Mendocino County's rich history goes back to well before the conquering of the native lands by the white man beginning with the removal of the original Californio brown skins in 1846 with the "Mexican American Wars" that was in reality a mass genocide. This was followed by the 1849 California Gold Rush and CA statehood in 1850 when bounty was placed on the native brown skins by California's first governor. The world had never seen such massive 3,000 year old redwood trees before and as soon as the "new settlers" came to California. So dog ports were built all along the Mendocino coast for their resource extracting involving impossible engineering feats to harvest these ancient trees to the coast for sale and profits.Thousands of men, hundreds of trains and dozens of saw mills were put in place during the mid-late 1850's. Additionally, Mendocino has a history of a very dark side including a massive Insane Asylum built in the 1890's as well as a KKK organizations and such characters as Jim Jones and Charles Manson who integrated into Mendocino before committing their atrocities. This book rewrites Mendocino like no other book before. Enjoy.

In 1857, Fort Bragg was an Army post on the Mendocino Indian Reservation. Coastal California north of San Francisco had been home to the Pomo and Yuki people for thousands of years. In the early 1800s, that area was visited by Russian, English, and French fur trappers. In 1850, an opium trader carrying goods from the Orient to gold-rush San Francisco shipwrecked near Fort Bragg. Would-be salvagers discovered giant redwood trees, and lumber mills soon sprang up at the mouth of every stream. "Dog-hole schooners" transported lumber, passengers, and supplies, and the world-wide Dollar Shipping Lines started here. Former reservation lands were acquired by lumber interests, and the city of Fort Bragg sprang up around them, all while photographers, artists, and writers documented the "far West." Today, the former California Western logging railroad transports tourists through the redwood forests. Hollywood movies continue to be set in the New England-style towns along the rocky Mendocino Coast, and Paul Bunyan Days celebrates old-time logging skills. The area's colorful past permeates and enriches local culture.

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