Kelley House Museum

09/28/2026

Wear your sweater since you're bound to get goosebumps listening to the ghostly tales of some of Mendocino's more infamous residents. We’ll stop at the homes, hideouts, and hangouts of all of Mendocino’s well-known specters, and learn a little of the town’s history along the way. Peer into the waves in search of a stallion and its rider who rode into the sea. Hear about a tragic shipwreck, a sickly child, and eerie encounters collected over nearly a decade of interviews with residents of these historic buildings.

Did you know not all hauntings are about scary visions or terrifying noises, but that some ghosts haunt with scents? What is that thing that goes bump in the night, followed by sounds of a taut rope swinging from the rafters? Why can guests hear the pitter patter of pets in a building where pets aren’t allowed? What is the area’s oldest known ghost story? And how many spooks haunt the streets of Mendocino? All questions will be answered on this 1.5 to 2-hour walking tour through Haunted Mendocino. Join us… if you’re not too scared.

Wednesdays @ 5PM
Saturdays @ 5PM
October 24 @ 7PM
October 31 @ 7PM

Meet at the Kelley House Museum. Tickets are $25 for adults and $15 for youth.

09/26/2026

A Photographic History Mystery!

Does anyone recognize this house? This photo was in a set of photos that may have been associated with Gus Barth. Two of these photos were easily identified as the Seman-Baumgartner House on the northeast corner of Little Lake Road and Highway 1, but we haven’t had any luck identifying this house.

Gus Barth and his wife Lucette had a summer home just north of Russian Gulch State Park in the 1950s. Lucette was first mentioned in the Beacon in 1953. She became very involved in the Art Center and the “Lucette Barth Weaving Studio” in one of the Art Center buildings was named for her. The Barths moved into their summer home full-time around 1954 and left the area around 1964-1965.

Gus was a member of the Mendocino Lions Club and served as the club’s photographer. In 1956, he helped launch the Lions Club project to install street signs throughout Mendocino. He chose the location for the first sign, at the corner of Lansing and Ukiah streets, with the Masonic Hall as a backdrop for his photograph. His photo of the first sign installation appeared on the front page of the Mendocino Beacon on April 13, 1956.

If you have any ideas about where this building might be located, we’d love to hear them!

09/24/2026

A Peek at the Silent Film Era in Mendocino by Anne Cooper

In late December of 1916, near the Boom on Big River, the cast and crew of a new silent film began work on their latest project. The Promise, produced by the Yorke Film Corporation and distributed by Metro Pictures, was one of a series of movies featuring the pairing of two popular actors: Harold Lockwood and May Allison.

The Promise was not a period piece but meant to entertain and show audiences certain aspects of the lives of those then engaged in the lumber industry. The plot of The Promise called for a train wreck, an explosion meant to break up a log jam, a logging camp complete with villainous camp boss (Buck Moncrossen), and noble ex-New York Broadway restaurant worker turned logger (Bill Carmody) as a role for the leading man. The title of the film referred to a vow to protect an “Indian maiden” (Jeanne) whose honor was endangered by the unwelcome attentions of the camp boss. Circumstances relating to the available locations generated plot twists.

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) page devoted to The Promise states that it was filmed on location in Oregon. However, Bruce Levene’s book, Mendocino and the Movies (1998), affirms that portions of the film were made here. Newspapers of the time, both the Fort Bragg Advocate and the Mendocino Beacon, reported on the filming activities. As would be the case in future decades, many locals were brought into the film’s scenes. Ed Boyle, employed at the time by the Mendocino Lumber Company as a woods boss, was perhaps a perfect example of life imitating art.

Fred J. Balshofer directed The Promise. He had initially offered Harold Lockwood $250 per week to become a leading man for the Yorke Film Corporation, while May Allison received $200 per week to start. Mr. Balshofer hired the two performers, who also traveled to multiple locations to make films such as Haunted Pajamas, Paradise Garden, Broadway Bill, The Square Deceiver, Pidgin Island and The Promise. Anyone’s curiosity would be piqued by the title Haunted Pajamas. Those busy years of filming were described by Balshofer:

“We traveled to distant locations to photograph many of the films. Locations such as isolated snow-covered logging camps along the Dead River country in upper Maine and the logging camps in the big redwood country of Oregon made perfect backgrounds. We also took advantage of the tropical scenery in and around Palm Beach, Florida, as well as the colorful mountains.”

Mendocino’s dramatic scenery and real-life logging operations fit the bill on two counts.

Photo: Lantern slide for “The Promise,” 1916. (Gift of Bruce Levene)

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘒𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘯 𝘛𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘥𝘢𝘺-𝘔𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘺, 11𝘢𝘮 𝘵𝘰 3𝘱𝘮. 𝘛𝘰 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘮 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘔𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘰, 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬 𝘰𝘶𝘵 “𝘔𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘰 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘴: 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘺𝘸𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘛𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘔𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘗𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘍𝘪𝘭𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘰 𝘊𝘰𝘢𝘴𝘵” 𝘣𝘺 𝘉𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘦 𝘓𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘦, 𝘢𝘷𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘒𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘔𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘶𝘮 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘸𝘦𝘣𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘦. https://www.kelleyhousemuseum.org/product/mendocino-and-the-movies-hollywood-and-tv-motion-pictures-filmed-on-the-mendocino-coast/

09/22/2026

Born in Denmark on February 3, 1836, Thomas H. Petersen arrived in San Francisco when he was 21. He came penniless to what he called the “promise land,” but excited for the future, so excited that he left the ship that brought him to California before he received his final paycheck for working as the ship’s carpenter. -- Averee McNear, Kelley House Museum Curator

Tom Petersen perfected the use of Douglas fir for ship-building on the north coast.

09/17/2026

The Great Depression and Baseball in Mendocino County

The Depression in the United States forever scarred the psychology of a generation of Americans and helped shape the course of political dialogue forever. Social, economic, and regional self-sufficiency took over rural towns where much aid was administered through informal neighborhood networks. These communities of self-sufficient and (relatively) self-reliant farming and logging families spent what little leisure time they possessed focused on social events such as picnics, restaurants, and sporting events, most notably, on California’s Mendocino Coast, baseball.

Baseball, both watched and played, allowed the coastal Mendocino public to forget the uncertain economic realities, at least for a few hours. These uncertainties were most evident in the intermittent closings of coastal mills. Players were also workers in the woods and in the mills, as well as grocers, gas station owners, and dairy farmers. They played hard and, when there were jobs, they worked harder. Multiple leagues existed on the Mendocino coast, not including high school teams that would play against the various town and association teams in exhibition and pre-season games. The home field of the Fort Bragg Seals also hosted concessions operators and ticket sellers who earned a small wage. The teams were for entertainment and meant little in relation to greater issues, such as the mills’ operation. However, baseball was a vivid expression of coastal Mendocino County’s culture of mutual aid and support.

Baseball interwove other communities together with the greater Mendocino Coast community. The local Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp at California’s Russian Gulch State Park maintained a very competitive baseball club as a part of their recreation program and was a part of a larger Northern California CCC baseball “sub-district” league. The Russian Gulch camp was established on November 17, 1933 with the express intent of developing Russian Gulch into a state park for California. Immediately, crews “started on road and trail construction, camp ground clearings, stream improvement, eradication of poisonous plants, general cleanup, and many other approved projects.” Eleven months later, federal work crews had constructed “three miles of road, forty individual camping units consisting of stoves, tables, cupboards, and water. One Recreation Hall fifty by sixty feet, one Custodian Cottage of five rooms, eight latrines…and ten miles of foot trails...” Initially only fifty crew members began the work, but that number soon swelled to over two hundred enrollees.

In addition to conservation work, the CCC provided opportunities for a number of athletic activities including boxing, basketball, and baseball. The CCC baseball teams played their games on Mendocino High School’s field. The high school also opened its doors to hundreds of CCC enrollees to finish their high school education by hosting night classes twice per week with, a CCC report adds, “the entire school staff and the school’s facilities and equipment at their disposal.” A CCC educational report for Russian Gulch camp in 1938 noted that “[t]he healthy relation existing between the people and high school and the men of this company has improved the moral of this company.” The “people” of Mendocino included Auggie Heeser, editor and publisher of the Mendocino Beacon, who declared “Hail to the boys of the CCC!” at the opening of the Russian Gulch camp.

Photo: Fort Bragg Loggers Baseball Team, 1926.

𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘱𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩 𝘱𝘢𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘺 𝘔𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘸 𝘙𝘦𝘦𝘥. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘒𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘔𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘶𝘮 𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘯 𝘛𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘥𝘢𝘺-𝘔𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘺, 11𝘢𝘮 𝘵𝘰 3𝘱𝘮. 𝘝𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘭𝘦. https://www.kelleyhousemuseum.org/events/month/

09/14/2026

In the ‘60s, a group of teens on the Mendocino Coast became known as the “Hare Creek Surfers,” a loosely organized group that surfed up and down the Mendocino coastline.

The founding members of the club included Greg Cashwell, Kent and Ray Whited, Dave Ponts, and Doug Hast. Kent took up the task of designing a club logo and sweatshirts for the crew, who hung out in a garage near Hare Creek Beach when they weren’t out on the waves. -Averee McNear, Kelley House Museum Curator

While Southern California takes the headlines, the Mendocino coast offers challenges to daredevil surfers—cold water, washing-machine waves, lots of rocks.

09/14/2026

Thank you to everyone who came out for Mendocino’s Second Saturday to celebrate the opening of the Kelley House Museum’s newest exhibit, Art of Resistance! Like wine and cheese, art and history make a good pairing. (Photographer: Robert Dominy)

If you missed the opening, we hope you’ll come by to experience the exhibit for yourself. Think activism in Mendocino started with the hippies in the ’60s? Think again! Mendocino boasts a long history of political and social activism, and Art of Resistance showcases the powerful art that has demanded change across the eras.

Marvel at historic posters for women’s suffrage, the Whale War boycott, and the Peace Fair. Have a laugh at the anti-war napkin art of the ’60s, or feel the raw weight of hand-drawn signs from today’s protest marches. The exhibit also features striking work by contemporary local creators, including Jewelina Acosta’s wall-sized painting telling the story of Coyote. We’re also proud to display incredible loaned works from Eric Wilder, Winsor Kinkade, Kiera Poehlmann, David Bacon, Lillian Galedo, Gerri Sorkin, John Hewitt, and more.

Art of Resistance was co-curated by Averee McNear, Kelley House Museum Curator, and Dav Bell, Mendocino Art Center Executive Director. Special thanks to Robert Dominy and Indivisible for documenting local protest movements, and to Carol Dominy for research assistance.

Come see what Mendocino’s history of resistance looks like. The Museum is open Thursday-Monday, 11am-3pm. Art of Resistance runs through February 28, 2027.

09/11/2026

Sold Out! Murder, She Wrote Festival 2027 Tickets

Yesterday, we released pre-sale tickets to Kelley House members, because one of the perks of membership is early access to tickets. We did that and within one hour all those tickets were sold out. We had 400 tickets and they have all been purchased. Not everyone who is a member got a ticket; our member signups increased drastically once word got out this summer.

We regret to say there are no further tickets available, and there will be no release of general admission tickets on September 15 as originally planned. We thought by doubling our capacity from last year we would be able to release tickets the same way as we had in the past, but we were wrong.

If it’s any consolation, Mendocino is a beautiful place to visit at any time of the year, and the Kelley House offers Murder, She Wrote tours (by request) and has a permanent exhibit on the TV show. And while folks who did get tickets enjoy exclusive access to certain events, there are others, like the infamous Jessica Jog, that are open to the public. Take a look at the programming and if you want to visit the weekend Mendocino turns into Cabot Cove, you are most welcome.

09/10/2026

Arthur Jarvis and Two Log Camp by Carol Dominy

In the early 1880s, the forests along Big River and its tributaries echoed with the sounds of logging crews harvesting redwoods for the Mendocino Lumber Company. One of the company’s camps was Two Log Camp, sometimes called Jarvis Camp after its foreman, Arthur Jarvis. Although the camp existed for only a few years, it was the site of one of the earliest known labor strikes in the Mendocino Coast’s logging industry.

Arthur was born on February 26, 1855, in Surry, Maine, one of eight surviving children. Like many of Mendocino’s pioneers, he came to California to work in the lumber industry. He settled in Mendocino before 1873 and began working with his older brother Henry, probably in Henry’s logging operations. Henry was also a co-founder of the Jarvis & Nichols Store at Main and Kasten Streets, where Gallery Bookshop is located today.

Jarvis Camp was established before 1880 along Two Log Creek, a tributary of Big River, just downstream from where Highway 20 now parallels the creek. The creek’s name came from Native American trails that crossed it at two locations. Fallen logs provided natural bridges, leading to the name Two Log Crossing Creek. One trail followed Big River toward Mendocino, while the other crossed near present-day Highway 20 and descended toward the Noyo River watershed and Fort Bragg.

By 1880, the Mendocino Lumber Company employed nearly 150 men, with another 50 needed when the mill operated at full capacity. Logs cut as far away as 18 miles upriver were floated downstream to the mill in Mendocino. Two Log Creek also had two logging dams, where water was stored and released in powerful surges to push logs downstream.

In the summer of 1880, Arthur Jarvis was a logging foreman working under Woods Superintendent James Nichols, Henry’s partner at the Jarvis & Nichols Store. Two other logging crews worked for the Mendocino Lumber Company that summer under foremen J. G. Knowles and Byron Clark.

At Two Log Camp, Jarvis supervised about 25 men, hiring workers, arranging their food and shelter, directing ox teams, and coordinating the cutting and placement of thousands of logs in the creek before the winter rains. On July 30, Jarvis’s crew demanded a $5-per-month raise. When the lumber company refused, the entire crew walked off the job. Soon afterward, Byron Clark’s crew also went on strike. The Beacon never reported whether the loggers received the raise.

Arthur’s life after the strike is better documented. He married Florence Elliott in Ukiah on September 23, 1882. Florence came from another prominent Mendocino family. Her brother Burtt later purchased the Jarvis & Nichols store from Henry Jarvis and James Nichols when they retired in 1916.

Arthur and Florence’s first child, Lela, was born in Mendocino in 1883. Around 1884, the family moved north to Humboldt County, where Arthur operated a sawmill on Price Creek near Weymouth and later owned a store in Fortuna.

Arthur returned to Mendocino frequently to visit his brother Henry and his Elliott in-laws. Even in his eighties, he enjoyed returning to see old friends and reminisce about the logging camps of the 1870s and 1880s. He died on June 1, 1941, at 86, while living with his youngest daughter Hazel Edwards in Modesto. His obituary recalled his long career in logging and milling, while Mendocino newspapers remembered him as one of the young men from Maine who helped build the region’s lumber industry.

Photo: Jarvis Logging Camp, circa 1880.

“𝘈𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦” 𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘒𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘔𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘶𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘸! 𝘑𝘰𝘪𝘯 𝘶𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘯 𝘚𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘥𝘢𝘺, 𝘚𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 12𝘵𝘩 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 4𝘱𝘮-5:30𝘱𝘮. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘒𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘯 𝘛𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘥𝘢𝘺-𝘔𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘺, 11𝘢𝘮 𝘵𝘰 3𝘱𝘮.