View looking eastward at the remains of the Mendocino Mill after the building caught fire during its dismantling. The main steam engine has yet to be scrapped.
The third Mendocino mill was a prominent feature of the town’s lumber industry. Built in 1865, the two-story structure housed saws on its upper floor and a planing mill below. It operated for decades, enduring periodic shutdowns, but could not survive the economic downturn of the Great Depression. The mill experienced a major closure from 1931 to 1934, reopening briefly for intermittent operations from 1934 to 1936 before being shuttered again. Its final operation came in 1938 when it processed logs salvaged from a broken log raft off the Mendocino coast, ceasing operations permanently on November 30.
In January 1945, Harrah Brothers Machine Works of Willits purchased the site, intending to dismantle the mill for parts. Tragically, a fire destroyed the structure while it was being taken apart, consuming much of the remaining machinery and equipment.
Note the large tanks on the hill in the background of the photo, which were there to supply water for fire suppression when the mill was operating. According to the 1929 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, there were four tanks on the bluff, 1000′ northeast of the Mill, with a combined capacity of 62,000 gallons and filled by gravity from an inexhaustible creek supply conveyed to the mill through 5-inch and 2-inch mains.
AN ECLECTIC HISTORY OF MENDOCINO COUNTY – Historian Katy Tahja shares photos and stories of local history from 1852 to 2002, including herds of white deer, tobacco production during the Civil War, Winston Churchill’s 1929 visit, and stagecoach robbers. $22.