Anderson Valley Township (1914)

This township is located in the Coast Range, almost all in and embracing the whole of the watershed of the Navarro River and a small portion of the headwaters of Dry Creek. It is 30 miles in length with a breadth varying from 8-20 miles. The arable land at present under cultivation nowhere exceeds more than a mile and for the most part only half a mile in width. Much more could be cultivated but so far has been deemed more valuable for pasture than for the plow. The southern part of the township is detached from the northern part because the main branch of the river, Rancheria Creek, has no bottomland speak of for some miles of its course opposite Boonville but further south on its extreme headwaters it again affords some tillable land. The Valley soil is a rich wash loam immediately along the creek bottoms. The bench lands are either black clover land or gravelly loam, while the pasture lands proper on the hills partake of the nature of both the last mentioned soils while the chemissal and brush lands are generally rocky and sterile. Exceptions in these latter may be found where the soil is a rich red volcanic debris that makes the best orchard and vineyard land.