History of Sonoma County's Narrow Gauge Railroad

Presentation with Dr. Mara Vejby and Dr. Jay S. Reti

Thursday, November 3, 7:00-8:30pm

Laguna Environmental Center, 900 Sanford Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95401

$10 per person. Pre-registration required: www.lagunafoundation.org

Northern California used to have a complex network of train lines carrying passengers and cargo across the state. One line in particular, the North Pacific Coast narrow gauge line, connected San Francisco, by way of the ferry in Sausalito, to the Russian River redwoods in Cazadero. For roughly sixty years this line ran through twelve towns, most of which shrunk significantly once the narrow gauge line was discontinued in the 1930s: Sausalito, San Rafael, Ross, San Anselmo, Point Reyes Station, Tomales, Valley Ford, Freestone, Occidental, Camp Meeker, Duncans Mills, and Cazadero. Come learn more about this railroad network and about the lives and towns it changed.

Dr. Mara Vejby is an archaeologist at Santa Rosa Junior College, College of Marin, and Sonoma State University. She is also the Director of Locality Research and Preservation, connecting communities to their pasts and preserving a link to these histories through public outreach and engagement. Dr. Vejby’s interest in people’s interactions with the past has shaped her research on the Roman reuse of prehistoric sites in Gaul, as well as her current work to highlight and preserve our local history and archaeology. 

Dr. Jay S. Reti is an archaeologist at UC Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa Junior College.  His research reconstructs how technology evolved and how technological systems were taught and inherited over time.  Dr. Reti's PhD research focused on two million-year-old stone tools found in Kenya and Tanzania, and he is a project researcher for Locality Research and Preservation.

For more information, visit www.lagunafoundation.org   

Or contact Anita Smith, Public Education Manager, Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation

(707) 527-9277 x 110, anita@lagunafoundation.org

The Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation works to restore and conserve the Laguna de Santa Rosa, 

and to inspire public appreciation for this Wetland of International Importance.