B. McCURDY RANCH 



(Golden Gate National Recreation Area) 



1. Description 



The McCurdy Ranch is a large, mostly wooded property north of 

 Dogtown in the Pine Gulch drainage. A small dairy was operated here until the 

 1920s. The 1,590-acre parcel (originally 1,835 acres) is bounded on the north by 

 the former Randall Ranch, on the east by lands of the Marin Municipal Water 

 District, on the south by the Wilkins Ranch, and on the west by the Teixeira 

 Ranch and Point Reyes National Seashore. An 80-acre parcel across Highway 1, 

 the location of David McMullin's farm, is mostly flat and is within the 

 boundaries of the National Seashore. The land is hilly with grasslands in the 

 north and south corners, and second and third growth redwood forests on much 

 of the property; a rapidly expanding line of eucalyptus marks the southern 

 boundary. There are no buildings on the ranch; it has been vacant for about 40 

 years. 



2. History of the McCurdy Ranch 



Irish immigrants Samuel McCurdy and David McMullin arrived in 

 California around 1852 and settled on this property some time before 1860. 

 McMullin was listed in the 1860 census as owning only two head of oxen and no 

 land. Soon the duo obtained 1,835 acres of land on the Phelps patent of Rancho 

 Tomales y Baulines that had likely been logged during the heyday of the 

 sawmills during the 1850s. The Shatter law firm sold the pair additional lands 

 in 1865 and 1867. 23 



The two were farmers and woodcutters, both raising families on the 

 ranch. Others, such as George Morris and probably Timothy Cronin, lived on 

 the property before McCurdy and McMullin owned the property and apparently 

 continued in residence. Cronin was hanged in 1868 after being convicted of 

 killing his wife; after neighbors became suspicious about Mrs. Cronin 's absence, 

 the local constable found her body buried under a newly constructed duck pond 



23 8th U. S. Census, 1860; Deeds Book E, p. 423 and Book F, p. 436, MCRO. 



105 



