ONE HUNDREDTH POST: Five things I didn't know about Mount Hermon

1.  It was the site of California's first water-powered sawmill (in 1841). One of the owners was Isaac Graham, who also ran a distillery and later owned land which is now Ano Nuevo State Park; another was Peter Lassen, a Danish immigrant and promoter for whom Lassen Volcanic National Par (among many other sites) is named.

2.  In 1906, the group which became the Mount Hermon Association purchased land and buildings to use as a Christian retreat and conference center at a stop on the South Coast Pacific Railroad. After the original buildings were destroyed by a fire in 1921, the Association rebuilt on the same property.

3.  Mount Hermon Christian Conference Center operates on much of the original property. The community also has several hundred privately owned homes, a post office, a bookstore and an ice cream fountain. The census designated place covers an area of just under a square mile, with a population of just over a thousand people living in about 400 households.

4.  Each of the three Mount Hermon facilities of the Association can handle groups up to 500 people, and each has at least one ropes course or climbing wall.

5.  The Mount Hermon June beetle (Polyphylla barbata) is an endangered insect found only in areas with Zayante sand hills ecosystem, which includes Mount Hermon (but not nearby Felton). I have never seen one, for which I am grateful, because I'm scared of June beetles.

-- Mindy