USA > California > Marin County > History of Marin County, California also an historical sketch of the state of California > Part 10
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58
89
GEOGRAPHY, NAME, TOPOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY, ETC.
Sonoma county, it presents no new feature except certain esteros, or branches of the ocean, which have the appearance of ordinary rivers. The first, com- monly known as Keys creek, indents the northern shore of Tomales bay a short distance from the ocean. It is flanked on either side by steep hills, and extends some distance beyond the village of Tomales. Many thousands of dol- lars were expended to render it navigable for steamboats as far as the above- mentioned village, but without avail. The laws of nature were inexorable; the channel filled up; leaving the old steamer high and dry on the sand. In the process of time the estero will probably be raised above tide-water, and convey only the drainage of the surrounding hills. The two other esteros are the Estero San Antonio and the Estero Americano, the latter being a bound- ary between Marin and Sonoma counties. Both have the same general char- acteristics as Keys creek. The Estero San Antonio reaches about twenty miles into the heart of the country, the tide-water backing up that distance, while at any point a man could throw a stone across it. Neither are navi- gable.
The shore of the Bay of San Francisco presents a varied outline, with occa- sional islands, varying in size from mere rocks to several hundred acres in extent, as in the case of Angel Island. From the Golden Gate to what is known as California City, the hills approach directly to the water's edge, deep water being found a few feet out. From this point the hills retreat, and are replaced by long stretches of salt meadows, intersected by tidal creeks. The water is also very shoal, extensive mud flats being bared by the retreating tide. Point San Pedro terminates the Bay of San Francisco. Beyond it is San Pablo bay. The entire border, to the Sonoma line, is fringed with salt marsh land, having a depth of from one to four miles. The water likewise is very shallow.
Leaving the coast and striking into the interior, the country, as was said before, is one interminable mass of hills of varying altitude. The general direction of the ridges is northwest and southeast. The Tamalpais range extends continuously along the coast from the Golden Gate to Tomales bay. The remaining ridges arrange themselves in respectful parallelism, with occa- sional cross ridges or hog's backs. Topographically, the face of the country might be divided into four districts, having many features in common, but each possessing points peculiar to itself. First, the Tamalpais district. This is at once the most rugged and picturesque portion of the county. It would include along the coast from Saucelito to Point Reyes, and about fifteen miles into the interior. Nearly all this tract is covered with vegetation. either forest or underbrush (otherwise called chaparral.) Such land, either for the pur- poses of agriculture or dairying, is of little value. Valleys are of rare occur- rence and small extent. There are several streams in it, the largest in the county. Among these may be mentioned the Paper Mill or Lagunitas, Olema and San Anselmo creeks, the valleys corresponding to the water- ways in name and position. Second, the Point Reyes district, wooded in
90
HISTORY OF MARIN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
places, but containing some of the finest open grazing land in the county. Third, the Tomales district. This section of the county is the least undulat- ing, and is almost entirely without vegetation excepting grass. It is well adapted to agriculture and grazing. The hills, though still preserving the gen- eral parallel direction to the Tamalpais range, are somewhat irregular and billowy. Keys creek, the Estero San Antonio and the Estero Americano form the valley subdivisions of the district. Fourth, the Novato and San Antonio districts, gradually approaching and assimilating to the valley land of Sonoma county. There are two creeks of considerable size, the Novato creek and the Arroyo San Antonio. The hills approaching the latter creek become smaller and smaller, till the former site of the Lagunas de San Antonio are reached. Here the land is level, and physically forms a part of the valley surrounding Petaluma and Santa Rosa. The lagunas, or lakes, mentioned above, have been drained in recent times, and are now cultivated. Formerly they covered an area of several hundred acres.
The water-shed of Marin county is extremely simple. Draw an imaginary line, beginning at Lime Point near Saucelito, and following the summit of the ridge to the south of what is known as Big Lagoon Canon to the top of the eastern peak of Tamalpais. From the top of Tamalpais continue the line along the ridge which divides the Lagunitas valley from the country lying to the north and east, cross the summit of White's Hill and pass over the low point in the ridge under which the North Pacific Coast Railroad has run what is known as the White's Hill Tunnel. Thence ascend to the summit of Lone Alta. Thence produce the line to the point where the Miller valley road crosses the ridge near the Big Rock. Follow the ridge northerly, which divides the Nicasio creek system from the land to the east. This would reach to the head-waters of the Arroyo San Antonio (not the Estero San Antonio), on the Sonoma county boundary. All water falling to the east of this line would be drained into the Bay of San Francisco. All water falling to the west of this line would be drained into the Tomales bay and Pacific ocean.
The principal forest tracts now uncut are in the Lagunitas Cañon and on Point Reyes. The whole slope of Tamalpais in early days was more or less wooded, but by far' the greater portion has been denuded. There are about fifteen thousand acres of available timber remaining, nearly all of which is in the above localities. There are no streams which, by any stretch of courtesy, could be called rivers, nor are any navigable for the smallest crafts. On the whole, the topography of Marin county is tolerably uniform, the differences being of degree rather than of kind.
GEOLOGY .- The whole of Marin county is thrown up into rolling hills of moderate height, and the depressions between them have little level ground; nor is there much regularity in the distribution of the ridges, a circumstance which is due to the irregular dip and strike of the strata, and the still more irre-
91
GEOGRAPHY, NAME, TOPOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY, ETC.
gular manner in which they have undergone a more or less complete altera- tion by chemical agencies since their deposition. In general character the rocks of this county are similar to those described as occurring on the penin- sula south of San Francisco; of these they are in reality the continuation, although apparently separated from them by the Golden Gate.
The culminating point of the county is Tamalpais,* which rises to the height of two thousand five hundred and ninety-seven feet, forming a portion of a ridge which extends across the peninsula in a nearly east and west direction : in this ridge there are three summits of nearly equal height, all being over two thousand five hundred and fifty feet. One of these points is a Coast Survey station, and is called "Table Mountain." These are all of hard, meta- morphic sandstone, not so much altered, however, as to obliterate the granu- lation or the lines of stratification. Near the eastern summit, veins of quartz occur, portions of which are distinctly banded, as if deposited from water. Some of these are said to contain gold, and they have been worked but found too poor to pay for the labor. The summit has been, and is perhaps now, held as a quartz claim. The eastern summit is very sharp, the slope, as seen in the sky-outline from San Rafael, being twenty-five degrees on both sides, and the whole mountain is deeply furrowed by denudation. About three-fourths of a mile west from the highest point, serpentine occurs in large quantities, as also on the northern slope. On the northwestern side there are immense masses of this rock, forming the ridge between the Tomales y Baulines, San Geronimo, and Cañada de Herrera ranches, and rising to the altitude of one thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine feet. This belt, which is almost entirely of serpentine, extends several miles to the northwest. On the north slope of Tamalpais altered slates occur, at the altitude of about one thousand two hundred feet, and have a northwest strike and a very high but irregular dip to the southwest.
Between Petaluma and San Rafael on the east and Tomales bay on the west, the rock is entirely metamorphic or eruptive, with the exception of very limited deposits of unaltered tertiary along the northern part. The whole region is broken up into ridges, of which the higher ones are generally of met- amorphic sandstone, usually very much altered, but not always so. There are also slates and shales in various stages of alteration, sometimes assuming the form of the jaspery rock so characteristic of the summit of Monte Diablo;
* Tamalpais is the name by which this mountain is now universally known in San Francisco, from which it is so conspicuous and beautiful an object. It was called "Mount Palermo " by the United States Exploring Expedition, and "Table Mountain " by Beechy and the United States Coast Survey. The Coast Survey Station is not, however, on the highest point, but is about a mile to the west of it. The elevation of the station is given at 2,597 feet; that of Tamalpais itself at 2,604 feet. The name is said to have originated in the fact that this region was formerly the residence of the Tamal Indians; see Davidson's Directory of the Pacific Coast, in Coast Survey Report for 1862.
92
HISTORY OF MARIN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
some mica-slate was also noticed, although it does not occur in large quan- tities.
Eruptive rock occurs in various places. About one and a half miles west of San Rafael, at Sugar Loaf Hill, there is a mass of trachyte of a light brownish-gray color, which extends for a short distance east and west. Near Rudesill's Landing, a very hard, compact, and fine-grained basalt occurs and is seen in several hills. It forms a belt or dyke, extending about north-north- west, and is well exposed about three-fourths of a mile southwest of Petaluma, where it is about two hundred yards wide. It has here a columnar structure, the columns being very regular, usually six-sided, and about two feet in diam- eter, although sometimes as much as three. The joints or columns are from one to three feet long, and generally dip to the south at an angle of from sixty degrees to eighty degrees, although occasionally vertical. This rock is quar- ried for building, for which purpose it is well adapted, breaking equally well in all directions, and rough-dressing easily; of course it is extremely durable. At the quarry the dyke has a direction of north sixty-five degrees west. Eruptive rock was also seen in the high hills on the Olompali and Santa Mar- garita Ranches, but was not exposed so that it could be well examined.
Among the varieties of metamorphic rock in this region, silicious and jas- pery masses are predominant. In a hill about a mile north of San Rafael, there is an immense outcrop of quartz, approaching flint in appearance; it is mostly of a light-green color, although portions are white, gray, and black. It has a conchoidal fracture, and a tendency to separate into prismatic and cubical fragments, with which the whole surface of the hill is covered.
The hills of the peninsula three miles northeast of San Rafael, have been the scene of considerable gold excitement. They are made up of meta- morphie sandstone, including veins of quartz, some of which probably do con- tain a little of the precious metal, but they are not regular enough to pay for working. There are some slates in this vicinity, with a northeasterly dip.
In crossing the peninsula from San Rafael to the head of Tomales bay, metamorphic rocks were everywhere met with, the only exception being the small outcrop of trachyte before noticed. These rocks seemed to be of creta- ceous age, and at seven miles from San Rafael shales occur, scarcely altered at all, and precisely similar in character to the shales of that age near Monte Diablo. In close proximity to these unaltered strata, and in the same direc- tion. masses of jasper are observed, evidently the result of the metamorph- ism of the shales, and this jaspery rock occurs at intervals along the whole line explored across the peninsula. Metamorphic sandstones also occur in abundance, containing epidote; other forms of altered cretaceous rocks, which have already been noticed as observed near Monte Diablo, also occur here. Serpentine appears in considerable quantity, and the peculiar silicious rock, which is usually associated with cinnabar, is found about nine miles from San Rafael.
93
GEOGRAPHY, NAME, TOPOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY, ETC.
Between Petaluma and the entrance of Tomales bay, the hills are much lower, quite a well-marked depression extending across the peninsula. The rock exposed on this line is mostly metamorphic, the strata highly altered and much contorted and broken. In various places patches of tertiary sandstone rest unconformably upon these altered strata. These are best seen at Estero San Antonio, about three miles north of Tomales, where a section of two hun- dred and fifty or three hundred feet thick may be studied. The rocks here are soft, yellow sandstones, with large nodules of hard blue calcareous sand- stone imbedded in them. These beds are quite fossiliferous, and appear to belong to the miocene division of the tertiary.
Patches of these sandstones, in all cases nearly horizontal, occur at various points between Tomales and Petaluma, and several of these were seen near the first named place, especially two miles west of it, where they form large outcrops. The metamorphic rocks had suffered extensive denudation before the deposition of these tertiary strata, which have themselves been extensively denuded since their formation, but not otherwise disturbed.
West of Tomales bay lies a series of ridges having a direction of about north thirty-six degrees west, and extending from Tomales Point to Bolinas bay, a dist- ance of about twenty-eight and a half miles. The principal ridge is on the west- ern side, and is separated from the ridges east by a nearly straight valley, the northern portion of which, for about fifteen miles, is occupied by Tomales bay, the remainder by the swamps at the head of the bay and the valley of the Arroyo Olemus Loke, terminating on the south in Bolinas bay, thus forming a well-marked and continuous depression through the entire distance.
The extremity of Tomales Point is entirely of granite, mostly soft and decomposed. About three and a half miles from the Point, at White's Gulch, sandstone occurs. resting on this granite nearly horizontally, or with a slight northeastern dip. On these sandstones rest white, argillaceous slates, in places somewhat silicified, and resembling the bituminous and infusorial strata at Santa Cruz and Monterey. Farther south, near Abbott's Ranch House, the sandstone occurs in large masses, having a low dip to the southwest, from five to eight degrees, usually. No fossils are found in these; but they appear to be of the same age as the sandstones found at Estero San Antonio, near Tomales. Between the highest points near the head of Tomales bay and Punta Reyes, there are some minor ridges made up entirely of sandstone, having a low southwest dip; these are probably all miocene. The granite rises in high ridges near the head of the bay, and in places is accompanied by mica-slate, which latter rock is too much broken for any satisfactory idea to be obtained of its position. Metamorphic limestone also occurs associated with these rocks; it undoubtedly runs through in nearly a straight line to Tomales bay, and has been burned quite extensively for lime at several places. It is too much metamorphosed to show well-marked lines of stratification, being quite crys- talline, and containing thin plates of graphite. It appears to be the continu-
94
HISTORY OF MARIN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
ation of the limestone belt of Santa Cruz and San Andreas, in San Mateo county.
Punta de los Reyes is of granite, rising in a high promontory, but it is sep- arated from the ridge of Tomales Point by a deep depression, which is partly occupied by tertiary sandstones. Granite also occurs at Bodega Head, prob- ably a continuation of the the mass of Tomales Point.
CLIMATOGRAPHY .- The climate of Marin, a county but a few miles in extent, presents some remarkable anomalies. The western portion, bathed as it is by the fogs of the ocean, possesses a moist atmosphere and for that reason becomes desirable for the purpose of feeding the stock and raising those fab- ulous potato crops which mature to such perfection in. the Tomales district. Indeed this phenomenon is an important factor in the growth of the crops along the sea-coast and on the Bay of San Francisco. About the first of · May, the trade winds set in from the northwest. The Spanish galleons from Manilla to Acapulco-three hundred years ago-steered for Cape Mendocino. where they would encounter the northwest trades, and run before it with swelling sails, to their beautiful harbor. To these winds many of the farmers of Marin, of our own time, are indebted for their never failing crop. After a drying north wind in the spring, which has parched the earth and twisted the blades of the growing grain, the trade sets in, and, as if by magic, the scene changes, the shriveled spears unfold, and absorb life at every pore from the moisture-laden breeze.
When the trade winds set in, a fog-bank forms every day off the land, caused, perhaps by the meeting of a cold and warm strata of air. In the afternoon this fog comes inland with the breeze, which commences about noon every day. It is not an unhealthful fog; on the contrary, the most healthful season of the year is when the trade winds prevail. The fog spreads through the country late in the afternoon, continues through the night and disappears about sun rise. This mild process of irrigation is repeated, and the farmer estimates that three heavy fog's are equal to a light, rain. This is true only of the western side of the county; the east, however, has an exceedingly dry climate. This is readily understood. The prevailing winds arrive at the sea- shore saturated with moisture, but as they advance, they come in contact with high hills, dry and thirsty, which absorb the water like sponges. The appear- ance of the country and the vegetation clearly proves this assertion. In the · western and southern parts of the county living streams flow throughout the summer months, and moss is found adhering to the roofs and fences. Trav- eling east and north a few miles, the streams get weaker and weaker until they cease running, except in rainy weather. The moss disappears and veg- etation has a different aspect.
-
95
GENERAL HISTORY AND SETTLEMENT.
THE GENERAL HISTORY AND SETTLEMENT OF MARIN COUNTY.
THE first mention that we have of what is now known as Marin county being visited, that is provided the presumption is correct that he visited the sheet of water now known by his name, and not that of San Francisco, is that of Sir Francis Drake. We will now briefly sketch for the information of the reader how it was that that famous navigator came to these parts. Cap- tain Francis Drake sailed from Plymouth, England, on the thirteenth day of December, A. D. 1577, for the South Sea Islands, having under his command five vessels, in size between fifteen and one hundred tons; in the largest, the " Pelican," afterwards named the "Golden Hind;" he sailed himself, while the men in the whole fleet mustered only one hundred and sixty- six in number. On December 25, 1577, he sighted the coast of Barbary, and on the 29th the Cape Verde Islands, thence sailing across the almost un- traveled bosom of the broad Atlantic, he made the coast of Brazil on the 5th of April, and entering the Rio de la Plata, parted company with two of his vessels, which, however, he afterwards met, and taking from them their provisions and men, turned them adrift. On the 29th of May he entered the port of St. Julian, where he lay for two months taking in stores; on the 20th of August he entered the Straits of Magellan; on the 25th September he passed out of them, having with him only his own ship, and thus handed his name to posterity as the first Englishman to voyage through that bleak and tempestuous arm of the sea. On the 25th November he arrived at Macao, now a Portuguese settlement on the southern coast of China, which he had appointed as a place of rendezvous in the event of his ships being separated ; but Captain Winter, his vice-admiral, had repassed the straits and returned to England. Drake thence continued his voyage along the coast of Chili and Peru, taking all opportunities of seizing Spanish ships, and at- tacking them on shore, till his men were satiated with plunder. Here he contemplated a return to England, but fearing the storm lashed shores of Magellan, and the possible presence of a Spanish fleet, he determined to search for a northern connection between the two vast oceans, similar to that which he knew to exist in the southern extremity of the continent. He, therefore, sailed along the coast upwards in quest of such a route. When he started the season was yet young, still the historian of the voyage says that on June 3, 1579, in latitude forty-two, now the southern line of the State of Oregon, the crew complained bitterly of the cold, while the rigging of the ship was
.
96
, HISTORY OF MARIN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
rigidly frozen, and again, in latitude forty-four "their hands were be- numbed, and the meat was frozen when it was taken from the fire." With these adversities to contend against, it is no wonder then that he resolved to enter the first advantageous anchorage he should find; on June 5th they sailed in shore, and brought-to in a harbor, which proving unadvantageous through dense fogs and dangerous rocks, he once more put to sea, steering southward for some indentation in the coast line, where he should be safe; this they found on June 17, 1579, within thirty-eight degrees of the equator.
The question which has occupied historians for many years, and which has been asserted by them with didactic force, is that the inlet then visited by Drake is the Bay of San Francisco. This statement of the earlier his- toriographer was first refuted by the Baron Von Humboldt, who maintained that the harbor then visited by Drake was called by the Spaniards " Puerto de Bodega," yet how it could have borne this name then, is hard to realize, seeing that it was not until nearly two centuries thereafter (in 1775) that the port was visited by Lieutenant Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, who named the place after himself.
But why go searching up and down the coast trying to locate the place either in latitude thirty-seven degrees, fifty-nine minutes, or in thirty-eight degrees, ten minutes, when there is a bay which answers all the requirements of the description given of it, located "within thirty-eight degrees towards the line ?" In the bay which lies in the curve in the coast under the lee of Point Reyes, and which is marked on the modern maps as Drake's bay, is to be found that place. The latitude given by the United States Govern- ment for the lighthouse located on the extreme southwestern pitch of Point Reyes is 37°, 59', 36"," which corresponds with the figures taken from the log- book of the "Golden Hind" to within sixteen seconds, which is quite close enough for a calculation made by " those early navigators with their comparatively rude instruments." But is it not reasonable to suppose that a man who had followed the sea the major portion of his life-time, and was at present sailing where no man had ever been before, and who, at that time, had his head full of a project to circumnavigate the world, would be able to take an ob- servation and come within a small fraction of seconds of his exact latitude ? It would seem to be presuming very much upon his ignorance to think otherwise.
Having established the fact that there is a bay in the very identical lati- tude named in Drake's chart, as the place where he landed, let us look still further into the matter, and see what facts can be adduced to farther sub- stantiate the assertion that this bay fills all the requirements of the one described by Rev. Mr. Fletcher. First of all comes an old Indian legend which came down through the Nicasios to the effect that Drake did land at this place. Although they have been an interior tribe ever since the oc- cupation by the Spaniards and doubtless were at that time, it still stands
ب
Geo Mr Burbank
97
GENERAL HISTORY AND SETTLEMENT.
to reason that they would know all about the matter. If the ship remained in the bay for thirty-six days it is reasonable to suppose that a knowledge of its presence reached every tribe of Indians within an area of one hundred miles, and that the major portion of them paid a visit to the bay to see the "en- voys of the Great Spirit," as they regarded the white seamen. One of these Indians named Theognis, who is reputed to have been one hundred and thirty- five years old when he made the statement, says that Drake presented the Indians with a dog, some young pigs, and seeds of several species of grain. Some biscuit were also given to them, which they planted, believing in their simple ignorance that they would spring to life and bear similar bread. The Indians also state that some of Drake's men deserted him here, and, making their way into the country, became amalgamated with the aboriginals to such an extent that all traces of them were lost, except possibly a few names which are to be found among the Indians, "Winnemucca," for instance, is a purely Celtic word, and the name "Nicasio," "Novato," and others are counter- parts, with slight variations, of names of places in the island of Cyprus. There is also another tradition, which, if true, would put the matter of Drake's entrance into San Francisco bay forever at rest, which is to the effect that at the time of his visit to this coast, the Golden Gate was closed with a wall of adamantine rock, and was only opened some years later by a mighty earthquake. It is stated that the waters of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers passed to the ocean through the Pajaro valley previous to this eruption. There is a bare possibility of this being true, and if so the oft asked question, how could Drake sail so near to the great Golden Gate entrance and not discover it is readily answered. Of course all these traditions must be taken for what they are worth, but it does seem that they go to strengthen the idea that Drake landed at Point Reyes.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.