Welcome to my new blog! From the first time my family visited Mendocino in the early 1960s, I've held Mendocino in my Heart. Those early visits were idyllic — trips to the beaches, running through the surf while my Mother painted the scenes with her oils; visiting with Bill Zacha at the Mendocino laundromat while my Mom did endless loads of laundry — for five active children — and my Father taught us the fine points of rummy; or driving up and down the Mendocino coast in the family station wagon, a green Chevy with fins that my brothers dubbed "the green latrine." 

     Many years later, when my Mother, Pat, and I moved to Mendocino, we had nothing but happy memories of wonderful friends and living on the North Coast for 10 years. My Mom was active in the Kelley House Museum, while I had my "Mendocino bouquet of jobs," writing for the local newspapers, word processing and selling underwriting for KZYX.

      In 1996, my friend Will Jackson asked me to write a “pamphlet” about Newport and Kibesillah, two “ghost” towns north of Fort Bragg where he planned to build a bed-and-breakfast inn. My “pamphlet” became a 208-page book, with 474 footnotes and a 12-page index of the families — the pioneers — who lived in this beautiful, rugged part of the Mendocino Coast between 1867 and the early 1900s.

     It only took me 20 years of interviewing natives of the area, researching local history, gathering photos and writing many, many drafts, to finally finish Newport & Kibesillah —   A Tale of Two Mendocino County Coastal Logging Towns in Northern California, in 2015.

     I’m indebted to many friends and acquaintances on the North Coast, who have shared their memories, books,  photographs, local knowledge and wonderful family stories. Without their help, Newport & Kibesillah really would have been just a pamphlet! Thank you all!

    Since the book was published, I have received many nice emails and comments — so many readers of Newport & Kibesillah are as fascinated by the local history as I am. This has inspired me to commit myself to blogging regularly about the beautiful Mendocino Coast that is still in my Heart. 

     In my own "small-town newspaper," Mendocino in My Heart: News, Past & Present, I will blog about the families of Newport, Kibesillah and the Mendocino Coast (the Past), as well as fresh news and views (the Present) and follow up with some of the people I've profiled over the years, for the Mendocino Beacon, the Fort Bragg Advocate and the Ukiah Daily Journal. 

     Do you have a family story to tell? An anecdote? A mystery to solve?
A question? I'd love to hear from you! 

      Please stay tuned for more about Mendocino in My Heart — stories from Mendocino Coast News, Past & Present! 

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— Kitty Nevin