Austin Creek

Austin Creek is a 16.0mi southward-flowing stream in the mountains of western Sonoma County, California which empties into the Russian River about 4mi from the Pacific Ocean.CourseThe creek originates in an isolated area known as The Cedars, about west of Healdsburg, California. It flows south past Layton Mine into a wooded canyon, where it joins King Ridge Road just above its confluence with Bearpen Creek. It parallels King Ridge Road to the town of Cazadero and continues south through confluences with East Austin Creek and Kidd Creek. It flows under State Route 116 at milepost 4.93 and enters the Russian River about north of the town of Duncans Mills.HistoryIn the 1885-1886, the North Pacific Coast Railroad (NWP) extended its narrow-gauge line up Austin Creek to transport lumber from Cazadero to points south. The railroad grade was later converted to road, becoming Cazadero Highway.Sonoma Magnesite CompanyThe Cedars is a distinctive woodland of trees able to grow on a formation of Mesozoic intrusive ultramafic rock. Sonoma Magnesite Company was formed in 1912 to mine the Red Slide Deposit of magnesite in The Cedars. The mineral is important for steel-making and manufacture of bricks for high-temperature applications; but cost of transportation made mining in The Cedars infeasible until World War I interrupted availability of less expensive sources. The Sonoma Magnesite Tramway, an eleven-mile-long, narrow gauge industrial railway was built in 1914 along the bank of East Austin Creek to connect the mine with Magnesia station on the NWP railroad south of Cazadero. Thirty tons of ore were calcined daily in an oil-fired rotary kiln and packed into sacks for shipping. Production ended in 1920 when magnesite again became available from less expensive sources.