Marin County CA Archives History - Books .....History Of Point Reyes Township 1880
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Book Title: History Of Marin County

POINT REYES TOWNSHIP 

POINT REYES.

  GEOGRAPHY.—Point Reyes township is bounded on the north by Tomales bay, on the
west and south by the Pacific ocean, and on the east by Bolinas township.
Although it is bounded on three sides by water, yet there is but one or two
landings for vessels along its border. Small crafts not drawing over nine feet
of water can come into Tomales bay, but there is no landing on the Point Reyes
side of it. Along the western border the coast is very unforbidding for vessels,
and all which have ever approached too near it have gone to pieces when they
struck. On the south side there is Drake's bay in which there is a good
roadstead, and vessels can ride safely at anchor there during the heaviest
storms from the north, but the southeastern storms of Winter break in upon it
with all their mighty fury, lashing the waves high up the bold cliffs which
skirt along its northwestern shore. Just east of Drake's bay is the Limantour
bay, which is small and shallow, and light draught vessels only can enter it.
This township is a veritable peninsula, extending far out into the ocean, and
its coast is consequently sandy and bleak, subject to the sternest vigors of
ocean winds and fogs. Both Point Reyes on the south and Tomales Point on the
north are bold promontories projecting into the sea.

  TOPOGRAPHY.—The topography of this township is quite varied, ranging from the
low, flat plains to the high ridge. Beginning at Tomales point and following
along the northern portion to the Bolinas line there is a high ridge or series
of hills which culminate in a ridge. To the south of this lies quite an
extensive tract of level land, where another series of hills pass across it from
east to west. South of these the country is quite level until the southern
portion is reached, when the face of land begins to be undulatory, rising in
gradual grades until at last it culminates in a bold cliff facing Drake's bay on
the south, and extending as a high craggy headland into the ocean, forming Point
Reyes. The eastern portion is hilly or rather mountainous.

  SOIL.—The soil of this section is mostly very sandy or gravelly. In some
places along the coast there are extensive sand fields, and not infrequently
large numbers of dunes are met with, and on these sand fields and dunes there is
often quite a heavy growth of sage brush, wild blackberry and strawberry vines.
Further in the interior the soil is more loamy, still not sufficiently so for
successful cultivation. On the ridges spoken of above the soil is more of a
gravelly and. clayey nature, on which grass and trees thrive well, but not any
kinds of grain or vegetables.

  CLIMATE.—For pure, unadulterated sea air, full of fog and oxygen, charged with
ozone, salubrious and salsuginous, invigorating and life-giving air, that will
make the pulses leap and bring the roses to the cheek, one should go to Point
Reyes, where it can be had at first hand, bereft of nothing. Every breeze that
blows, except the east wind, is fraught with the odors of the sea; but the wind
of all winds, the one which seems to come directly from the cave of Erebus, is
the north-west breeze. It swoops down across this section with all the fury of
old Boreas, but fortunately it is shorn of his icy breath; still, retaining
enough of it to make one need flannels during all the days and nights of its
reign. In short, the climate is very cool and invigorating during the Summer
months, and very pleasant and mild during the Winter, and when one has become
accustomed to the fogs and the winds it is hard to find a place which will suit
better than here. The extremes both of heat and cold are unknown.

  PRODUCTS.—The product of Point Reyes can be summed up in one word —butter. The
one great and all-absorbing industry is dairying, and in fact there is no other
industry in the township. No grain is grown except for hay, and no vegetables
and no fruit is raised at all. As the dairying interest is so prominent in this
township we will enter somewhat into detail here in regard to its extent and
importance. This is probably the greatest dairying section on the Pacific coast.
The peculiar location is such that it has many advantages over all other places
in the matter of feed, water and climate. The wind is al ways laden with
dampness, which is often visible in the shape of immense fog banks, and which
keep the pastures green during the entire summer season. Several varieties of
grass grow here, some of which spring up very early in the season, and others
come out so late as to extend well into the winter before it ripens. Filaree,
bunch, and fox-tail grass, clover and bur clover, comprise the principal
grasses, although there are other varieties which serve well the purpose of feed
for stock. There are springs of living water all over the country, affording an
abundant supply for the use of the stock and the dairy also, while no climate
could be more propitious, being always cool. There is no more extensive dairy in
the township than that owned by A. J. Pierce on Tomales Point, and none are
better conducted, hence a sketch of this industry, as seen at his place, will
convey a complete idea of its magnitude and importance. The ranch is located on
the extreme point, lying between Tomales bay and the Pacific ocean, and contains
two thousand acres, which, for the sake of convenience, is divided into two
tracts, with milk houses and other appliances for the business at both places,
except that all the cream is brought to the home ranch to be churned. On this
dairy there are three hundred head of milch cows, besides, perhaps, one hundred
and fifty head of young stock, all of which find ample pasturage, so rich and
rank is the growth of grass upon it. At the home place, Mr. Pierce has two
corrals for his cows, adjoining each other, and each one hundred and fifty feet
square, and a door opens into the strainer room from each of them. The milkers
use an ordinary flared tin pail, holding about sixteen quarts, and have their
milking stools adjusted to them with straps. When the pail is full the milker
steps into the strainer room and pours the milk into a sort of a double hopper
with a strainer in each section. From this the milk passes through a tin pipe to
a vat which holds one hundred and thirty gallons. From this it is drawn off into
strainer pails which hold five gallons each, and which have a large scoop shaped
nozzle, from which it is poured into the pans. It will thus be seen that the
milk passes through three strainers before it is panned. The pans are made of
pressed tin and hold twelve quarts each, and are placed in racks, one above the
other, before the milk is poured into them. There are three milk-rooms, each
with a capacity of six hundred and twelve pans, or a total of one thousand eight
hundred and thirty-six, and they are arranged both with a view to convenience
and utility. The ventilation is perfect, being regulated by openings near the
floor and skylight windows above. The rooms are warmed with registers from a
furnace in the cellar below them, and in this way a very even temperature is
maintained. In the center of each room, there is a skimming apparatus which
consists of a table about five feet long and two feet wide, placed upon a square
pedestal, in either end of which there is a semi-circular notch, under each of
which there is placed a can and holding ten gallons for the reception of the
cream. In the center of the table is a hopper for the reception of the sour
milk, from which it is carried off through pipes. Skimming is performed twice a
day, morning and evening, and milk is ordinarily allowed to stand thirty-six
hours before it is skimmed, but in very warm weather it is only kept twenty-four
hours. This work is begun at three o'clock in the morning, and usually requires
an hour and a half to complete it. Two men work at a table, one at each end. The
skimmer consists of a wooden knife with a thin blade shaped much like a butteris
or farrier's knife. This is dexterously and rapidly passed around the rim of the
pan, leaving the cream floating free upon the surface of the milk. The pan is
then tilted slightly and the cream glides quickly over the rim into the can
below. The milk is then emptied into the hopper and conducted to the hog-pen.
This arrangement is so complete and compact that the pan is scarcely moved from
the time it is placed upon the skimming table till the milk is emptied from it
and no time is lost except in passing the pans from the rack to the table. An
expert skimmer can handle two hundred pans an hour. In some dairies where the
rooms are larger the skimming table is placed upon castors and can be trundled
from place to place as convenience requires, and a hose is attached to the
hopper leading to the waste pipes. The cream is then placed in the churn, which
consists of a rectangular box in the shape of a parallelopipedon, the sides of
which are two and five feet respectively on the inside. It works on a pivot at
the center of the ends, and is driven by a one-horse tread power. The desired
result is attained by the breaking of the cream over the sharp angles of the
churn, and the operation requires from twenty to forty minutes. The usual yield
of a churning is two hundred pounds, although as much as three hundred and
forty-seven pounds have been churned at once. The buttermilk is then drawn off
and the butter is washed with two waters, when it is ready to have the salt
worked into it. It is now weighed and one ounce of salt allowed for each pound
of butter. The worker is a very simple device, and is known as the Allen patent,
it having been invented by Captain Oliver Allen, of Sonoma county, and consists
of two circular tables, one above the other and about four inches apart. The
bottom one is stationary and dressed out so that all milk or water falling on it
is carried off into a bucket. The upper dice is on a pivot, so that in the
process of working all portions of the butter may be easily brought under the
flattened lever used for working it. After the salt has been thoroughly
incorporated the butter is separated into square blocks about the requisite size
for two-pound rolls. The mould is also a patent device originated by Captain
Allen, and consists of a matrix, composed of two wooden pieces shaped so as to
press the butter into a roll, which are fastened to an extended shear handle,
with the joint about midway from the matrix to the end of the handle. The
operator opens the matrix, and passes it on either side of one of the squares of
butter and then closes it firmly. The ends of the roll are then cut .off even
with the mould, and the roll is complete. Thin white cotton cloth is placed
around each roll, and the stamp of the dairy is applied to one end of it, when
it is ready for the market. The rolls are accounted to weigh two pounds each,
but they fall short of that weight about two per cent, or two pounds to fifty
rolls.

  Mr. Pierce's dairy house is thirty-six by sixty-four with a wing twelve by
twenty. The milk rooms, three in number, are each twelve by twenty-four; the
churning room is twenty by twenty, the butter room sixteen by twenty, and the
packing room is sixteen by sixteen. The temperature at which the milk rooms are
kept is sixty-two degrees. The water for cleaning and washing purposes is heated
in a large iron kettle with a brick furnace constructed around, it. The milk
pans are washed through two waters and then thoroughly scalded, and sunned
through the day so that they are kept perfectly sweet. The skimming is so
arranged that one room is unoccupied each day, and it is then thoroughly cleaned
and aired. All waste pipes from sinks are arranged with traps so as to prevent
any foul gases from entering the milk rooms, and all traces of lactic acid are
carefully guarded against. The sour milk is conducted through pipes to hog-pens
some distance from the dairy house, and affords ample sustenance for two hundred
head of hogs. He usually raises fifteen per cent-of his heifer calves, and his
stock is mostly a cross of Durham and Alderney, which is considered the best
stock for rich milk, yielding large quantities of it, and for an extended length
of time. Fifteen men are employed in milking, and it requires two hours each
time. A good active man will milk about ten cows an hour.

  It is thus that this elegant golden delicacy is prepared for our tables, and
among all the choice products of the glorious State of California none stands
out in bolder relief, none strikes the visitor to our coast more forcibly, none
affords more real pleasure to the consumer than the wonderfully excellent butter
which finds its way to the city markets from Marin county. In quality, color and
sweetness it is not excelled by the famous butter producing sections of Goshen
in New York, or the Western Reserve of Ohio. Nor is it equaled in any other part
of the United States. What a field for contemplative thought! The verdant fields
of grass, toyed with by the winds, bathed in a flood of sunshine and shrouded in
folds of lacelike and fleecy mists fresh from the ocean, with herds of kine
feeding upon them; driven at eventime into the corral and, while thoughtfully
ruminating, yielding the gallons and gallons of rich, pure, sweet milk; again we
see it in great cans of yellow cream, fit for the use of a king; and then the
golden butter, and such delicious butter! Ready for the market and for the table
of the epicure. The grass growing in the fields on Monday is the butter on the
city tables the following Sunday!

  Mr. Pierce has everything about him in the same excellent order that he has
his dairy. His cow and horse barns are models of convenience. He has a
blacksmith shop, where all his work in that line is done; a carpenter shop where
the butter boxes are made and repaired, and other work of a similar character
performed; a school-house in his yard; a laundry, presided over by a Mongolian
genius; a store in which all the necessary provender supplies are kept, and the
stock is almost as full and complete as a country store, comprising hams, bacon,
lard, sugars, teas, coffees, syrups, flour, etc.; a butcher shop where two
beeves are cut up monthly; a "Triumph " gas machine, by which the gas is
generated for the fifty burners required for all the places where a light is
needed about the place. These burners are in all the rooms of the house, in the
milk and other rooms of the dairy house, and in all the barns. The gas is made
of gasoline by a very simple process and the expense of manufacturing it is
nominal, and the security from fire is almost absolute. And lastly comes the
dwelling house, which, though not elegant nor palatial, is large, roomy, and
homelike.

  The business of dairying is carried on very much the same on all the ranches,
being varied only in minor detail. On the rented ranches the cows belong to the
owner of the land, and land and cows are leased at from twenty to twenty-five
dollars per cow a year. The renter owns all the necessary appliances and all
other stock, and the amount of other stock is limited. He is obliged to raise
ten per cent, of the heifer calves, and not allowed to keep any others till they
are over six weeks old. At the end of each season one-tenth of the entire herd
is allowed to run farrow and to fatten for beef. These are slaughtered and sold
to the renters at the rate of six cents per pound by the quarter. In estimating
the number of cows for a ranch, one cow is allowed to every six acres of land,
and the farms are divided so as to allow about two hundred cows on each one. In
the Spring when the cows are fresh and the gr£0 succulent, each cow will yield a
pound of butter a day, but they will not average over one hundred and
seventy-five pounds each for the season, at which rate a dairy of two hundred
cows would be able to market seventeen and one-half tons of butter, which at
thirty-seven and one-half cents a pound, would amount to the handsome sum of
thirteen thousand one hundred and twenty-five dollars. This price is not,
however, always realized for the butter, and when the rent for two hundred cows
at twenty-five dollars each—five thousand dollars—and the cost of help, freight
and commission are deducted, the profits are somewhat reduced.

  TIMBER.—There is not a great amount of timber of any kind growing in this
township, although some redwood, oak, pine, fir, alder, and laurel is found in
the eastern portion of it. The redwood is not in any quantities to pay for
working it, though the individual trees are, oftentimes, quite large. The oak is
the common mountain oak and makes good firewood. The pine is the scraggy,
ill-shaped species, known locally as "Bull pine," and is not good for anything
but kindling wood. The fir is a beautiful tree, and no prettier sight can be
seen in California than a large forest of young fir trees growing upon a
mountain side. The lumber made of these trees is much used in the construction
of implements of various kinds, and is very valuable. In the course of time
there will be a great yield of this kind of lumber from this section. The alder
grows along the banks of streams, and makes only indifferent firewood. The
laurel is a wood much used for panels wainscoting and trimmings, as it has a
beautiful grain and takes a high polish.

  EARLY SETTLEMENT.—There have been people living along the coast of this
township since that fabled time "when the memory of man runneth not to the
contrary." As far back as 1834 a man by the name of William Smith was living on
the southern portion of the point, and a man named Blaisdle was there in 1837.
In 1846 Samuel Smith, McCaulley, Westgate, Irish, Higgins and several others,
whose names have been forgotten long since, lived in that section. The first
permanent house was the adobe built on the rancho Punta de los Reyes Sobrante,
which was granted to Antonio M. Osio, November 30, 1843, by Micheltorena. It is
not now known when the old adobe ranch house was built, but probably very
shortly after the grant was made. It stood near where the house now occupied by
C. H. Smith, stands, and has long since gone to ruin. Of the house or its
builder but little is now known more than mere legends. No farming was done by
those old settlers other than growing a few vegetables, and clams and fish
constituted the principal part of their diet. As an old pioneer who saw them in
1849 expresses it, "they seemed to live simply to kill time." The most of them
had deserted from whaling vessels and hide-droghers, and had drifted down by the
seashore to eke out the remainder of their natural lives. To them life was shorn
of its duties and obligations, their days were spent cum otium, and we doubt not
they were happy in their way. Long absence from home had broken off all ties and
associations with that sacred spot, and when the love of home is lost happiness
is not found by association with men but in solitude, and solitude supreme
reigned here on this projecting point of land extending far into the very heart
of the ocean. Vessels skirted the western horizon going to and from the busy
world, but little cared they for that. No messages of love, no letters from home
were on board those ships for them. Never again should they see the face of
mother, sister, or wife, never hear the innocent prattle or gleeful laughter of
children. All that was past—aye, dead in their memories! Of the future they
recked not nor cared so long as they were left undisturbed. But a change came,
and the waves from the human seas to the eastward began to dash against the
adamantine walls of the Rocky mountains just as the ceaseless surge of the
mighty Pacific broke on the reefs at their feet, and eventually the crested
waves began to dash over and to fill the valleys below, and when the tide
reached them they vanished, seeking shelter in the fastnesses of the mountains
or in other lands. Whither they have gone no one knows. No trace is left behind,
and they have, probably, all gone to that undiscovered country from whose bourne
no traveler hath yet returned, "unwept, unhonored and unsung."

  In 1849, besides a few of the above named who remained, the following persons
were located as follows: A man named Bunker, an old whaler, lived on the Pierce
ranch, where he had been located for a long time. Another man named Fadre was
located on the Nathan Stinson ranch, and is at present residing on Russian river
in Sonoma county; another named Forrester lived at the Laguna, while a Spaniard
named Pakito was living on the Osio ranch, and was major domo there. Frank
Miller came there during that year, but did not locate permanently till some
years later. In 1850 a man by the name of Machon located on what is now known as
the Flannery ranch, but was in the employ of Dr. Randall. He now resides on
Russian river, Sonoma county. In 1851 a man named Bell came over from the north
side of Tomales bay and located on the Point Reyes side, about half way up the
bay. He went to Mendocino county and died there. Samuel Robinson also came in
and located about two and one-half miles farther west on Tomales bay. He spent
the remainder of his days in this township, dying in 1864. A Spaniard by the
name of Lucas settled still farther to the west on Tomales bay. On the south
side of the township a man by the name of Randall located on Bull Point on
Drake's bay. In 1855 a man named Williams located on the arm of Drake's bay,
known as Limantour, and three brothers named Steele located near by, but farther
to the south. They afterwards went to San Luis Obispo county. On Tomales bay a
man by the name of Lane settled near where Samuel Robinson lived, probably
farther north, or toward the mouth of the bay. A man named Keatley also settled
in that neighborhood, at what is known as Keatley gulch. To this pioneer and his
compatriot, Samuel Robinson, belongs the honor of building the first vessel ever
launched into the waters of Tomales bay. It was a small sloop, and did good
service in its day. It was launched in 1856. During the next year Keatley built
a schooner and launched it. These vessels both plied for some years between
Tomales bay and San Francisco. It is not now known what did ultimately become of
them, but their ribs are doubtless bleaching on some sand beach, or have long
since been dashed to atoms against the rocks that girt the ocean's shore. Mr.
Keatley lives in Ukiah, Mendocino county. Josiah Swan lived in 1855 on the Osio
ranch, and had charge of the place. No farming of any importance had been done
before 1856, but in that year the dairying interest began to be developed. The
Steele brothers, spoken of above, were the pioneer dairymen of the township.
During the same year Farmer & Medbury began dairying on the Kaiser place, also
two brothers named Abbott began operations in the same business on the N.
Stinson place. A man named Buel also brought in a lot of cows that same year. It
is not now known how extensively these gentlemen conducted this business, but it
is certain that they proved that it could be followed successfully, and that it
has been the leading industry in that section ever since.

  As soon as it became an established fact that dairying was a success in this
section, the settlement of the township was very rapid, until all the land was
taken up and converted into dairy farms. This necessitates that the farms should
be quite large, hence the people live long distances from each other, and there
are as many residents in the township at the present time as there will be a
quarter of a century hence. The land is owned by one or two men, and hence there
are no homes made. Renters stop awhile and then go, making no improvements. Were
all this land put upon the market, and sold to actual settlers, in tracts of
sufficient size to support one hundred cows each, there would be a great change
made in the appearance of the farms here. The owners would make their homes look
homelike instead of allowing them to remain bleak, barren and uninviting. It is
to be hoped that the time is not far distant when this consummation so
devoutedly wished for shall be fully realized.

  GRANTS.—The major portion of this township was covered by two grants, the
Rancho Punta de los Reyes, which was granted to Joseph Francis Snook, June 8,
1839, by Juan B. Alvarado, and was patented to Andrew Randall, and was a
two-league grant, and contained eight thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight
and sixty-eight one-hundredths acres, and the Rancho Punta de los Reyes,
Sobrante, which was granted to Antonio M. Osio, November 30, 1843, by Manuel
Micheltorena, and was confirmed to Andrew Randall. This was an eleven-league
grant, and contained forty-eight thousand, one hundred and eighty-nine and
thirty-four one-hundredths acres.

  SCHOOLS.—There are two school districts in the township, Point Reyes and
Pierce. The former embraces all the southern portion of the township, while the
latter comprises all the northern portion. There is a good school-house in each
district, and school is maintained the usual length of time. A grand Fourth of
July clam-bake was one of the methods resorted to to raise funds for the Point
Reyes school-house.

  POINT REYES LIGHT-HOUSE AND FOG-WHISTLE.—The light-house was established in
1870, and is located on the pitch of the western head of Point Reyes, in
latitude thirty-seven degrees, fifty-nine minutes, and thirty-six seconds north,
and longitude one hundred and twenty-three degrees, one minute, and twenty-one
seconds west. The station is Number 495, and the light is a first order Funk's
Hydraulic Float. There are four circular wicks in the lamp, whose diameters are
as follows: Three and one-half inches, two and one-half inches, one and
three-fourths of an inch, and seven-eighths of an inch. The lamp consists of two
chambers for oil, one above the light and one below. The oil is pumped from the
lower into the upper, whence it passes through a chamber in which there is a
regulating float, which governs the flow of oil to the lamp. The flow of oil is
in excess of the amount consumed to the extent of one hundred and twenty drops
each minute. The object of this is to prevent the charring of the wick. This
overflow is conducted to the lower chamber, and pumped again into the upper. In
this way there is no wastage. The upper chamber is pumped full of oil every two
hours. This is what is known as a "flash light," i. e., the lenses revolve
around the light in such a manner that the focus of each lens appears as a
flash. There are twenty-four of these focal lenses, and the entire revolution is
made in two minutes, thus causing the flashes to appear every five seconds. A
very complete reflecting arrangement is constructed about the light, so that
every ray is brought to the focal plane, and passes thence across the surging
billows, to warn the mariner of dangers, and to guide him safely into the quiet
harbor. These reflectors consist of a series of large glass prisms, divided into
segments, varying in length as they approach the apex of the cone. Of these
prisms there are eight horizontal series above the lenses, and the same number
below them. Then there are eighteen series on the concave surface above the
light, and eight series on the concave surface below, making a total of
forty-two series of reflecting prisms, and the height of the reflecting
apparatus, including the lenses, is eight feet and ten inches, and it is five
feet and six inches in diameter. Viewed from the outside, the outlines are very
similar to a mammoth pineapple. The reflector is revolved by a clock-work
arrangement, and requires weight of one hundred and seventy-five pounds to drive
the machinery. There is a governor attached to the gearing for the purpose of
regulating the motion and speed of the revolving reflector. This weight requires
to be wound up every two hours and twenty minutes. The lenses are of the La Pute
patent, and the gearing was made by Barbier & Fenestre, in Paris, in 1867. This
light is on a sixteen-sided iron tower, and it is twenty-three feet from the
base of the tower to the focal plane. It is two hundred and ninety-six feet
above the sea level, and can be seen at sea a distance of twenty-four nautical
miles. It illuminates an arc of two hundred and eighty-five degrees. The oil
used is refined lard oil, and the yearly supply at this station is seven hundred
and sixty gallons. The lamp will consume seventeen pints of oil, on an average,
every ten hours.

  The fog-whistle is located one hundred feet lower down on the cliff in a
little notch hewn out of the face of the rock. The building is twenty-four by
thirty, and there are two boilers, each sustaining a pressure of seventy-five
pounds. The blasts recur once every minute, and last eight seconds. The
arrangement is automatic and governed by a small engine. The whistle is
constructed on a principle similar to ordinary locomotive whistles, only on a
much larger scale. The bell or cap being twelve inches in diameter. Every thing
is duplicated so that if any piece of machinery should give away, no loss of
time would be sustained. Fuel saturated with petroleum is kept in the furnace
all the time so that steam may be gotten up at a moments notice night or day,
and the whistle set to going in a very short time. The water supply pipe
connects direct with the boilers from the tank which is three hundred and fifty
feet above, and the pressure is two hundred and thirty-six pounds to the inch.
The fuel and all supplies are sent down on a chute from the top of the cliff
There are a series of stairs leading from the keeper's house to the light-house
and fog-whistle, in all of which there are nine hundred and sixty-five steps.
Along the most of this stairway a guard rail has been set up to prevent the wind
from carrying the keepers into the ocean in their passage up or down.

  The force of men employed at this station consists of one keeper and three
assistants. R. H. Pooler is the present keeper, having come to the station in
January of this year. The first watch begins at one-half hour before sundown,
and the watches are relieved every four hours. The lamp is lighted at sundown
and kept burning until sunrise. There is telegraphic communication from the
light-house and the fog-whistle with the keeper's house. This house is large,
roomy and comfortable, and quite well furnished. This is not a "ration station,"
and the employes have to furnish their own supplies. A very "penny-wise
pound-foolish " policy of economy has recently been adopted by the Government,
by which the salaries of these men have been cut down to a mere pittance, these
now varying from eight hundred dollars for the keeper to five hundred dollars
for the third assistant, per annum. When it is considered how these men have to
live, far removed from society and neighbors, on a barren rock, subjected to the
dangers and fatigues incident to their vocation, and the great responsibility
which rests upon their shoulders, it would seem that the Government could well
afford to be far more liberal in remunerating their services. The fate and
destiny of valuable property and precious lives are in their hands. When the
winds of ocean sweep with fiercest fury across the trackless main, lashing the
water into seething billows almost mountain high, when the black pall of night
has been cast over the face of the deep, and ships are scudding along under
close reef and storm sails, not knowing where they are or how soon they may be
cast upon the rocks or stranded upon the beach, when the storm king seems to
hold full sway over all the world, suddenly a flash of light is seen piercing
the darkness, like a ray of hope from the bosom of God. Again and again is it
seen and the sailors rejoice for they know then that port is near and that
danger is nearly passed. But whence that ray of light that so cheers the heart
of the lonely mariner? In the lonely watches of the dreary, stormy night, with
the fury of the wind about him, with the roar and rush of the breakers dashing
against the rocks below him, sounding in his ears, with no human soul near him,
sits the keeper, true to his trust, faithful to his charge, doing well and
honestly his duty, keeping his lamp trimmed and burning, sending forth the ray
to guide and make glad the storm-encircled sailor, Then let honor be given to
whom honor is due, and to these brave, sacrificing men let us render a just
tribute.

  SHIPWRECKS.—There is, perhaps, no more dangerous and uninviting extent of
coast line from Oregon to Mexico than that extending from Point Reyes to Tomales
bay. To go ashore at any point along this line is to go to certain destruction.
No ship has ever survived the day which cast her on this beach or against these
rocks. As dangerous as it was, no light-house was erected upon it till 1870. It
was rendered doubly dangerous from the fact of its proximity to the harbor of
San Francisco, and vessels have gone hard ashore under full sail, little
dreaming that danger was nigh, and thinking they were heading direct for the
Golden Gate. Since the establishment of the light-house these wrecks have been
few, compared with the former years. The first vessel which was wrecked on this
line of coast was an English clipper ship which went ashore just south of the
entrance to Tomales bay in 1855. The weather was foggy and the master had lost
his reckoning, and suddenly the cry of breakers ahead brought all on board only
to see their ship dashed upon the rocks. No lives were lost, but the vessel was
a total wreck and the entire cargo lost. One morning in 1858 the few people who
then lived on Tomales bay were greatly surprised to see a large ship with all
sails set heading directly up the bay. An hour or more passed and the ship
seemed to make no headway. At length a boat was lowered and the first officer
came on shore and asked the residents whether or not this was San Francisco bay.
It was a sad case of mistaken identity, and the hull of the good English ship
"Oxford" still lies where it lay that early morning over twenty years ago. No
reason is known why the captain mistook the narrow entrance to a mere inlet for
the broad passage of the Golden Gate. In 1861 the clipper ship "Sea Nymph" came
ashore on the beach just north of Point Reyes, with all sails set. The weather
had been foggy for some time and the ship was being run by "dead reckoning," and
it was supposed that it was nowhere near the shore. It was after daylight, but
the fog was so dense that the sailors could not see the land, and when the cry
of breakers ahead was heard it proved too late, for the vessel had sailed into a
pocket of the coast and it was impossible to avoid the catastrophy. The vessel
was laden with a full cargo of merchandise, all of which was saved. One life was
lost in getting the men ashore—a colored steward—and a Spaniard by the name of
Gonzales was killed in a surf-boat while wrecking the ship. The next one on the
list is a Russian man-of-war, which went ashore about the same place which the
"Sea Nymph" did. This occurred on a dark and foggy night in 1864. The vessel was
being sailed by an English chart which showed that there was a light-house on
Point Reyes. As there was none at that time it is not to be wondered at that the
vessel was run ashore with all sails set. The officers stated that their
reckoning showed that they were very close to San Francisco bay, and that they
were sailing close to the shore so that they might make out the light on this
point and then shape their course for the heads at the entrance to that bay.
There were one hundred and fifty souls on board, all told, and all were saved.
The vessel was wrecked and afterwards went to pieces. Next on the list comes a
schooner which capsized off the point and all on board were lost. It is not
known in what year this occurred. Near the close of a very murky, foggy day in
August, 1875, the ship "Warrior Queen" came ashore on the beach about three
miles north of the point. She was bound from Auckland, New Zealand, to San
Francisco, in ballast. The sky had been so overcast with fog that they had not
been able to take any observations for ten days, and their "dead reckoning"
showed them to be many miles at sea. Suddenly they found themselves in the
breakers-going ashore on a sand beach. They immediately cast anchor and held the
vessel from going hard ashore, although she was driven far upon the beach
subsequently. The men embarked in three boats and put to sea rather than try to
effect a landing in the surf, and reached San Francisco safely the next day. The
vessel was afterwards wrecked and blown to pieces with nitroglycerine for the
sake of the copper on her bottom. A few years later the schooner " Eden," laden
with cord-wood, capsized off the point, but no lives-were lost. The schooner was
a total wreck. Two schooners have been wrecked in Drake's bay, but little,
however, is now known of the circumstances.

  Many thrilling and interesting incidents are related in connection with these
shipwrecks, and subject matter for a handsome volume could be gathered
concerning them. It is related that at the time the "Sea Nymph" went ashore
several of the men, including the captain, attempted to land in a small boat,
but were capsized in the breakers. Several spectators were standing on the
beach, but all seemed powerless to render any assistance to the perishing men,
who were battling manfully with the waves and striving with only such might and
main to reach the shore as dying men can. Among the spectators was one Carleton
S. Abbott, who proved himself at that time to be a hero. Loosing several riatas
from the horns of the saddles on the horses standing by. he knotted them
together, and having made one end of the lengthened rope fast around his waist
and giving the other end into the hands of the astonished on-lookers, he grasped
a long riata in his hand and plunged boldly into the crested breakers. With a
skillful twirl of the rope in mid air he sent it with unerring aim over the
captain's head, and in a trice had dragged him safely on shore. This was
repeated until all the men were saved. When the " Warrior Queen " was discovered
by the settlers the next morning after she struck, no signs of life appeared on
board, all hands having put to sea in small boats. It became a matter of
wonderment among those who had assembled on the beach as to what could have
become of all the men. It was decided to go on board and discover, if possible,
something to show the fate of the crew, but the question was, how to effect
communication with the ship. At length, Henry Claussen, a sailor of much
experience, volunteered to swim out to the vessel and take a line on board with
him. He performed the wonderful and daring feat, and was rewarded by finding
that all books and instruments were gone, hence he knew that the men had put to
sea.

  DRAKE'S BAY.—On the 13th of December, 1577, Captain, afterward Sir Francis
Drake, sailed from Plymouth, England, with five small vessels, bound for the
South Seas and through the Straits of Magellan, through which no Englishman had
ever sailed at that time. Having been upon several very successful voyages of
conquest under a privateer's commission, on the Spanish main, he had but little
difficulty in persuading Queen Elizabeth to provide the means for fitting out a
fleet for this undertaking, and the popularity of the man drew about him
sufficient men to serve under him during the cruise. These vessels varied in
size from fifteen to one hundred tons burthen, sailing himself in the largest,
the "Pelican," afterwards rechristened the "Golden Hind." On all these vessels
there was a force of one hundred and sixty-six men. Two of the ships were
deserted and cast adrift in the Atlantic ocean, a third, under command of
Captain Winter, his vice-admiral, returned to England after having passed
through the Straits and the fate of the fourth is unknown, as no mention is made
of it in any authority at hand. After passing through the straits he found the
Pacific ocean in a very blustering mood, and not at all comporting itself in
that quiet manner which its placid name would indicate. He then continued to
cruise along the coast of Chili and Peru, taking all opportunities of seizing
Spanish vessels till his men were satiated with plunder. He then made up his
mind to return to England, but feared to attempt the passage through the Straits
of Magellan, lest there should be a Spanish fleet lying in wait for him, which
should destroy his vessel. Knowing that the two oceans met at the southern
extremity of the American Continent, he inferred that they must also meet at the
northern end, hence conceived the idea of returning to England over that route
through the Straits of Arrian. It was yet early in the season, being only in the
month of June, but still we are told by Rev. Mr. Fletcher, who was chaplain on
board the ship, and acted as chronicler of the voyage, that on the 3d of June,
1579, in latitude forty-two—that is, the southern line of Oregon—"the crew
complained grievously of nipping cold, and the rigging was stiff and rain was
frozen." In latitude forty-four— that is, off Umpqua City—"their hands were
benumbed, and the meat was frozen when it was taken from the fire!" Finding that
his men were complaining so bitterly of the cold, and fearing that no good would
result from pushing farther into what appeared to be the veritable arctic
regions of the Pacific, he resolved to seek the coast and effect a landing. On
the 5th day of June they ran in shore and cast anchor in a bad bay, where, "when
the thick, vile fogs lifted, they found they were not without danger from
violent gusts and flaws of wind." It is probable that here his Spanish pilot,
Morera, deserted him and set out upon that unparalleled feat of pedestrianism,
traveling on foot and alone through thirty-five hundred miles of unbroken
wilderness, inhabited only by savages and wild beasts, the amazement of a land
full of natives who had never seen anything before that approached to a white man.

  Drake at once put to sea again and coasted southward, seeking a secure
anchorage until the seventeenth of the month, when "it pleased God to send him
into a fair and good bay, within thirty-eight degrees towards the line." There
seems to have been a very different state of weather existing in those days from
that prevalent in the same latitudes at the present time, and many attempts have
been made to harmonize those statements with what it is reasonable to suppose
was the truth. First of all the statements of this chronicler, although a
Reverend gentleman, must be taken cum grano salis. He was sure that no one could
dispute his statements, and he was doubtless loth to give this "New Albion" the
credit of having a climate that would more than vie with "Old Albion." Again it
will be remembered that the northwest trade winds which prevail along the coast
are fully as searching and cold as the Winter winds, and that to a crew of men
just from under a tropical sun, it would prove doubly piercing, and they
doubtless thought these results of cold should occur even if they did not. Again
there was a legend among the old Indians along this coast that was, once a year
snow fell in mid-Summer. Now such a climatic somersault may have possibly
occurred, and the condition of the weather been just as described.

  But be that as it may, the truth that Drake did effect a landing in a? "fair
and good" bay, stands out boldly and unimpeachably, and to locate the place is
the subject now in hand. Authorities differ widely in regard to the matter, and
thorough research fails to establish satisfactorily to all the exact situation
of that body of water which should be called Drake's bay. From time immemorial
it was thought that the present Bay of San Francisco must have been the place,
and all men of thirty years of age and older will remember the statement in the
old school history to the effect that the first white men to sail into the Bay
of San Francisco were Sir Francis Drake and his crew. Franklin Tuthill, in his
"History of California," maintains that ground and says: "Its (San Francisco
bay) latitude is thirty-seven degrees, fifty-nine minutes, to which that given
by Drake's chronicler is quite as near as those early navigators with their
comparatively rude instruments were likely to get. The cliffs about San
Francisco are not remarkably white, even if one notable projection inside the
gate is named 'Lime Point;' but there are many white mountains both north and
south of it, along the coast; and Drake named the whole land—not his landing
place alone—' New Albion,' They did not go into ectasies about the harbor—they
were not hunting harbors, but fortunes in compact form. Harbors, so precious to
the Spaniards, who had a commerce in the Pacific to be protected, were of small
account, to the roving Englishman. But the best possible testimony he could bear
as to the harbor's excellence were the thirty-six days he spent in it. The
probabilities are, then, that it was in San Francisco bay that Drake made
himself at home. As Columbus, failing to give his name to the continent he
discovered, was in some measure set right by the bestowal of his name upon the
continent's choicest part, when poetry dealt with the subject, so to Drake,
cheated of the honor of naming the finest harbor on the coast, is still left a
feeble memorial, in the name of a closely adjoining dent in the coast line. To
the English, then, it may be believed belongs the credit of finding San
Francisco bay."

  It is, however, now most generally conceded that Drake never saw inside of the
Bay of San Francisco. Humboldt was the first to correct the common belief in
this matter, holding that it was farther north, under the parallel thirty-eight
degrees and ten minutes, a bay called by the Spaniards "Puerto de Bodega." This
place could not have borne that name at the time of Drake's visit to the Pacific
coast, for it was not till 1775 that a distinguished Spanish navigator by the
name of Lieutenant Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, in a naval vessel
called the "Sonora," entered this bay and after carefully exploring it, gave it
the name of Bodega in honor of himself. This subject will be found fully pursued
in our chapter on the general history and early settlement of the county.

  GOLD.—The chronicler of Drake's voyage wrote: "The earth of the country seemed
to promise rich veins of gold and silver, some of the ore being constantly found
on digging." Little credit is generally given to this assertion of the Rev. Mr.
Fletcher, but it is, however, a fact that gold does exist in greater or less
quantities all over this section. At Tomales point there is a place called Gold
gulch, where sluices were put in and placer mining carried on quite extensively
in 1865-66, and the yield averaged two dollars and a half a day to the man. It
is fine flake dust, hence much of it was lost. Lack of water caused them to
abandon the enterprise. There are also quartz lodes here that promise well.
Seven assays averaged of gold thirty dollars and eighty-three cents, and of
silver fifty-four dollars and ten cents.

  GRANITE.—It is worthy of mention in this place that there is a large
outcropping of granite at Tomales point, and that Point Reyes is also composed
of the same rock. This is the only out-cropping of this rock in Marin county. It
is of a grayish color, coarse and not well adapted for economical purposes.

  Nothing more remains to be said of this township. Its industry is staple and
will always cause it to be prosperous. Only one thing is lacking, and that is
that its farmers should be land owners instead of renters. Then would be
inaugurated an era of prosperity little dreamed of now. This time will come
sooner or later.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF MARIN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA;
INCLUDING ITS
Geography, Geology, Topography and Climatography;
TOGETHER WITH
A Full and Particular Record of the Mexican Grants; Its Early History and
Settlement, Compiled from the most Authentic Sources; Names of Original Spanish
and American Pioneers;

A Full Record of its Organization; A Complete Political History, including a
Tabular Statement of Office-holders since the Formation of the County;

Separate Histories of Bolinas, Nicasio, Novato, Point Reyes, San Antonio, San
Rafael, Saucelito, and Tomales Townships;

Incidents of Pioneer Life, and Biographical Sketches of its Early and Prominent
Settlers and Representative Men;
ALSO
An Historical Sketch of the State of California,
In which is embodied the Raising of the Bear Flag

ILLUSTRATED.
SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. 
ALLEY, BOWEN & CO., PUBLISHERS.
1880.


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