Relive history by the shore
It might not have sounded like a romantic weekend, what with the crashing waves, plentiful shipwrecks and talk of doghole ports. Saying that historic lumber delivery systems sound like sheer insanity is probably not helping my cause, either. Would it help to tell you about the pretty lighthouses and waterside fish and chips?
A recent weekend found us history lovers ambling up to Mendocino, drawn by the allure of those sundappled waves, fresh seafood and maritime history. The village has long been a charming seaside destination, one that combines spectacular ocean views with fun restaurants and tempting little shops.
But Mendocino's post-Gold Rush history began with a spectacular shipwreck. The Frolic, a Baltimore-built brig laden with Chinese porcelain, silks and, some believe, opium, was bound from China to San Francisco in 1850, when it foundered off Point
Cabrillo. A search party was sent to retrieve anything salvageable. What they found back then was a treasure beyond compare: forests of old-growth redwoods.
By 1852, Mendocino was a logging encampment. Within a year, the Redwood Lumber Manufacturing Company had erected a sawmill there and soon after, ships were plying the waters off the Mendocino and Sonoma coasts to haul lumber from dozens of coastal camps and logging operations to San Francisco, Asia, Australia and the Eastern U.S. And the way the timber got from mill to ship was truly jaw-dropping.
We were fascinated by the tales and the lingo — a doghole port? And a maritime history foray fit in nicely with our hopes of scoring some stellar seafood, preferably at a waterfront shack. So we meandered along Highway 1 one recent sunny afternoon, stopping first at the Point Arena lighthouse, which looks like a smokestack, probably because a smokestack company rebuilt it after the 1906 earthquake.