Mendocino Woodlands Recreational Demonstration Area

Mendocino Woodlands is a 720-acre state park set in a second-growth Coast Redwood canyon about nine miles inland from the northern California coast. Built in the 1930s on the site of the abandoned logging town of Boyles, it was one of 46 Recreational Demonstration Areas created to turn worn-out lands into recreation space. The National Park Service supervised design, while Civilian Conservation Corps and Works Progress Administration crews did the work. Three group camps and an administration area sit along the Little North Fork of Big River, separated by forest and topography. All buildings are Old Growth Redwood with board and batten or shake siding and stone fireplaces, and a single unpaved dirt road ends in a cul-de-sac. The first camp opened in 1938 and all three were complete by 1943. Few changes have been made since. It is the only such area in California and the only one in a Redwood forest, and it is regarded as having the best integrity of any in the country.