Rancho del Sausalito

I am listenting to "Y Nada Que Hacer" by Moenia, an electronica sounding pop band from northeastern Mexico. The song reminded me of Sausalito. There is something quite charming and inviting about Sausalito. Maybe it's the fog as it creeps up on those California hills by the bay.

Sausalito is a cliffside community across the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County. In the mornings, the fog rolls in and covers the marina very nicely. Sausalito has a very unique history. It has become a diverse and affluent community of artists and writers. For early September, this type of sweater weather is as good as it gets in northern California.

The following is an historical excerpt from Linda & Wayne Bonnett's "Sausalito History: How We Got To Where We Are," also found on the city's main website at www.http://www.ci.sausalito.ca.us/shs/saus-hist/Sausalito%20History.htm

"Sausalito has been an oddity for well over one-hundred years. Despite its well-established appearance today, odds were against it ever becoming a town in the first place. It's unlike most of the other small towns in Northern California in its beginnings and its growth, and probably its future. When, in 1838, William Richardson, an Englishman by birth and a Mexican by choice, received a Mexican land grant of the entire Main Headlands, he took possession and called it Rancho Del Sausalito (Ranch of the Little Willow Grove). The original inhabitants of Sausalito, called Uimen by the Spanish and no doubt something entirely different by themselves, had lived for centuries along the shore but , by Richardson’s time, already had been decimated by European ignorance, neglect, and exploitation. Now a new epoch was about to begin. Richardson envisioned a sprawling cattle ranch similar to other land grant ranches in the region, but with one big difference. His property included a cove, a safe anchorage about as close to the Golden Gate as one could find. The springs above the cove poured abundant fresh water into Richardson’s storage tanks, thus creating a salable commodity, fresh water for visiting whaling ships."

"Richardson wasn't interested in starting a town. He wanted to create an empire. He wanted control, power, and wealth: control of the access to San Francisco Bay and its tributaries (he was already Captain of the Port of San Francisco), political power that would come from hobnobbing with the powerful Mexican families of the region (he was already married to the daughter of the Commandant of the Presidio), and wealth that would spring naturally from his diverse enterprises. In addition to raising cattle and selling water, he sold vegetables and firewood to visiting ships, collected duties and port fees, and traded along the California coast."

To read more about what happened to Richardson and the history of Sausalito, visit the city's main website at http://www.ci.sausalito.ca.us/shs/saus-hist/Sausalito%20History.htm.