Community Guide 2017
Profile: David Wilson by Amos Klausner
where they purchased a home on three acres for $4,700. Woodrow commuted each day to his job at the Larkspur lumber yard while Tomasina took care of their growing family, in the end raising 12 of her own children and three more of her extended family members. Now 73 years old, Wilson came of age in the Valley during the 1940s and 1950s. The train had long since stopped running and many of the weekend vacationers that owned second homes in the Valley had stopped com- ing. You might say that things had gotten downright quiet. Even without the train, David remembers looking forward to the weekends when at least some weekenders would roll into town with kids that represented a welcome influx of playmates for small town boys and girls. Fishing played a big part in the lives of kids and adults alike. These were in the days before protections were need- ed and before the dam was built that created Kent Lake. Opening day of the fishing season was always a big deal and trout were plentiful. On warm summer days, Wilson and his family would head up into the headwaters of the creek system toward Big Carson Creek and fill sacks full of crawdads. It was also a time when people would dam up the creeks and create deeper water for swimming and for
David Wilson’s great grandfather Henry Landt came to California from New York to start a life as a pioneer and farmer in Plumas County. He established one of the first fish hatcheries in the state and gladly sold fish to the gold mining industry. Story has it that he almost staked his own claim when he found gold north of Sierraville but neglect- ed to mark the location properly. “When he returned, he couldn’t find the gold so he named the area Humbug Val- ley,” says Wilson. It’s a name that still stands today. With many of his great grandparents born in the Gold- en State and five generations of his family still living here, David Wilson is first and foremost a child of California. Having grown up in Lagunitas, he’s also a child of the San Geronimo Valley. His father Woodrow, named after the President, grew up in Corte Madera. His mother, Thoma- sina, was born in San Francisco. They met in 1939, in San Rafael, and were soon married. Woodrow and Tomasina looked for a home in San Anselmo and even saw a house they liked in Ross for $7,900, but they couldn’t afford it. Looking further west, they decided to settle in Lagunitas
Train cars on the siding to the right of the new depot are from the North Pacific Coast Railroad—the first railroad company in the Valley. The low building is the original General Store. The trees to the right will be the location of the store that exists today. The old county road to West Marin (now Sir Francis Drake Blvd.) is the sweeping curve headed west. Lagunitas Rd. can be seen crossing the tracks and disappearing into the canyon. Not in view was a small trout farm near the creek where customers could “fish” for trout and pay by the inch. (Photo and caption information courtesy of David Wilson)
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