California coastal town frozen in time

California coastal paradise of Mendocino is a town lost in time

Approaching Mendocino from the south along the majestic California coastal highway, the first question that comes to mind is: What is a New England-style clapboard fishing village doing way out here on the wild west coast of California? As you approach closer, the next question is a bit more challenging: Is Mendocino the most beautiful small town in all of America?

There is no pressing reason for anyone to come to remote Mendocino (population 894), a five-hour drive north of San Francisco along the spectacular California coast. There is no major industry, no particular tourism attraction, and the village is not located along the way to some place important.

So, what is it about this tiny town that attracts visitors from around the world? MaryAnne Hurley, an architectural historian with California State Parks, may have the answer.

“Perched on the bluff overlooking the river and the ocean, the town of Mendocino is not only classically picturesque, but it is also one of the best examples of a vibrant historic landscape where people carry on everyday lives amid the delightful and enduring legacy of the 19th century.”

In other words, Mendocino is a town frozen in time, taking visitors back to an era when life was not a mad rush to compete in a technologically fixated global marketplace concentrated on commerce and competition. A visit to old-fashioned Mendocino is an escape from all that nonsense, a way to return to an earlier time and place when peace, beauty and mindfulness were all part of a community’s common existence.

Originally founded in the 1850s as a fishing village by immigrants from New England, thanks to its proximity to giant redwood forests the villagers soon built a mill. Over time, a billion board feet of lumber was taken out of local watersheds, originally to build San Francisco during the Gold Rush. The mill finally closed in 1939 and Mendocino went to sleep for decades.

In the 1960s, creative artists drawn by its beauty moved in and over time Mendocino became a thriving artist community. As of 2013 the little village boasts two local opera companies, a symphony, a theatre company and many performers in the musical and visual arts.

There are now several excellent restaurants with famous chefs, full-service hotels, and bed and breakfast inns found along the nearby coast. At the Brewery Gulch Inn just south of the village, designed by architect Caroline la Pere, proprietor Guy Pacurar hosts guests in a classic California wood and shake structure that features 150-year-old eco-salvaged, first-growth, virgin redwood timbers originally pulled from the mud of Mendocino’s Big River.

Soothing earth tones and a Zen-like ambience are found in all 10 guest rooms, most with ocean views. The heart and soul of Brewery Gulch is the enormous Great Room anchored by a four-sided glass and steel fireplace fabricated by a local shipbuilder, a room filled with light tumbling down from the central core’s three-story high skylight and flooding in from the bank of 13-foot high windows overlooking nearby Smuggler’s Cove.

But it’s the exceptional food and wine created by classically trained chefs that draw patrons to Brewery Gulch again and again. Made-to-order breakfasts can be delivered to rooms.

Evenings feature wines and a light dinner buffet that may include pepper-seared scallops, Moroccan lamb, halibut Escabeche, Dungeness crab cakes or mussel bisque.

For the adventurous, activities include hiking, bird watching, fishing, whale watching, kayaking, mountain biking and horseback riding. There are 17 state parks in the county with beaches, forests and gardens to explore. There are art galleries, museums, wine tastings and quaint 19th century houses to visit.

The one common denominator that attracts attention from all visitors is the village’s amazing “sense of place.”

Simply strolling the streets and headlands and marvelling in the beauty, light and colour is enough reason to come. Then there is the unique architecture.

For more than a century, Mendocino’s unique water towers and accompanying windmills have captured the attention of visitors and writers alike. In 1892, one reporter observed “an individuality about the water works of this town not found in any other place.” Today, Mendocino is the only town on the entire California coast designated a historical landmark.

Early settlers were blessed with plentiful water supplies from nearby creeks and rivers, which allowed the luxury of piping water into houses. Windmills tall enough to catch constant coastal breezes powered the pumps. Dozens of water towers are still standing, some completely restored as artist studios or gift shops.

Finally, one cannot go to Mendocino without a camera, artist’s easel, or a pen to record the extraordinary beauty, its ever-changing light and colours. Wind, fog, clouds, sunlight, pounding surf, the cry of seabirds, the aroma of fresh baked bread, the echo of wind chimes and the sight of water towers standing like silent sentinels on the horizon are all proof that time travel does exist, if you simply know where to find it.


