McNear: Mendocino lumber firm employed thousands from the 1870s to the mid-’50s

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.