Rockport, California

Rockport is a former settlement in an unincorporated area of Mendocino County, California. It is located 7.25mi north-northwest of Westport, at an elevation of 30 feet .Rockport started as a small company town serving the timber industry on the Pacific Ocean coast among redwood forests in Northern California. Rockport is regarded as the southern end of the Lost Coast region; it is where State Highway 1, which runs very close along the coast for most of its length, instead turns inland before merging with U.S. Route 101 at Leggett.HistoryAround 1877, William R. Miller constructed the first sawmill at Rockport, then called Cottoneva. The mill boasted a double circular saw, edger, and planer, with the mill having a capacity of 20,000 board feet (1700ft3) of lumber per day. An unusual aspect of the site was a 270ft wire suspension bridge, built in 1877 to connect the mainland to a small island in the ocean. Ships bound for San Francisco and other ports would call at this island, sometimes called Pelican Island, to pick up the milled lumber, which would be brought across the bridge from the mainland by train.