Wells running dry as tourists return

Mendocino may use old logging train to bring in water

The postcardperfect town of Mendocino, with its Victorian homes, seaside inns, and tidy shops and galleries, is bustling with visitors this summer, a model of postpandemic recovery in California’s hardhit tourism sector.

But beneath the crowded restaurants and fully booked bed and breakfasts, the fortunes of this popular coastal getaway four hours north of San Francisco have begun to dry up — quite literally.

Because of the drought, dozens of wells in town are producing limited water, or none at all. The nearby city that was providing backup supplies doesn’t have enough to share anymore. And now, as the community, which relies solely on groundwater, struggles to get by on what remains in the wells, residents and water officials are pinning their hopes on a handful of uncertain, even unusual, ideas.

One of the most peculiar is to get water by hauling it in nearly 40 miles on a storied logging railroad that today carries a tourist train. The Skunk Train, as it is known, may also turn out to be the best option.

“People don’t realize how serious the drought is here,” said Kim Roth, owner of the Seagull Inn in Mendocino, where she and her husband are trying to keep their business running on a well that’s almost dry. “We finally started getting super busy, and all was going well, then two weeks ago we had to start trucking in water.”

On a recent morning, when the water truck didn’t show up at the Roths’ inn, they were forced to give guests bottled water. The couple have since stocked the rooms with extra Crystal Geyser, asked people to limit showers to

Photos by Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle Nearly every property in Mendocino has a well, some with water towers dating back to the milltown days.

Teddy Winslow, owner of the Good Life Cafe and Bakery, is considering closing one day a week because of low water supply.