The scenic Highway 20 corridor from Highway 101 in Willits is the choice of most modern travelers headed for the little coastal city of Fort Bragg today; however, the trek to reach this outpost in the mid-nineteenth century was quite a struggle.
In 1857 Lieutenant Horatio Gibson was dispatched to the North Coast to establish a military base one mile north of the Noyo River on land that had once been Mendocino Indian Reservation. He named the outpost Fort Bragg. This seaside town is often confused with the active U.S. Army Fort of the same name in North Carolina; but the name is the only thing these two places have in common. This Fort Bragg is a "good time" kind of place!
