In the first season of the Mendocino Music Festival 40 years ago, there were eight concerts in a small yellow and black striped tent on the headlands. All were classical music, four performed by an orchestra and four by a chamber group. This season, which begins on July 11th, there will be 27 concerts performed in a spacious white tent by a mix of musicians playing [...]
Mendocino has a long tradition of Independence Day celebrations, very traditional in the good old days, and rather idiosyncratic in recent years. Regardless of where the festivities have fallen on the flag-waving spectrum, however, all of them have shared certain elements: eating, drinking, marching, and blowing things up. As we prepare to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States of America, we are also marking [...]
Walter Jackson playing a mandolin, 1910. Walter Arnold Jackson was born October 7, 1888 in Washington Territory, fourteen months before Washington became a state. In 1885, his parents, William A. and Harriet Jane (Wymer) Jackson “took up” a timber claim about 20 miles west of Sequim, Washington Territory, where Jackson relatives living nearby assured them opportunities were good. Prior to living in Washington, William [...]
The facts of the case are mostly undisputed. The only question that remains unanswered is whether saloon owner J. W. Barton was intoxicated when he fired his gun at Joseph M. Garvin, missing his head “by the fraction of an inch.” Joe was the proprietor of “Mendocino’s Cheap Cash Store,” a general merchandise establishment on Lansing Street, located where GoodLife Café & Bakery is today. Between [...]
CATTLE INVADE GARAGE - this odd headline appeared on the front page of the October 13, 1928 Mendocino Beacon. The story goes on to say, “A band of some 60 head of dairy cows being driven up the coast were going through Mendocino and when passing the S. & E. Garage, spied the big open doors, and evidently taking it for a barn, they rushed in, [...]
Tying the Knot is open now at the Kelley House Museum Travel back in time and down the aisle at the Kelley House Museum during “Tying the Knot: Bridal Fashion Unveiled,” which opens June 4, 2026 and runs through August 31, 2026. This exhibit features archival photographs, artwork, and seven pieces of historic clothing worn by Mendocino brides from the mid-1860s to 1978. This [...]
The Kelley House Museum recently accepted a donation of items related to the Kelley family, passed down to a descendant of Otis Kelley, William and Eliza’s youngest child. Most of the items relate to the first generation of Kelleys born in Mendocino, primarily Daisy MacCallum and Elise Drexler. Daisy was a dedicated diarist. When we accessioned a collection of 27 diaries written by Kelley family women [...]
Katy Tahja posing with books available at the annual Kelley House Book Sale. While gathering books for the Kelley House Museum book sale, some real treasures materialize! This annual sale takes place on Sunday, May 24 from 10am to 3pm. Why would Mendocino’s K-8 School Library be donating what looks like useful teacher reference books? The internet is one answer, and the age of [...]
Norman de Vall for Supervisor. Matchbook Cover, 1978. (Gift of Bruce Levene) Mendocino recently lost two beloved residents, both of whom had a special connection to the Kelley House Museum. Norman de Vall and Rick Sacks will be missed by many in the community. In late 2019, the Kelley House exhibited “Wind & Water: The Nautical Collection of Norman de Vall.” The exhibit showcased [...]
The first dirt track auto races on the coast were held right here in Mendocino, where Headlands State Park now exists. Organizers of the 1921 Apple Fair wanted the Fair “to be bigger and better than ever” by adding auto and horse races and a rodeo. Joshua Grindle, president of the Fair Association, appointed committees and set the plan in motion. A location for the track [...]