3. Typical Dairy Layout 



The typical dairy ranch consisted of a dwelling, milking corral, dairy 

 house, horse barn, calf shed and pig pens, in addition to any necessary 

 outbuildings. The horse barn was used to store hay as well. From early on the 

 Olema Valley dairymen built the larger milking barns (which later became used 

 as and referred to as hay barns), unlike their Point Reyes counterparts who 

 made do without large barns until the 1880s and as late as 1920. 69 



Within decades almost all of the ranchers planted trees as windbreaks hi 

 the ranch complexes. Typically in a straight line or an L shape, the trees 

 effectively created protected yards in this windy climate. Blue gum eucalyptus 

 trees (eucalyptus globulus) were a common choice in the 19th century. First 

 documented in California in 1856, the fast-growing Australian native enjoyed a 

 surge of popularity in California in the 1870s for use as lumber, firewood, 

 landscaping, and windbreaks. The imported species of tree proved worthless as 

 lumber and messy as an ornamental, and fell from favor by the turn of the 

 century. Many of the Olema Valley dairies had stands of eucalyptus, or the 

 coniferous Monterey cypress (cupressus macrocarpd), a closed-cone California 

 native with a rapid growing rate. Many of the current stands of cypress were 

 planted after the turn of the century. Today, groves of eucalyptus and/or 

 Monterey cypress stand at the Wilkins, Teixeira, Hagmaier, Randall, Bear 

 Valley, Zanardi and Mclsaac Ranches. Lone specimens or stands of eucalyptus 

 or cypress are found on most of the other ranches in the area. Many of the 

 former ranch sites such as the Biesler, Lupton, Jewell and Neil Mclsaac 

 Ranches are marked by trees. 70 



4. Immigration 



The first dairies hired family members, transients and Gold Rush 

 veterans as workers. By the 1860s a wave of immigration swept Marin County, 

 and many of these immigrants found work on Olema Valley dairies. 



69 



Marin Journal. July 10, 1890, p. 3; interview with Joseph H. Mendoza. 



'"Kenneth M. Johnson, "Eucalyptus," Out West Vol. VI, October 1971, pp. 41-49; Philip A. 

 Munz, A California Flora (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1959), p. 61. 



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