For Catherine Ford, hearing the ocean waves from her home on Main Street in Mendocino was awe-inspiring. In a notebook remembering her 1860s childhood in Mendocino, Catherine “Katie” wrote, “A subconscious distrust of the Ocean was always in my mind whenever I was near it but it held a fascination for me.”
The Ford house, built in 1864, sits on the south side of Main Street. The headland cliffs act as the home’s backyard, providing a clear view of Mendocino Bay and, at the time the Fords lived in the home, the lumber shipping point on the bluff.
Katie recalled not being impressed during an 1868 trip to Niagara Falls, because she could not help comparing the site to the Pacific. “It seemed tame beside the Ocean and we [the Ford siblings] remarked, ‘It was just water pouring over,’ nothing to compare with the angry winter storms we knew at home.” Katie would have been 11 during the Ford’s trip back east.
During those “angry winter storms,” Katie wrote that the Ford’s house would shake as waves hit the cliffs, throwing up spray that would hit their home. Katie braved the wind and rain during one storm and walked to the shipping point at the end of the headlands, waiting there to watch the waves breaking against the land in the harbor. “I knew there was no danger, but I couldn’t stand the awe it inspired.”
The winter storms were often severe enough to cancel school for Mendocino’s children. Despite this, Katie recalled that “No one stayed in, everyone spent the day along the bluff. It was a circus day for us.” The children would watch ships coming into the Mendocino harbor with fascination. Most ships would stay out at sea during storms, but if they were caught in the harbor, the crew worked hard to avoid crashing against hidden rocks and shallow reefs. After one ship ran ashore, rope ladders were thrown over the cliff for the crew to climb up quickly.
After storms, Katie and her siblings would “play house” at Big River beach among the logs and debris washed ashore. They would climb up piles of logs when the tide came in, but sometimes they got wet. Katie recalled “sometimes we jumped too late and were caught but clothing dried quickly when laid out on logs.”
Averee McNear is the curator at the Kelley House Museum in Mendocino, Calif.