Virtual Guidebook to the Northern California Coast and Coast Ranges
Rio Dell
Humboldt County California

Rio Dell grew up as a complement to the prim company town of Scotia across the river. Its south end, known as Wildwood, was where the millworkers and lumberjacks went to raise hell, a ramshackle street of saloons and bawdy houses. Today Rio Dell shows no trace of this colorful past, it is just a strip of modest houses and roadside businesses along Wildwood Avenue.

Monument Road leads west from town up the hill to the survey monument where the Humboldt Meridian and Baseline originate. Bear River Road leads on across the ridgetops to the Mattole River and Cape Mendocino.