1904, including destroying bridges and culverts on the Fairfax-Bolinas Road, and 

 a huge fire in 1945 burned from Stinson Beach almost to Novato, taking much 

 of the Wilkins Ranch pasture and timber. Kenneth Wilkins recalled that the 

 remaining structures at the copper mines were destroyed in the fire. 15 



W. W. Wilkins died on March 21, 1911 at age 85. A newspaper eulogized 

 him as "a man of sterling worth, and one who had everybody as his friend." His 

 son Jim, who had been studying to be a doctor, took over the ranch and 

 continued the dairy operation much as it had been. Jim Wilkins married his 

 neighbor from the McCurdy Ranch, Helen DeFraga in 1922. The family divided 

 the two-story house into two units to accommodate the couple. Jim and Helen 

 Wilkins and their two children, Kenneth and Shirley, occupied the east half 

 which had previously been storerooms. Jim's mother and sisters Edith and 

 Bessie lived in the western side of the house. Daughter May married neighbor 

 Alex McCurdy and moved to Mill Valley, and Helen married a Mr. Myers. 16 



Either W. W. or Jim Wilkins made a number of alterations to ranch 

 structures early in the century. The family added a hipped roof lean-to dining 

 room to the west side of the house and enclosed the front porch. An unusual 

 cross gable and shed were added to the south side of the barn some time 

 between 1907 and 1933, creating more storage space and a room with windows 

 for a hired hand. 17 



By 1920 butter was no longer produced at the ranch. Jim Wilkins 

 shipped cream from his Jersey herd until building a Grade A Dairy around 

 1933. The family made it through the depression in fairly good shape, although 

 they had trouble getting good hired hands. Three of their best hired hands 



15 Marin Journal. October 30, 1890 and September 15, 1904. 



16 Marin Journal. March 24, 1911. Jim Wilkins gained some local notoriety for running in a 

 early Dipsea Race, now the second oldest footrace in the country. The following descriptions of 

 Wilkins Ranch history is derived from personal interviews with Mrs. James (Helen) Wilkins, 

 Kenneth Wilkins, Shirley (Wilkins) Park and Ruth (Myers) and Rex Rathbun, and from an oral 

 history tape, Helen and Kenneth Wilkins. The Story of the Wilkins Ranch, recorded July 18, 1979 

 by Carla Ehat and Anne T. Kent for the Oral History Program, Moya Library Guild, for the Marin 

 County Library, Civic Center, San Rafael. Helen Wilkins and her son Kenneth are now deceased. 



17 This information is derived from a comparison of dated photographs taken by the Marin 

 County Association of Tramps and Wanderers, Ltd., a spirited hiking group, in 1898-1901 in the 

 collection of the Sausalito Historical Society; a photograph taken 1906 or 1907 by G. K. Gilbert for 

 the U. S. Geological Survey, in the U.S.G.S. Library, Menlo Park; and others taken between 1933 

 and 1955 by Farrington Jones, a San Anselmo real estate appraiser, courtesy of Roy Farrington 

 Jones. 



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