Introduction, General Information and Contact Information
This site's intention is to be a comprehensive resource of information about Mendocino County and its towns. The emphasis is to make unique information available about the county and its towns, which is somewhat difficult to find. Hopefully this information will allow residents, potential residents and visitors to help protect and preserve the good aspects of the county and reform the problem areas.
This web site is an on-going project and needs periodic updating of some of its information. We are always open to posting new types of information that fits within the site's intent. As a user, you are welcome to help; please see the contact and information needs page.
A Little General Information About Mendocino County: (for more details
see links on special information page)
Mendocino County is a large rural California county with its southeastern inland
edge about 2 hours drive from San Francisco and the southwestern Pacific coastal
edge about 3 hours drive from San Francisco.
Mendocino County size is 3,510 square miles which is about 72% the size of the whole state of Connecticut. It takes more than 3.5 hours to drive from one corner of the county to the other. Mendocino has a population of about 85 thousand compared to Connecticut's 3.5 million. Connecticut, which some consider a semi-rural state, is 29 times more densely populated than Mendocino County.
The coastal region of the county is featured in photos and written about in many travel brochures distributed world wide because of its natural beauty (some of it still preserved). The town of Mendocino is one of only two registered and protected historic villages in the United States. Mendocino County has a very colorful history and on going struggle, some of which can soon be found on this web site.
There are only four incorporated cities (towns) in the County, in order of size: Ukiah, Fort Bragg, Willits, Point Arena. Approximately, 70% of the population lives in the unincorporated areas of the county.
Mendocino County has many interesting facts, some of which seem contradictory.
More than half the of the county is owned by either national and multi-national timber companies or are State or Federally controlled forests which are also logged by the large timber companies. Clear-cutting is the principal method used by these large timber companies. The direct revenues generated to the county by the timber tax is less than one-third of that generated by the tourist industry; and it is estimated that the indirect revenue ratio and jobs produced is even more in favor of visitor-serving industry; yet, the majority of the seats on the County Board of Supervisors are candidates funded by the natural resource extractors. This site shows the county budget and sources of revenues and also reveals "Who owns Mendocino County".
Over the last ten years Mendocino county has seen increasing battles between
the natural resource extractors, developers and people who have come to the
county to escape urban blight, density, crime and lack of natural open space.
Some sites chronicling this struggle can be found linked on this site's pages.
There are five elected County Supervisors representing five geographic areas
of the county of approximately equal population; three are Republicans and two
are Democrats. The elected District Attorney is a Libertarian and the elected
County Sheriff is a Republican.
Of the approximately 47,102 registered voters (March-2000), 48% are Democrats, 28.1% are Republicans, 16.1% No stated party affiliation, 3.7% are Green, 2.5% are American Independent and the 1.6% are other parties. Party registration shown for the total county by cities and by supervisorial district is a page on this site as well as voting patterns by region and precinct.
Many more details and links are contained within the site which should help you to become an informed Mendocino County citizen or visitor. Please do not hesitate to send us relevant information.
If you have an event or an interesting fact you might consider entering them in this site's database driven Mendocino County Events page or the Bite Sized Facts page.
Coming soon......a web database to allow you to post and find goods, services and meet people in your region.