Ninetta Eames (ND-ND)

Mendocino Wind Mills

From Staging in the Mendocino Woods, 1892

California boasts a rich heritage of self-reliance and individuality. But sometimes such estimable qualities are taken way too far.

A frequent contributor to the _Overland Monthly_, Ninetta Eames was fascinated with the lumbering regions of northern California, including Mendocino City, a place, she discovered, that appeals to the eye as it assaults the ears.

Viewed from a distance on shore or at sea, the city seems to have an imposing array of cupolas, which are in reality water tanks, with windmills of every known pattern. There is in fact an individuality about the waterworks of this town not found in any other place of its size. Every family or group of families has its separate well and windmill, thus obviating the necessity of a general source of water supply. One sees windmills painted in red, white, or blue, or dark shades of maroon and yellow, and still others so ancient and wind tortured that their distinctive color can only be guessed.

When the wind blows, and there is rarely a day here that it does not, these various windmills set up a medley of discordant creaks and groans, each pitched in a different key, and whether heard singly or collectively, all equally nerve-rending.

Ninetta Eames didn't only write for the Overland Monthly, for a time she was its editor. "Staging in the Mendocino Woods" appeared there in 1892.