Introductory material (continued 2)

There is perhaps no more dangerous and uninviting extent of coast line from Oregon to Mexico than that extending from Point Reyes northward to the mouth of Tomales Bay.

To go ashore at any point along this line is to go to certain destruction, and the fact of its proximity to the harbor of San Francisco renders it doubly dangerous, as vessels have gone hard ashore under full sail, little dreaming that danger was near and thinking that they were heading for the Golden Gate.

Since the establishment, on the extreme point, of the lighthouse in 1870, there have been few wrecks compared with former years, while those imperiled on the Coast receive assistance from the brave crew of the life-saving station located on the beach.

Point Reyes Life-Saving Station.

Near the close of a very murky, foggy day, in August, 1875, a sailing vessel, the Warrior Queen, bound from Auckland, New Zealand, to San Francisco, went ashore on the beach, about three miles north of the Point.

The sky had been so overcast with fog that her officers had not been able to take any observations for ten days and their "dead-reckoning" showed them to be many miles at sea.

Suddenly they found themselves in the breakers going ashore on a sand beach and by immediately casting anchor, the vessel was held from going hard ashore, although she was later driven far upon the beach.

The men embarked in three boats and put to sea rather than try to effect a landing in the surf, and reached San Francisco safely the following day.

Plowing in October.

When the Warrior Queen was discovered by the settlers the next morning after she struck, there was consequently no sign of life on board, and it became a matter of conjecture to those who had assembled on the beach as to what had become of the crew.

It was decided to go on board and discover, if possible, something to show the fate of the men, but the difficulty which confronted them was how to communicate with the ship.

"The Warrior Queen."

At last, Mr. Henry Claussen, a sea-faring man of much experience (who still lives with his family on the Point), volunteered to swim out to the vessel and take a line on board with him. He performed the daring feat and was rewarded by finding that all books and instruments were gone, hence he knew that the men had put to sea.

On a ranch but a short distance from the light-house the only known relic of the wreck remains. This is none other than the Warrior Queen herself-the figure-head of the vessel. Clad in a suit of mail, a shield clenched tightly to her side, with head upraised in proud defiance, the Warrior Queen seems still to send a challenge to the elements; but now her battle is for life itself—against rain and wind and the decay of time.

The Lighthouse.

While prolific in legends and memories, history is not the only vivifying current in Marin, and though linked inseparably with the past, she is not a worn and decrepit matron relying on artifice solely to revive her charms, but a young and vigorous maiden, in whom the ambitions, powers, and possibilities are all centered but untried.

Cloud-Hosts.

That a new era is awakening for this region is without doubt. Large tracts of land formerly held intact are now being divided into building lots, and the rapidity with which these are selling portends a rapidly increasing population.

Various railroads are contending for rights of way, and countless rumors are in circulation, any of which means a changed aspect for the County.

Where the Waves Break.

The Marin Terminal is constructing a route from Petaluma to Point San Pedro, and two railroad companies have filed articles of incorporation for the avowed purpose of making some points on Marin's shore the land terminus for railroads from San Francisco to points in the northern part of the State.

The recent purchase of Silva Island, in Richardson's Bay, by the officials of the Western Pacific gives credence to a rumor that, a long wharf being constructed from this Island, the company would institute a terminus there.

The facilities which this County offers for a railroad center are undeniable; while the monopolistic control of the surrounding Bay terminals renders another railroad outlet a practical necessity, and its adjacency to San Francisco and the excellent harbors which skirt its shores make Marin a natural and practical center.

The Glory of the Dying Day.

Without doubt the ensuing years will witness many radical changes for this northern peninsula.

With the increase in population there is every probability that a connection from Point San Pedro across to the Belt Line on the Contra Costa shore will be consummated, linking the Bay counties by a boat ride of scarce fifteen minutes.

The new coaling station which the Government will erect at California City, a small place near Tiburon, is another enterprise in the County, which will call for the expenditure of more than three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. It is said that the Bureau of Equipment of the Navy Department has already signed with a New York firm to begin on this.

Having reached the limits of Marin's enterprises, and territory, Point Reyes, from which westward stretches an apparent infinitude of sea, to where the sun, now dipping on the verge of the horizon, casts its refulgent beams, I gazed backward on Marin which lay behind me glowing in the glory of the dying day.

The indented shore, on whose cliffs nature has hung no tapestry of verdure, now enshrouded in the lambent haze, no longer looked as if composed of material objects, but rather like its luminous wraith emerging from the sea. And as the mists of evening veiled it gradually from my view I murmured:

"There is a future as well as a past for this little County, a future not painted in the dim tints of the fading day, but in the bright, glorious radiance of the expectant morrow."