In the 1800s the Mendocino County Sheriff held a second job, that of tax collector. In the autumn of each year this duty entailed traveling throughout the county, gathering thousands of dollars at each stop…
Posts published by “Malcolm Macdonald”
A hundred years ago, in 1918, the Melburne Post Office closed, signaling a dwindling end for a once prosperous community along the Comptche Road, about ten miles east of the coast. Melburne's height of prosperity…
Along the Comptche-Ukiah Road, east of the nearly forgotten town of Melburne, is a spot known to locals as Tom Bell's Flat (or Tom Bell Flats). Tom Bell settled there in the 1860s. He made…
Here, along the Albion River, we are getting some much needed rain. A hard rain often sends our cattle uphill. Unfortunately, some of the current herd don't have sense enough to stay close to the…
This starts innocuously enough with an email from Mendocino Coast District Hospital (MCDH) on November 9th announcing the agenda for the November 13th meeting of the hospital's Planning Committee. Stick with it because there will…
Here on the Macdonald ranch mid-autumn is a time to pick apples. In my youth, keeper varieties were stored in rectangular wooden bins on the kitchen porch. Rhode Island greenings were peeled and cooked into…
There are cases that wend ever so slowly through the court system. In some civil cases even preliminary results can take years. One such case in the Superior Court of Mendocino County is Miller v.…