This Week in Marin History
Archives
August 2010

Bear facts

On Aug. 22, 1890, the Sausalito News reported that a 200-pound bear was found asleep “having partaken too freely of the carcass of a cow, and a bullet gave her the final quietus.” The hills of Marin County were alive with bears in the 19th century, and tales were aplenty. Another news report in 1880 of a couple who spotted a bear: “Well, they just sat closer together and that’s all we’ll tell.” In 1877, Supervisor Samuel Clark tried to keep a bear in a cage, but was wounded in the hand and “had to shoot the critter.” The Legislature in 1861 offered a $2 bounty for any bear killed in Marin; bear meat in 1888 paid the hunter “17 cents a pound dressed.”

Grizzly Bear on California Republic Flag. (Marin History Museum – Jeff Craemer Collection.)

The Edith Affair

On Aug. 20, 1849, Navy vessel U.S.S. Edith sailed from Sausalito and then ran aground en route to Santa Barbara. The Edith was a newer ship, but its propeller shaft was subject to breakdowns, and Sausalito was deemed to be “the only place in California where such repairs could be effected.” However, after the ship was destroyed (no one was killed), its Commodore became a center of controversy in Washington when several fellow officers criticized his “civilian-manned” repair facility in Sausalito. The “Edith Affair” led to a congressional investigation; in 1852 the Navy announced that Mare Island would become the West Coast’s official Navy Yard.

Old Town Sausalito, c. 1880. (MHM Collection)

Metal of honor

On Aug. 13, 1971, the Doughboy Memorial honoring Marin County soldiers who died in WWI was moved to the Marin Civic Center from the old Courthouse in San Rafael. (Doughboy was a term used for a soldier, later replaced with “troop” or “G.I.”) It was on the steps of the old Courthouse where residents would gather to cheer young soldiers as they marched down Fourth Street on their way to serve in France. The bronze Doughboy statue, sculpted in 1920 by Joseph Jacinto Mora, today stands in front of the Veterans Memorial Theater on the Avenue of Flags, where memorials to the veterans of other wars are maintained by the Marin County United Veterans Council.

Doughboy Memorial on the Avenue of Flags, 1975. (MHM Collection)

New club in town

On Aug. 2, 1902, a group of “civic-minded” women in Mill Valley founded the Outdoor Art Club (across from the Sequoia Theater) to help preserve the beauty of their city. Reportedly it was the cutting down of local redwood trees that spurred their mission to promote conservation as well as community service. First on the agenda: Find a proper meeting place. A parcel of land was chosen near the center of town, and renowned architect Bernard Maybeck was tapped to design a clubhouse, which was finished in 1904. Total construction cost? Maybeck’s fee was $165.37 and the contractor’s charge was $3,150, including materials.

Vintage postcard of the Outdoor Art Club in Mill Valley. (MHM Collection)