Before 1850, the Pomo peoples occupied much of California’s North Coast, with the Navarro River forming the boundary between the Northern and Central Pomo, and Navarro Beach serving seasonally as a place to gather shellfish, fish, seaweed, game, and salt, while sedges, roots, other vegetation, shells, feathers, and magnesite beads were used to create beautiful and practical baskets. Scottish sailor Captain Charles Fletcher arrived in 1851 as the first European settler on the Navarro Estuary, sold most of his land in 1860, and after a lumber mill was built there in 1861, milled wood was carried by train along the river’s north bank and loaded by pier onto schooners waiting at the river’s “doghole.” In 1865 Fletcher built and operated the Navarro Inn as a boarding facility for sailors on cargo vessels taking on timber shipments, and its front porch was regarded as a safe haven for Pomos passing through the rough mill town. Fletcher also operated a ferry and built ships for the lumber coasting trade. After a devastating fire destroyed the first mill and part of the town in 1890, he continued running the Inn as a stage stop until his death in 1902. The Inn remained in the Fletcher family until 1926 and continued serving coast travelers, later also becoming a summer retreat for inland families as automobile travel grew more common. From the late 1930s, cottages, a store, and a gas station were added, and in 1948 part of the front porch was enclosed to create a separate bar as the property became the popular dinner and roadhouse Navarro-by-the-Sea under a series of owners until the 1980s. After years of closure and deterioration, the property was acquired by the California Department of Parks and Recreation in 1996. In 2000, Navarro-by-the-Sea Center was formed to work with California State Parks to preserve the Inn and open it as a public visitor center; in 2009 the Navarro Inn and nearby Mill House were listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the Inn was stabilized in 2013 as renovation work continued.