Sausalito History Timeline

From about 2000 B.C. into the 1800s, the indigenous Coast Miwok people inhabited Marin County. In 1769, the Spanish ship San Carlos became the first European vessel to enter San Francisco Bay, where explorers anchored and began charting the bay. In 1775, Spanish explorers came ashore to interact with the native Coast Miwok in their village of Liwanciowe and renamed the area Sausalito, meaning "Little Willow" in Spanish. From 1776 through the 1820s, the establishment of missions and military outposts heavily impacted the native inhabitants. In 1822, Spain ceded California to Mexico. During the 1830s, Sausalito became a port of call for whaling and trading ships seeking fresh water and supplies. In 1838, founder William Richardson received Rancho del Sausalito, a 19,571-acre land grant from the Mexican government, and in 1841 he built an adobe ranch house on present-day Caledonia Street. In 1846, Captain John C. Fremont named the Golden Gate, the strait connecting the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco Bay. Gold discovered in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada range in 1848-50 and the ensuing Gold Rush transformed California. In 1868, the Sausalito Land and Ferry Company purchased part of Rancho del Sausalito and began ferry service between San Francisco and Sausalito to promote land sales in the emerging town, and in 1871 rail service began between Sausalito and points north. Sausalito's thriving Portuguese community opened the IDESST Cultural Hall in 1888, and the city incorporated in 1893. In 1899, the Sausalito Improvement Club struggled to control gambling and local corruption. An electric commuter train linked with ferry service to San Francisco in 1904, transforming Sausalito into a transit hub. After the 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed over 80% of San Francisco, Sausalito opened its first public library in 1907, and in 1913 the Sausalito Woman's Club organized to protect the town's beauty and promote civic activism. During Prohibition, from the 1920s to 1933, Sausalito functioned as a base for bootlegging and rum-running. The Golden Gate Bridge opened in 1937 and Water Street was renamed Bridgeway. Passenger train and ferry service was discontinued in 1941. From 1942 to 1945, the W.A. Bechtel Company built and operated Marinship, a 24-hour-a-day World War II shipbuilding yard on the northern waterfront. Marinship closed in 1946, and the old shipyard converted into boatyards and alternative living spaces for writers, artists, and poets. A postwar boom from 1945 to 1950 doubled the population of Marin County. During the 1950s, a new houseboat community of bohemians evolved along Sausalito's waterfront, local artists created the first Sausalito Art Festival in 1952, and from 1959 to 1973 the retired ferryboat Berkeley operated as The Trade Fair, attracting the first big wave of tourists to Sausalito. In the 1960s, conflicts mounted between the waterfront counterculture and established residents. In 1970, passenger ferry service to San Francisco resumed after an absence of 29 years, and in the 1970s "houseboat wars" erupted when deputy sheriffs attempted to evict illegal houseboaters.

Sausalito, California · United States