Photograph of Mendocino Woodlands State Park — Photograph by Carwil Bjork-James, CC BY-SA 4.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Mendocino Woodlands Recreational Demonstration Area

A National Historic Landmark. Built in 1934 (National Park Service rustic). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. 7 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1920.

From the record

“The Mendocino Woodlands State Park is a group camping facility located at 39350 Little Lake Road, Mendocino County, California, seven miles (11 km) inland from the town of Mendocino. It was built as a Recreational Demonstration Area by the Civilian Conservation Corps.”
Wikipedia article Mendocino Woodlands State Park, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 42 National Register listings published here for Mendocino County · listed in 1997 · category: District · built in 1934, National Park Service rustic · a National Historic Landmark.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Address. 11301 Little Lake Road, Mendocino, 95437
When was it listed? September 1997
Category. district
Census division. Mendocino
When was it built? 1934
Architectural style. National Park Service rustic
National Register reference number. 97001262 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1920 to 1991

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 71 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Mendocino Woodlands Recreational Demonstration Area, surveyed 1991

Topographic sheet covering Mendocino Woodlands Recreational Demonstration Area, surveyed 1920

Fires near this property

101 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 101 fires within 5 miles of Mendocino Woodlands Recreational Demonstration Area between 1992 and 2020, burning about 230 acres in total. 3 started naturally. 2 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	44
Equipment and vehicle use	22
Debris and open burning	13
Misuse of fire by a minor	7
Recreation and ceremony	5
Natural	3
Power generation/transmission/distribution	2
Arson/incendiarism	2
Smoking	2
Other causes	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
9 September 1993	Misuse of fire by a minor	under an acre	Mendocino Unit	TUPPER
7 September 2009	Smoking	1.0 acres	Mendocino Unit	LAKE
6 September 2009	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Mendocino Unit	WOODLANDS CDF MENDO
6 September 2003	Natural	1.0 acres	Mendocino Unit	LIGHTNING103
6 September 1992	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Mendocino Unit	J.S.F. #1
5 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Mendocino Unit	RIVER
4 September 2003	Natural	under an acre	Mendocino Unit	LIGHTNING 99
4 September 2003	Natural	under an acre	Mendocino Unit	LIGHTNING90

Every fire recorded in Mendocino County

Maps showing this location

7 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the middle of the area the National Park Service maps for this listing, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1920 USGS Glenblair quadrangle1:62500
1943 USGS Glenblair quadrangle1:62500 - 2 printings
1957 USGS Ukiah quadrangle1:250000 - 3 printings
1960 USGS Comptche quadrangle1:62500 - 2 printings
1960 USGS Ukiah quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1981 USGS Ukiah quadrangle1:100000 - 3 printings
1991 USGS Mathison Peak quadrangle1:24000

Listed places nearby

5 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Jerome B. Ford House	5.7 miles	2010
Mendocino and Headlands Historic District	5.9 miles	1971
FROLIC (brig)	6.9 miles	1991
Point Cabrillo Light Station	7.0 miles	1991
Albion River Bridge	7.9 miles	2017

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 97001262 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Mendocino County	All 42 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.