| What makes it historical? |
Jerome Ford arrived in the area on a rescue mission after the merchant ship, Frolic ran aground nearby! Though the local Pomo had taken most everything of value, Mr. Ford was so excited to see the many redwoods growing nearby that he hurried back to San Francisco and enlisted his pal, Henry Meiggs, in a business venture! They returned north and set up a super-productive sawmill that produced the lumber that built San Francisco, and rebuilt it after the 1906 earthquake!
The museum now features neat exhibits on maritime history, how ships were built with ramps from the high cliffs on the Mendocino coast, the history of the Ford family and Mendocino as a town, and most interesting, in my opinion, the last remaining pieces of a bunch of ships that either ran aground on the rocks nearby or else met fates unknown! |
