It is named after Spy Rock, a 540 ft landmark hill on the east side of the river, and The Wildlands Conservancy operates the 5,832 acres Spyrock reserve in the area.[4][5][6]
A post office operated at Spyrock from 1910 to 1911, and from 1915 to 1967.[7] Spy Rock Elementary School located on Spy Rock Road is in Laytonville Unified school district,[8] although Spy Rock previously had its own school district.[9]
There was a station on the railroad named Spy Rock which until 1914 was named Redwine.[10]
In 1982 a Petroglyph site was discovered beside Spy Rock Road which provided the first evidence of complex rock art boulders in the western United States.[11][12]
^"Let's Get Antiquated". The Press Democrat. September 19, 1971. p. 55. Retrieved April 22, 2021.
^"Spy Rock", Santa Ana Register, p. 6, August 29, 1976, Leisure supplement, retrieved April 22, 2021
^Durham, David L. (1998). California's Geographic Names: A Gazetteer of Historic and Modern Names of the State. Clovis, Calif.: Word Dancer Press. p. 149. ISBN1-884995-14-4.