Inglenook, California

For other places called Inglenook, see Inglenook (disambiguation).

Inglenook
Unincorporated community
Inglenook Location in California Show map of California Inglenook Inglenook (the United States) Show map of the United States
Coordinates: 39°31′47″N 123°45′32″W
Country	United States
State	California
County	Mendocino County
Elevation [1]	102 ft (31 m)

Inglenook is an unincorporated community in Mendocino County, California.^[1] It is located on Inglenook Creek 8 miles (13 km) south of Westport^[2] and approximately 3 miles (5 km) north of Cleone, at an elevation of 102 feet (31 m).^[1] California State Highway 1 passes through the town, connecting it to Cleone and Fort Bragg to the south and Westport to the north. Ten Mile River passes near the community to the north, and MacKerricher State Park and the Inglenook Fen separate it from the Pacific Ocean to the west.^[3]

Long before it became known as Inglenook, a group of Tuluwat Pattern people (named from their habitation of Tuluwat Island farther to the north on the California coast) inhabited the Inglenook Fen from circa 400 to 600 CE.^[4]

James W. Nichalson, a blacksmith, settled in Inglenook and opened a blacksmith shop in 1877, later becoming justice of the peace.^[5] A post office operated at Inglenook from 1880 to 1919,^[2] located within a general store.^[5] Although far from San Francisco, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake toppled the chimneys of all the town's houses, and many local trees.^[6] Inglenook was also the site of a schoolhouse that eventually became a National Grange hall,^[7][8] and was part of a legal dispute from 2013 to 2020 between the National Grange and a breakaway local group opposed to genetically modified food. While the dispute was ongoing, the Grange was renamed as the Fort Bragg–Inglenook Community Center.^[9]

References

1. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Inglenook, California
2. Durham, David L. (1998). California's Geographic Names: A Gazetteer of Historic and Modern Names of the State. Clovis, Calif.: Word Dancer Press. p. 83. ISBN 1-884995-14-4.
3. Baker, Herbert G. (April 1972). "A fen on the northern california coast". Madroño. 21 (6): 405–416. JSTOR 41423809.
4. Hildebrandt, William R.; Waechter, Sharon A.; King, Jerome H. (November 2016). Cultural Resources Overview: Northwestern California (PDF). Bureau of Land Management. p. 52. Retrieved December 15, 2023.
5. Carpenter, Aurelius O.; Millberry, Percy H. (1914). History of Mendocino and Lake Counties, California: With Biographical Sketches of the Leading, Men and Women of the Counties who Have Been Identified with Their Growth and Development from the Early Days to the Present. Historic record Company. pp. 693, 906.
6. The California Earthquake of April 18, 1906: Report of the State Earthquake Investigation Commission. Carnegie Institution of Washington publications. Vol. 87. 1908. p. 172.
7. "Mendocino County history: Gertrude Redemeyer White and Paul Bunyan". Fort Bragg Advocate. September 2, 1939. Retrieved December 15, 2023.
8. Franks, Jonathan (1996). Exploring the North Coast: The California Coast from the Golden Gate to the Oregon Border. Chronicle Books. p. 149. ISBN 9780811809108. Other than some outlying ranches and scattered dwellings, the town is essentially gone. The Inglenook Grange Hall, formerly a schoolhouse, attests to a heritage of farming and ranching.
9. Hartzell, Frank (January 2, 2021). "Mendocino's "Grange Wars" end as final holdout, Garcia Guild, turns over hall to National Grange". Mendocino Voice.