This Week in Marin History
Archives
April 2010

Sunday drive

On April 29, 1865, a section of a proposed road from San Rafael to Olema was completed over White’s Hill in West Marin. Jesse Colwell of Bolinas bid $1,700 for the job, and with Chinese labor got it done for $1,155. The mile-long 16-foot wide stretch was to help accommodate growing traffic. Now two wagons (each carrying as many as 12 passengers) could pass easily, “and the gradual climb was applauded by public and press alike.“

Summer Excursion Ticket from San Rafael, 1916. (MHM–Jeff Craemer Collection)

Captain, oh captain

On April 20, 1856, mariner and ranchero William Antonio Richardson died in Sausalito at the age of 61. An Englishman by birth, new “citizen of Mexico” Richardson was the first settler in Yerba Buena (now San Francisco) and built the first house in Sausalito in 1835 after receiving a Mexican land grant for present day Sausalito and the Marin Headlands. Captain Richardson’s remaining years were difficult, however, and he died in debt and prematurely. Suffering from rheumatism, he had been prescribed mercury tablets—and the mercury is what allegedly killed him.  Richardson’s final resting place is Mt. Olivet Cemetery—some 13 miles north of Richardson Bay, named in his honor.

Large carved sign for Richardson Bay erected by the California Highway Commission, 1931. (MHM Collection)

Cow’s tale

On April 18, 1906, the Great San Francisco Earthquake also wreaked havoc on the Point Reyes Peninsula, and one story in particular caught everyone’s attention—that of Payne Shafter’s cow. “The cow was in Shafter’s corral at the time and the earth movement apparently opened under her feet pitching her head first into the crevice.” Some newspaper reporters said they also saw her tail protruding. “…the dairymen, doubtless with a sense of the impotence to struggle against fate, buried her in the grave from which they could not rescue her.” Although the cow story had been questioned, the 1906 Earthquake Commission considered it authentic.

Article from the Marin Independent reporting on Shafter’s cow, April 26, 1906.

Sad chapter

On April 17, 1942, 36 Japanese residents of Mill Valley began their journey of forced relocation on a 6:15 am bus for Santa Rosa. After Pearl Harbor, tens of thousands of people of Japanese descent were driven from their homes to be placed in remote internment camps scattered throughout the West. Harry Okubara and his family, who had lived in Mill Valley’s Homestead Valley since 1909, were transported by train with other families from Marin, Sonoma and Napa counties to the Merced County Fairgrounds, where more than 4,600 Japanese Americans were incarcerated in unroofed barracks. Two women leased Mr. Okubara’s poultry ranch during his absence.

Panorama of Mill Valley, c. 1913.