Mendocino is home to a large number of hotels and bed and breakfasts. It has a downtown commercial district facing the ocean, with a number of art galleries, retail shops, lodging and restaurants. Mendocino is one of the many small California towns facing severe water scarcity. Many of the region’s wells, the town’s primary water source, have run dry, so water is being brought in by truck at a cost of 20 to 45 cents per gallon. There are concerns that towns and cities in the county will stop selling water to Mendocino altogether: Fort Bragg, a city 10 miles (16 km) to the north, took this step in July 2021 because of concerns about their own water shortage.
California State Route 1 (Shoreline Highway) runs along the eastern edge of the downtown area; it leads north 10 miles (16 km) to Fort Bragg and south 29 miles (47 km) to Manchester. Comptche-Ukiah Road departs east from Route 1 just south of the town, leading across the California Coast Ranges 14 miles (23 km) to Comptche, and 44 miles (71 km) to Ukiah, the Mendocino county seat. The Big River forms the southern edge of the community and joins the Pacific Ocean at Big River Beach within Mendocino Headlands State Park, a quarter mile south of the center of town.
Mendocino’s economy declined after 1940, and it became a somewhat isolated village with a shrinking population. The revitalization of the town began in the late 1950s with the founding of the Mendocino Art Center by artist Bill Zacha.
Since 1987, Mendocino has been the site of the Mendocino Music Festival, a classically based but musically diverse series of concerts that is held annually in a huge circus-type performance tent on the town’s Main Street in the Mendocino Headlands State Park.
Mendocino is also the home of the Mendocino Film Festival which was first held in May 2006. As the area is a haven for artists, the festival honors them with a special “artist category”, in addition to the documentary, feature and short film categories.
The singers Kate & Anna McGarrigle wrote and sang the 1976 song “Talk to Me of Mendocino” about someone returning to the happiness of the town after unhappy experiences in New York.
The TV series Murder, She Wrote has had perhaps the largest impact on the community. Murder, She Wrote was set in the fictional town of Cabot Cove, Maine. Nine episodes of the 264-episode program were filmed in Mendocino, while exterior shots throughout Mendocino were used in the remaining episodes. The program was broadcast for 12 seasons, from September 1984 until May 1996 on CBS. Local residents looked forward to the yearly filming, as over a hundred and fifty were chosen to play background parts. A lucky few were cast for speaking roles. Poet, playwright and actor Lawrence Bullock cites being cast in a speaking role as a “Townsperson” in the episode “Indian Giver” as giving him eligibility to join the Screen Actors’ Guild. Locals, including Linda Pack and James Henderson, were also cast in speaking roles. The residence of the main character Jessica Fletcher was an actual home in Mendocino and is now a bed and breakfast under the name “Blair House.”
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