[5] There is speculation that Bodega Bay may have been Sir Francis Drake's Nova Albion landing location on the California coast.

Kuskov, the Commerce Counselor of the RAC sailing in the Kodiak (also transliterated as Kadiak and Kad'iak), entered Bodega Bay on January 8, 1809.

[10] Kuskov returned to Novo Arkhangelsk, reporting abundant fur bearing mammals, fish, timber and tillable lands.

On his return trip, Kuskov found the otter population scarce in Bodega Bay, and the harbor being frequented by numerous American and British otter-hunting expeditions.

After exploring the area, they ended up selecting a place 15 mi (24 km) north that the native Kashaya Pomo people called Mad shui nui or Metini.

Metini, the seasonal home of the native Kashaya Pomo people, had a modest anchorage and abundant natural resources and would become the Russian settlement of Fort Ross.

[16] Zaliv Rumyantsev continued to be the main entrepôt for the Russian Colony until January 1842, and the earliest European structures built at Bodega Bay were the RAC wharf, warehouse, and barracks.

[17] A plan by Pacific Gas & Electric to build a nuclear power plant received significant negative attention from local citizens, beginning in 1958.

[18][19] Bodega Bay was the setting for the 1963 Alfred Hitchcock film The Birds starring Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren and Suzanne Pleshette.

[20] In October, 2017, Bodega Bay, on the northwest edge of Sonoma County, served as a site of refuge and supply depot for evacuees who are escaping from a historic, fast-moving, destructive fire in northern California, especially residents from that area.