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SUBDIVISION - ~" ., A x B_ 



Five Brooks, today the 

 name of a trailhead in the 

 National Seashore, has a long 

 and varied history. It actually 

 encompasses the area not only 

 around the trailhead but the lower 

 places along Olema Creek from 

 the highway bridges to Stewart 

 Horse Camp. 



The origins of the pleasant 

 name Five Brooks is unknown. It 

 is true that up to five seasonal 

 creeks join Olema Creek in less 

 than a mile of its length in this 

 section. People settled here as 

 early as they did Olema, and the 

 first school in the district was 

 established here in 1862. Pioneers 

 Nelson and Daniel Olds, James 

 Winan, John Garrison and others 

 built houses along the creek. 

 Picnickers gathered at "Laurel 



Grove", apparently the site of today's Stewart Horse Camp. James McMillan Shafter, 

 who owned the land west of Olema Creek, stationed his portable sawmill at Laurel 

 Grove between 1883 and 1890 ("cutting fine lumber," commented the local press), and 

 his manager, Charles Noyes, had a home here. 



The 20th century came to the area with a bang when, in 1912, landowner 

 Charles N. Post filed a plat for a residential subdivision of 110 lots called Fivebrooks. 

 Post dedicated the roads, such as Olema Avenue, Central Avenue and Howard Way, to 

 the public. While dozens of lots sold, with many buyers taking more than one of the tiny 

 lots to provide a reasonable lot size, only a handful of houses were built. The 

 subdivision was abandoned in 1933 and by the 1940s much of the property came up for 

 auction; Boyd Stewart bought up about 60 lots adjacent to his ranch at a tax sale. 



Stewart recalled some of the people who did live there, such as Johnny (the 

 Frenchman) Morere, a retired San Francisco chef who lived for a quarter century in his 

 cabin until his death in 1958; a San Francisco fire chief who had a two-story house (and 

 a barn) which burned in the 1950s; and a member of the well-known Paladini family 

 who made a fortune in the local fishing industry. 



The Sweet Lumber Company of Coos Bay Oregon leased land at Five Brooks in 

 1956 and constructed a sawmill, complete with a three acre mill pond and "pepper 

 shaker" slash burner. The loggers were hard at it when the National Seashore was 

 proposed and called off operations in good faith after finding themselves perceived as 

 one of the biggest threats in the public eye to the conservation of the area. The last 

 trees went through the mill around 1963. 



The Stewarts sold 301 acres comprising Five Brooks to the National Park 

 Service in 1971, keeping a reservation on three acres for use as a horse camp. Harold 

 Hart had been operating a horse rental business for Stewart and continued until 1980. 

 Today, Five Brooks Stables operates as a park concession owned by Fred Vaughn. 



Sources: Marin Journal. October 18, 1883, July 4, 1889, May 15 and July 31, 1890; plat 

 map in Subdivisions Book 4, p. 32, MCRO; Joan Reutinger, "Five Brooks-West Marin's 

 Forgotten Village..." Coastal Post. November 15, 1982; interview with Boyd Stewart; 

 tract files, PRNS. 



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