Our History from the Beginning
accompanied by Spanish soldiers and the large number of disenchanted gold seekers who flooded northern California in the 1850s. Although a small number of Tamals continued to live at Etcha-tamal into the 1880s, settlers’ homes had already begun to appear in the vicinity of their village, and the town square already had a church, three-story hotel, general store, livery stable, Wells Fargo office and blacksmith shop. Nicasio and Lucas Valleys began to fill up rapidly with settlers, largely beef and dairy ranchers. The era of large land holding cattlemen began with James Black, who built the first settler’s house in 1850. In order to cut out the middleman and maximize profit, he created a cooperative of beef ranchers who together drove their huge herds of longhorn cattle along a trail (near the current Lucas Valley Road) and northeast to the Mother Lode. Black brought home a fortune in gold. Taking advantage of the timber in Nicasio, several early settlers erected sawmills, producing lumber for build- ing and large redwood shakes for roofing. The Nicasio Township was founded on May 12, 1862 and the Nicasio School District, on May 13 of that same year. In fact, by 1862, school districts had been formed in all of Marin’s eight townships of that day, Saucelito (historic spelling), Tomales, San Antonio, Point Reyes, San Rafael, Nicasio, Novato and Bolinas. School sessions for the first four years of the school district’s existence may have been held in a pioneer’s home because the first schoolhouse wasn’t erected until 1866 in one month at a cost of $300. It was located where Rancho Nicasio Restaurant stands today. Due to growing enroll- ment, it was replaced in 1871-72 by the one-room school- house, which still stands today—the cost of construction and furniture, $3,000. A wave of Italian Swiss immigrants from the Ticino Valley area began arriving in the 1870s. By 1900 these industrious, hard-working families ran many of the two dozen or so dairies. Life in Nicasio remained relatively unchanged between the 1880s and 1950s, although facilitated with new ranch- ing, transportation and communication technologies and a new two-room schoolhouse. However, the one technological advance that did bring great change to Nicasio was the construction of the earthen dam and the resulting reservoir, completed in 1960. It single-handedly wiped out several dairy operations, not to mention the total loss of abundant runs of coho salmon and steelhead. Dairies closed, families were displaced and large tracts of land were parceled for development. Several of Nicasio’s ranch families were forced to move elsewhere. Due to the availability of affordable, developable land parcels, an influx of new demographics arrived: adventur- ous working-class suburbanites in the 1960s, back-to-the- land hippies in the ’70s, and eclectic yuppies in the ’80s and
90s. New industries also arose, like horse ranches, high- tech cinematography, viticulture and wine production, exotic longhorn cattle breeding, and even a llama farm. As Nicasio entered the new millennium, the 1950s school facility was renovated and several new buildings were added: a library, an admin building with staff lounge, and a large free-standing Multi Purpose Room, at a cost of $2.4 million, completed in 2001. The dam and its aftermath may have radically changed the people and natural landscape of Nicasio’s northern valley, however, there are certain values that seem to be inherent in the place, that remain constant across the waves of new inhabitants. Whether born here or denizens who immigrated by choice, all Nicasio people, past and pres- ent, have welcomed newcomers, treasured Nicasio’s natural beauty, worked and strived together cooperatively for the common good and highly prized quality education. Milking cows on the Ottolini Ranch around 1910. Henry Albertoni, who later would have his own dairy near the Nicasio town square for decades, is one of the milkers here. In those days, all cows were milked outdoors by hand in good weather. (Photo courtesy of Mary Barboni)
E. K. Cornwell’s Blacksmith Shop on Nicasio Square built in the 1880s by Edward Cornwell. In 1885 the price for shoeing a horse was $2.00. This building still stands on Nicasio Square. (© Nicasio Historical Society)
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50 th Anniversary
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