Community Guide 2017
Valley Gold Mine by Frank Binney
duced 120,000 gallons of water per day. After the remaining Mailliard family’s land was sold to the Lagunitas Development Company, the Lagunitas Water Company was renamed the San Geronimo Valley Water Company, and continued as such until 1951, when MMWD absorbed it into its system. The local springs and intakes continued to supply the Valley until 1963, when they were abandoned by MMWD. The Valley’s water supply now comes from the District’s system of lakes. Since 2010, Marin Clean Energy has been a competitor to PG&E in providing alternative energy options to meet house- hold needs. Recreation and Entertainment While the Mailliards were developing their ranch and other ventures, Samuel P. Taylor used money he earned from prospecting for gold to buy land on Papermill Creek (Lagunitas Creek) and built a paper mill on its banks. He also opened up his land to campers, anglers, and hunters. In 1884 his son, James I. Taylor, enlarged the Taylor Hotel and renamed it the “Hotel Azalea.” The tourist business was soon booming. By 1889, the rush was so great that over 300 reservations were on file, and by the Fourth of July, the colony’s population had reached over 800. Includ- ing visitors, it was estimated that over 1,000 people were in and about Camp Taylor during the summer. The camps were wooden frames with shake roofs and wooden floors set 10 to12 inches above ground level. Heavy canvas sides made them into comfortable summer homes. Guests took their meals at the hotel, although many chose to “rough it” with their own grub, pitching tents on the ground. Forty years later, with the railroad bringing campers in by the hundreds, Valley residents would complain of “half-naked revelers running through the woods.” As the Valley grew in the early part of the 20 th century, so did nightspots and dance halls. “Chief” Kelly had a this drift some distance farther, when a shaft will be sunk connecting with it. The force engaged at present consists of fourteen men, who work in three shifts of eight hours each, with the exception of two engineers, who work twelve hours each. Assays of ore average from thirty to forty dollars per ton, although it has yielded as much as ninety dollars gold. The ore contains gold, silver, iron, manganese, antimony and tracings of nickel. The out- croppings of the lode extend for a long distance through that section of the country, and should gold in paying quantities be found it will prove a very extensive mine, and would add very much to the material interests of Marin county.” Want to start selling shares in a resurgent San Geronimo Valley Mining Company?
Middle Ranch, near San Geronimo, and then to the Lower Ranch, at the upper end of Arroyo Road in Lagunitas. Regular telephone service was started in 1920, using hand-cranked magneto wall phones. The telephone company serviced the telephone lines only as far west as Oak Manor, near Fairfax, so Valley subscribers had to climb poles and service the local lines themselves. The magneto telephones continued to be used until dial phones were installed in 1948. The prefix used only by Valley residents at that time was 488. As demand for phones increased in the 21 st century, the Valley lost their exclusive claim on the treasured prefix. In 2016, residents were required to add the 415 area code to all calls. In 1868, the Tamalpais Water Company was incorporated by Charles Howard and James Shafter to supply water to San Geronimo Valley from eight springs and from Lagunitas Creek. This water system was later operated by the Mailliard family and was called the Lagunitas Water Company. It pro- From History of Marin County, California: Including Its Geography, Geology, Topography & Climatology , By J. P. Munro-Fraser, 1880 “The San Geronimo gold mine is located about one half mile west of the station (FB: the San Geronimo rail- road station near the present-day Presbyterian Church), and operations were begun in it in October, 1878. Since that time a shaft two hundred feet deep has been sunk, and a drift has been run to the northward a distance of two hundred and sixty feet, and a side drift from that a distance of sixty feet, also a drift to the westward has been run two hundred and seventy feet. It is proposed to run
“The Woodacre Arch was erected by the Lagunitas Development Company as a part of their efforts to sell home site lots in Woodacre. This view is from what was then County Auto Road which later was named Sir Francis Drake Blvd. When the new road through the Valley was built, this old road became what it is today, San Geronimo Valley Drive.” (Photo and caption courtesy of Jim Staley collection)
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SGVCC
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