Historians are always gathering odd facts about subjects of interest and filing them away. Katy finally pulled them all out and with 100 photos made a 150 year history of the county 1852-2002. Her book, An Eclectic History of Mendocino County, includes the natural world, native populations, industry and agriculture, social life, hippies, sports, roadside attractions, you name it – it might be in the book! If you want to know what Winston Churchill was doing in the county in 1929, or where we had mud volcanos, or lady singing stagecoach drivers, or our own Miss America, or a spectacular plane crash, come to her lecture for some memorable facts about the county.
Katy Tahja is a retired librarian and an author of several books on north coast history. A Comptche resident for 47 years, her husband’s family has been on the coast since 1884. She docents at the Kelley House Museum in Mendocino, and previously presented “Lady Lighthouse Keepers” as part of the Lighthouse Lecture Series in 2018.