Introduction to Point Reyes

Point Reyes National Seashore is many things: bays flanked by white cliffs, undulating farmlands, miles of pristine beaches, forested ridges and valleys with fingers of fog weaving in and out, birds and animals appearing with startling frequency.
While some national parks are natural architectural wonders, Point Reyes is, rather, a Japanese haiku. It is the antidote for people over-stimulated by modern detail. The landscapes are severely long and horizontal, with a simple beauty which sneaks up on you. Its changeable weather brings painterly collusions of light and form.
An extensive trail system gives hikers freedom to find their own hidden spot. Some trails are seldom frequented and it is possible to hike for hours only seeing birds and animals. For me, the knowledge that somewhere in the region a mountain lion is living, adds an edge to hiking which I value.
Writing about national parks is, for us, like writing about religion. Parks are our churches where we worship the wilds. In a problematic world, to have special reserves of land where nature can flourish is perhaps as close as we can get to Eden.
Point Reyes National Seashore, with its proximity to San Francisco, poetically complements the foggy sophisticated metropolis. The beaches of Point Reyes are also cool and grey in the fog. They are wilderness areas for visitors who appreciate miles of lonely beaches, the smell of a fresh breeze off the ocean rather than the aroma of cotton candy. These isolated beaches, coves and headlands are amazingly pristine. No amusement park rides like at big-city beaches here. Instead, animals and plants abound in a landscape deeply resistant to human change.
The prevailing westerly winds direct nutriment-rich waters to our coast, creating vast food reserves for marine life: salmon, seals, sea lions and the great white shark. The nearest land mass, the coast of Asia, is half a world away, yet we share the edge of the Pacific, the longest edge on the earth.
Point Reyes is constantly observed by satellites, seismographs and in park research laboratories, but what is known of the park’s real secrets? The relationships of nature are infinite in complexity. We humans need to participate in wild environments, where the mysteries of life, death and nature are before us. We use the fresh perspective to renew ourselves. In wilderness we share our planet with all the other species. We hear but cannot understand bird calls, elephant seal rumblings, the scream of mountain lions, these inhuman voices of our hereditary neighbors, but we can feel their wild hearts.
Wind and fog, wind and fog. Ancient forests of bishop pine, Douglas fir, dripping, fading in and out of view as clouds race by... fog pouring over a ridge 1407 feet high at Mt. Wittenberg... Ocean water rhythmically breaks on rocks and sand, creates the primal alliance and primal opposition of water with shore.



A Very Brief History

The earth’s crust slides along the San Andreas fault pushing north this sliver of granite rock, Point Reyes, floating on a sea of molten rock. Ice ages have come and gone. Man crossed the frozen Bering Sea, increasing his range to the Americas. Man, the tool user, built ships. Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated, landing on the shore of Point Reyes in 1579. Chinese pottery dated to the late 1570’s confirm a Drakes Bay landing site.

The Coast Miwok Indians

Drake was greeted by a friendly tribe of Coast Miwoks living in the area. He wrote in his diary that he travelled into the interior (towards present day Novato!) and visited several substantial Coast Miwok villages with more than 300 inhabitants. Each had a permanent ceremonial building in the center of the village. Their homes were built of redwood bark in the cone shape of tepees and could stand for 60 years. Smaller, less permanent buildings, lasting about five years, were made with a frame of willow in the shape of a modern dome tent. Tule reeds were attached to the framework with rope made from fronds of the tule reed.
The Coast Miwoks had been living in the area for thousands of years. Stone tools including an ax made from chert, have been found on the peninsula. They have been carbon dated to be between 5 and 10,000 years old. A 5,000 year old abalone trading shell from Point Reyes was found on the western mud flats of the Mississippi River. The Coast Miwoks also lived in smaller family encampments along Tomales Bay and throughout West Marin. It was a comparatively easy life, the climate temperate, plenty of fish, shellfish and game for hunting. The inhabitants were not warlike and many consider this was the reason they lost their land so quickly to the Europeans.

Kule Loklo

Near the park headquarters at Bear Valley, is Kule Loklo, a replica of a Coast Miwok village. It has a sweat lodge, a dance house, tepee-shaped structures, (known as kotcas) built of redwood bark and willow and tule reed, and shade arbors. It is used by local Indians for religious ceremonies and family reunions. Twice a year the Federated Coast Miwoks hold gatherings at Kule Loklo; the third Saturday in July is Big Time, a trade feast similar to a flea market, and on the fourth Saturday in April is the Strawberry Festival, which features dancing exhibitions. Basket-weaving, arrowhead-making and other traditional California Indian skills are taught at Kule Loklo in workshops organized by the Miwok Archeological Preserve of Marin.

Early colonization

The Spanish colonized Mexico and California. Trade routes were established. Russians traded pelts at Jenner. Priests built missions, including, in 1817, the Mission San Rafael, where local Indians were brought to live. In 1835, the Mexican government secularized the missions, and the Indians were left to fend for themselves. Some died from disease, others tried to return to their old life but often their land was taken by the European settlers. In 1846, the American government gained control of California. When gold was discovered in 1849, the new state boomed. Many of the old land grants were acquired by litigious lawyers, who then leased the land to dairy farmers. Cows thrived eating Point Reyes grasslands, and the butter produced was prized by San Franciscans, who were building Victorian houses with coastal redwoods. After the great earthquake of 1906 they built again. On the ridge, hunting clubs were established. Teddy Roosevelt hunted at Divide Meadow. Bears were hunted to extinction.

How the Land was Saved

It is almost unprecedented in this country that such a long stretch of land so close to a city the size of San Francisco would be left practically in its natural state. It was the outcome of a combination of luck, foresight and hard work. In 1851, the land just north of the Golden Gate was acquisitioned by the U.S. Army. This protected it from urban development for more than a century. When changes in technology rendered these fortifications ineffectual after WW II, the area was available for parkland. Further north, the National Park Service proposed, in 1935, the purchase of 53,000 acres of land in Point Reyes, then available for $2.4 million. Unfortunately the idea of acquiring public land, for what was considered a huge amount of money, was not popular and the deal did not go through. Drakes Beach and McClures Beach were set aside as county parks. It was not until 1962 that the Point Reyes National Seashore Bill was signed by President John F. Kennedy, authorizing the creation of the 53,000-acre preserve. Clem Miller, a California congressman, was a key park advocate. The U.S. Congress set aside $13 million for the task. Three years later, the money had been spent and less than half the land within the boundaries of the park had been acquired. The area meanwhile was increasing in value. The Park Service considered selling some of its parkland to developers so that it could acquire other land considered more essential.
In response to this new threat, Marin conservationists, led by Marin County supervisor Peter Behr, formed an organization called “Save Our Seashore.” They started a petition asking for the preservation of the entire park and half-a-million people signed it. On November 19, 1969, Congress designated sufficient money to acquire the rest of park (another 19,000 acres) at a cost of $56 million. Its range includes coastal mountains, wetlands, beaches, lakes, dams, lagoons, estuaries, bays and pasture lands. It protects the sites of Miwok buildings and middens and offers sanctuary to thousands of different species of animals, insects, birds, plants, trees and flowers.
In 1971 Congressman Phillip Burton introduced legislation for the creation of Golden Gate National Recreation Area, including Olema Valley, just east of the Seashore’s lands. The following year this bill passed. The result is a greenbelt of public land that stretches almost without a break from the tip of Tomales Point to the Golden Gate Bridge. Burton was also responsible for more than doubling the wilderness area of all National Parks and in 1985, the wilderness area of Point Reyes was dedicated to him in recognition of his accomplishments.
While many battles have been won, conservation groups are still very active protecting the wild- life and environment of West Marin. Descriptions of the various associations and how to contact them can be found in the Environmental Groups chapter.

© copyright Kathleen Goodwin