This area is now the site of the Morgan Horse Ranch. Access to these 

 complexes is by a federal entrance road off county-owned Bear Valley Road, 

 marked with a prominent carved wooden park entrance sign. 



2. History of the Bear Valley (W) Ranch 



W Ranch may sit on the site of Rafael Garcia's adobe rancho, described in 

 Section I of this report. Archeological investigations have not been attempted 

 in this area, and some previous research led historians to believe that the 

 Garcia site was in the flat area across Bear Valley Road from park 

 headquarters. Given the historical data gathered about that area for this 

 report, it seems unlikely that a substantial ranch complex would have been 

 built on what was essentially an unstable marsh or slough. This writer believes 

 that Garcia's ranch was located at the present site of the Bear Valley Ranch. 

 The site offered flat ground of stable character, and fits descriptions and early 

 surveys of Garcia's ranch. For instance, a correspondent for San Francisco's 

 Alta California, writing about a visit to Point Reyes, described leaving Olema 

 and "passing the Garcia ranch house, which stands on a knoll, a short distance 

 from Olima [sic] . . . ." Only archeological investigation will prove the exact 

 location, and the amount of earthmoving done at the Bear Valley Ranch site 

 since the 1920s could have obliterated any evidence remaining from Garcia's 

 time. 159 



After receiving the patent for the Ranches Punta de los Reyes and Punta 

 de los Reyes Sobrante, the Shafter brothers went after Rafael Garcia in court, 

 claiming that their rights to the Berry Ranch should include additional acreage, 

 namely Garcia's. The case was resolved in 1865, just before Garcia's death, 

 with the Shatters receiving some land in the Olema Valley and Pine Gulch, and 

 a large tract of unclaimed land on the northern slopes of Mt. Tamalpais, 

 including much of Lagunitas Canyon. This settlement also confirmed Olema 

 Creek as the boundary between Shafter and Garcia land, leaving Garcia's 

 historic old adobe rancho in Shafter hands. Apparently, Garcia's adobe 

 buildings were demolished (reportedly by the 1868 earthquake) and the W 



159 Plat of Rancho Tomales y Baulines, 1860; San Francisco Alta California. December 9, 1865; 

 James Delgado, "Found--The Garcia Adobe Site!", in Mason, Historian, pp. 400-401. 



296 



