We are Mendo Advisory Group
Our mission is to illuminate issues currently impacting our community. We aim to provide insight and information on the less-talked-about but highly important issues. We will provide accurate information in the interest of our neighbors regarding dependable water for residential and commercial uses and fire protection.
The Community of Mendocino
Before 1850, a Pomo settlement named Buldam was located near Mendocino on the north bank of the Big River. In 1850, the ship Frolic was wrecked a few miles north of Mendocino at Point Cabrillo, and the investigation of the wreck by agents of Henry Meiggs sparked the development of the timber industry in the area. Mendocino was founded in 1852 as a logging community for what became the Mendocino Lumber Company and was initially named Meiggsville after Meiggs. Before the current name was settled, the town was also known as Big River, Meiggstown, and Mendocino City. Mendocino’s economy declined after 1940, becoming a somewhat isolated village with a shrinking population. The town’s revitalization began in the late 1950s with the founding of the Mendocino Art Center by artist Bill Zacha. Most of the town was added to the National Register of Historic Places listings in Mendocino County, California, 1971 as the Mendocino and Headlands Historic District. Since 1987, Mendocino has been the site of the Mendocino Music Festival, a classically based but musically diverse series of concerts held annually in a substantial circus-type performance tent on the town’s Main Street in the Mendocino Headlands State Park. In 2020, the town reached national media coverage when the water shortage forced businesses to transport their drinking water.
Brief History of Water Issues in Mendocino
Water management in Mendocino has always been an issue and will continue to be an issue unless water system changes are made. It first came to the forefront in 1985 when a vote subjected the “Mendocino Headlands Aquifer” to a two-year groundwater investigation conducted jointly by the California Department of Water Resources and the County of Mendocino. This study aimed to find areas with suitable water availability in terms of quantity and quality. Funded in part by the Clean Water Act, over $300,000 was spent to find water and design a water system. By 1996, a system was successfully designed despite Mendocino City Community Services District claiming no water was ever found. The two-year hydrological investigations substantiated that “water from the Big River gulches” could provide adequate water to meet Mendocino’s present and future needs. Please visit our Water System page to find more information on this issue.