Page 90 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL MAGAZINE SUMMER 2021 DISCOVERING MENDOCINO

Making our way to the largest community on commanding officer - General Bragg. The name
the Mendocino coast, we couldn’t help but won- stuck to the town even after the military post’s
der how a place in Northern California came to demise.
be named after Confederate General Braxton As in Mendocino Village, the timber industry
Bragg. (There’s a Fort Bragg in North Carolina fueled the city’s economy. The town experi-
too, but that’s the general’s home state.) Here’s enced an economic boom early in the 20th cen-
why: In the summer of 1857, 1st Lieutenant Ho- tury with the building of a rail line to Willits
ratio C. Gibson, serving at the Presidio in San that connected with one to San Francisco. Soon
Francisco, established a military post on the lumber was being shipped out and the first
Mendocino Indian Reservation near the Noyo tourists began arriving. Many stayed, and the
River. He named the camp to honor his former city grew and prospered.

90 WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE 2021