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About Katy Tahja

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So far Katy Tahja has created 86 blog entries.

Albion Estuary Ecology from 1949

The Albion Field Station of Pacific Union College has produced an amazing body of work after 60 years of research on myriad topics relating to the Mendocino Coast. Thirty years ago, Dr. Richard White was publishing “Mendocino Medicine and Gazetteer” and highlighted the station’s research on natural history. Here’s some information on the Albion area I’d bet most folks don’t know exists. Railroad Slough on [...]

By |2023-01-13T10:31:18-08:00February 10, 2022|

Historic Postcards Find a New Home

Katy Tahja Below is a tale of serendipity that illustrates the talents of one of our most enthusiastic (and smart) volunteers – Ms. Katy Tahja. Her ability to bring together seemingly unrelated facts and recall items from years ago make her a great storyteller and one of our most valued supporters. The chatter in the Kelley House archives sounded something like this…”Does anyone know [...]

By |2023-01-13T11:22:10-08:00February 3, 2022|

Incendiary Balloons in the Northwest

An event happened during World War II in Oregon that could have easily happened on the Mendocino Coast if Mother Nature’s winds had blown farther south.  Unidentified volunteer searching the sky for enemy aircraft and exploding balloons at the Comptche Aircraft Warning Station, c. 1945. According to the Mendocino Beacon, “The service is all voluntary but the best information we have is that there must [...]

By |2023-01-15T09:01:11-08:00January 27, 2022|

History Tidbits of Orr Hot Springs

As a Kelley House docent researching a book on the Orr Hot Springs area, I have amassed more information than I could ever possibly use in what I plan to be a small publication on the subject. While the who, what, when, where, why and how facts get arranged into chronological order, it’s the odd, poorly documented tidbits of information that keep distracting me. Postcard [...]

By |2023-01-17T10:26:59-08:00December 30, 2021|

Elise Kelley Drexler

Mendocino County produced many memorable women, but one proudly declared her occupation as “Capitalist.” This was Elise Drexler, daughter of Mendocino coast pioneers William and Eliza Kelley. A side portrait of the Kelley’s second daughter, Elise, in her twenties. Born in 1866, she was educated at the public schools here, and then at a girls’ private school, and later went to Mills College in [...]

By |2023-01-17T11:56:47-08:00December 16, 2021|

A Contest of Wills

The old MacCallum family of Mendocino included not just Alex and Daisy, but also their children, Donald and Jean. We don’t know a great deal about these two. Neither married.  A view of the south and east elevations of the MacCallum House from Albion Street, taken at about the time of Daisy Kelley MacCallum’s death. A flag pole in the front yard was erected in [...]

By |2023-01-18T11:04:14-08:00November 25, 2021|

Historical Geography of Mendocino County

Here is another fascinating look into county history left to us by the late Dr. Richard White’s “Mendocino Medicine and Gazetteer.” In the 1990s, White published this small magazine of rural health information for medical practitioners and always made space for writings about his science and nature interests. Deborah White of Ukiah loaned bound volumes of his writings to the Kelley House Museum so that we [...]

By |2023-01-19T11:11:35-08:00September 16, 2021|

Mendo High School Yearbooks Need New Homes

Following hot on the heels of our wonderfully fun and successful “History and More” book sale, here's another chance to capture a bit of Mendocino history. And if you're a local from a long-time family, you might find your ancestors.  Three of the twenty-six volumes of the Mendocino High School Yearbooks that Kelley House Museum would like to find new homes for. These covers reflect the [...]

By |2021-06-10T01:49:00-07:00June 10, 2021|

History & More Book Sale

Fundraisers are always appropriate for a small museum when coming out of tough times. So, Kelley House will host a HISTORY & MORE book sale on Saturday, May 29th, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the east porch of the museum.  Find unusual books this Saturday at the Kelley House Book Sale, May 29 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on our East Porch. Parking on [...]

By |2021-05-27T01:01:00-07:00May 27, 2021|

Prehistory at Albion Head

An archaeology dig of a Native American camp site on Albion Head? Yes! Of course, it was 40 years ago, but the late Dr. Richard White wrote about it in a short feature story called Prehistory of Albion, found in issue 42 of his “Mendocino Medicine and Gazetteer.” An Albion flintknapper used obsidian stone, bottom left, to produce a new projectile point, similar to artifacts found [...]

By |2021-04-29T02:36:00-07:00April 29, 2021|

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