McNear: Little River innkeeper is a prime example of how one person can change the world

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.”