Cyrus Alexander and the Valley That Bears His Name

The Alexander Valley just northeast of town is named for a Pennsylvania trapper who came here with a beaver pelt reputation and left as a landowner. Cyrus Alexander was born in eighteen oh five and spent his young years trapping in the Rocky Mountains before drifting to California in the eighteen thirties. He went to work for Captain Henry Fitch and became a Mexican citizen.

In eighteen forty Fitch sent him north to scout for good cattle country, and Alexander found it in this river valley. From eighteen forty one to eighteen forty five he managed Fitch's Rancho Sotoyome under a deal that promised him two square leagues of land and a share of the stock at the end of four years. He built an adobe home on the east side of the Russian River, married Rufina Lucero, and settled into the valley that now carries his name.

Later he even helped found a school in Healdsburg. When he tried to formalize his two square leagues, the federal Land Commission rejected part of the claim, a reminder that even a founder could get tangled in the same title fights that plagued everyone here. Cyrus Alexander died on his ranch in eighteen seventy two, and the great wine valley kept his name.