Mendocino village
Originally uploaded by Tom Hilton.
This is where I spent my birthday weekend.
Mendocino is an old logging town gone bust (the mills closed int he '30s). They built an arts center in the '50s, and it became an artists' colony of sorts.
In 1972, residents organized to stop the development of the surrounding land. They succeeded, it became a state park, and the village was put on the National Register of Historic Places. They instituted tight controls on development.
The visual character of Mendocino was preserved, but not the economic character. Now it's a tourist destination (and deservedly so--I think it's the prettiest coastal town in California), and few of the people who work in Mendocino can afford to live there.
If Mendocino looks familiar, it's because you've seen Murder, She Wrote or Summer of '42 or The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming or any of the scores of movies shot there.
The water supply is limited and uncertain, so there are lots of these water towers in town. 
Main Street looking west (the shot at the top is also Main Street, looking east). 
The old Presbyterian church, which is apparently the oldest continuously-used Protestant church in California. More Mendocino pictures here.
[That's all, folks]
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