Main Gallery - Behind the Redwood Curtain: Cannabis in California
Cannabis has been an integral, yet veiled, part of life in California, with complex stories and histories largely undocumented. The memories, perspectives, and experiences shared within Behind the Redwood Curtain will strengthen visitors’ understanding of this political, economic, and cultural legacy that marked the state and different regions. This statewide history will explore historic, political, and personal takes on all aspects of cannabis, from medicinal to cultural to agricultural, with many stories drawn from the Emerald Triangle of Northern California.
In collaboration with the Cannabis Culture Museum, HappyDay Farms, and the greater Mendocino County community, the Mendocino County Museum and Exhibit Envoy are partnering to create a homegrown exhibit! Behind the Redwood Curtain will empower audiences to reflect on and learn about the culture of cannabis in California, with a focus on the years between the 1970s to legalization in 2016.
Click here to read submitted Stories in Cannabis!
Opening Reception will be held at the Museum on Friday October 10 from 5-7 PM. Refreshments will be provided by the Friends of the Mendocino County Museum, and don't miss a performance by the Raging Grannies of Mendocino County at 6 PM!
Main Gallery - Road Trip! Explore Mendocino County by Way of the Famous Redwood Highway
For 100 years the Redwood Highway has connected tourists and travelers to remote destinations in Northern California. Explore the intriguing history behind the campaign to lure visitors from around the world by way of the famous Redwood Highway!
Explore the intriguing history behind the campaign to lure visitors from arounf the world to the rugged beauty of Northern California, by way of the famous Redwood Highway.
Opening Recption - May 15, 2026 5:00pm - 7:00pm
Mendocino County Museum has drawn from special collections donated by the community and the Redwood Empire Association archives to recount the story and development of the highway and spotlight the unique destinations in Mendocino County that played an important role in the marketability of the region.
Visitors can see an expanded section dedicated to the history of Frontier Days and its early ties to the Redwood Highway, pose for a selfie in a barber chair in reference to the Whiskerino shaving contest, explore a curio shoppe highlighting pop-up businesses from Hopland to Piercey with hundreds of unique postcards & ephemera, even "drive" the highway with replica vintage car models!
Long Gallery - Telling Our Story: Timber Industry in Early Mendocino County
Telling Our Story: The Timber Industry in Early Mendocino County explores the challenges inherent to the early timber industry and the innovations and advancements that supported its rapid growth.
The exhibit introduces the Frolic Shipwreck as a catalyst of the timber industry connecting aspirational lumberman with the untouched redwood forests. Introductory text for the exhibit authored by Archaeologist Dr. Thomas Layton, provides insight to the cultural interactions taking place during this time period.
In 1850 the Frolic Shipwreck ignited the timber industry by connecting entrenpeneurs with untouched redwood forests. This exhibit explores the array of timber products extracted and produced in Mendocino County and the volving techniques used for falling, hauling, milling, and transporting umber from 1850-1925.
Artifacts from the Museum’s collections of Mark Walker, Jim and Ruth McNamee, and Emery Escola, convey the array of timber products extracted and exported, and illustrate evolving techniques for falling, hauling, milling and transporting lumber from 1850 -1925.
5th Annual Printmaking Exhibit ImPRESSED: Community Events in Print
August 5 - September 27, 2026
Our 5th Annual ImPRESSED exhibit! ImPRESSED: Community Events in Print will showcase handmade local event posters from the 1970s, along with Art Explorers from Fort Bragg, who have been contributed to this annual exhibit from the beginning!This exhibit and Museum programs will once again lead up to the Roots of Motive Power's Steam-up Event, which will be September 12th & 13th this year!
Mark Your Calendar! Post, Parcels, and Paper
November 2025 - May 2026
The Mendocino County Museum will open a new winter exhibit featuring unique vintage promotional calendars issued by small businesses throughout the county. This exhibition will include a beautiful collection of holiday stationery, family and community generated recipes, and mail order gifts from bygone years. Experience typewriters from yesteryear or pen a letter of your own at our writing station.
Take Me to the Water: Histories of the Black Pacific
June 8 - August 3, 2025
Take Me to the Water: Histories of the Black Pacific reveals the deep and historic connection between people of African descent and the Pacific Ocean.
Most accounts of the United States’ maritime enterprises are disproportionately populated by white seafarers. Yet, from the 16th to the 20th century, black whalers, commercial mariners, fishers, explorers, soldiers, and sailors traveled along the Pacific Coast and traversed the high seas. The stories of these mariners, their impact in shaping the American Pacific, and their legacy in the context of development of society and identity, are all explored in Take Me to the Water: Histories of the Black Pacific.
3rd Annual Printmaking Exhibit ImPRESSED: Turning the Page
The third Annual ImPRESSED printmaking exhibit! Turning the Page opens August 17 at the Mendocino County Museum. This year the Museum will exhibit prints on loan from the San Francisco Center of the Book. These prints were created during the SFCB’s annual Roadworks Steamroller Printing Festival and were printed by the Roots of Motive Power using their 7-ton 1924 Buffalo Springfield steamroller. The SFCB hosted Roadworks for the final time after a vibrant twenty-year run in 2023.The exhibit will be a celebration of collaboration and creativity.
The Museum will also feature an incredible body of bright and bold new artwork from the progressive Art Explorers studio located in Fort Bragg. Art Explorers have contributed to this annual exhibit from its beginning. The artists generously share carved linoleum blocks to also display, which help convey the printing process and inspire visitors to try their own hand at printmaking.
This year’s exhibit, ImPRESSED: Turning the Page, is aptly named as the Museum and the Roots of Motive Power are fueling up to bring the same energy of the Roadworks Festival to the local annual ROMP Steam Festival which will be held on September 7 and 8 in Willits, CA.
In the Field: Exploring Botany in Mendocino County
January 17 - July 17, 2024
Is a celebration of the study of unique plants that grow in our region. Building on past exhibit, Carl Purdy: A Passion for Plants, developed by Curator Dot Brovarney, In the Field reflects on the pursuits of Mendocino County Botanists from past to present.
Featured botanists will include Jim McNamee, well known as the proprietor of the McNamee Store in Fish Rock on the Mendocino Coast, Edith Van Allen Murphy, who worked to record and illustrate Native American uses of plants for the U.S. Plant Bureau, and world-renowned “Lily Man of Ukiah,” Carl Purdy.
The exhibit will feature sketches, illustrations, photographs, and pressed specimens, that showcase a passion for learning and observation by a variety of Mendocino County artists, students, and enthusiasts.