Ranch constructed at the site in the late 1860s. 160 



Along the lines of the Shatters' plans, W Ranch was designed as a 

 premium dairy ranch. A dairy house, barns, and a substantial two-story house 

 occupied an area between a westward bend in Olema Creek and a section of 

 Bear Valley Creek. Probably later, in the 1870s or '80s, the proprietors built a 

 huge milking barn. After the partition of 1869-1870, Charles Webb Howard 

 owned W Ranch; he may have been the moving force in the establishment and 

 construction of the ranch. Like the Shafter Home Ranch, W Ranch was no 

 doubt designed to be one of the showplaces of the Shafter/Howard dairy 

 empire, perhaps built by Howard with competitive spirit directed toward his in- 

 laws. The earliest reference to the name Bear Valley Dairy appeared in an 

 1883 account book of the Shafter family. 161 



Howard himself didn't operate or live at W Ranch, but for much of the 

 time his superintendents did, making W the headquarters of Howard's dairy 

 operations on Point Reyes. The first known tenant at W Ranch, as of 1871, was 

 named Crandell, perhaps a relative of Thomas Crandell of F Ranch or the same 

 man. Starting around 1877 Howard's ranch superintendent, William H. Abbott, 

 oversaw Point Reyes operations from the Howard "home ranch" at Bear Valley. 

 Around that time a great deal of land clearing was in progress. A newspaper 

 reporter recounted wind damage after the clearing operation: 



During the high winds of last month, about one 

 hundred and fifty oak and bay trees blew over on the 

 lately cleared lands of C. W. Howard, at Olema. A few 

 years ago these lands were covered with dense forests 

 .... The stumps were cleared by grubbing, blasting, 

 burning, etc. 162 



Howard liked his superintendent Abbott a great deal (Abbott "belongs to 

 the family," wrote Howard) and gave him full responsibility for operation of the 

 ranches. Howard was busy with his San Francisco enterprises, including the 

 Spring Valley Water Company and the muckraking magazine The Wasp, and 



160 Mason, Point Reyes, pp. 40-48; "Plat of the Rancho Tomales y Baulines," 1865, PRNS. 

 :61 Shafter Ranch Ledger, entry of November 16, 1883, Jack Mason Museum. 



162 Plat of the Subdivision of Punta de los Reyes, 1871; C. W. Howard to Theron Howard, July 

 18, 1882, Howard Family Collection; Marin County Journal. February 7, 1878, p. 3. 



297 



