At the end of ten years the Hough party will leave "at least one good saw mill 

 and one good dwelling house." The contract could be sold to a third party, and 

 if the partners did not commence building the saw mills within eight months 

 the contract would be void. The men made a verbal agreement in July of 1849 

 and drew a contract on October 12. They soon constructed a sawmill, on the 

 flat above what would soon become Dogtown, with a capacity of producing 

 about 8,000 board feet per day. 1 



Among the party were Joseph Almy, Charles Lauff, Bart Henderson, 

 Benjamin T. Winslow, Hiram Nott and others, most of whom stayed in the area 

 for the rest of their lives. The company built a large building, reportedly about 

 100 yards north of the present Wilkins Ranch house, and began shipping wharf 

 timbers to San Francisco. The timbers, for which the contractor received two 

 dollars per running foot, were rafted from a wharf at the head of Bolinas 

 Lagoon to a schooner waiting outside the entrance to the lagoon, near the 

 location where the town of Bolinas developed in the following years. 2 



It appears that the Hough contract ended by 1852. That year Briones 

 leased most of what became the Wilkins Ranch to George R. Morris, to farm 

 and cut timber for $150.00 per month. At some point the lumber operation was 

 given the name Pacific Lumber Company. Within five months Morris 

 transferred the lease to Captain John Hammond and J. E. De La Montague. 

 Hammond and his partner, for $27,500, received mill machinery, houses, 

 implements, furniture and provisions, seven yoke of working cattle, two horses 

 (a bay and a sorrel), and all the wagons, trucks, carts, carriages, iron, coal and a 

 scow (probably the Julia, whose master was original partner Joseph Almy), in 

 essence, the entire works of the Pacific Lumber Company. Hammond soon sold 

 out to De La Montague, who went into debt in the ensuing year and founded 

 the Baulines Mill Company in May, 1853. The mill works were reconstructed 

 by Oliver Allen, an inventor and steam-power expert. Allen lived at the site for 

 about two years. Allen's steam-powered circular saw reportedly cut six million 

 feet of lumber during the following six years of operation. Other mills, 

 including an additional Baulines Mill Company operation, soon followed. 

 Various outfits placed sawmills in the surrounding area, on Peck's Ridge and 



'Deeds Book A, p 279, MCRO. 

 2 Munro-Fraser, Marin County, p. 267. 



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