Bodega Bay
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Bodega Bay is located on the Pacific Coast in Southwest Sonoma County. It is the gateway to the Sonoma Coast State Beach to the North, a 16 mile stretch of mostly undeveloped coastline with frequent beach access. To the South lies Tomales Bay and the Point Reyes National Seashore. Just inland, sparsely populated rolling hills are dotted with sheep and cattle ranches. The coastal hills give way to valleys where a variety of agricultural crops are grown including Sebastopol's famed Gravenstein apples and the fine wine grapes of the Russian River valley.  Although it is definitely rural in character, Bodega Bay is on the Western edge of rapidly growing Sonoma County.

 

Coast Miwok lived on the shores of Bodega Bay. There is speculation that Bodega Bay may have been Sir Francis Drake's Nova Albion landing location on the California coast.  Bodega Bay was discovered in 1775 by the Peruvian explorer Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, after whom it is named. He planned to return, but never did. In 1812, the Russian-American Company established Fort Ross about 15 mi (24 km) up the coast and began growing grain and shipping it to Alaska from Bodega Bay. The Bay remained an active harbor for shipping lumber until the 1870s, when the North Pacific Coast Railroad was built, bypassing the coast in favor of a more inland route.

 

Bodega Bay was the setting of the 1963 Alfred Hitchcock film, The Birds.

 

Bodega Head was selected by PG&E for, and construction actually started on, a nuclear power reactor in the 1960s. A large hole was dug, but construction was halted when it was discovered that the site is on a geologic fault. Opponents to the plant called it Hole in the Head, which it is still called today. PG&E sold the land to the state of California for one dollar. The hole is now a freshwater pond that provides habitat for birds.