we will be producing a quarterly newsletter with a question photograph.  The answer will be posted on our website. 
We have had to increase our dues due to rising costs of postage, events, storage of our archives, and memorabilia. $20 – Individual, $25 – Family, Seniors/Students $15 and Supporting Member $100.

We also need volunteers to help with events, newsletter, archiving and cataloging.  Anyone interested please contact Jane Barry, President at 707 865-1234.
So help us continue to keep our history alive by paying your dues so that we can maintain the artifacts we have and to continue to expand.  Donations are needed to help pay for the archival cabinets in the new building.

You may send your dues and donations to P.O. Box 484, Monte Rio, CA 95462

6/14/2006
This Russian River Historical Society’s photograph of Johnson's Beach Resort in Guerneville was taken in 1949. The River Queen has just left her dock and is possibly heading up to Rio Nido. Notice that along with the rowboats on the beach there are 10 small water craft. Did you paddle them with your Hands or small paddles? I sure don’t know as I have never seen anything like them before. That day at Johnson’s Beach looks like a wonderful way to spend an afternoon just as it is today. Once again John Schubert has let us use a fine photograph from his collection. The “River Queen”, the “Russian River” and the “Sonoma” were names of some of the river boats  that over the years ferried folks up and down the Russian River to Dance Halls, River Resorts and Train Stations. Join us in Monte Rio at the Koret Club July 23rd at 1:00 for a Pot Luck Luncheon as we celebrate “Resorts along the Russian River”.

3/17/2006
I have created a photo slide show to view the archive.  It is very bare bones at the moment but it is at least a start.  The link will show up after you have filtered on the photos you want to see.  Which ever photos are listed are the ones you'll see in the slide show.  There are only 'Previous" and "Next" links to start out with. 

3/12/2006
My apologies for not having the latest batch of photos up on the website yet.  I have been out of town on business (in Arkansas) and have had quite a hectic couple of weeks.  With that being said I find myself really taking for granted this wonderful place we live in.  The rolling hills, the beautiful redwoods, our ever threatening river... lets just say I missed being away (even if it was for a short time).  I'll work on getting those photos up this week.

On an interesting note.  I received a letter in the mail stating this website has won award from the Sonoma County Historical Society!  The award will be presented on Saturday, March 18 at the Fountain Grove Golf and Athletic club.  Here is the flyer for the event.  Sounds like it will be a fun event.  Hopefully I will see some of you there.

2/28/2006
The event on Sunday was a huge success!  We had a standing room only crowd.  Thank you to everyone who came and brought food.  We had some great stories come out.  Special thanks to Steve Baxman, Ed Poe and John Schubert.
 
2/22/2006
Our special guest, Jim Grady, has cancelled for the upcoming event.

1/28/2006
I have done some clean up work on the website.  Mostly correcting some bad coding on my part.  I have also added a full featured content editor to the site.  This enables me to make full feature updates to the website from any computer.  This will help my get content out quicker to the site.
If you see any problems please let me know right away.

1/25/2006
This Russian River Historical Society's photo (courtesy of the Jane Barry collection) was taken in Guerneville during the "High Water" on February 13th 1915. We believe that the photo was taken looking west on River Road from what is now just in front of the Village Shops building on the south side of the street but not quite to the Bank of America building on the north side. The high water you see is an over flowing Fife Creek.  On the track sidings next to the main line notice the the passenger car NWP #55, a Pullman car built in 1902 and retired in 1934, on the right is most likely a maintenance repair car with the crew standing by possibly the conductor, engineer and fireman in the foreground. If you have more information about this photo or have photos or stories you would like to share PLEASE feel free to join us on February 26 for a pot luck Open House at 1:00 in the afternoon, at the Koret Club in Monte Rio. The theme for the February event will be "Disasters along the Russian River: Fire, Floods and Earthquakes."  Among all the folks who are working hard to make this event happen, a special guest Jim Grady will be there telling stories and answering questions.

1/9/2006
The Press Democrate has written an article on flood ranking in Guerneville.  He brings up some great points.  This summer John Schubert and I are going to start doing some GPS mapping up the area.  Maybe we can get an accurate reading of what actually floods at what river depth.

1/4/2006
I have documented the top floods that have been recorded in history along Guerneville.  This one comes in at number 8 all time.  We know there was a pretty decent size flood in 1879.  We don't know exactly how deep it was so it isn't on the list.  Notice 1995... hit twice in one year.

1/2/2006
Do you have any flood stories to tell?  Add them to the blog.

1/1/2006
It is an amazing sight seeing the Russian River in full force.  Although it is still too early to know for sure, but this flood could rank in the top 3 or 4 of the greatest flood the Russian River has seen.  So welcome to "History in the Making."  Can you imagine what it was like in 1879 when a similar size flood hit?  No radio, no cars, no warning... It really makes you think.

12/25/2005
I have added a new page that shows the current river readings along with "where the river floods" information.

We are over the 200k hit mark for the year!!

12/21/2005
Our next event has been planned!  "Disasters along the Russian River".  We will be covering floods, earthquakes and fires.  We have a special guest MC for the event who we will reveal a little later.
The date will be Sunday February 26 at 1 pm.  Mark your calendars.  This will be our greatest event yet!!

We are currently at 199,000 hits!!!  A very good chance we will go over 200k for the year.
Thank you to everyone who has been checking out the site.  I hope you have been enjoying the photos.

11/21/2005
All of the photos from the Celbration of Music and Bands have been uploaded. Special thanks to Clare Harris for letting us use his archive of posters. They can bee seen here.

We've had just over 176,000 hits to the site since January!

11/16/2005
Most of the photos (but not all) from the last event have been uploaded. Most are posters of the bands.
I've also added the photo ID to the photo list page so you can reference the photo.

10/31/2005
Thank you to everyone that made it out to the event yesterday. It was a lot of fun and I hope everyone had a great time.
The topic for our next event will most likely be "floods." That should be in January. I will hopefully have the pictures from the slide show loaded up this week.

8/29/2005
Have any information of details about the 1906 earthquake? A blog has been added to talk about it.

8/27/2005
The date and theme have been set. Sunday October 30th we will be celebrating "Music on the River, Big Bands and Dance Halls."

I've uploaded about 50 new photos.

8/1/2005
Thank you to everyone who made it out to the Celebration of Towns, Part I on Sunday. It was a huge success.
We have over 150 new photos that I will be uploading to the site over the coming days/weeks.

Special thanks to Christina Harrison, George Juilly, Bob Schneider and Eleinor Twohy for volunteering their time and expertise to the celebration.

John Schubert has released his second edition of "Guernevile Early Days." Only 500 copies have been printed so he may sell out fast. You can email him at toyfrog@sonic.net if you would like to purchase a copy.

7/29/2005
We will have over 100 new photos for the slide show on Sunday. I'll work on getting them uploaded to the site next week.
We hope to you see you all at the Celebration of Towns, PartI!

7/18/2005
There is an article about us in the Sonoma West News & Times this month. The article has spurred a lot of activity on the website. Almost 10,000 hits over the last week!!

We are currently looking for additional members to sit on our board of directors. Please email us if you would be interested in joining.

6/28/2005
A very special thanks to Donna and Richard Hines (owners of Pat's restraunt in Guerneville) for their large purchase of poster size prints. Some great shots of downtown Guerneville from the 30's all the way up to the 50's.

6/23/2005
It was brought to my attention that the Korbel Website has a photo gallery. There are some great shots of around the Russian River area.

6/21/2005
We are looking for additional photos to archive. If you have photos or postcards of any of the lower russian river area, we would like to archive them and post them. Please contact us.

6/13/2005
The new photo search has been completed. You can now search for only the photos you want to see. At the bottom of the photo you can also make a comment about it. This could be additional details or corrections. There is also a search help page that explains what all the fields are.

5/26/2005
Have added a new collection of photos from Dawn Pedroia. Some great photos of the Russel Auto Stage.
Since we started the website (1/14) we have now had over 11,000 hits!! WOW!! Hopefully you are enjoying the photo collections. We will continue to add as many as possible. The new photo search is almost completed. It will make finding the photos you want a lot easier.

5/19/2005
Some photos of Rio Nido have been uploaded. Rio Nido has a long wonderul history. We would like more photos to be able to share. If you have any that you would be willing to lend to us to scan and add to the archives please contact us.

5/17/2005
Jane Barry has contributed a portion of her collection. A wide variety of photos. Some great ones of the train coming into Guerneville.

5/12/2005
I have scanned and added a collection of archived post cards listed as "Norwood/Fisher" postcard collection.
We now have well over 250 photos up and online! Right now they are grouped by their collector and the different celebrations we've had. In the next couple of months you will be able to search for pictures based on town or other categories.

5/11/2005
A legend among Guerneville historians, John Schubert, has graciously allowed us to add some of his photos to the site.
We have started with the flood of 1955, as seen from Guerneville. We hope to add more of John's collection in the future.
If you have any photos to contribute to this gallery please let us know.