October 2, 1877 - A destructive fire burned near the Garcia Mill, about six miles from Point Arena. According to “Mills of Mendocino County,” this mill was built in 1869 and "had a double 60-inch circular saw, a 48-inch pony saw, an edger, 2 trimmers, a slab saw, a picket saw, a siding saw, and 3 planers worked by about 150 men. A 6-mile long flume, [...]
Sailing schooner, Sailor Boy, is being loaded by wire chute at the shipping point in Caspar. Superintendent C. J. Woods stands on the platform pointing to the wire. A load of lumber, suspended from the travelers, will start down from the chute house and stop over the ship's deck to be unloaded and stowed in the hold and on deck. (Gift of Verda Wakerley) “Thomas H. [...]
September 28, 1912 - Auggie Heeser, editor and publisher of the Mendocino Beacon, appeared before Justice William True Wallace of the Big River Justice Court to file a formal complaint of prostitution against Mendocino residents Pearl Grant and Myrtle Cannon. Pearl and Myrtle pled not guilty. Additional complaints were filed against their landlord Joseph Peck of Ukiah for “renting a house for immoral purposes.” This house [...]
September 26, 1877 - August Geschwartner leased the Caspar Hotel (including the barn and outhouses) from Frank Anderson for $40/month for five years. August advertised in the Beacon, “Having opened the above named Hotel, I will be pleased to see my friends… In connection with the Hotel is a GOOD STABLE, where feed for horses can always be had. The BAR will be supplied with the [...]
The year was 1938. The Mendocino Mill had been shut down due to the Depression, and nobody expected it to ever reopen its doors. Spring freshets no longer supplied the mill with logs. And suddenly - bingo! A huge windfall of logs headed UP the river from the open sea, and the ensuing weeks found the mill busier than ever. “BIG RAFT BREAKS IN TWO OFF [...]
September 20, 1918 - Miss Ardell Nichols was injured in an auto collision in San Francisco. Ardell, the daughter of Joseph H. and Mary (Nelson) Nichols of Mendocino, was born in San Francisco in 1892. Joseph’s family had moved from Maine to Mendocino when he was a child, and Mary had been born in Mendocino County. Following their marriage, they moved to San Francisco, where they [...]
September 18, 1912 - The barkentine J. M. Griffith left Noyo Harbor for Mendocino, which was her last stop on the way to Hawaii. Ties and shingles had been loaded in Fort Bragg, and at Mendocino she took on a cargo of lumber. Barkentine J. M. Griffith, 1912. The J. M. Griffith moored at Big River in Mendocino. The Mendocino Mill can be seen in the [...]
September 16, 1942 - Henry Nystrom died of a heart attack at the age of 57, while in charge of a crew fighting a fire in the hills near the Mountain House on the road to Cloverdale. Soon after arriving at the fire, Henry sent his men to different locations and struck out for another spot himself. He was found deceased by a member of his [...]
September 13, 1913 - Joseph Granskog held a public auction to sell “a lot running from Main street to Albion street, on which is situated a building of two stories and an attic, and a dwelling.” This property was located west of Kasten Street, where Mendocino Jewelry Studio is in 2022. Granskog's Eagle Saloon, c. 1909. Joseph Granskog, with mustache, is standing at the door. Joseph [...]
Ox Team at The Point, 1873 - 1878. View toward the northeast of two yoked oxen at the Mendocino Shipping Point. The animals were used to move lumber along a narrow railway that ran from the Incline at the top of the bluffs above the Mendocino Lumber Company's sawmill, out to the lumber yard at The Point for shipment. Lumber is stacked nearby. A man in [...]