This sleepy little community is just a charming bend in the road for most coastal travelers. The Northern Pacific Railroad steamed through here in 1876, potato farming flourished in the 1920s, and today most of the 126 residents are ranchers of cows or sheep. There were traffic jams in 1976 when the artist Christo installed his Running Fence, 18 feet high and 24-1⁄2 miles long, through Valley Ford. Created from pure white silk, the undulating fence snaked over green rolling hills straight into the Pacific.