If there is such a thing as a best-kept secret in Fort Bragg, Otis Johnson Wilderness Park is it.
The forest is nestled above Pudding Creek but isn”t visible from any road or street. Many locals report they have never visited the seven acres of towering redwoods, pines and firs, rising from canyon walls decorated by ferns.
The City of Fort Bragg hopes to change that with special tours and a meeting this Saturday, Sept. 15. Locals will be asked to share their ideas for the park, which will be quickly parlayed into a plan, to be presented and discussed later on Saturday. The city has hired Sally Sheridan, who is helping with the coastal trail design, to lead the public meeting and draw up a plan that day.
The park can be accessed on foot from two city parking lots, one at the east end of Laurel Street and the other on Cedar Street, just beyond the north end of Lincoln Street.
There will be signs posted on Saturday showing the way to the tours, which will start at the bottom of the staircase off Laurel.
“The schedule is: 9 to 11 a.m for drop-in tours at the park and collect comments and suggestions,” said Jennifer Owen, city grant writer. “We will meet at the bottom of the stairway and road; we”ll have a table there and greet people. Then, from 4 to 5 p.m., we will meet at the middle school cafeteria to review a draft plan, share ideas, etc. If it”s raining heavily, we will do the morning session in the middle school cafeteria as well,” Owen said.
Responding to concerns from neighbors, the city has made a major effort over the past year to make the park more attractive to its users. The city now has a pair of caretakers, including this reporter, who help the city clean up the park and eliminate graffiti.
The number of families using the park has increased greatly in the past year and city officials hope more people will enjoy the park, which has gentle and steep hiking trails. City representatives will be discussing the idea of forming a “Friends of Otis Johnson Wilderness Park” group.
Otis Johnson
If many residents don”t know about this local treasure, far more obscure is Otis R. Johnson himself.
Nancy Phillips led a research effort at city hall and found out by calling local historians who Johnson was to Fort Bragg. Perhaps “favorite son” of Fort Bragg would be a way to identify him, as his father was C.R. Johnson, the man often called the father of Fort Bragg itself.
C.R. Johnson was the founder of the Fort Bragg Redwood Company in 1885 which became the Union Lumber Company in 1891. He was proud of the town he helped incorporate and was the town”s first mayor in 1889. He created what is now the Guest House Museum to entertain lumber guests and the mill manager.
While there are many Websites and a museum for C.R. Johnson, much less is known about his son. A Google search turns up only references to the park, and very few of those.
“Otis Johnson was mayor and ran the town,” Phillips said she learned.
City files show that the park was purchased when Marion Johnson of San Francisco, the widow of Otis R. Johnson gave $44,850 in Boise Cascade Company stock so that the park could be purchased for $39,500 in his name. The gift came with the caveat that the park could never be developed, but was to be enjoyed in its natural state, hence the full name “Otis R. Johnson Wilderness Park.”
The city hopes to get input from locals on Saturday on how to apply for a California Rivers Parkway Program grant, under Proposition 50, which passed in 2002. That grant application must be submitted by Friday, Oct. 19. Owen said the city could use the information gained from citizens on Saturday to apply for other grants as well.
