McNear: The Great Depression hit Mendocino hard, shuttering mills and slashing wages

The Great Depression hit Mendocino County hard, and like many other areas, residents felt the effects before the “Great Crash” in 1929. Following World War I, farmers began struggling as prices plummeted and remained low. One Point Arena resident claimed, “We have a theory that the real depression started on the ranch way before 1929, and by 1929 we were starting to recover, except that we didn’t have much of an income.”

In the late 1920s, construction nationwide began to slow down and demand for lumber declined. The Glen Blair mill closed in 1925 and the Albion mill in 1928. After the economic crash, this decline became even sharper. Caspar and Mendocino lumber mills closed in the early ‘30s, and the Fort Bragg mill laid off many workers due to production cuts. The value of products manufactured in Mendocino County (primarily lumber) fell from five million dollars in 1929 to two million in 1933. The average annual wage for a worker in the county fell from $1,864 to $878.