Boyle's Camp on Big River, 1912 - 1930. (Gift of Ronnie James) August 13, 1917 - The Thompson School opened with Miss Hazel Bowman as the first teacher. This school was named for Henry Thompson and was located on his ranch on Little Lake Road, east of the Mendocino Woodlands. Mr. Thompson built the original schoolhouse near his home to provide a school for [...]
The current exhibit on Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys, and the poster art they inspired, had curators at the Kelley House Museum in Mendocino digging through the archives and finding wonderful depictions of local folks, and flights of fantasy, produced by illustrators and cartoonists of the late 1960s and 70s. On August 14th at 3:30 p.m., “Sunday Afternoon With…the Cat Mother Illustrators” will take [...]
On this day in Mendocino history… The Piccolotti children, c. 1935. Back row, left to right: Fred, Albert, George. Front row: Henry, Emil, Louis with baby Alice in front of Henry. August 10, 1946 - Emil Piccolotti died at the Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver, Colorado at the age of 20. He had enlisted in the United States Army in January 1945, and at [...]
THEN: Looking west towards the Kelley House pond, April 1975. Homer Drinkwater operated a market in the building in the background from 1947 to 1974. In April 1975, Robert Peterson, founder of the Jack in the Box fast-food chain and owner of the Mendocino Hotel, presented the deed to the Kelley House property to Mendocino Historical Research, Inc. (later, the Kelley House Museum), for its restoration [...]
Photograph of logs being hauled to a landing by a Holt tractor. Two men are seated on the tractor. August 7, 1921 - The first tractor ordered for use in logging the Big River woods fell through the northern end of Big River Bridge, landing on the beach and burying its nose in the sand. The Beacon reported that, “The driver of the machine [...]
Musicians play at Mendocino Art Fair on Heider Field, August 1995. (Gift of the photographer, Dave A. Belew) August 5, 1995 - The 36th annual Arts & Crafts Fair opened on Heider Field. The annual fundraising event supports the operational costs of the non-profit Mendocino Art Center, and 1995 was the second year the fair had been held on Heider Field. More than 90 [...]
When I asked my friend Heather what she knew about the history of her charming old house on Calpella Street, she said, “Not much.” It was built in 1882, according to the plaque in the front window, and a couple years ago an elderly gent named Andy Brown came by with his niece to see the house in which he had grown up. She learned a [...]
Louie Larsen at Big River Flat, 1907 - 1913. Behind Louie is the first Big River Maru, a steam-powered river boat that guided rafts of logs to the mill. Four water tanks can be seen on the bluffs. They were the water supply for the mill’s fire suppression system and had a combined capacity of 62,000 gallons, filled by gravity from creek supply. July [...]
Railroad Log Dump on Big River. The log dump went into operation in 1901 and was last used in 1936. Logs that were brought in by the train were dumped into the water. The newly floating logs were contained by a log boom and were moved down the river to the mill. (Gift of Emery Escola) July 29, 1922 - Phil Gorman was killed [...]
August 14, 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM $5 members/$7 non-members Illustrators have long been a vibrant part of the Mendocino art community. The Kelley House is excited to interview several whose work in the ‘70s and ‘80s appears as part of the Cat Mother exhibit currently on display in the museum. Mervin Gilbert, author of the comic collection Life in the Northwest Nowhere will talk about [...]