Little River Improvement Club & Museum

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Little River, CA
Little River Improvement Club & Museum

The Little River Museum is open weekends 7/2026-9/2026 (11:00-4:00)

07/18/2024

Early view of San Francisco after the Gold Rush, taken around 1860 by Carleton Emmons Watkins, of the “Golden Gate” passage into San Francisco Bay. Captain John C. Frémont gave the name Golden Gate to the strait in 1846 in analogy to the Golden Horn of the Bosporus (Turkey) when Fremont imagined the future of California with rich cargoes from the Orient flowing through the strait. Visit our local Little River Museum this July 20-21 weekend (11:00-4:00, Saturday and Sunday) and see other interesting historical facts.

07/16/2024

In 1852 the first sawmill at Albion was built by Capt. William Richardson. The date of this early albumin print by Carleton Emmons Watkins is unknown, but he began his photography work around 1858 and this image is from the mid-1800s.

06/28/2024

Railroads may be scarce in Mendocino County now, but during the logging heyday, coastal railroads were found all along the Mendocino Coast. From the southern Gualala rail line through the multi-line Albion Branch (pictured, 1920) to the northern rail line at Westport, trains moved logs from the deep forests to local mills, and connected to other lines to transport lumber inland to far away places.

06/26/2024

Our summer opening is coming soon! Join us on weekends from July through mid-September between 11:00 and 4:00 at the Museum at 8185 Highway 1, just north of the big curve at Little River--browse the antique trains, historic artifacts from in and near Little River, our woodland wildlife exhibit, and more!

06/23/2024

Antique jewelry remains popular and in use today. But have you ever lost a piece of jewelry while being out and about, or just around the house? Pioneer Etta Pullen records in her diary the day she lost her “gold bosom pin” which she had had for ten years before losing it in January of 1874. Later in her diary, she records that her husband Wilder Pullen found her lost pin 150 years ago today on June 23, 1874 – located while he worked in the home’s “chip yard.” She was probably ecstatic. Might it have looked like this antique bosom pin used to hold scarves in place or as simple added adornment to a dress?

03/16/2024

Much about explorer João Rodrigues Cabrilho aka Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo is uncertain—was he Portuguese or Spanish? His places of birth have been described as in Iberia, Spain and Portugal. What is known is that he explored the Pacific coastline on behalf of the Spanish in 1542-1543. Our Mendocino County sandstone promontory, Point Cabrillo, was named in 1870 by the United States Geological Survey after him, although some historians dispute that the explorer reached this far north, yet others place his explorations as far north as along the Oregon coast.

03/15/2024

Mouth of the Navarro River depicted in another image from the Historical American Buildings Survey (HABS) commenced in 1934 by the US Park Service, with images maintained in the library of Congress.

03/14/2024

Happy Pi Day. More than 2200 years ago, the Greek mathematician Archimedes first used mathematics to compute π, the infinite number representing the constant ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, often shortened to its first three digits, 3.14 but infinitely long 3.1415926535897932384626…

03/13/2024

John P. Soule (1828-1904) was a photographer from Boston who is credited as taking this stereoscopic image of rocks at the mouth of Ten Mile River. However, many of these images have been re-attributed to the photographer Martin Mason Hazeltine. Soule, also a publisher of stereoviews, purchased many of Hazeltine's California negatives, copyrighted them in 1870, and began selling them in Boston. The one of Ten Mile River copyrighted in 1870 is an example (California State Library).

03/11/2024

School in Fort Bragg from the Historical American Building Survey (HABS) files at the library of Congress. The HABS came about during the Great Depression when architect Charles E. Peterson who worked for the National Park Service proposed an innovative New Deal program to relieve unemployment among architects, draftsmen, and photographers, while documenting the nation’s threatened architectural heritage. Started in 1933, the program was administered by the National Park Service, with professional support from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and funding from various public works programs, including the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Since 1934, the Library of Congress has preserved HABS’ documentary legacy in hundreds of thousands of photographs, drawings, and other materials.

03/08/2024

This unknown dated image from the Library of Congress archives is from somewhere along Highway 1 in Mendocino County and was stamped “Office Copy.” Anyone recognize the area?

Address

8185 Highway One
Little River, CA
95456

Telephone

+17079372009

Website

http://www.littlerivermuseum.org/

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