When the April 1906 earthquake struck Northern California, its damage reached far beyond San Francisco. In Mendocino, the lumber mill was hit hard. The massive brick smokestack, built in 1864 and standing nearly 100 feet tall, collapsed under the force of the quake, crushing parts of the boiler room and the machine shop. While the boilers themselves escaped serious harm, the mill’s 15-ton flywheel cracked—an essential part of the engine that couldn’t easily be replaced due to the destruction of San Francisco’s foundries.
Mendocino Lumber Mill, taken from up river, after it was rebuilt from damage in the 1906 earthquake. (Gift of Emery Escola)
The structural damage to the mill was severe. Huge 20-by-20-inch foundation supports split and shifted out of place, and many of the heavy braces, mortised deep into the posts, were dislodged permanently. Water lines were broken throughout the facility, and a newly installed 20,000-gallon water tank was completely destroyed. While the main floor of the mill was spared, it took six weeks of determined effort to realign the building and get operations running again—though not at full capacity.
In the interim, the mill installed a makeshift smokestack using part of an old steamer’s stack with an extension of thin sheet iron. With no flywheel available for months, the crew took a chance and ran the engine without it. Remarkably, it worked well enough to keep the mill producing. The long-awaited replacement flywheel finally arrived seven months later, shipped in two pieces and hauled up from Little River.
By August 1907, real progress had been made. Ironworkers Edwin Graves and Charles Smith arrived on the Sea Foam to install two towering steel smokestacks—each 125 feet tall and seven feet in diameter. They finished the job in under two weeks. But coastal conditions posed new challenges. Just two years later, one of the stacks rusted through at the top and fell into the boiler room, barely missing Joe Nichols, who jumped out of the way just in time.
On Display thru June 2nd! “Don’t Panic, Eat Organic” – 50 years of the Corners Collective. Celebrate fifty years of “Corners of the Mouth,” Mendocino’s legendary worker-owned natural food store. What started as a food buying club in 1975 serving the counterculture and back to the landers, evolved into a beloved hub of the local community. Learn about the origins of the Baptist church that houses the store, admire the artistry of original hand-drawn posters and recipes, and view photos of the collective’s members from the past five decades.