This Week in Marin History
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November 2008

Gobbling good fun

In November 1921, a bulletin of the Masons’ Mill Valley Lodge #356 read: “On Wednesday, Nov. 23, (Thanksgiving Eve), the Lodge will give a dance in the Community Hall of the new School House on Throckmorton Avenue, to which are invited all Master Masons…”  In the November 1935 Bulletin: “Keep in mind the annual Thanksgiving Eve Dance scheduled for Wednesday, November 27, at 8:45 P.M. The next day being a holiday will afford you plenty of opportunity to sleep late. Get the old Tux out of mothballs, be big-hearted and buy the missus a corsage… Good music, soft lights, and maybe you'll win a prize. Bring your friends and work up an appetite for the turkey next day.”

Children in front of the Old Mill School, previously the new school house, on Throckmorton Ave in Mill Valley, 1964.

Marin's guru

On November 16, 1973, Alan W. Watts died at the age of 53 at Druid Heights in Kent Canyon near Muir Woods. A British philosopher, writer, radio host and student of comparative religion, Watts helped introduce Eastern philosophy to the U.S. and published many books, including The Way of Zen. (Time called him “the psychedelic generation’s most revered and thoughtful guru.”) Watts and his wife lived for a time with artist Jean Varda on the S.S. Vallejo in Sausalito and at Druid Heights, a bohemian community of writers, artists, musicians and activists. After his death, his body was burned by Buddhists, although cremation was illegal at the time in Marin County.

The ferry boat Vallejo in Sausalito, c. 1950s.

"Little Orphan Airport"

In November 1966, William Gnoss asked the Federal Aviation Agency for money to enhance Marin County’s “little orphan airport.”  A landing strip had been built north of Novato in 1939 by “aviation bug” William Q. Wright, and a hangar and flying school were added later. But years later county supervisors looked south, hoping to establish an airport at San Quentin instead. After his election as supervisor in 1968, Gnoss pushed to keep the airport in Novato, and when he succeeded in getting funding from Washington to build a new runway and to buy more land, the airport was named after him. Today, Gnoss Field sees over 100,000 takeoffs and landings every year.

Gnoss Field, c. 1950.

A full life

In November 1934, writer and historian James H. Wilkins died at the age of 82. It was a full 82 years: He owned the Marin County Tocsin, one of Marin’s earliest newspapers, served on the State Prison Board as well as in the Assembly and was elected Mayor of San Rafael in 1927. He chronicled change in his beloved county, not all of it good. Writing in the1920s, he lamented the cutting down of redwoods in Marin during the 1850s. “…the devastation wrought through the Ross Valley and along the foothills and canyons to Corte Madera was nothing short of sacrilege.”  Wilkins also looked ahead— he was one of the first to propose the idea of connecting Marin and San Francisco with a bridge.

Marin County Tocsin newspaper dated January 10, 1885.