Founded in 1973 with a mission "to collect, preserve, protect and share the rich history of the Mendocino Coast"[1] it interprets Mendocino's logging and shipping industries together with displaying typical domestic life in the 1800s.

It is the starting point of a popular walking tour of Mendocino.

[2][3] It has "the only museum-quality storage and research facility open to visitors on the Mendocino California Coast.

"[1] It has a cannon salvaged by sport divers in the 1960s, from the ship Frolic which was wrecked in 1850 a few miles north of Mendocino, at Point Cabrillo.

Investigation of the wreck by agents of Henry Meiggs sparked the development of the timber industry in the area.