By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society
During the gold rush era, it seems that almost everyone who wrote down the name of our town spelled it differently. For instance, San Francisco’s Daily Alta California newspaper spelled it five different ways in 1850.
Reporting on maritime news in May of that year the paper noted that a steamship called “Driver” was anchored in Soucilito. The captain, according to the paper, “was fearful of the desertion of his own crew should he send them to town,” since so many sailors were jumping ship in San Francisco to head to the gold fields.
The following August the paper stated: “A French brig of war arrived yesterday afternoon, and proceeded to Saucelita. We did not learn her name, or whence she came.”
Covering a sailor’s strike later that month, the paper stated: “On Saturday, a party of men went on board a vessel in the harbor and took away several sailors who had shipped for a voyage, they having agreed upon wages less than the usual sum paid. We learn that one of the men of war, now at Saucilito, has been sent for to regulate matters.”
An ad for a Marin auction of “the entire landed estate of John Reed, deceased” that September, described the property as consisting of “two leagues of land, more or less, situated in the aforesaid county, between Sausoleto and San Raphael” and adjoining the ranch of Capt. Wm. Richardson.
Finally John C. Fremont, the adventurer who named the Golden Gate, got the name game right. As one of California’s first senators, Fremont spearheaded a resolution, passed unanimously in September of 1850, to establish post routes here, including one “from San Francisco, by Sausalito and Benicia, to Sacramento.” After serving in the Senate, Fremont became, fittingly, the governor of California.
Other early variants of the name—all corruptions of the Spanish term sauzalito, meaning "small willow grove"— included South Soleto, Saulito, Sancolito, Sancilito, Sousilto, Sausilito and the one that stuck around the longest: Saucelito. In fact, Sausalito and Saucelito were used interchangeably for 50 years until the matter was finally settled by the U.S. Post Office.
In October 1888, the Sausalito News reported: “Several months ago the Postoffice department at Washington, D. C. officially ruled that the name of this place should be spelled Sausalito and not Saucelito. The people here were spelling and writing it both ways, and it became necessary that one way should be permanently decided upon, and that way was SAUSALITO. And this decision was reached after the oldest and best authenticated records had been carefully perused and considered.” A few months later, the News reported that letters addressed to Saucelito were winding up in the dead letter office.
