Situated between Mendocino and Fort Bragg, Caspar is believed to have been named after the first Euro-American who settled there, a German trapper named Kaspar. He quickly disappears from the historic record, possibly living on the coast until the Caspar Lumber Company mill was built in 1861.
The population of Caspar didn’t begin growing until the mill opened, drawing families for the lucrative lumber jobs. William Kelley and Captain Richard T. Rundle co-founded the lumber company with several other investors. Rundle arrived in California in 1849, a few years before Kelley arrived in Mendocino. The pair were good business partners, having worked together to operate a general store on Main Street, Mendocino.
Kelley and Rundle, having seen the great money that could be made in the lumber industry, began scouting land to purchase for a mill site, eventually settling upon a tract of land in Caspar. The pair bought the land from Harry Harrison, a Norwegian who lived in Caspar for 25 years. The partners originally tried to buy Harrison’s ranch along the Noyo River, but entries in Kelley’s diary show that Harrison adamantly refused to sell it.
On November 8, the men paid Harrison $50 for the land (and later paid an additional $250 when the deed was transferred), and the next day an “outfit” of men were sent out to chop logs. The mill was built on the north bank of Caspar Creek. Kelley jointly owned the mill until 1864, when he and the other investors sold the company to Captain Jacob Green Jackson.
Jackson had moved to California in 1861, after working in rubber manufacturing in Massachusetts. When a fire destroyed his plant, he sold his patents to the Goodyear Rubber Company and headed west. Control of the Caspar Lumber Company remained in the Jackson family until it closed in 1955. Jackson died in 1901, leaving his son-in-law Henry as president, his daughter Abbie as vice-president, and his wife Elvenia as director.
Under Jackson’s leadership, a double circular saw was added, which increased output from 15,000 to 25,000 feet of lumber cut daily. In 1870, Jackson purchased an additional 69,000 acres of timberland to log. Once production began on the additional acreage, additional machinery was purchased, and output rose to 45,000 feet daily. Around 155 men were employed at the mill, and they worked an average of 14 hours a day. Four sailing schooners were operated to deliver lumber to San Francisco.
Averee McNear is curator at the Kelley House Museum in Mendocino, Calif.