Fall 2011 Women of West Marin

Under the Gables
Volume XVII, Number 2
Fall 2011
Women of West Marin
Photographs by Art Rogers
Commentaries by Elizabeth Whitney
Exhibit at the Jack Mason Museum, Inverness, California
October 8 - December 31, 2011
Opening Reception, 3 p.m. Sunday, October 9, 2011
Jack Mason Museum of West Marin History
Inverness Way at Park Avenue, Inverness
Phone 415-669-1099
www.jackmasonmuseum.org
Future exhibits at the Jack Mason Museum:
January – March 2012 - 30th anniversary of the 1982 flood
April – June 2012 - Inverness Park.
TIME LINE: One hundred and Fifty Years Ago:
1861 - On Point Reyes the Steele brothers (George, Isaac and Edgar) had
been running several dairies along with their cousin Renssalear since
1857 on land leased from Thomas Richards and then from Shafters. Rensaalear’s wife Clara made cheese. By 1861 they made large quantities of
cheese and butter from 600 cows; the brothers had $10,000 cash profit.
One Hundred Years Ago
1911 - In Inverness Park Robert Lockhart (probably an immigrant from
Northern Ireland) purchased property from Isaac Freeman at the top of
Balboa and established the Pine Crest Dairy. His son, James Watson “Jim”
Lockhart ran the dairy until 1961. Prior to becoming a modern dairy this
had been part of the grazing lands of the Shafter’s Piedmont Ranch.
THE JACK MASON MUSEUM
ALWAYS NEEDS VOLUNTEERS FOR ARCHIVAL,
ORGANIZATIONAL, OUTREACH, AND
COMPUTER-RELATED TASKS.
PLEASE CALL DEWEY AT 669-7706,
OR THE MUSEUM AT 669-1099.
ANNOUNCING A “LETTERS TO THE EDITOR” COLUMN
For eight years, 1976-1984, Jack Mason published his quarterly
Point Reyes Historian. One of the highlights of that publication was
the letters to the editor, which often highlighted really interesting
memories and historical tidbits from various subscribers. We urge our
readers of Under the Gables to write to us—be it memories, reaction
to our articles and exhibits, praise or complaints—and we will put
you in print! Write to Editor, Under the Gables, PO Box 94, Inverness,
CA 94937, or email [email protected]. Don’t be shy!
“POINT REYES PENINSULA”
Copies signed by the authors, Carola DeRooy and
Dewey Livingston are available at Museum Open
Houses and from the Archives for only $20.00. The
proceeds benefit the Museum.
ON THE COVER:
MALT founders Ellen Straus and Phyllis Faber.
© Art Rogers / Pt. Reyes
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JACK MASON
MUSEUM COMMITTEE
Robert Kroninger, Chair
Tom Branan
Andrew Buckingham
Carola DeRooy
Tony Griffin
Mary Kroninger
Meg Linden
Dewey Livingston
Michael Mery
Ann Read
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Sue Baty
Henry Buckingham
Mary Cardwell
Dian Carpenter
David Donlon
David Elliott
Gayanne Enquist
Dorito Marringa
Vivian Mazur
Linda Mendoza
Jenefer Merrill
Maidee Moore
Connie Morse
Kerry Rose
Marcia Strom
HONORARY MEMBER
Barbara Mason McClellan
THE JACK MASON MUSEUM
OF WEST MARIN HISTORY
IS AN AFFILIATE OF THE
INVERNESS FOUNDATION
Writers:
Meg Linden
Elizabeth Whitney
Editor and layout:
Dewey Livingston
Women of West Marin
The Guldager sisters. © Art Rogers / Pt. Reyes
Photographs by Art Rogers
Commentaries by Elizabeth Whitney
The Women of West Marin show at the Jack Mason Museum in Inverness continues the
Museum’s current theme of the contribution of women to the making of West Marin with
photographs by Art Rogers and commentaries by Elizabeth Whitney. Displayed together will
be images from almost 40 years of the photographer’s archives, including ranch women young
and old, legendary activists, key public figures in the community’s more recent history and
a sampling of current young people impacting the community.
Photographer Rogers and writer Whitney are also celebrating the same span of years of
collaboration in the creative life of the community, an artistic and personal friendship that
began in 1974. The show formally opens with a reception on Sunday, October 9, from 3 to 6
pm, to meet the photographer and writer and many women included in the exhibit.
Art Rogers, Photographer
entitled “Point Reyes Nation--A Family Album”. It
features a photograph every week of people and
events in the community and is an ongoing historical documentation of West Marin’s people and community events. He has documented the agricultural
community on the North Coast for over 35 years. He
Point Reyes photographer Art Rogers is widely
known for his portraits of families, children and babies, large groups, and rural scenes and landscapes of
West Marin. Rogers’ work has appeared in the Point
Reyes Light since 1974 in his weekly column originally
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also produces a series entitled “Yesterday and Today”
in which the same subjects are photographed in the
same place after a time span of as much as 30 years.
He is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship,
fellowships from The National Endowment of the
Arts and The Marin Arts Council, and the SECA Art
Award from the San Francisco Museum of Modern
Art. His photographs are included among the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern
Art; the International Center of Photography, New
York; the Center for Creative Photography Archive,
Tucson; Le Musée de l’Elysee, Switzerland; and the
de Young, San Francisco.
Elizabeth Whitney, Writer
“Gus the Desert Tortoise visits the First Day of School in
Miss Wold’s 1st and 2nd Grade Class at Inverness School
–– 1980” © Art Rogers / Pt. Reyes
A lifelong journalist, Elizabeth Whitney began a
career out of college in Washington DC in the 1960s
on the Washington Star. Her contributions to West
Marin journalism include an editorial presence on
the Point Reyes Light and co-founding and editing
a series of innovative newspapers, including the
Tomales Bay Times, The West Coast News, The New
Weather Observer, and the special flood newspaper
in 1982, The Inverness Daily News, which updated
the inundated town with vital daily information.
She wrote weekly columns for a decade for
The Great Western Coastal Post and subsequently
for the Surfside News in Malibu during a cycle of
living in southern California. Her Tomales Bay Times
article on Christo’s “Running Fence” was included
in the Harry Abrams art book on the project and
earned her a few minutes of national fame when a
quote from it was posted on the physical wall of the
Smithsonian Museum exhibit on the Running Fence
two years ago in Washington DC. She is currently
producing an eBook, Living Well in a Dying Age.
paper on the old press right there on Main Street.
I used to eat breakfast out after taking my
daughter to school and Art Rogers was among
the breakfast regulars who shared a table. One
morning he opened up a box of black and white
photos of a local work party. There were dozens
of wonderful photos of the project. He had just resumed photography after a time of putting it aside,
and I had no idea that he was a photographer. I
looked at him and said, “You have to come over
to the Light. We need a photographer.”
He showed up and met Mike and we talked
about what he could do. Mike didn’t have much of a
budget, but I suggested to Art that he advertise family portraits in trade for doing some photographs for
the paper. The family portraits business began and
his photo feature, Point Reyes Nation--A Family Album,
began. He soon teamed up with me on features I was
interested in doing, double page spreads on ranchers, the deputy sheriffs, the West Marin librarians,
the original “back to the land” folks here, and other
themes that we developed together over the years.
A few years later (1976) a rebel group spearheaded a new paper in town: The Tomales Bay Times,
which was produced by all volunteers. Art committed to being the photographer and I was editor. It
lasted a year and became a legend for its lively artistic
quality and originality. Art always kept his photo
column going at the Light through all the owners that
have come and gone. And now, thanks to an invitation from my old collaborator, we team up again.
The Story
Journalist Elizabeth Whitney tells the following
story of their first collaboration:
In 1974 I was Assistant Editor of the Point
Reyes Light under Mike Gahagan. I had just come
back to live in Inverness (I was a summer town kid)
after having worked on several metro newspapers,
including the Washington Star in Washington DC,
Women’s Wear Daily in New York and The Oakland
Tribune. Mike brought me into the fold and I began
writing features and news stories. I was enthusiastic and enjoyed the small town newspaper ambiance where we actually produced and printed the
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© Art Rogers / Pt. Reyes
CAROL HORICK
though. I didn’t want to lose one of my fingers.”
Even now she checks cattle on horseback rather
than 4-wheeler, because “a horse can get you anywhere.” While we talk on the phone she hollers at
some wayward cows, “Damn it, get out of there!”
What she remembers about Grandma Hall
was that she wasn’t afraid to tell you what she
thought. She said it like it was. Carol does, too.
She pauses when I ask her about growing up on
the ranch. “I didn’t have a very happy childhood.
I let it all go, a lot of it.” But she lights up talking
about Grandma Hall, who lived with Grampa Hall
in the big house with the big garden. As a kid,
she stopped in to see her almost every day. Other
people liked to stop and visit with her, too, like the
milk truck drivers who ended their long run out
at the ranch and stopped in to chat with Grandma
Hall. She cooked daily for Ernest Morris (grum-
“Grandma Hall, she was the best.”
Carol Horick grew up on her family ranch—
the D Ranch overlooking Drake’s Beach—already
in the thick of it as an 8 year old with her first 4-H
project. First it was lambs, then cows and always,
always horses. Carol, shown here at the age of 22,
was the quintessential cowgirl.
“I remember being on horses all the time. Fall
off, get back on. That’s how you learned. Grandma
Hall gave me my first pony. It liked to knock me
off by running through the clothesline. Some days
it came back without me; put the fear of God in
my mother. I liked being outside, everything,
you name it. You always learn something. We all
pitched in. I did whatever was needed. What I
liked best was being around the cattle. No ropin,’
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bling, apparently, when he couldn’t work
any more), a Miwok Indian who worked
for the family for over 50 years until he
died at 90. Carol remembers Grandma
Hall making huckleberry pies after taking
her huckleberry hunting on the Inverness
Ridge with 5 gallon buckets. That was a
happy memory. “She was a good cook.
Never drank.”
Grandma Hall, who was born in
Point Reyes Station and lived
on the D Ranch for 55 years,
watched the evolution of the
ranch into the Point Reyes
National Seashore. When
she was interviewed for an
oral history project in 1981
she spoke her mind about
that. The birdwatchers got off
easy, but the whale watchers
got the full dose of Alice Hall
speaking her mind.
“The other day we
counted thirty-five birdwatchers. Got a sign: Bulls
In The Area. It don’t mean
a thing. And there is bulls.
There’s no fooling. They are
not afraid.
“I do all my daughter’s
washing. I wash clothes for
Vivian every day. On Sunday,
I go to mass, I come home,
and I was hanging out a few pieces. There
were twenty cars, bing, bing, bing, bing,
bing, down there. Twenty at one lick and
then they have these shuttle buses you call
them, taking them out to the lighthouse to
look at the stupid whales. I wouldn’t go
across the street to see them.”
Talking about the ranch is bittersweet
for granddaughter Carol these days. Her
mother died tragically in 1998. Grandma
Hall died at 93 in 1991. The future of the
ranch is precarious. “Sometimes I say,
‘Why don’t we get out of here?’ You know,
work early and late and what do you gain?
Tell me.”
—Elizabeth Whitney
ALICE CODONI HALL
by Meg Linden
Alice Codoni was born in Point Reyes Station on January 2, 1898. Her mother, Clara Filippini, was born on
Feb 27, 1872 in Switzerland. According to Alice, her
mother came from Paris to the United States about 1889
and worked on the Muscio ranch in Olema Valley. She
met Quinto Codoni at a Druid’s Hall dance in Olema
and became his second wife.
Quinto, born in Corippo,
Canton Ticino, Switzerland on
September 19, 1855, had come to
Tocaloma in 1872 at the age of 17.
He stayed with his brother Joe,
who had a ranch in Tocaloma,
long enough to pay back his passage money. In 1873 he started
working for the Charles Webb
Howard ranches, taking hogs to
market. At time of the marriage
Quinto already had two children, Joe and Agnes who were
about seven and eight years old,
from a previous marriage.
The new couple had four
children, Alice, Elsie, Claire and
Lucy. (In some sources Elsie
is given as Elyse and Lucy as
Lucile.) Clara raised Quinto’s
children as if they were her own.
Baby Alice Codoni. He eventually became the chief
hog and cattle buyer in the area.
He had a hog and cattle butchering business in Point
Reyes Station and shipped them on to the San Francisco
market. He had a share in the schooner Point Reyes that
a number of ranchers teamed up to purchase in 1910.
That year he also sold land to the Tomales Bank and
Trust Company on A Street and when the bank opened
in 1913 Quinto was a vice president and trustee.
Quinto Codoni was considered “Mr. Point Reyes”
and when the railroad was standard-gauged from
Fairfax to Point Reyes Station, he drove the ceremonial
gold spike. His house in Point Reyes Station was very
elegant and had a Delco plant to generate electricity
for his house and a few neighbors.
Alice went to school at the old school house on
the hill above town, and then when it was built, the
Black School. She recalls going to Olema for the school
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ALICE CODONI HALL -- JANUARY 2, 1898 - MAY 22, 1991. © Art Rogers / Pt. Reyes
Father Rogers. They lived in Point Reyes Station
for awhile next door to her father. Their daughter
Vivian was born in Point Reyes Station on July 21,
1921 and a few months later they moved to another
house up the hill from the main village.
Alice and Bill leased the N Ranch from the
O.L. Shafter Estate and lived there from 1925 to
1935, producing cream and also raising hogs.
Their son, Bill, junior was born in 1925. In 1927,
Quinto Codoni acquired the D Ranch, when Tony
Lacerda defaulted on the payments. He rented it
to Manuel Gomez for several years until Bill took
over running D Ranch in 1934. After running
both ranches for two years, the family moved to
D Ranch in 1936. They operated a Grade B dairy
(which produced cream for processing) with about
100 cows until 1945. Then, with the help of friends,
they built a Grade A milking barn and could ship
fresh milk. Her parents frequently visited the
leaving examination and graduation ceremonies.
She also recalls walking to Olema for church and
church related activities. The Catholic Sunday
School sometimes was held in the family laundry
room. The priest, Father Emile Rogers, frequently
rode a bicycle around to visit his parishioners and
her mother often repaired trousers that he had
caught in the chain of his bicycle and torn.
Alice went to work in the Point Reyes Cooperative Creamery wrapping butter. She recalls the
floors were very cold and all the employees wore
boots to keep their feet warm. There she met Bill
Hall (William T. Hall), whose father owned and
operated the Excelsior Dairy in Petaluma. Bill had
a team of horses and hired himself out to plow
fields for the ranchers. He worked for the Grandi
Company delivering feed and also at the Creamery. Alice would bake pies for him and eventually they were married on September 18, 1919 by
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cattle feed. Her children
helped with the outdoor
work. Although she does
not mention this in either of
the oral histories, the Point
Reyes Post Office was on
D Ranch from 1919 to the
beginning of World War
Two and it was traditional
for ranch wives to run the
post office. She may indeed
have been in charge or at
least helped to run it.
She recalls during
the war that the military
men stationed on the point
would stop people who
Clara and Quinto Codoni at their B Street house, more recently the Maendles’ home.
were driving around and ask
ranch, which they still owned. Quinto had a beach them who they were and where they were going.
cabin there for many years until it was destroyed Although gasoline was severely rationed, the Halls
by a storm. The Halls also had a hunting cabin were allowed enough to get their milk to market.
along side Drakes Estero.
She also mentioned that sometimes the military
Quinto died on September 8, 1940 and was men would bring over their garbage to feed the
buried at Olema Cemetery, of which he had been hogs. Their son Bill went off to war and Vivian
a director. Alice’s mother, Clara, continued to live came home to help on the ranch (see Vivian Hall
in Point Reyes Station for the rest of her life and Horick’s story below).
died on June 18, 1959. Alice tells of driving to Point
After Quinto died the ranch was eventually
Reyes Station for groceries or to Inverness to take owned by Clara Codoni and her daughter and
her children and sometimes other ranch children son-in-law Alice and Bill Hall. Bill, junior did come
to school even though she never got a drivers back to the ranch and became a partner in the enlicense and never learned to back up. She spent terprise for a short time, but when he married his
most of her time working in
the house and cooking for
the hands.
In one of her oral history interviews Alice mentions one Indian ranch hand,
Ernest Morris, who came
with them from N Ranch for
whom she was still cooking
(in 1981) even though he was
now 89 and could do virtually no work. She did collect
sugar beets that were grown
on the ranch and put them
into the chopper to make
Historical photos courtesy of the Codoni family
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The Codoni girls in Point Reyes Station.
wife did not like living in such an isolated place
and Bill sold out his interest in the property. After
the war the Halls began charging automobiles to
use the road across their property to Drakes Beach
County Park. This lead to extensive litigation with
the County and was finally resolved by the County
building a road across their property.
Her daughter Vivian and son-in-law Rudy
Horick built a new house on the ranch in 1964
and Alice and Bill continued to live in the original ranch house until his death in June 1967, then
she remained there alone for 24 more years. She
was active in the Sacred Heart Church and the
Point Reyes Seniors. When Point Reyes National
Seashore was being created Alice was one of the
many ranchers who resisted selling their ranches.
She finally sold her 1,192 acres to the National Park
Service on Nov 5, 1971 for $1,060,000. She and the
Horicks arranged a twenty-year renewable lease
on the property to continue their dairy ranch.
In one of the oral histories, done in 1981, Alice
mentions that she has six grandchildren and one
great-grandchild. Her son worked at that time for
the County Road Department out of the Nicasio
yard and had a lovely home on the hill near there.
Eventually Bill, junior moved to Novato.
Alice remained on D Ranch until just a month
before she died on May 22, 1991. Her obituary in
the Point Reyes Light mentions one additional fact.
In 1928 she was a correspondent for the West Marin
Star and for several years for the Petaluma Argus-
Siblings Bill and Vivian Hall at D Ranch.
Courier. She was buried at Mt. Olivet Cemetery in
San Rafael next to her husband, Bill.
The June 6, 1991 issue of the Point Reyes Light
featured an Art Rogers photograph of Alice, captioned “In Memory of Alice Hall, January 1, 1898
to May 22, 1991.
The Codoni family’s beach cabin at Drakes Estero.
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DRAKE’S BEACH COUNTY PARK
Beginnings of an iconic destination
by Meg Linden
Drake’s Beach now is so
solidly part of the Point Reyes
National Seashore it is difficult
to remember that it had a much
earlier history as a public park.
Here is the way Jack Mason
tells the story in Point Reyes: The
Solemn Land:
“Concerned over commercial intrusion, conservationist groups in 1938 moved to
preserve a small piece of Point
Reyes for public recreational use
Quinto Codoni and friends enjoyed their “private” Drakes Beach.
– a 52 acre parcel behind Drakes
Beach. John Rapp had sold it to
Dr. Ernest Chipman on January
12, 1921, as a hunting preserve.
The price was right - $1,000. But
the property had its drawbacks:
the lagoon was a death trap for
stray cattle and kept the doctor
in hot water with his neighbors.
On July 18, 1938, he sold the
property to a group of private
citizens for $3,000. Some of
the money was raised at a stag
party given by the Pirates Club
of San Rafael. Leaders of the
acquisition drive were Joseph
Vivian Hall posed as a tourist getting “pegged” for a toll at the D Ranch gate.
V. Mendoza, Judge Edward I.
Codoni family photos.
Butler and [San Anselmo real
estate man] Frederick Croker.
On November 17, 1938, as trustees of the property, Francis Drake H.M.S. Golden Hinde upon these
they turned it over to Marin County ‘in perpe- shores June 17, 1579.” ….
tuity for continuous and perpetual use … as a
“The National Seashore took over the 52-acre
public beach, pleasure ground, park and place parcel from the County on February 23, 1965.
of recreation.’ The Sir Francis Drake Association The tidelands at Drakes Beach were deeded by
had made annual pilgrimages to the beach. Now the state to the National Park Service on July 9,
an amphitheater was constructed nearby with 1965. Today hundreds of cars can park on the old
driftwood logs for benches, and a cross erected in Chipman property, paved and crisscrossed with
June of 1946 “in commemoration of the landing of parking stripes. But there has been a casualty in
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all this: the old driftwood amphitheater with its tion here is probably this sale. On January 14, 1920
log benches is gone.”
Rapp sold the D Ranch property on to Hamilton
Another part of the story is access to the park. Martins (a brother-in-law of Joseph V. Mendoza)
Dewey Livingston in his book Ranching on the Point and Trajano (John) Machado.
Reyes Peninsula tells this part of the story:
The end of the road story comes from the
“At the time [of giving the parcel to the County] Baywood Press. On July 21, 1955 it reported that
the only access to the beach was through D Ranch. The the Board of Supervisors had decided to provide
Halls charged 25 cents to visitors for passage for some a toll-free road to Drakes Beach. This decision was
years until the county condemned a right-of-way in precipitated by the Halls starting again to charge
1948 after a lengthy period of legal wrangling. After people driving over the old road. The June 6, 1957
efforts at a compromise between parties failed, the Dis- issue reports that the free county road to Drakes
trict Attorney filed an action to force the Halls to give Beach is now open and people should take that
right-of-way. Meanwhile, Tom and Virginia Gallagher rather than the side road marked “To Drake’s
offered an easement across their C Ranch for a road Landing” where a 50 cent charge is levied.
to the beach. But Lake
County Judge Benjamin
Jones ruled, in the case
“Marin County and its
Board of Supervisors
vs. Clara Codoni, William T. Hall and Alice Hall”, that the 1919
Rapp deed* “gives reservation of right-of-way
(and) that the county
by grant, quasi-easement and prescription,
(is) given free passage
through the property.” Hall was awarded $4,850 in 1948, but
the county neglected
to build the new road
until 1955, after Hall,
frustrated by many attempts to get the new
road built, erected a
gate across the old road
and again charged a fee
for passage.”
* Rapp purchased the Charles
Webb Howard ranches from the children
of Emma Shafter and
Charles Webb Howard on November 18
and Dec. 11 or 1919. Top, the 1955 road, which bypassed the central ranch, leads down to the county park. Cars
The deed in ques- could park practicall on the beach before the National Park Service built a large parking lot.
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Jack Mason Museum of West Marin History
P. O. Box 94
Inverness, CA 94937
www.jackmasonmuseum.org
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Inverness, CA
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Women of West Marin
Photographs by Art Rogers
Commentaries by Elizabeth Whitney
October 8 - December 31, 2011
DURING INVERNESS LIBRARY HOURS
Opening Reception
3 p.m. Sunday, October 9, 2011