Prior to the mid-1800s, a vast forest of gigantic redwoods covered this area, with trees rising more than 350 feet and measuring 12 to 14 feet in diameter, and foliage so dense that only occasional rays of sunlight reached the fern-carpeted floor. Early Pomo Indians shunned the forest as a dwelling place of evil spirits. In 1865, a sawmill was erected on this tract of land to process the huge redwoods, and timbers from the mill were used as ties and in the construction of trestles for the transcontinental railroad completed at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869. The settlement that grew up beside the mill was first called Stumptown because early residents had to make their way through a maze of huge stumps to travel from one place to another. The name was later changed to Guerneville in honor of George E. Guerne, one of the pioneer founders of the early mill.