How many readers are aware that Southern Pacific Railroad owned a good chunk of the land between the Albion and Navarro Rivers out to Comptche? No, the company wasn’t planning to build an extension of their railroad on this land…they needed timber. Did you know Southern Pacific Railroad once owned a chunk of the county and would be happy to sell logged-over lands in 1940? Shown: detail of just the Comptche area from the 1940 map, “Southern Pacific Land Company Lands[... see full page]

Recently, the Kelley House received an email from a woman named Heather requesting any history we might have on a house located at 11275 Lansing Street. We love questions like this, as we’ve been collecting information on structures and the people who occupied them for almost 50 years, and we’re eager to share what we have. But we were stumped. The inquirer called it “the McCloud House.” Database and file searching revealed no such house or persons of that name in[... see full page]

We want to share once again some excerpts from the oral history project that was created back in 2000 by the students of Ryan Olson Day’s Options Class at the Mendocino Middle School. With the help of Steven Jordan and a grant obtained by Deena Zarlin, they made audio recordings of their interviews with 12 “Old Timers,” who told the kids what it was like living here on the Coast in the first part of the 20th century. Richie’s interview was[... see full page]

The staff at the Kelley House Museum never cease to be amazed by the material the public presents to us as gifts. Take Auggie Heeser’s book, “First Lessons in Arithmetic” by William J. Milne, Ph. D., LL D. given to us by former Mendocino resident Deborah White. A twelve-year old Auggie Heeser in 1889 and his math textbook. (Kelley House Museum, from the collection of Robert J. Lee, Ukiah, CA) As a former College of the Redwoods math instructor, somebody bought it[... see full page]

Christmas is going to be different this year. 2020 has been a difficult year of anxiety, separation, and loss and with the holidays, we should be looking forward to getting together with friends and loved ones to celebrate the season.  Tintype image of Richard T. Bourns, a civil war soldier, dressed in a Union Army uniform posing against a painted backdrop of a Civil War camp, c1865.  Instead of gathering, we will be isolating as we are reminded of the pandemic that[... see full page]

Over the past few weeks or so the history of libraries on the Mendocino Coast has been explored in this Kelley House column. Here is the last segment on library growth on the South Coast. How do you move a Library? One book at a time in a human chain from one location to another in Pt. Arena as the Coast Community Library book collection moved into its new home. (Courtesy of Coast Community Library) Given that there were reading rooms before[... see full page]