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 State St., Ukiah, circa 1939
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Seed Conjurer, 1896, by Grace Carpenter Hudson, known for her numerous paintings of the Pomo people. Learn more at the Grace Hudson Museum website.
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The history of Mendocino County is a colorful mosaic of the land, its earliest settlers and the Pomoan people. The Pomo natives of our valley called themselves Yokaya, meaning "people of the South or Deep Valley." Europeans changed the spelling to Ukiah. The valley's mild, well-watered climate produced extensive food sources useful to native residents. From rabbit and salmon, and from roots to berries, the landscape provided a rich, though hard-earned, living.
Though other tribes were present in the area, it was the Pomos that occupied the entire region that we now call Mendocino County.
The Pomoan culture was rich in art and ritual. In local museums throughout the county, the unique basketry central to the Pomoan way of life may be viewed. These fine baskets are recognized internationally by artists and historians as some of the finest examples of basket weaving ever produced. Living relatively peacefully in this land of plenty, religious observances regularly brought various tribal groupings together for celebrations. At these gatherings, marriages and complex trade agreements made.
The first permanent Spanish settlers came into the area south of Ukiah in the middle 16th century. As part of the Spanish immigration into our area, two main land grants, including the Sanel or Feliz Grant and the Yokayo Grant, claimed most of our area's territory for Spanish citizens.
Mendocino County was one of California's original 27 counties, created in 1850 by the State Legislature. Because of its small population, Mendocino County was administered by the government of Sonoma County until 1859, when the government was established in a small building on Main Street in Ukiah.
In 1856, Ukiah's first European settler, Samuel Lowry, built log cabin on the southwest corner of what is now Perkins and Main Streets. By 1860, the city's first newspaper, The Mendocino Herald, was established. It carried stories about the Civil War.
The city's first hotel was built in 1858 by Harrison Standley. The hotel was on the southwest corner of Main and Standley streets.
Economic expansion paid for the building of the original courthouse. Though most of it was lost to fire, parts of the 1873 structure are still enclosed within the present day courthouse. The town grew and prospered. Soon drug stores, several saloons, doctor and lawyer offices, and livery and feed stables were built around the courthouse.
In 1889, the first train steamed into Ukiah. Land prices exploded. Almost as quickly as the train whistle blew, bare lots rose in price from $30 to $150.
In 1917, disaster struck. "The Big Fire" burnt down the entire west side of State St.
At the end of World War II, in what later became known as the "Lumber Rush," redwood timber became known as "red gold."
Beginning in the 1960s, an influx of people wishing to escape urban America settled here in what is called the "back to the land" movement. Many of them still reside here, side by side with descendants of the valley's original settlers.
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