Russ Island is a mostly-submerged island in the Napa River, in Napa and Solano Counties, California. It was reclaimed in the late 19th century, and spent many years as productive farmland; in the 1950s, however, it was purchased by the Leslie Salt Company, and deliberately submerged to serve as an evaporation pond for salt production. The company allowed parts of it to be used for duck hunting. By the 1990s, it was acquired by the California Department of Fish and Game, who turned it into a wildlife preserve, and allowed it to return to marshland; it is now managed as part of the Napa-Sonoma Marshes Wildlife Area, and is open to hunting, fishing, birdwatching, photography and hiking activities.
Geography
Russ Island is located in the Napa River, upstream of San Pablo Bay (an embayment of San Francisco Bay). Its north end is in Napa County and its south end is in Solano County. Russ Island is bounded to east by the Napa River, beyond which is the city of American Canyon. To its southeast, on the other side of the Napa River, is Vallejo. To its south is South Slough (beyond which is Knight Island) and to its southwest is China Slough (beyond which is Island No. 2). To its west is Devils Slough, beyond which is Little Island; to its north is Napa Slough, beyond which are Coon Island and Edgerley Island.
The United States Geological Survey measured its elevation as in 1981. However, it is mostly flooded: in 1998, it was described as "marshy with tall tulles and mud flats, making it impossible to use a wheeled vehicle".
History
Initial settlement and farming
An official 1876 map of Napa County shows many islands of the Napa River in their present locations, albeit divided by levees and sloughs along different boundaries than they would later come to have. The land currently comprising Russ Island was shown, on this map, divided between a number of landowners: Harper & Langstaff, L.A. Bly, J.W. Pearson & Co., H.H. Gray, S. Gracy, H.S. King, F. Oppenheim, and J. Hughes. By 1895, the only landowners on the island were shown as L.A. Bly, W.J. Little, and C.E. Davis. By 1902, a United States Geological Survey map shows Russ Island as one mostly contiguous island, but covered in marsh and crossed by numerous sloughs; by 1916, USGS maps show it as being almost fully surrounded by levees. On the 1916 survey, as well as a 1942 survey, it is mislabeled as nearby "Knight Island"; however, by 1949 the error was corrected, and it is shown as "Russ Island" in all maps thereafter.
In 1914, Frank E. Knight was leasing the island from the Z. Russ & Sons Company and the Russ Investment Company. In May of that year, Russ's workers entered the island "for the purpose of repairing the levees, promising to protect [Knight]'s interests there"; Knight alleged that "the work was so done that the levees were partially destroyed, the sluice gates ruined and the wharves demolished". Knight subsequently filed a lawsuit against Russ in January 1916, seeking damages of $26,500 ($ in ).
In 1921, Russ Island was one of the "better known" of multiple islands lying in "an area of very fertile delta lands lying in the triangle whose points are Vallejo, Napa and Ignacio, which is bounded on the west by the Nama River, and on the northeast by Sonoma Creek, and other sloughs". The area, at the time, was not "traveled by any through country or State road"; a city engineer of nearby Vallejo proposed to build a highway through the area.
In 1926, a large plot of Harding grass was "doing well" on the island; by November 1926, it was "doing exceptionally well".
Incinerator proposal
In April 1932, the Napa Fertilizer and Reduction Company (whose partners included one William N. Russ) planned to acquire a 25-year garbage disposal contract with the City and County of San Francisco; it proposed to construct a garbage incinerator on Russ Island.