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History · Little River

Little River’s post office opened in 1865

Most of Little River was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1997. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1943 on, and old-book passages.

1865first post office
0on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
2old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Little River’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Little River began

When was Little River founded?

1865

The Little River post office opened in 1865, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 94161 years
Founding year: the first Little River post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Little River’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 2 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Little River’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Little River’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo1 archive item has no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewLittle River and Country Road, looking …: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Little River came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Little River.

Read it all →

Little River was first settled by three Beall men (pronounced Bell). They are thought to have arrived between 1852 and 1856 and are listed on the 1860 Mendocino County census, Big River township: Lloyd (56 years, a farmer born in Tennessee), Samuel (26 years, a farmer born in Missouri), and Harvey (24 years, a stock man born in Missouri). The Bealls joined the Moore Brothers who had preempted land and erected dwellings a short distance from the ocean north of the bay. Shortly after, in 1856, W.H. Kent purchased the Beall tract. The place was known as "Beall's Harbor" and "Kent's Landing" until 1864, when the name was changed to "Littleriver Bay". Ruel Stickney, Silas Coombs, and Tapping Reeves built a mill here, which provided the stimulus for the formation of the town of Little River. The town grew with the success of the mill so that eventually a schoolhouse, post house, shipyard, hot…

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Little River in 1880

Passages that mention Little River, cut from the printed page as they were published.

bec county for California and took passage on the steamer, June 23d, at New York for Aspinwall, and arrived in San Francisco on the steamer Constitution July 18th. He came immediately to Mendocino county and located on his present estate at Little River in 1865, and has continued to reside .there e…
History of Mendocino County, California1880 · page 556Read the page →
Read the text

bec county for California and took passage on the steamer, June 23d, at New York for Aspinwall, and arrived in San Francisco on the steamer Constitution July 18th. He came immediately to Mendocino county and located on his present estate at Little River in 1865, and has continued to reside .there ever since. In 1865 he was appointed postmaster of the Little River postoffice, an office he has continually held since that date.

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Barbara, two masts, built at Little River, and is still alive; schooner Alary D. Pomeroy, two masts, built at Little River, and lost off Point Reyes, witli all on board.
History of Mendocino County, California1880 · page 439Read the page →
Read the text

Barbara, two masts, built at Little River, and is still alive; schooner Alary D. Pomeroy, two masts, built at Little River, and lost off Point Reyes, witli all on board.

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

Timeline

Little River, 1865 to 1943

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1865Post officeThe Littleriver post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1905In the archiveLittle River and Country Road, looking North, Mendocino County
  5. 1943On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Little River, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1900s1 item
Little River and Country Road, looking North, Mendocino County1905Little River and Country Road, looking North, Mendoci…
1910s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Date unknown1 to date
Zonotrichia leucophrys - April 2025 - Sarah StierchDate?Zonotrichia leucophrys - April 2025 - Sarah Stierch
Today6 recent
Little River Lights2014Little River LightsLittle River, Mendocino2013Little River, MendocinoLittle River, Mendocino2013Little River, MendocinoMendocino2012MendocinoMendocino Coast2012Mendocino CoastLittle River Airport2008Little River Airport
On the map

Little River on the map, 1943 to 1978

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Little River. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Little River on the 1943 USGS mapLittle River on the 1960 USGS mapLittle River on the 1978 USGS map1943Fort Bragg sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Little River.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Little River and Country Road, looking North, Mendocino County
Retake this viewLittle River and Country Road, looking North, Mendocino County, 1905

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Little River’s page.

Retake this view · +15

Questions about Little River’s history

What year was Little River founded?

The Little River post office opened in 1865, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (8), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.