According to the late Charlotte Hoak, daughter of one of the first settlers in Comptche, the town was named after Compatche, a Pomo chief who brought his people through that beautiful area seasonally, as a part of their hunting and gathering, nomadic life. The Pomos told her his name means, “in the valley among the hills, beside the river of potholes”—quite a lot for only one little word. It doesn’t do justice to such a lovely place, but does seem to be a more appropriate name for the town than for the chief. Other than one Spaniard who obtained a Mexican land grant prior to 1848, there is scant evidence of settlers in the area until the late 1850s/early 1860s.
Louis Gonsalves Ranch, c. 1900. (Gift of Robert J. Lee)
The first Comptche settlers followed the Pomos’ trail about 32 miles west from the small village of Ukiah, bringing their supplies in on foot or horseback, or on the backs of hired Pomo laborers. About 15 miles west they passed Orr’s Springs, named after Samuel Orr who moved his family from Kentucky in 1850 and bought the springs in 1858 (from Barry Wright who had bought the land from the Spaniard with the original Mexican land grant). Orr built a three-story inn for travelers and visitors to his sulphur springs. Six miles further west was where Francisco Faria homesteaded some property with Nathaniel Smith in 1863, after selling his property in Cuffey’s Cove. A few miles further west was a Pomo campground complete with sweathouse, and just beyond that was the Andrew and Elizabeth Montgomery homestead, later to become Montgomery State Park.
Continuing west another six miles was the Newman Hoak Ranch, the first Comptche house along the trail, about a mile and one-half east of where Comptche Corners would later develop. James Rice from Ohio laid claim to that property in 1857, but soon thereafter married Caroline Coombs of Little River and moved there; he turned his interest over to his business partner, Newman Hoak, who completed the purchase. Hoak was from Maine and had spent many years at sea as a captain before becoming a lumberman. Hoak was the first to log in Comptche and later became superintendent for the Albion Logging Company. Hoak’s house was built around 1860 and his family lived in it for 40 years.
Close by the Hoaks were the Danish Oppenlanders. In 1866, Charles Henry Oppenlander and his wife Ida bought 160 acres in Comptche from William Kelley (who had purchased much of what was to become Comptche as a part of his lumber holdings). They started the Oppenlander Ranch, which later was to grow to 2,707 acres. In 1873 Oppenlander also bought property some eight miles east and built an inn which became the Halfway House, and for many years was a stopping place for the Mendocino-Ukiah stages.
Oppenlander came to Comptche with another Dane named John Christian Ottoson. They both had worked for the Mendocino Lumber Company in 1865, cutting hay in two adjoining valleys, and when Oppenlander bought property in one valley, Ottoson bought in the other. He brought his wife and three children from Denmark, and built a home not far from the present Comptche Corners. When Chief Compatche finally passed away, after moving through the Comptche area with his tribe many times, he was buried on a knoll just west of the Ottoson property.
Not much further west was where Andrew Jackson Mack homesteaded after crossing the country in a covered wagon in the 1850s. Mack was part Sioux and always had friendly powwows with the Pomos, whenever they passed through. About five miles west of Comptche Corners along the road to Mendocino is the property granted to William Host and his wife in 1869; Host became constable and he started the search for the famous Mendocino Outlaws in 1879. It is on and around his property that the wild logging camp of Melburne developed, including saloons and bordellos. But after the trees were cut, it quickly disintegrated, so there remain few signs of that town.
West of the Hosts was the Louis Gonsalves ranch. The second homestead claim in Comptche was filed by Francisco Faria for his cousin Louis Gonsalves, who also came from the island of Pico in the Azores. Gonsalves arrived in 1864, and soon brought over and married his fiancee. As a reward for acquiring the property for Gonsalves before he arrived and became a citizen, Gonsalves gave Faria one acre, on which Francisco built a cottage and a saloon sometime in the early 1870s, after he sold his property out on Orr’s Springs Road. The Gonsalves property is about as far west as you can be and still consider yourself in Comptche.
In the 1870s, in came the Thomsons, the Philbricks, Crocketts, Gibsons and Collins; the Russells moved into Comptche from Orr’s Springs. Then the McDonalds and a host of others arrived. The road was good enough to support a stage coach line in the early ’70s, the post office started in 1877, and the first school opened in 1884.
There were supposed to have been about 100 families out there in the later 1800s. I don’t think the town is that much larger today. Comptche is just a magical secret place where around a hundred fortunate people enjoy living in some of the most beautiful country in the world. May it always stay that way. Thanks to the late Elsa Thompson for her 1973 booklet, “Early Settlers of Comptche.”
Reprinted from the March 6, 2003 Mendocino Beacon
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