River Mountain Guest Ranch is located just three miles downstream of where the first discovery of gold on the Trinity River occurred in 1848.  Major Pierson B. Reading, along with his party of mostly Wintu Native Americans, extracted over $80,000 (the equivalent of $2.6 million today) in gold in just six weeks before he was forced to abandon his claim over objections to his use of Indian labor.  Despite his short time on this claim, the era of the Trinity Gold Rush was on!  As a result, Douglas City quickly sprang to a population of 1200 and boasted of three trading shops, a public house, a saloon, two blacksmith shops, and two butcher shops.  

In 1850, Benjamin Steiner claimed 160 acres on a flat just downriver from Major Pierson's claim and planted orchards and gardens to sell produce to the miners.  Steiner's ranch extended to another 160 acre claim downstream belonging to a Swiss emigrant, Warren Dutton, whose name is honored by a tributary that flows into the Trinity from his original ranch.  It was also around this time that one of the best stage roads in the county connected the flat with Weaverville in the big valley, and daily stages hauled in supplies and hauled out gold.

By 1860, as the gold became more difficult to extract and the costs of large-scale mining operations cut deeply into profits, the local population had dropped to 90 residents.  In the 1860s, Henry Lorenz started purchasing property for grazing cattle and continued gold mining operations in the area.  The Lorenz family, including sons Grover and Bill, Grover's wife Louise, and their son Floyd, mined their claim well into the 20th century and all played a part in the rich history of this area.  In 1965, the Lorenz family sold off portions of the ranch, and today much of what remains of the original Steiner, Dutton, and Lorenz ranches is public land managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Land Management except for the few remaining privately held lands, including the parcels that make up River Mountain Guest Ranch.