In the mid-1980s, locals in Mendocino learned about Lease Sale 91, a proposed sale of 1.1 million acres of undersea land, sold for $25 per acre stretching from Oregon to Sonoma County. Coast residents organized to stop the sale. At the Kelley House in 2007, Rachel Binah recalled how thousands turned out in Fort Bragg to protest the sale, which became nationwide news. What is less known is that the large protest began in Rachel Binah’s inn, called Rachel’s Inn.
In 1984, an oil company visited Mendocino to explore land off the coast and attend a public hearing at Crown Hall about oil drilling. They called Rachel’s Inn in Little River and requested an ocean view room. When Binah learned who they were, she spoke up at the town hall: “Everyone who comes to Mendocino wants a room with an ocean view, including this engineering company … arguing that it will do no harm to tourism.” Binah recalled in 2007: “I actually used them as a prop.”
Disagreements continued for several years. A public hearing was set for February 1988, which would be the last chance to stop the sale.
Binah set up a meeting in her house, where a plan to filibuster the sale was devised. They began signing up people to testify at the hearing and quickly had a list of 1,400 people. Fliers with slogans like “Save the Kansas Coast,” “Save the South Dakota Coast” were mailed, arguing that the land belonged to everyone. Binah called newspapers, television stations and even talked to Angela Lansbury on the set of “Murder, She Wrote.” Lansbury signed a statement in support.
On the day of the public hearing, thousands attended. The hearing began in the early morning and continued after midnight. Binah recalled the variety of people who testified, including politicians, children and church groups. She received a call from Fort Bragg’s mayor, stating that the officials feared angering more people, and the hearings wouldn’t go on another day.
Binah remembered having to tell people that they couldn’t testify. “One of the scariest moments in my entire life was stopping the hearing. We presented these hearing officers with T-shirts that said, ‘I survived the Mendocino Hearings.’” The organizers recorded people who still wanted to speak to be part of the record.
It was a monumental moment in the fight against oil drilling on the California coast. After the hearings, the California Legislature introduced legislation that protected the oceans in state waters, and the Department of the Interior halted Lease Sale 91 in June 1988.
Kelley House Museum curator Averee McNear writes a weekly column on Mendocino County history for Mendocino Voice. To learn more, visit kelleyhousemuseum.org.