Ah, Rohnertpark. The friendly city. Can you tell the ethos of a city from a slogan? You bet it and you know that at Rohnert Park, the Beaver Cleaver vibe is paramount. You seem to have succeeded when local residents’ opinions are your barometer. Keep this in mind when I tell you it was a real struggle to find some juicy dark bits of history there. I mean that as a compliment. This is a city that did exactly what it should do: take a blank sheet of paper and turn it into a city that works.

The official story is boring: the land that is now Rohnert Park was the home of the Coast Miwok Indians. John Reed was the first English-speaking settler north of San Francisco. He built a house on high ground near Crane Creek, but was discouraged by the remaining Miwoks, pocketed his tail and returned to the San Rafael Mission to lick his wounds. He became the first of a series of absent landowners: General Vallejo founded Rancho Cotate, giving Juan Castaneda, one of his soldiers, land instead of cash, which he was chronically short of. Meanwhile, the mission system inexorably reduced the Miwok and evicted them from the land by various means; none of them good. Senor Castaneda eventually sold the land to Thomas Larkin, who sold it to Thomas Ruckel, who sold it to Dr. Thomas Page sold (not a word on whether it was a federal condition that the buyer be called Thomas, but it’s fine with me if it was). Dr. Page’s story was told well enough in my Cotati piece, so I’ll move on to modern times from here.

The land that was absent from this succession of absent fellows was referred to as the “low black meadow land”. Soil land is usually rich arable land, but this meadow has been exposed to flooding and was mainly used for grazing. That changed when Waldo Emerson Rohnert bought the land in 1929 and developed a successful irrigation system that consisted of a two-foot hill in the center of the field and two-foot ditches on the sides. Waldo Rohnert was another absent landlord, and when he died he passed the resulting seed farm on to his son Fred. Fred was absent too, but from his Hollister office he made the seed farm a success.

Fast forward to 1954 when Golis and Frederick’s law firm turned its attention to developing the area into a housing development for Sonoma County’s rapidly growing population after World War II. Telling you this part of the story in detail would glaze your eyes unless you were in the housing industry and it would take up the rest of this month’s Gazette. The basics: Golis and Frederick imagined eight neighborhoods, each built around a school and a park. They imaginatively enough named these neighborhoods A through G. The streets in these neighborhoods were named accordingly, A section with A names and so on. Over time (1966 to be precise) Sonoma State College was born.

I sincerely apologize if this little story piece glazed your eyes anyway, despite my best efforts. I admit it’s the furthest from spicy. Remember, “May you live in interesting times” is a Chinese curse. Rohnert Park has largely avoided this curse, and the many young families who raise their children and send them to their neighborhood school and watch them play in the neighborhood park is all very well and good. The Cleavers would be happy in Rohnert Park.

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ROHNERT PARK (CBS SF) – A stubborn mountain lion that resulted in a lockdown at two middle schools in Rohnert Park on Monday morning has been calmed and removed from the area, public safety officials said.

The Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety said both Evergreen and Lawrence Jones Middle Schools were closed after a mountain lion walked on a nearby trail in the Five Creek Trail and Crane Creek Trail area east of Eagle Park.

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The mountain lion was seen with a tracking device and is known to the State Department of Fish and Wildlife, Rohnert Park DPS told.

Fish and wildlife officials arrived around 10 a.m. Monday to calm the lion and return it to its regular migration area. As of 10:47 a.m., the lock on Lawrence Jones Middle School was lifted and the lock on Evergreen Elementary School was due to end shortly.

DPS said it received a call on Monday morning that the mountain lion was sighted on the creek path.

Mountain lion with tracking device near Evergreen and Lawrence Jones Middle Schools in Rohnert Park. (Rohnert Park Public Safety Department)

Finding the mountains beyond the Evergreen Elementary isn’t hard, and Fish and Wildlife officials say this lion didn’t wander too far.

“Technically, the mountain lion was still in its home range,” said Ken Paglia, public information officer with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “It was on the far western edge of his home range, and about 300 to 1,800 feet east of his position was a wide open area. It wasn’t really out of place. “

The five-year-old female cat was previously given a collar by a local researcher and is believed to have some neurological problems.

“Our biologists have determined that it is unsafe on its feet,” said Paglia. “Perhaps something happened to the mountain lion in the past. It could have gotten into a car accident, it could have gotten into a fight, but it’s not the healthiest lion. “

“I came outside because I heard the helicopter, and then my neighbors actually told me that it was because there was a mountain lion in the creek,” said Taylor Tischbern, resident of Rohnert Park.

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Conservation advocate Josh Rosenau of the Mountain Lion Foundation says these sightings are more common between the spread of cameras and people moving further into nature.

“A lot of people move out to be closer to these forests and are then a little surprised when things suddenly come from the forest into their backyard,” he told KPIX 5.

Mountain lion sightings in the Bay Area have increased in recent months.

Mountain lions have been caught in the shadow of surveillance cameras in Millbrae. A handful of residents in the Oakland Hills and Piedmont said they saw mutilated deer carcasses in their neighborhood. One wildcat was even caught in a tree in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights neighborhood and transported to the Oakland Zoo, while another broke into a San Bruno home full of wildlife trophies.

More than half of the state is Mountain Lion Territory, and it’s not uncommon for them to show up in unexpected places, according to officials with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The species usually migrates during the dry season in search of plenty of food and water, but it could travel further than usual as drought conditions increase and deer population declines, department spokesman Ken Paglia said.

“Be aware that we share the state with other wildlife, like mountain lions or bears, they are nearby,” said Paglia. “While they can be potentially dangerous, they are usually in the city looking for food resources and not there to harm us.”

Despite recent sightings, it is rare for a mountain lion to be attacked.

“We want to make sure the public is safe, but we also want the animal to live its life in its own habitat. That is probably the best solution, ”said Paglia.

Installing motion center lights around the property, keeping pets indoors at night, and storing food appropriately are some of the ways residents can avoid encounters with mountain lions. Further tips and tricks from the Mountain Lion Foundation can be found at https://issuu.com/mountainlionfoundation/docs/cdfw_mlf_conflict_brochure_booklet_final_2020.

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Andria Borba contributed to this report.

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