The Decline and Fall of the Dry Docks

By Annie Sutter and Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

Last week we ran excerpts from Annie Sutter’s account of the glory days of the dry docks which appeared suddenly in Richardson’s Bay in 1966. They were a party destination and an alternative lifestyle community, but by the time Annie filed her report in 1991, those days were past. Here are more lightly edited excerpts from Annie’s article:

Once measuring 125’x 90' x 51’ high, the dry docks have been eaten away by fire, decimated by demolition and scrapping contractors, attacked by chainsaws, punctured by gunshots, worn by the comings and goings of the community who called them home, and settled in the mud by the 1989 earthquake so badly that the decks are now awash at high tide. But there they are still resting on the offshore mud. Whether a “county wart," "hulking eyesores,” or a “symbol of nose-thumbing nonconformity” depends on how you look at it. And what you know about it depends on who you talk to.

PHOTO FROM SAUL ROUDA

Rumors of arson followed the 1975 inferno

In April 1970 a swarm of drug agents, police, a county health inspector and a Fish and Game warden converged on the docks. The word about the raid leaked out, and if there were any covert activities, they had ceased by the time the flotilla boarded. In June a powerboat rammed into the docks in the night, the owner sued the County on grounds that the docks were not properly lit and were hazards to navigation; flashing lights were installed, and then they were stolen.

The first serious drydock fire was in 1970, and by then, the "hill” and the "waterfront” had squared off, attitudes noted in an IJ article: “...an entire wall erupted in flames. Sausalito hill dwellers rushed down to the waterfront jumping with excitement to watch them expire like a torch. A San Francisco fireboat spotted the glow and gave houseboaters their turn to jump for joy by extinguishing the blaze.”

County supervisors and council members proposed and counter proposed plans to demolish the ruined hulks. One contractor took it on for $2 thinking he could sell the salvage, but he soon disappeared because his tools and materials disappeared.

Another stumbling block to progress appeared in the form of Ms. Laura Ashley Roberts, who, she said, had been given the docks by her husband Chris, and that she was entitled to the salvaged wood. She took the matter to court, but the judge ruled against Ms. Roberts and the salvors went back to work. However, the drydocks resisted with the tenacity of a hulking elephant and the tactics of the waterfront guerillas reached new heights of creativity and effectiveness. Small equipment disappeared. Cranes were sabotaged. Value of the salvaged wood or not, it was a money loser.

Help arrived in the form of yet another fire. On June 25, 1975, “the huge structure went up like a Roman Candle in the middle of the Bay; flames shot 20 or 30 feet into the air and left only a charred hulk on the water.” Yet, there was still plenty of space for the liveaboards to move back.

Probably the last proposed use for the drydocks surfaced about 1981, offered by Michael Haas, “The Shaman of Rainbow Bay.” His concept was for a "Lunar Village” community inhabited by the refugees of the houseboat wars. It would be a completely self-sufficient biosphere growing all food necessary for its inhabitants and harvesting all its energy needs from nature.

All to no avail. By 1991, the drydocks were the property of the County of Marin, acquired on the basis of abandonment. Funding was sought to remove them and eventually Supervisor Bob Roumiguiere found it at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The remaining residents were moved off, and removal was completed in November of 1994.

More of the story of the dry docks can be found in the short film Soul of Sausalito by Saul Rouda, which can be viewed on Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/659508023.

Dry Docks: Icon or Eyesore?

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

Long before Forbes Kiddoo’s man-made island gained fame in the 1980s, a set of dry docks became a major landmark in Richardson’s Bay.

In a two-part series for this paper, the Historical Society’s Annie Sutter wrote about the four drydocks, “the many tons of wood, iron and granite ballast that were deposited in Richardson Bay on the evening of a high tide in July 1966.” Here are some lightly edited excerpts from her account:

Nine drydocks were built at Moore's Shipyard in Oakland in the 1930 s for the purpose of lifting ships out of the water so they could be repaired or worked upon. They were used to repair combat damaged ships during the war, and one account even has them having been towed to and from the South Pacific in 1943.

After the war they were sunk near Moore’s Shipyard where they remained underwater for years until a salvage company bought them, and arranged to have them towed to the Delta and dumped. Enroute, while under tow off Alcatraz, the nine drydocks caught the eye and the imagination of Delmar "Red" Wise as he sat in his second floor office in Sausalito. He arranged by VHF radio with the tug's captain to buy four of them reportedly for a towing fee of $25,000 and brought them in on a high tide that very same night.

"Red" had two plans for his impulsive purchase. One was to move them into his boatyard, Diesel Marine and Engineering at the foot of Napa St, and fix them up for sale; marine salvage was in those days a lucrative business.

Quickly the City Council passed an ordinance prohibiting drydocks within the City limits. That effectively kiboshed Wise’s plans to restore them.

The other plan — "Atlantis” — was cooked up with the help of artist friend Chris Roberts; they were going to create the "Ghirardelli Square of Marin County.” complete with shops, restaurants and. naturally a waterfront cafe, with tourists being ferried across from the Napa St. Pier.

In 1968, "Red", who was ill, sold the drydocks to Roberts for $l. Roberts, a free spirited soul and creative artist who had designed and built two fanciful structures, the 80' tall “Madonna and Child” on a pile driver, and the "Owl," a houseboat, had some energetic plans for his baby, including a “2.5 million educational and cultural complex"; the "Atlantis” plan; and a "gigantic Lotus shaped art center with studios and live-work space."

In 1968 a giant daisy blossomed on the west wall. The idea was hatched in the no name bar by some "very respectable people in town,” according to newspaper reports. It took them two nighttime sorties in a rowboat to install it. One of the perpetrators said, "there was no reason, no message; it was just for fun."

And there was a lot of fun to be had in those first years, the late 1960s. Folks would row out and have lunch. Others rowed out to smoke pot. A local caterer held an elegant wine tasting party for 100 people.

Probably the biggest and best remembered bash of all was in 1969, the 75th birthday party for artist and waterfront guru of good living, Jean Varda. One of the 300 or so participants recalls, "There were bonfires and a band and incense and marijuana smoke hanging in the air. It was really ‘hippiedom,’ beads and long flowing robes — I thought I was in the middle of India."

LOVE IS was lettered alongside the daisy on Halloween Eve, 1969. This WAS a message. It seems to have gone unheeded except, perhaps, by some of the waterfront community who began to call the dry docks home.

Among others, The "Red Legs". a waterfront band from Gate 5 began visiting the docks to play music and to generally have a good time. “At first we just visited and played music, then 4 or 5 guys started living there all the time," recalled Redlegs vocalist Maggie Catfish.  From then on it was an ongoing give and take scene between officials and the drydock inhabitants. In April 1970 “a swarm of drug agents, police, a county health inspector and a Fish and Game warden converged on the docks.”

Next week, the decline and fall of the dry docks.

PHOTO FROM SAUSALITO HISTORICAL SOCIETY

In 1972 a large Gauguin reproduction was added to the dry docks artwork

Christmas Shopping in 1885

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

Even in the 19th century the commercialization of Christmas was a matter of concern. An editorial in one of the first issues of the Sausalito News (March 1885) stated, “The exchange of gifts is too often regarded as compulsory. There Is a trading of purchases, a tumultuous crowding to meet obligations, as if we had notes at bank to pay, and the time was nearly up. We act too much as if we were paying impatient creditors. The old Christmas sentiment, it is true, reigns in many hearts, but the fact that it is actually waning is depressing. We are becoming too exclusively commercial.”

Nevertheless, as the holiday season grew nearer, the paper reversed course when it ran a shameless plug for a pioneering San Francisco retailer:

“It is not by any means too early to apportion our Christmas funds and enter into a solemn debate with ourselves on the respective merits of the useful or the ornamental in the way of gifts,” the article began, adding, “And often, while considering this momentous subject, have we heard the remark, ‘oh, if we were in New York or London or Paris, we could easily decide, for there, one finds everything.’”

The paper’s San Francisco correspondent described a local establishment “that Is like a little bit of Paris set down in our midst, where, if you cannot be suited, you would be hard to suit indeed. For here, there is such an immense assortment of the useful and the beautiful, that, whether you wish to spend two dollars or two thousand, there is no dearth of choice.”

The correspondent went on to describe a litany of gift ideas that were the bee’s knees back in the day:

Lady friends may be presented with anything conceivable in the jewel line, from a velvet neck-band with its clasp of precious stones, to the "Order of the Garter" with its equally precious buckle. Gentlemen need fear no neglect in the way of fob chains, charms, seals, studs, scarf pins, match holders, watches, etc.

The silverware (also all made and designed by the firm, including its dainty, velvet-lined cases, and to be had only here and at retail) embraces everything from a cheese scoop and jelly knife to a berry bowl or full service. And for those who do not care for the responsibility of the solid article, there is a varied selection of the Rogers, Smith & Company's plated ware embracing Center Pieces, Tea Sets, Cake Baskets, Water Sets, Vases, Knives, Forks, etc., all of which can be purchased here at the very lowest possible prices. Supplemental to this main business of gold and silver artisanship is an Art Department, so filled with articles of virtu, that to see them is an education in itself.  Here, French and Russian bronzes hob-nob with almost priceless Royal Worcester plates whose merits would sooner place them in an Art Gallery than on the dinner table. Vases, card receivers and jewel boxes of hammered brass and silver, made in Philadelphia, stand in loving companionship beside egg shell China cups from France and urns of finest Cincinnati pottery.

Onyx pedestals, perfect marvels of beauty, library lamps which will mellow the light to any desired shade, ladies' three sided mirrors, silver bound prayer books, exquisite vinaigrettes jardinieres, mantel clocks, statuettes, cut glass pitchers, punch-bowls, cups, plates, and flower holders, in all their crystalline beauty, trifling ash receivers, sealing wax cases, paper weights, ink stands, candle sticks, ivory articles for the writing desk and toilet table, and silver mounted ivory handled carvers, and hundreds of other objects of art are massed together, to form a kaleidoscope of beauty which might be a dream, but which is a happy, palpable reality.

There has recently been opened also a department for leather goods in which, the gentle, civilised calf and the savage and uncivilized alligator vie with each other in their tanned offerings to the demands of the age. There are finely bound photograph albums, elegant traveling satchels, toilet cases for ladies

and gentlemen, portfolios of every style, reticules large or small, plain or embossed, glove, handkerchief, letter and card cases, cigar holders. Your correspondent begs you readers to have no more longings for New York or Paris, but to seek at the establishment of Geo. C. Shreve & Co., San Francisco, for the satisfactory indulgence of their Holiday desires on the corner of Sutter and Montgomery Streets.

Inspired by the Gold Rush, Shreve and Co. is considered the oldest commercial establishment in San Francisco. Today, the company’s store at 150 Post Street specializes in jewelry and luxury watches.

COURTESY PHOTO

Shreve & Co. building standing amongst the ruins of the 1906 Earthquake

Major Renovation for Bay Area Discovery Museum

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

The Bay Area Discovery Museum, beloved by local families for more than three decades, has completed a major $20 million renovation of its campus, with five new research-backed exhibits.

PHOTO BY LARRY CLINTON

All aboard the good ship Faith at BADM

The museum was the brainchild of two Marin women, Clara Greisman and Sue Monaghan, beginning in 1984. According to an article in this paper, they recruited a board of directors, drafted bylaws, secured the museum’s tax-exempt status, and raised $550,000. The museum opened in April 1987 in temporary quarters at the Town Center in Corte Madera, but a permanent site had already been selected at East Fort Baker in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The architectural firm of Esherick, Hornsey, Dodge and Davis, which designed the Monterey Bay Aquarium, was selected to design the museum.

Reporting on the grand opening in Corte Madera, Marinscope reporter Sheri Rice declared, “the museum is dedicated to the young and the young at heart. Collections and exhibits are not just for looking at, they provide an opportunity for hands-on involvement, allowing children and adults to touch, manipulate, ask questions, create, learn, and even make noise.”

Her article continued: “the Bay Area Discovery Museum has set goals to encourage active participation, provide a framework for discovery in the arts, humanities, science and technology, open up an understanding of the multi-ethnic community we all live in, give parents and children a chance to learn together, and generally provide a base of inquiry for curious adults.” All while concentrating on the Bay Area environment.

Another Marinscope writer, Tina Bournazos, reported on the Museum’s two-day grand opening celebration of its permanent facility three years later: “The Bay Area Discovery Museum has made a new home in seven historic buildings at East Fort Baker, and local kids 2 to 12 will be treated to an expanded version of the popular hands-on children’s museum. Its new location not only boasts a stunning view of the Golden Gate Bridge and lots of wide open space for exploring the great outdoors, but also affords room for the museum to spread out.”

Those former Army support buildings were once a bakery, a blacksmith shop, a carriage house and storerooms.

The Discovery Museum was based on the idea that children learn by doing, explained Diane Frankel, executive director. “There is a Chinese proverb, ‘I hear, and I forget. I see and I remember. I do, and I know.’ That's the underlying philosophy of the Bay Area Discovery Museum, with emphasis on environmental and social issues specific to the Bay Area."

Today, “Landscape-inspired rooms invite toddlers to crawl, feel and hop through themed environments, all the while gaining an age-appropriate introduction to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) learning concepts,” reports Marin Magazine. “The bay and water room features a play structure offering different tactile experiences, while the forest and habitat room offers plenty of interactive areas to explore, and a black-and-white wall mural by Steven Valenziano features animals and plants that are native to Marin County.”

A How Things Work exhibit features inner workings of familiar objects to spark children’s curiosity and encourage abstract thinking. Lookout Cove contains the Faith, a decommissioned fishing vessel from Bodega Bay which kids can climb on and explore. The boat was prepared at Spaulding Marine Center in Sausalito and then sailed to the museum campus, where it was craned out of the water and transported across the site via truck.

A Try It Studio is aimed at increasing digital literacy, and Gumnut Grove is an imaginative climbing structure inspired by the seedpods of the eucalyptus trees on the BADM campus.

The BADM is currently using a timed ticketing system to help maintain an appropriate site capacity.

Everyone is asked to reserve tickets in advance, including members. Pre-register at https://bayareadiscoverymuseum.org/visit/tickets/reserve-tickets for the smoothest experience. Adults must be accompanied by children.

Godfather of the Waterfront

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

Donlon Arques is well known as the man who fostered Sausalito’s early houseboat community when he snapped up portions of the abandoned Marinship property and made them available to folks looking to live cheaply on the waterfront after World War II. But how did that come about? Arques was a very private individual, but Historical Society co–founder Phil Frank provided some insights into his background in his book, Houseboats of Sausalito. Here are some lightly edited excerpts:

Donlon and his brother Bub spent most of their early years on the Bay. Don described growing up on the water: “I was brought up as a kid on boats. I was broken in like that.” Beginning in 1913, the family operated several boatyards on the Sausalito waterfront.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SAUSALITO HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND ARQUES FAMILY ARCHIVES  

Brothers Donlon (far left) and Bub (far right) with their buddies on the Bay

During the 1910s and 1920s, wooden barges were being built by Don’s father, Camillo, at the Chrichton and Arques Shipyard at Napa Street. The barges were used both for commercial hauling of foodstuffs from the delta to San Francisco and for military purposes, per Arques’ Navy contracts.

In later years, Camillo and Don acquired a fleet of abandoned ferryboats, grain and vegetable barges, steam schooners, and piledrivers idled by the newly constructed bridges, highways, and trucks.

Camilo died in the 1940s and willed the yard (then at Johnson Street) to Don and Bub. Gates Three, Five, and Six similarly came under Don’s management. At these sites, scrapping operations recycled World War II materials and leftover craft from the ferry systems and bridges.

During World War II, Don Arques was contracted by the U.S. Navy to work at Marinship and at Terminal Island, San Pedro. He was one of the few individuals in Marin with the equipment and the ability to move the heavy material that needed relocation around the yard. He worked on contract until the yard was decommissioned in 1946. Arques later acquired surplus ships, shipyard land and equipment and began renting watercraft to artists and returning World War II soldiers. Ultimately, he would control much of the postwar Marinship property along the Sausalito waterfront.

Eventually, the County began threatening to demolish some of these non–code compliant dwellings, but they found a staunch adversary in Don Arques. County officials called him the “Howard Hughes of Sausalito” because of their difficulty reaching him, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal. Arques claimed that squatters had moved onto his property, “and I don’t pay any attention to them.” Yet the Journal pointed out, “he concedes that a few of them pay rent.”

Don died in 1993, after he and his wife Vera put their property at Gate 3 into a charitable educational trust and a maritime preservation foundation. When asked what he wanted to see there, Don replied, “marine enterprises, there’s so little left in the country.” It has operated that way ever since, but in the 1990s, developers gained control of the property, and have since put forth a variety of proposals to locate residential, office, mixed use and other non–water dependent developments along the waterfront. Those proposals remain a controversy to this day, with many people preferring to preserve Sausalito’s unique working waterfront.

Remington Dog Park Turns 30

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

This month marks the 30th anniversary of the founding of Remington Dog Park at Bridgeway and Coloma. The Park owes its existence to Dianne Chute, who was frustrated by not having a place to exercise her golden retriever Remington. After receiving a pair of tickets for walking her dog off leash, she decided to take her concerns to the City.

At an October 1990 meeting of the Parks and Recreation Commission, Dianne commented on the unintended consequences of Sausalito’s leash law, which states that dogs must be on leash when off their owner's property.

“Everyone I know is a responsible dog owner,” she said, “yet because of the leash law, we are forced to break the law. I feel like a criminal.”

After presenting a petition signed by 150 like-minded citizens, Dianne added, “Enforcing the leash law is like the City banning cars without providing an alternative means to get around.”

In true Sausalito fashion, that meeting led to a series of debates about whether the park should be temporary or permanent, and where it might be located.

Dianne favored the Martin Luther King Park. She stated in this newspaper that a masterplan for MLK was long overdue and preferred the area between the gym and tennis courts because, of the alternatives discussed, it posed the least amount of work. In January 1991, the City Council designated that section an off-leash area where dogs could be exercised.

Diane formed the Dog Owners Group (D.0.G.) dedicated to developing the area into an adequate local space for exercising their pets, and Marinscope reported that “support of the concept has been overwhelming.”

Fundraising efforts included soliciting private donations, selling hotdogs at the Caledonia Street Fair, selling drinks at the Vintage Boat Show, and holding a lasagna dinner/raffle, which was attended by 125 people. D.O.G. raised over $2OOO combined with $28OO the City donated to the project, to complete the fencing of the off-leash area.

Dianne’s powers of persuasion and —well—dogged determination were beginning to pay off.

Marinscope City Editor Tina Bournazos wrote: “Get a group of Sausalitans together all working towards a community goal and the results are almost always remarkable. This time the group is dogowners, the goal is building a community dog park, and so far the results have been impressive.”

It all became official on November 24, 1991, with a gala ribbon cutting and grand opening. The Park received community donations for a fence, lighting, and general maintenance.

Two years later at the 1993 Take Pride in California Awards ceremony in Sacramento, Dianne Chute was honored for her volunteer efforts on behalf of the State’s public and private lands.

The original deal with the city granted the use of the land as long as maintenance was taken care of by users of the Park. In 2002 Diane and other volunteers formed a non-profit corporation, the Friends of Sausalito Dog Parks, to raise funds and to work in partnership with the City to foster safe, clean and protected dog parks for exercise, socialization and education within Sausalito.

Diane kept a scrapbook of petitions, letters, photos, and news clippings to document the efforts she and other volunteers put in to developing and maintaining the Park. A copy of that scrapbook is now in the collection of the Sausalito Historical Society.

An avid sailor, Dianne also became the first female commodore of the Sausalito Cruising Club, and upon her death not long ago, she left part of her estate to Call of the Sea, to fund sailing scholarships for girls and young women.

Remington would have been proud.

The Night the Waterfront Blew Up

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

COURTESY OF SHS

Fire Chief Matt Perry poses proudly with Sausalito’s new ambulance in 1947

In November 1944, Sausalito Fire Chief Matt (aka Matts) Perry and Mayor John Ehlen tried to pull off a publicity stunt that literally backfired, creating panic throughout the North Bay. Here’s a first-hand account by Sausalito News reporter Marjorie McQuiston:

“With a whirr of the siren . . . the motors throbbing beneath me . . . three people on my lap . . . and my eyes popping out of my head ... I was off last night in the fire engine to see one of the biggest fire rallies in the history of Sausalito. There in the blackness of the night, several thousand spectators gathered at Sausalito’s star-lit waterfront to watch the mayor, John B. Ehlen, set fire to a gasoline soaked rope which the Volunteer Firemen had strung around the old hull of the SS Mazama, laying in the soggy mud flats. The mobs surged down near the side of the ship as the flames crawled toward the bridge. They watched the burst of brilliant light when the cracked and rotten wood suddenly burst with fire that could be seen for miles around.

“Blaring across the waterfront from a loud speaker set up on Pacific Queen, the Kissinger’s three masted sailing vessel in the harbor, a running commentary directed traffic along Bridgeway, described the progress of the fire, and entertained the excited crowds with music. Aboard this ship, which provided protected ringside views of the rally, were many of the Sausalito yacht owners, guests of Capt. and Mrs. Kissinger. Cars lined the sidewalk along Bridgeway. Hundreds of other people wandered up and down the yacht harbor pier, where emergency fire pumps were standing by, and cameras were being set up by many a professional and amateur photographer.

“The purpose of this huge conflagration was to give the Volunteer Firemen’s Carnival, next Friday and Saturday, some special publicity. Then too, Matts Perry, the fire chief, was anxious to rid the landscape of the three old crates stuck on the mud flats, which have been eyesores for many years.

“There were numerous comments among the spectators that the wood might have provided fire wood for homes this winter, but the answer to those remarks is that people have had ample opportunity to chop up the old ships and help themselves. Many others believe that the ancient hulls gave Sausalito a picturesque quality, and that burning them destroyed half the charm of the town. It is too late for controversy now. In the cold gray dawn of Wednesday morning, the still-burning embers of all three of the ships were close to the ground. Only black charred skeleton of the Mazama remained while the hulls of both the Santa Barbara and the Welseley were still being licked by flames.

With the help of the Sausalito Yacht Club boys, who stayed up all night with the firemen, the Volunteer Firemen built a protecting ridge around the bow of the Welseley, cutting off a small part of the ship from the fire because there was still a considerable amount of oil stored in her tanks. The remainder of the Welseley and the Santa Barbara were set on fire about two hours after the old Mazama had been lit. Sparks, blowing southward across the flats, showered the mobs of children and older people who crowded the shell beach. A pall of smoke hung around the vessels during the night, drifting over the bay just off Tiburon.”

Evidently, Mayor Ehlen and Chief Perry didn’t realize there was still some fuel oil in the steam schooner Welseley when they touched off this firestorm. This being wartime, the incident triggered speculation all around the Bay that the fire might have been the work of enemy saboteurs. The next day the News ran a story headlined “Fire Excites S. F. Papers”:

“Flames from the burning ships Tuesday night could be seen for such long distances that the Fire and Police Departments were kept busy answering frantic questions of citizens and newspapers from everywhere in the bay area. San Francisco Examiner called up the Fire Department soon after the fire started and wanted to know all of the data. A reporter from the Call-Bulletin caught sight of the conflagration as he was coming down the peninsula and immediately got a hold of a photographer to get pictures while he covered the story. Many of the observers in San Francisco thought that Marinship was on fire. FBI contacted the Police Department and wanted all of the information it could obtain. A false alarm from up in the hill took an engine and many of the firemen away for over a half an hour, but it was caused by people mistaking the flames from the ships for houses.”

After that, the town went back to pursuing the less hectic war effort.

Senator Hearst Skinned

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

COURTESY PHOTO

George Hearst, a few years after the Morning Sun mine indident

While researching a recent column on William Randolph Hearst in Sausalito, I came across this fascinating yarn about his father. George Hearst was a rough and ready American businessman, miner, and politician who epitomized the wild and wooly ethos of the 19th Century West.

In 1888, the Sausalito News carried this unique tale of Hearst being outsmarted at his own game:

Two of the tables in the café off the St. James hotel were drawn up together last night, and there was a nice jolly crowd seated around them. Among them were Senator Hearst, of California, and Col. Tom Kelly, of Arizona.

"Tom. old boy,"' said the long-bearded Senator from California, "Do you remember the deal you gave me on that mine near Tombstone back in 1880? I really never knew the true history of that scalping business, but it is all over now, and you ought to tell us how you played it on as. You know you cleaned me out of a cool $100,000.”

"George,” answered the colonel, and he looked very solemn and truthful like, "I think I did best you on that bargain, and by the glaciers of the Rockies, I think I am the one man on the coast who ever downed the senator on a mining deal. But I did— and this is the story:

"Tombstone, Arizona was a very bad town half-a-dozen years ago, and it is not much of a paradise on earth just yet, though they have hanged and shot a couple of hundred of the worst rustlers within the last year or two. I was around there prospecting in the neighborhood early in 1880, and, to confess the truth, I was hard up. I was literally walking on my shoestrings, I could not find anything around that country worth getting George Hearst and my other capitalistic friends to spend money upon, and I was about pulling up my stakes when I ran across an old mine, called the Morning Star, about two miles from Tombstone, which was owned by some of the toughest citizens in that town. It looked promising, and I wrote to Hearst about it. He came on and looked at the hole, nosed around it for a couple of days, and then he would not give $1 an acre for it.

“Twenty-four bours before he had made that statement to me, he and several of his friends had formed a little syndicate and had purchased that very mine for $25,000. I was left out. I was mad, but not half us mad as I was a couple of weeks after when I found out that the new owners had stocked that mine for $l,000,000 — one million shares at $1 each — and were selling the shares pretty rapidly on the San Francisco market at about 50 cents apiece. It was enough to make any man enraged.

“George hired old Piggy McLaughlin, one of the best miners on the coast, to clear away the debris around the place and dig down to pay dirt. He had a force of about 20 men with him. I thought I saw my way clear when Mac came along, for I had often grub-staked him in the old days, as he had me also. So, we put our heads together

“The Morning Star boom went right along for a little while, and I believe George and his friends got rid of about 500, OOO shares and cashed into their coffers nearly $300, 000 on their outlay of $25,000. But eight months after shares were first put upon the market a committee came along from the shareholders and found that there was not a pound of paying ore on the dump.

“Three days, after they returned to San Francisco and had got rid of their own stock at a profit the shares fell to 10 cents.

“The next day McLaughlin received dispatch from Hearst telling him to stop work and discharge the men at the end of the week. It was Friday when the telegram reached Mac, and he and I were condoling with each other over the failure we had met with; for really not an indication of pay dirt bad yet been reached. It looked blue for both of us as we walked over to where the men were preparing for their last blast. It was an old hole drilled by the former owners and had been left untouched. Our fellows said they would take no chances but would use George Hearst's powder sticks to blast everything within reach, for they, too, were mad and ugly.

"When Mac and I looked carelessly into that long hole after the smoke had cleared away you could have knocked either of us over with a feather. The fortune we had longed for lay at our feet. The last blast hail disclosed one of the finest bodies of ore we had ever seen.

“We made no outcry and the miners, paying no attention to the bole, we covered it up and went back to camp. That night we let three of the most reckless devils in the outfit Into the secret, and the next morning I started for San Francisco. No man was to leave that camp until I returned. McLaughlin and the other three fellows were to hold them there by sweet words, if possible, by shotguns if necessary.

"I raised a few hundred dollars In Frisco, played half of it in Corlay's bank, and stepped out of there with more than $1,200. The shares of the Morning Star mine were worth nothIng and I had no trouble In gathering them in. But I went along quietly and at last I called upon George Hearst. I knew he held about 200,000 of them.

“I told the old boy that I thought I saw a way of making a couple of hundred dollars out of the shares by selling them to eastern capitalists, and as they were worth nothing to him I offered him a $100 note for all he had. He jumped at the offer, and I walked out of his office with nearly 300,000 shares.

“The next morning the Chronicle had a half column story of the great discovery of the Morning Star mine, and I was on my way back to Tombstone. Two days after I got there George Hearst walked down into the drift, looked at the vein of ore, eyed me all over, and said: “Tom, you are a --- skin,” and then went away.

"I sold the mine in six weeks, and my share was just a plump million of dollars. No! l am done with mining now. New York, London and Paris are good enough for me."

"I think it is my turn to treat," said the big California Senator. And Tom Kelly took wine.

The First Anchor-Outs

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

Curtis Havel recently announced his resignation as harbormaster for the Richardson’s Bay Regional Agency (RBRA), the organization tasked with regulating anchor-outs in Richardson’s Bay. That announcement got me thinking back to how the anchor-out phenomenon got its start.

That story was told by the original anchor-out himself, Bob Kalloch, in an oral history recorded for the Historical Society.

Bob, a New England transplant, arrived in San Francisco in the late 50s, and soon befriended a number of beat poets and artists. “In 1960, I decided the 60’s were going to happen, I guess,” Bob told interviewer Dorothy Gibson, “so I moved to the Haight Ashbury to manage a house for a friend of mine. I wound up bringing my ‘bunch’ to that house.”

In time he was joined by the free-spirited Laurabell Hawbecker, who became his constant companion for the rest of his life. Later, they moved briefly to Skyline Ridge in San Mateo County, near Ken Kesey’s digs in La Honda.  

When Bob’s job with PG&E job ended, he and Laurabell decided to stop punching timeclocks, and rented a friend’s Sausalito houseboat for a month. During that time, he bought a sunken WWII landing craft for $300. Calling on his experience as a merchant seaman, he refloated and restored it, with the intention of anchoring it out in Richardson’s Bay. “No one else was doing that,” Bob recollected. “We had no idea about anchoring out, whether you could do it, whether it was legal. We checked with the Coast Guard, and they said, ‘If you’re not underway, you don’t need to register it.’” The lifestyle appealed to Laurabell’s sense of adventure, and allowed them the opportunity to travel, one of Bob’s passions. “We had more of a boat orientation than a stick-in-the-mud orientation,” Bob said.

Bob noted that the couple was “Part of the founding generation of the Haight,” then among the first to move out as many did later “when the Haight went belly up” after the summer of love. “Moving to the middle of the Bay was just a continuation of that same idea,” Bob declared. “We didn’t feel there was any kind of establishment that was going to take care of us, so I decided that instead of a normal career, I would try to become proficient as a jack-of-all-trades. I can’t say I was all that successful at that, but that was the orientation.”

In 1968, they took a trip cross country, during the build-up to the tumultuous Chicago Democratic Convention, which deepened their anti-establishment feelings. But when they got back to Marin and compared life here to other parts of the country, Bob found, “I didn’t feel I had to be so ‘revolting,’ you might say.”

When they moved back into their boat later that year, the Charles Van Damme ferry, which had been operating at Gate 6 as a night club called the Ark, had just closed down due to a fire, ironically following a performance by The Flaming Groovies. Joe Tate, who was living on the ferry with a band called Salvation, wished they could play for a live audience, says Bob, “So Laura took a hammer and broke the lock on the door, declared the place open, got in the ticket booth and charged a dollar a head” to hear the band. “There was nothing commercial about it,” Bob said. To keep the atmosphere mellow, Bob recalls, “Sometimes Laura was the bouncer and sometimes I was.”

When Bob and Laurabell had left on their cross-country jaunt in early spring, he remembered, “There might have been a half-dozen anchor-out boats. When we came back in August, there were 10 times as many. When the County said, ‘This is really getting out of hand, and we have to clamp down on this,’ I went to a couple of hearings and that was the start of my political involvement.” For several years, Bob served as a community spokesman in hearings before the County and Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC).

After a big winter storm, several anchor-outs moved into a cove that had been abandoned by a dredging operation, and that area became the Gates Co-Op. Eventually, the Co-Op became a subtenant of Waldo Point Harbor, and today, after decades of legal wrangling, 38 Co-Op boats have been placed on code-compliant docks, with all the shore side amenities such as utilities and plumbing.

Eventually Bob and Laurabell moved onto A Dock at Waldo Point Harbor, where they lived for many years before resettling in the California desert. Both of them have now passed away, leaving an eclectic legacy in Sausalito.

The RBRA board has approved a settlement agreement that will require the removal of illegal vessels anchored in the bay within five years amid threats of enforcement action by the BCDC.

A consultant affiliated with the Regional Government Services Authority who is experienced in marina management and has worked with live-aboard communities, is the agency’s interim executive director. He will recruit a new harbormaster, as well as a permanent executive director who will oversee the agency’s goals for the next five years. What happens next is anyone’s guess.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SAUSALITO HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Bob and Laurabell back in the day.

Hearst in Sausalito

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

The recent PBS documentary Citizen Hearst touched briefly on William Randolph Hearst’s stay in Sausalito, causing me to wonder what sort of impact the profligate newspaper publisher had on this village.

COURTESY PHOTO

W.R. Hearts, circa 1910

Over the years, the Sausalito News reported on many of Hearst’s activities. The first mention I found, in an 1886 unsigned social column, reads like a fit of publishing pique at the upstart owner of the San Francisco Examiner:

“It is said that Mrs. George Hearst intends to have her son begin work as a reporter upon his father's paper, the ‘Examiner.’ He is about to graduate from Harvard College and is heir to millions. His mother's intention is praiseworthy. But she would do well to have him learn journalism upon some paper not owned by his father, where he would receive no favoritism and be exposed to the stimulus of keen competition. It is a hard matter to make a good journalist of a college graduate with great expectations.”

As mentioned in the documentary, Hearst actually was expelled from Harvard in his senior year, after a long record of truancy and elaborate pranks on campus.

In April 1889, the paper took a more welcoming tone toward Hearst, reporting that he “has leased Seapoint from Mr. F. M Cartan for a period of one year we understand, with the privilege of purchasing if he so desires. Mr. Hearst is welcomed with open arms to our lovely town as a resident, and it is to be hoped he will permanently live here.”

Sea Point, described by Sausalito historian Jack Tracy, was “a magnificent home on a promontory built by Henry Cartans, a local distiller.” When Hearst moved into Seapoint, he brought along his mistress, Tessie Powers — a faux pas that was poorly received by the British colony that lorded over the Sausalito hills. However, he curried favor with the townsfolk through generous support of organizations such as the local chapter of the Native Sons of the Golden West, which was named Seapoint Parlor in honor of the Native Son.

While enjoying life in Sausalito, Hearst’s competitive drive led him to acquire a fast steamboat, which he entered into a number of races with other steam vessels on the Bay. Hearst must have been mightily miffed when his new toy failed its first test later that month, against the steamer San Rafael. “The launch and the steamer left Sausalito at 2:35,” reported the News, “but the San Rafael after a ten minutes run left the launch over a mile behind.”

After some tinkering with the engine, Hearst personally went aboard his steam launch for a re-match against the San Rafael, “when everything went with a jump” according to the News, and “The launch beat the San Rafael to the city by fully a quarter of a mile.”  The News added: “Mr. Hearst although a young man has a marked individuality and the enterprise and ways, means and ends of his metropolitan journal, the Examiner, reflect his wonderful executive ability and will power.”

The following February Hearst exercised his purchase option and bought Seapoint for $11,000. The News gushed, “So pleased is he with this part of the country that he expended over $8,000 in improvements on his elegant home before he purchased it. When men like Mr. Hearst have such confidence in Sausalito there is no wonder property increases in value, and the demand for residence sites and suburban homes is active. There never was so great a demand, so early in the season and by so many, as there is at the present time for summer accommodations by those who wish to spend the season here.”

Jack Tracy’s Sausalito history, Moments in Time, recounts Hearst’s next ambitious plan for Sausalito:

“Since early childhood, when he first saw the palaces and museums of Europe, Hearst had dreamed of possessing a luxurious ‘castle’ filled with the finest art and sculpture in the world. It would become a lifelong obsession. In April 1890, construction began just below Seapoint on what was to be Hearst's castle, the first of many attempts to give form to a vision. But for reasons not entirely clear, work was stopped with only a retaining wall on Water Street and the foundations of the gatehouse completed.”

Eventually, Hearst built five castles, but that foundation is all that remains of his Sausalito dream. By 1943, with five "castles" including San Simeon, Hearst sold his promontory overlooking the bay.

Call to Exterminate Sea Lions

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

PHOTO FROM MARIN SCUBA CLUB

A playful juvenile sea lion

As a 15-year volunteer at the Marine Mammal Center, I was appalled to find this 1921 letter to the Editor of the Sausalito News. Note that some of the writer’s claims are unsubstantiated and dubious. He began by claiming, “Some time ago I wrote I article on this subject, which was printed in a S. F. daily and received many communications very complimentary and expressing their views as being in accord with mine. But nothing has been done.” Then he continued:

“Why Is it that we do not have all kinds of game fish in our bay and tributary waters? There is only one answer, and that is the great menace of the sea lions. Very few people are aware of the fact that a sea lion will eat and destroy more than his own weight in a single day [really?] and the game fish, viz.: salmon, bass, barracuda, yellow tail and even the tuna are their prey. Most of those fish never get a chance to enter our waters on account of the herds of sea lions that infest Seal Rock at the entrance to our bay. For when the schools of salmon, striped bass and all other kinds of game fish come nosing up or down the coast looking for such as our bay to enter and go to the tributaries to spawn, the sea lions on the rocks, through their instinct, scent them miles away and they get together and go after them in great numbers and what they do not kill, eat and destroy, scatter to go elsewhere to spawn and never venture entering again.

“Thus we are deprived of not only the market value of the fish but the sport of catching them. Go to any hotel in the city and ask any tourist which he would rather do, go out to the Cliff House and look at those ugly brutes on the rocks or pack a rod and line and spend a day fishing for those fish that we have got, or be served with some of them for his meals at reasonable prices, and see what the answer will be.

“I have written to the Game Commission upon this subject and they say that in San Francisco there now exists an old ordinance protecting the sea lions on Seal Rock only. Now I suggest they repeal the same and give a bounty for them, also pay men to shoot and exterminate them. They are doing that up north. They have no commercial value. Why not get rid of them? I have studied this subject for over 33 years and my observations prompted me to write this article. Ask any fisherman what they do to his nets. No one can make even an approximate estimate as to the damage a sea lion can do to the fish industry. “With the extermination of the sea lion we will have all kinds of game fish in our waters at all times of the year. Let's us start a slogan: ‘Kill the Sea Lion and protect the fish.’” C. A. McNeill, Tiburon, Calif.

Thankfully, just the opposite occurred. After being hunted nearly to extinction by Russian fur traders in the 19the century, California sea lions were eventually afforded safeguards, culminating in the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. That legislation makes it illegal to harass, feed, hunt, capture or kill sea lions, seals, otters and other marine mammals. Today, sea lions are common throughout California and many parts of Oregon and Washington. Sadly, the National Marine Fisheries Service still allows locals to lethally remove sea lions preying on threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead in Washington’s Columbia River basin.

On the other hand, our nearby Marine Mammal Center has rescued over 23,000 sick, starving or injured marine mammals, mostly California sea lions, northern elephant seals and Pacific harbor seals.

The colony of “ugly brutes” at Seal Rock, whose ancestors so offended Mr. McNeill, migrated to Pier 39 following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, and became a major tourist attraction. Today, we treasure the biodiversity off our coast and in the Bay, and as apex predators, sea lions help to keep it all in balance.

Tiffany Park Gets Much-Deserved Attention

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

The recent announcement from Sausalito Beautiful’s Green Thumbs Team of a cleanup day last Saturday at Tiffany Park piqued my curiosity about this easily overlooked Sausalito landmark.

Our Sausalito.com states: “Most people driving along Bridgeway in southern Sausalito miss Tiffany Park, because the fabulous views of the Bridgeway Promenade draw your eye towards the Bay and San Francisco. But tucked along the side of the road at the base of the hill is a great shady spot to sit and enjoy the view,” adding that “the narrow flagstoned space runs alongside Bridgeway for about 60 feet, with some landscaping and a couple of benches spread across a low terrace.” 

PHOTO FROM SAUSALITO BEAUTIFUL

Picturesque and cozy Tiffany Park

Historical Society founder Jack Tracy included a thumbnail history of the park in his book Moments in Time: “The pocket-sized Tiffany Park at the foot of the North Street Stairs honors William Zobel Tiffany who served as Sausalito City Clerk from 1913 to 1939. In 1942 when this park was first planned, it was to have been a beach on the east side of Bridgeway. The plans were never completed, and it was not until 1963 that the park was dedicated, on the west side of Bridgeway.”

William Tiffany distinguished himself in 1911 when he ordered city crews to spare a cypress tree that was slated for removal to make room for newfangled auto travel. The women who demanded his action went on to form the Sausalito Woman’s Club and named the sole survivor the Founder’s Tree.

Sausalito Beautiful reports that esteemed artist Tim Collins was commissioned by Public Art Works in the 1980s to create a water and light art installation at Tiffany Park. The resulting artwork, enigmatically labeled ‘Gravity is a law in the material world, Levitation is a law in the spiritual world,’ looks like a tiny stone cottage tucked into the hillside.

Installed in 1993, the artwork has required periodic restoration. In 2015, the Sausalito Woman’s Club offered to fund renovation of defunct light and water features and to replace dilapidated landscaping in the immediate area. Club member Shelby Van Meter pulled together a team of specialists to complete the renovation. The city public works department is now planning repair the lighting fixture inside the tiny structure.

Sausalito Beautiful’ s Green Thumbs team, which organized last Saturday’s clean-up day, is made up of citizen volunteers who roll up their sleeves to make improvements in Sausalito’s public green spaces. Once a month the team of volunteers weed, trim, plant, and/or mulch at a pre-selected site.

The Green Thumbs team has worked at many locations throughout the city including Vina del Mar Plaza,  the landscaped strip on Bridgeway between Taste of Rome and the Ice House, the bus shelter and adjoining mini-park at Easterby Street,  and the Sausalito Post Office. This program is currently headed by Jim Scriba, who also serves on the Historical Society board.

The next cleanup day is scheduled for Saturday, October 16 at Bayside Martin Luther King Jr. Academy.  200 Phillips Dr. in Marin City. The team typically meets from 9:30 a.m. until noon, working together out in the fresh air. Participants meet new neighbors and see old friends while having the satisfaction of beautifying our community.

History lesson on downtown walls

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

PHOTO BY LARRY CLINTON

The Bank of Sausalito is now a Wells Fargo branch, but still displays the historic plaque next to its entry

In 1992 the Historic Landmarks Board began placing informational plaques on a number of buildings in Sausalito’s Downtown Historic District. Marin Scope reported on this program in an August issue that year. Here are some lightly edited excerpts from the article:

II you are in the mood for a brief history lesson on downtown Sausalito’s colorful past, all you have to do is take to the streets. Bronze information plaques arc popping up all over the downtown offering a thumbnail sketch of the early years of some of the town's oldest buildings. For longtime residents the information contained on the plaques will jog memories, while others will learn something new about Sausalito's early years: the days of rum running, Chinese gambling halls, and boarding houses.

The plaques are the result of the tireless efforts of the City’s Historic Landmarks Board, which is dedicated to promoting and preserving Sausalito's many historic structures.

Initiated by former HLB member, the late David Marcus, the plaque project began in 1988.There are sixteen plaques in all, each containing five or six lines of historical information. The plaques are currently being installed near the front entries of various historic downtown structures including Old City Hall. Mason's Garage, and the First Firehouse at 539 Bridgeway.

According to HLB Chairwoman Susan Frank the plaque design was developed with the help of local graphic designer Adrianne Dinihanian, and the informational texts were researched by former HLB member and writer Doris Berdahl in conjunction with the late Jack Tracy, founding HLB member and founder of the Sausalito Historical Society. Local architect Don Olsen coordinated the project and negotiated a series of agreements with merchants in the Historic District, who paid for the cost of the plaques.

“Special recognition should be given to the late David Marcus as the founder of the program. HLB member Doris Berdahl for her leadership in completing the program; the late Jack Tracy for his help in researching the accuracy of all historical information, and architect Don Olsen and graphic designer Adrianne Dinihanian for their generous professional contributions in coordinating and designing the project as a public service,” noted Frank.

The following are samples of the historical information contained on the plaques: “Old City Hall, 1894: Originally a restaurant/saloon, this building served as the Bank of Sausalito from 1909 to 1923. For the following half-century, it housed the city hall, the library and, for much of that time, the city jail. The facade was restored to its original design in 1992.” Today, that building, at 729 Bridgeway, houses Gene Hiller menswear.

“Mason's Garage: 1924: Built as a garage for ferry commuters. At various times it also housed a Chinese gambling hall, indoor golf course, and way station for rum runners. It became an indoor shopping complex in the 19605, one of the first conversions of its kind in the country.” That site became the Village Fair before being incorporated into the Casa Madrona Hotel

“First Sausalito Firehouse, 1914: Originally occupied the municipal wharf across Water Street (now Bridgeway), where it housed the Sausalito Volunteer Fire Department and the city jail. Relocated in 1931, it remained a firehouse until 1940. Present structure is greatly altered.” It now houses the Sausalito office of Engel & Volkers realty.

In addition to these three buildings, plaque sites included Schnell’s House, the MecchiKatto Building, the Bank of Sausalito, the Becker Building. Fiedler's General Store, the Grethel Bakery, the restored 1899 Victorian, the Old Purity Market, the Sausalito Hotel, the Baraty Building, the Salvage Shop, the Princess Theater, and the First City Hall. Most, but not all, of the plaques remain in place today, even through various remodels to these structures.

On a short stroll downtown recently, I found seven of these plaques — for the original city hall, firehouse, Princess Theater, Purity Market, Bank of Sausalito, Mason Garage and Becker House. Perhaps you can find some more.

Bridge Pipeline Redux

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

PHOTO FROM MMWD

The 1977 pipeline eliminated a lane of traffic on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.

Recent announcements that the Marin Municipal Water District (MMWD) is moving forward with a plan to pipe water across the Bay to alleviate harsh drought conditions is an example of an idea that has come — and gone — before.

During the 1976-77 drought, the District installed a 6-mile pipeline over the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge to pump in water from the East Bay.

Conservation alone was not enough to preserve Marin’s dwindling water supplies and the district faced running dry in 120 days in 1977 if something couldn’t be done. Marin MMWD worked with county supervisors and other political leaders to convince the state and federal governments to provide aid for the bridge pipeline. The federal government approved a nearly $5.6 million loan for the pipeline and pumping systems and a nearly $1.4 million grant to buy water rights to the State Water Project water bound for southern California.

The loan was met with resistance. One District board member argued the county could pay for the pipeline itself rather than to have to pay interest over 40 years. An Oakland Tribune editorial asked, “How far should the government go to help those residents who have done so little to help themselves?”

Despite its detractors, the pipeline was completed in June 1977, and pumped as much as 10 million gallons of water into Marin per day while the drought lasted. At the urging of Caltrans, the pipeline was removed in 1982 after several time extensions to allow the water district to bolster its storage in its region.

Then in 2000, another pipeline idea also became a political issue. The MMWD board was split over the proposal to build a new pipeline that would bring additional water from the Russian River watershed into Marin, replacing a pipeline owned by the North Marin Water District, which serves the Novato area.

Debate over the pipeline continued to punctuate MMWD Board elections until 2004 when this newspaper reported that the last director in favor it it, Dick Hill, decided not to run for re-election.

Current cost estimates for a new pipeline are $50 million to $70 million, but there’s no guarantee there will be enough water available to fill it. The District has also explored renting two massive desalination units to help offset the rain shortage, but decided against that option, based on estimates that they would cost $30 million and would only produce about half of the needed water if the drought continues.

The Birth of Old Town

By Christopher VerPlanck and Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

In 2012, the California Office of Historic Preservation (OHP) awarded Sausalito a grant to fund the preparation of a Historic Context Statement as a preliminary step in identifying and evaluating Sausalito’s historical resources. Christopher VerPlanck, principal of VerPlanck Historic Preservation Consulting, prepared a Sausalito Citywide Historic Context Statement and presented it at the City Council Meeting of August 31. He was thanked for his efforts by the Council.

VerPlanck’s statement includes a Narrative History of Sausalito which sheds new light on the developments leading to the creation of Old Town. Here are some lightly edited excerpts:

During the Gold Rush, [Captain William] Richardson’s Rancho de Saucelito continued to supply fresh water, firewood, and lumber to residents of San Francisco (its name was changed from Yerba Buena in 1847). Meanwhile, Shelter Cove, which was still part of Richardson’s rancho, became an important rendezvous point for New England whalers, approximately 650 of whom were active in the Pacific by 1855. Located just inside the Golden Gate with plenty of deep water, Shelter Cove also became an important area for ad hoc ship repairs. Because of its wide, sandy beach, ship captains could safely run their vessels ashore, making hull repairs much easier.

Such activity soon attracted the attention of the U.S. Navy, which was then in search of a place

to build a naval repair facility on the Pacific Coast.

Facilitated by the demands of the U.S. Navy and independent ship captains, Sausalito got its own saw mill in 1848. Originally shipped to San Francisco, the mill was inexplicably redirected to Shelter Cove, perhaps with the encouragement of the increasingly cash-strapped William Richardson.

The saw mill was erected near the present-day intersection of 3rd and Main streets in Old Town. Under the terms of his contract, Robert Parker, the operator of the saw mill, was obliged to supply one-third of his output to the Navy, whereas the remainder could be sold on the open market. In addition to the saw mill, the facility at Shelter Cove included a Navy storehouse, sheds, and several shanties for the saw mill workers. Around the same time, the Navy built a dry dock on Shelter Cove to maintain its Pacific-based steamship fleet. For a short time, Shelter Cove was the only place in California where a modern maritime repair facility was available, and it marks the beginning of Sausalito’s long-lived boatbuilding and marine repair industry.

As Shelter Cove developed into the Navy’s main West Coast repair facility, Navy Lt. George F. Emmons surveyed and laid out a small town site surrounding the saw mill and the dry docks. Several Navy officers purchased lots and built houses. The community also had a boarding house, a hotel, and a saloon called the Fountain House. Established by Lt. James McCormick on Main Street, between 2nd and 3rd streets, the Fountain House was named for a productive artesian well in its vicinity. Another hotel, built in 1849, was called Saucelito House.

Lt. Emmons’ 1851 map of Old Town [property of California Historical Society] is remarkable in its level of detail. It shows a tight grid of twelve rectangular blocks superimposed on top of the gently sloping valley floor. The map shows a Y-shaped creek draining the valley parallel to Main Street and the arc-like beach of Shelter Cove. The north-south streets, which are numbered on the map, and the east-west streets, which were named for natural features and the cardinal points of the compass, retain the same configuration as they do today, although Water Street was renamed Bridgeway in the 1930s, and West Street is not identified by name on the map.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SAUSALITO HISTORICAL SOCIETY

A ca. 1850 photograph shows Old Town as it appeared during the earliest period of American settlement

The Last, Sad Days of the Galilee

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

“She once was known by every ship’s captain in the Pacific as Galilee, a well-built little thing with awesome speed. Such a reputation was nothing to be ashamed of for a gal who happened to be a ship. And quite a ship she was.” That’s how Marin Scope writer Jay Casey described the brigantine Galilee, proud holder of the sailing speed record between San Francisco and Tahiti.

In a poignant 1971 article, Casey detailed the sad decline of what had once been “a beautiful lady with a glorious history.”

PHOTO FROM WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The preserved stern of the brigantine Galilee being installed at Fort Mason

Built in Benicia by Captain Matthew Turner, Galilee led many lives before being beached in Sausalito at the foot of Napa Street where Galilee Harbor stands today. Here are some excerpts from Casey’s article:

From 1891 until 1905 the Galilee served as a cargo and passenger ship for Capt. Turner, making runs to and from South Pacific Islands. Many of her passengers were missionaries, which is why the biblical name Galilee was chosen. During this time the Galilee once raced to Tahiti in 19 days and another time made a return trip in 15 days. Turner’s fleet was the main link between the South Seas and the rest of the world. The seven little packets—as they were called—had been built for speed so they could carry perishable fruits from the South Seas to San Francisco. The Galilee could log 308 miles a day.

Yet the speediest of sailing ships could not compete with steamers and when they came to the South Pacific, Galilee was done. In 1905 Capt. Turner chartered her to the Carnegie Institute for the purpose of making oceanic magnetic surveys which would help correct maps. To fit the Galilee for the magnetic expedition, hemp rigging was substituted for the steel rigging, and, so far as was practicable, all iron was removed from the observation stations. These changes reduced the deviation corrections due to the disturbing influence of iron. In fact, they were reduced to such an extent that the Galilee was considered the most ideal ship for ocean magnetic observation in her time. She inspired the Institute to eventually build its own ship, the Carnegie, for future expeditions. The Galilee logged 63,834 nautical miles during its charting cruises, which ended in May of 1908.

The year 1909 was a bad one for the Galilee. Soon after Capt. Turner’s death in 1909 the ship was sold to the Union Fish Company which changed the sleek vessel into a three masted schooner and put her into the Alaskan fish trade. She was ingloriously bounced around the fishing industry until 1936 when Capt. John Quinn bought her and set her up as a residence. By 1947 the Galilee was part of a community of stationary vessels and her sailing days were obviously over. But she still caught the attention of passers-by. A narrow wharf had been built out to the ship and at night a string of old San Francisco gas lamps illuminated Capt. Quinn’s famous abode. Mrs. Quinn was an amateur horticulturist and her potted plants gave the deck, from which the masts had been removed, a botanical atmosphere. They lived on the Galilee until 1958 when Quinn decided he was too old for the houseboat life and moved to the Monterey Peninsula. For Capt. Quinn it was a difficult separation.

Photographer Walter Leaskin moved into the Galilee with family until 1962 when Sausalito condemned 22 vessels, including the Galilee, as being unfit for human habituation. On November 19, 1962 John Lord King, a Trustee of the San Francisco Maritime Museum, bought the Galilee with the intention of making her a landmark. King, who also happened to be a stockholder in Sausalito Properties, Inc., which owned much of the city’s waterfront, wanted to "preserve some of the waterfront’s historical flavor.” But King died before he could activate his plans.

The Historical Society’s Margaret Badger wrapped up the tattered shards of Galilee’s history in her 2009 Marin Scope column:

In 1975, long-time Sausalitan and boat-lover Ron MacAnnan (owner of the Trident-Ondine building) working with the Maritime Museum and the State of California and Aquatic Park, convinced the City of Sausalito to let him chain saw off a 20’ section — the whole stern — for restoration. MacAnnan volunteered the machinery and labor, along with Herb Madden who loaned a tractor loader and Barry Hibben who negotiated the use of a crane, to remove the transom, barge it across the bay to San Francisco, and heft it up onto land.

Today, the restored stern of the Galilee is on display at Fort Mason. In the mid-1980s, the Benicia Historical Society and the Benicia Historical Museum Foundation removed the bow of Galilee and moved it to Benicia where it presently rests at the Benicia Historical Museum.

As a dramatic tribute to Galilee’s glory days, the nonprofit Call of the Sea constructed a replica of the old brigantine, named the Matthew Turner after her creator. The tall ship is moored at the Corps of Engineers dock, where she is available for educational cruises, including public sailings on Friday evenings.

Birth of the BCDC

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

The Bay Conservation and Development Commission, currently playing the heavy in the Richardson’s Bay anchor-out melodrama, was established 56 years ago in response to growing concern over Bay fill.

According to the Sausalito News of October 1963, “Establishment of a conservation and development commission with ‘unquestioned power’ to preserve San Francisco Bay was urged in a report issued by a research city planner at the University of California.”

(Only two years earlier, three Berkeley women had formed a group that became known as Save the Bay, which began to galvanize public opinion about safeguarding the bay’s future.)

PHOTO FROM SAVESFBAY.COM

Sylvia McLAughlin, Kay Kerr, and Esther Gulick, founders of Save the Bay

The report’s author, Mel Scott, of the U.C. Institute of Governmental Studies, sharply criticized indiscriminate public and private bay fill, and declared that a bay conservation agency “must be able to destroy forever the notion that the bay is a potential source of new living space.” Scott had presented a portion of his thesis at the annual meeting of the Marin Conservation League in Mill Valley several months prior.

After two years’ investigation, Scott pointed out that much of the bay was privately owned or controlled by cities and counties, and that all but 187 of its 435 square miles are shallow enough to be filled. In proposing a bay conservation and development commission created under a federal-state-local compact, Scott said “It must have authority superior to that of private interests, cities, and counties, and it must be subject only to extraordinary veto by the state and federal governments.”

Scott’s report concluded: “Considerable filling might be possible without adversely affecting navigation, fisheries and waste disposal, yet the sacrifice of scenic and recreational values might represent a tragic loss. Once destroyed, the unique charm of San Francisco Bay cannot be regained.”

The following year the State Legislature created the San Francisco Bay Conservation Study mission to ascertain the public interest in San Francisco Bay and the effects further fill would have upon navigation, fish and wildlife, air and water pollution, and “all of the regional needs of the future population of the region.”

At Save the Bay’s urging, the McAteer-Petris Act was enacted in 1965, and the BCDC was established. One of the first BCDC commissioners was Louis Ets-Hokins, a Marinite who had served on the study commission which had recommended establishment of the BCDC. (Ets-Hokin’s son, Jeremy, was a developer who gained his fifteen minutes of infamy when he acquired and tore down San Francisco’s beloved Playland at the Beach in 1973 to put in a condo complex, which he never completed.)

In its final edition of November 2, 1966, the Sausalito News reported “some startling statistics” offered by BCDC representative William Upton in a lengthy report to the Board of Supervisors:

“25 per cent of bay rights have been claimed by private parties. Most of the marshlands are in private hands. Out of 275 shoreline miles, only ten are open to public access. Thanks, however, to legislation and the formation of the BCDC, 27 members of which represent federal, various health and welfare, state, county, bay area offices, teeth have been put into procedures which will control and police, fill and excavation operation of the bay.”

Less than four acres of fill were permitted in the previous year, Upton reported. He explained that the commission has been preparing a detailed study of the San Francisco Bay and also a plan, “which, it is hoped, will protect bay waters, control fill and excavation projects. Mud flats, marshlands, waterfront industry come under the close scrutiny of the commission,” Upton said. “Out of these studies conclusions are formulated. Such an approach to bay planning will safeguard the bay for future generations.” Those studies culminated in the passage of the Bay Plan, which continues to provide a formula for developing the Bay and shoreline to their highest potential, while protecting the Bay as an irreplaceable natural resource. The BCDC is the agency designated to carry out the Bay Plan.

New Trubach Exhibit Opens

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

The Historical Society is once again open to the public and is presenting a new exhibit on the third floor of City Hall, showcasing the art and life of Serge Trubach.

The poster for the exhibit describes this latter-day Renaissance man as a painter, graphic artist, writer, teacher, lecturer, and activist. His contributions to Sausalito’s cultural and political life began in the 1950s and continued until his death in June 1979.

According to his obituary in this paper, “When Serge Trubach came to Sausalito in 1952, he brought with him a string of credentials attesting to his artistic ability.” In a Marin Scope interview in December 1972, Trubach said “I create, paint, draw, and sculpt to clarify; I practice and experiment with ideas. It was that inspiration I discovered when I was eight years old that has kept me growing so I belong with today.”

Trubach began his artistic career drawing on the sidewalks of New York at age eight. By the time he was ten he was featured in Pathe News. At fourteen, he was the youngest scholarship winner to attend the National Academy of Art. At sixteen, Trubach moved to Greenwich Village and supported himself by drawing caricatures of actors for theatre reviews of several New York newspapers. (Long time readers of Marin Scope will recall that he completed a series of caricatures of Sausalitans in 1975.)

In New York during the depression, the Ukrainian-born artist studied at the National Academy and later was employed by the Works Progress Administration. In 1936, he joined a sit-down strike with some four hundred artists and models against the impending dismissal of five hundred workers from the WPA. Police broke up that demonstration with billy clubs and rubber truncheons, leading to several cops being brought up on charges of assault and brutality. That incident is described in excruciating detail in a biography of Lee Krasner, artist and wife of Jackson Pollack, which is available through the Marin library system. Trubach’s harrowing recollections of the assault are quoted in the book, and the experience helped shape his lifelong pursuit of social justice. A photocopy of the relevant passage is part of the current exhibit.

In Sausalito, Trubach taught at the Academy of Art in San Francisco, and was active in the local art community as a juror for the Sausalito Art Festival. He wrote art critiques for Art Institute and designed and cut stained glass. He served on the jury of the California State Fair for Art Exhibits and was called upon to restore paintings of Klee, Graves and Picasso plus a Jean Varda painting for the Historical Society. Near the end of his life, he could be found near Fisherman’s Wharf doing sidewalk portraits.

Trubach also found time to run for the Sausalito City Council 11 times, never winning a seat. Perhaps lack of preparation played a role in his unsuccessful campaigns. In 1974 this paper reported: “City Council candidate. Serge Trubach was disqualified for official inclusion on the November ballot, it was learned last week, because some of the names on his filing application had not been entered correctly. Twenty names are required on the document. Trubach submitted 22, but some of them failed to include ‘Sausalito’ in their address. Trubach filed his application two or three days after the filing period began. He was informed of the irregularities last Tuesday and given until 9 a.m. the next day to correct them, a deadline he apparently found impossible to meet. He plans now to conduct a write-in campaign, with the permission of the County Elections Office, which will provide adequate space on the ballot for voters to vote for Trubach if they wish. He will also appeal to the Woman’s Club and the Sausalito Citizens Council to be allowed to participate in the Candidates' Nights which they traditionally hold prior to local elections.” That might have been his main motivation all along.

The free exhibit is open to the public on Mondays from 10-5 p.m. and Wednesday, 10-1.

The Arks of Belvedere Lagoon

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

The forerunners of today’s floating homes community were the arks of Belvedere Lagoon. Originally built as fishing shacks, these flat-bottomed, arch-oofed vessels became popular with San Francisco Victorians as summer places and weekend getaways in the late 1800s. They were anchored in calm areas of the Bay, especially the well-protected Belvedere Cove.

Photo Courtesy of the Marin History Museum

Belvedere Cove and Lagoon in the late 1800s

Marin History Museum volunteer Scott Fletcher recently detailed the history of this unique maritime enclave:

Belvedere Cove, originally named Stillwater Bay, separates what was first named El Potrero de la Punta del Tiburon, then Still Island, Peninsula Island, and finally Belvedere Island, from present-day Corinthian Island and the Tiburon mainland. These islands were part of the 8,000-acre Mexican land grant of Rancho Corte Madera del Presidio that was given to John Thomas Reed in 1834.

After the 1906 earthquake, many families moved permanently to their summer homes on Belvedere or onto the spacious floating arks or houseboats on Belvedere Cove.

That unique community became known as Arktown. Another MHM volunteer, Nancy Niche, picks up the story from there:

Long ago, when there were residential arks moored out in Belvedere Cove between the Corinthian and (later) the San Francisco Yacht Club on Beach Road at the base of Belvedere Island, the “Seawall” was opened in the late autumn for the arks to come into the Belvedere Lagoon and winter in the protected area at the south end of Cove Road. The arks would weather out the elements in relative comfort until the middle of spring, and then the Corinthian Yacht Club would mark the occasion of their return to Belvedere Cove for the summer months with a party and celebration.

That ritual eventually evolved into the annual April festivities known as Opening Day of yachting season, with the raising of a drawbridge that allowed arks to move further out into the Bay. The Corinthian Yacht Club became the historical host of Opening Day on the Bay. That club was formed in the 1880s following a schism that split up the San Francisco Yacht Club. Here’s that story, as told on the CYC website:

On March 16, 1886, 32 gentlemen, mostly members of the San Francisco Yacht Club, disappointed that their racing and cruising interests in the “Mosquito Fleet” [smaller boats] were being ignored, met at Arion Hall in San Francisco to discuss forming a new yacht club for small boat sailors (boats not to exceed 45 feet).

They had been preceded in 1878 by a number of wealthy yachtsmen who left to found the Pacific Yacht Club (disbanded some 15 years later) following strong disagreement over where to locate SFYC’s new clubhouse (both clubs in fact moved to Sausalito).

As we have reported in the past, the SFYC moved from Sausalito to Belvedere in 1926, to escape traffic congestion and wakes from Sausalito ferryboats.

When the drawbridge between became a fixed span, the arks could no longer shelter in the lagoon during the winter. Some were towed away to new locations where they towed ashore or put up on pilings. Some remnants of the old Arktown can still be seen today on ark rows in Tiburon, Waldo Point Harbor and downtown Sausalito, as well as the Larkspur Boardwalk. One of those old arks is still afloat, on South 40 Pier in Waldo Point Harbor, resting comfortably on a concrete hull. It was salvaged by Phil Frank, an early houseboater and original member of the Sausalito Historical Society, and later was bought and remodeled by noted Bay Area architect Sim Van der Ryn.

In the accompanying photograph, Beach Road connects Corinthian Island in the distance to Belvedere in the foreground. Also visible in the image is Belvedere Lagoon behind Beach Road, Old Saint Hilary’s Church high up the hillside overlooking Corinthian Island, and a portion of the Tiburon ferry docks and rail yards on the extreme right.

Privette: A Man and his Camera

By Claudia Kelly and Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

PHOTO BY BRUCE FORRESTER

Privette in his distinctive retro garb

Herman Privette served as the long-time staff photographer for all five of the Marin community newspapers. When he started circa 1972 with the Marin Scope for $10 week, he had to pick up film at the office and deliver exposed film later in the day.

Over time, owners Paul and Billie Anderson started the Mill Valley Herald and bought three other local papers: the Ross Valley Report, San Rafael News Pointer, Twin Cities Times and. “Those had been small family-owned businesses which no one in their respective towns wanted to acquire.

For Privette, as he became known, this involved five different editors and their various local assignments. Paul Anderson and Privette bonded over their shared experience with paper routes as kids, both obviously destined to work in the newspaper biz.

As staff photographer he covered the entire county but had a special connection to Sausalito where he started. Recently, a Sausalito fireman recognized him and mentioned their meeting 25+ years ago when this fireman was a Fire Cadet painting a fire hydrant RED and Privette was on assignment to shoot.

While in college, he approached the teacher about entry into a sold-out class on Journalism. ”NO” was her answer until she learned that he was a photographer with a darkroom; so shortly thereafter he was welcomed to join the staff on the college newspaper where he stayed for two extra semesters beyond his degree. Like his college contemporaries, his goal was to study enough to stay enrolled in school which would maintain his very important Student Draft Deferment.  NO to “good morning Vietnam” for those 20- year-olds.

As one of the early San Francisco licensed street artists, Privette became the Button Man making souvenir picture pins. This changed his personality from being shy to becoming an outgoing jovial street artist. Everything was positive about this role: people smiled for the camera and were delighted to see their picture souvenir. An old buddy had offered the Button machine for free if Privette would drive to Sonoma to pick it up out of his barn. This friend had burnt out on making buttons while following the dog show circuit. Buttons were printed with a Polaroid pic of you and yours. Clever affordable mementos made on the spot, with the help of a propane torch, attached to his handcart, to dry the Polaroid.  Luckily there were no fire safety checks on artists. 

One early venue was the Marin City flea market but mud and wind plus very few tourists drove him away. Next was Union Square before moving over to Beach Street at Fisherman’s wharf.  Two thousand potential customers passed by, and his only competition was the quick-sketch artists. But they were bait and switch, offering a price of $l.99 initially and then there were add-ons for more people, bigger images, etc. 

For the street artists there was a lottery for location and position at the neighborhood art shows. Luckily, he preferred the least desirable location in the middle of Beach Street with Alcatraz as his background. One of his very clever features was to add a sign with the year to include in the photo. Through the years his repeat customers would revisit his booth with their prior years’ buttons to show off their loyalty.

He was inspired to join the Union Square street selling scene after seeing the famous mime, Robert Shields, who would mimic people’s walks as they came by.  Shields graduated from San Francisco street artist to the stages of Las Vegas and beyond.

Privette feels very lucky about random connections in his life. An example was when he was driving up the coast from photography school in San Barbara and he stopped at Monterey in 1967. Without a ticket he joined others as they climbed over the fence and were able to witness one of the most important music festivals in the world, Monterey Pop, for free. But only one day, as security was beefed up after that day.

Remembering Sausalito of the 1970 ‘s, Privette recalls that the No Name bar is where he got the lead on a $75 photo studio on his way back from selling photos at Union Square. He also remembers that the town had at least seven bars (which everyone drove to), six gas stations and cops who would drive/guide you home if necessary for your safety.  

Asked about any dark stories about Marin, he mentioned a certain police chief with a huge display case in his office with all of the dangerous illegal drugs and confiscated drug paraphernalia on view. Serious aficionado or just doing research for his job?  He also was present during the downfall of Mark Anderson, a respected Sausalito Man about town who burnt his investors and their investments.

Being present at so many events in Marin, Privette was often hit up to dis the gossip on the local town folks – his policy was Pics only, no Tales.  As the newspaper photo assignments ended due to a change of ownership and location move, Privette has continued with his craft as a still photographer and printing people’s photos on buttons.