Editing Fort Bragg, California (section)

=== 1893–1916 ===
The Union Lumber Company was incorporated in 1891 by absorbing some of the smaller lumber companies in the area. Some of the new company lands were in the Noyo River watershed east of Fort Bragg making removal of logs difficult by rail, unless a tunnel was built. Johnson hired experienced Chinese tunnel builders from San Francisco. After completion of the tunnel, most of the Chinese settled in Fort Bragg and Mendocino. A six-walled Chinese town was built at Redwood and McPherson. Older residents say that eventually most of the Chinese children moved elsewhere.

In 1901, the Union Lumber Company incorporated the National Steamship Company to carry lumber, passengers and supplies. As the only link to manufactured creature comforts, staples like sugar and coffee were delivered by steamship. In 1905, the California Western Railroad and Navigation Company was established and plans were pushed to get the rail line all the way to Willits, where train connections to the Northwestern Pacific would link to San Francisco.

The [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] resulted in a fire that threatened the saw mill and the city. Within Fort Bragg itself, all brick buildings were damaged. Only two were not destroyed completely. Many frame houses were knocked off their piers. The fire downtown burned the entire block bordered by Franklin, Redwood and McPherson Streets, plus the west side of Franklin. The west Franklin block burned down to approximately one half a block beyond the intersection of Redwood and Franklin.

After the earthquake, most downtown reconstruction was completed within 12 months. Coincidentally, the earthquake brought prosperity to Fort Bragg as the mills furnished lumber to rebuild San Francisco, and the lumber ships returning from San Francisco were ballasted with bricks used for rebuilding Fort Bragg.<ref name="bricks">{{Cite news|url=https://www.sfgate.com/restaurants/article/Fort-Bragg-Bakery-oven-rises-again-3276376.php|last=Moon|first=Freda|title=Fort Bragg Bakery oven rises again|newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle|location=San Francisco, CA|publisher=Hearst Publications|date=January 7, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190824105938/https://www.sfgate.com/restaurants/article/Fort-Bragg-Bakery-oven-rises-again-3276376.php|archive-date=August 24, 2019|url-status=dead|access-date=February 24, 2011}}</ref> With the new prosperity, the rail line to Willits was completed and in 1912 the first tourists came to Fort Bragg. By 1916 Fort Bragg had become a popular place to visit—and to settle.