Mendocino, CA

Mendocino is an unincorporated community in Mendocino County, California, United States. The name comes from Cape Mendocino 85 miles to the north, named by early Spanish navigators in honor of Antonio de Mendoza, Viceroy of New Spain. Despite its small size, the town's scenic location on a headland surrounded by the Pacific Ocean has made it extremely popular as an artists' colony and with vacationers. Most of the town was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 as the Mendocino and Headlands Historic District. Since 1987, Mendocino has been the site of the Mendocino Music Festival, a classically based but musically diverse series of concerts that is held annually in a huge circus-type performance tent on the town's Main Street in the Mendocino Headlands State Park.

ATTRDaderot / CC0

Friendship Park, a municipal sports playing field, was constructed by local volunteers and opened in April 1993. Mendocino makes sense once you see how its past, landscape, and current gathering spots overlap. The useful thing to know about Mendocino is that its older landmarks and current settings belong to one connected place.