Q. ZANARDI RANCH 



Former Mazza Ranch 



(Golden Gate National Recreation Area) 



1. Description 



The Zanardi Ranch, now occupied by Anna Zanardi's son Pat Martin, is a 

 well-preserved former dairy ranch on Platform Bridge Road, a back road that 

 follows Lagunitas Creek north from Tocaloma. The 573-acre ranch rises from 

 its extensive creek frontage to the top of the ridge that overlooks Nicasio Valley 

 to the east and Lagunitas Creek and Point Reyes to the west. It is bounded on 

 the west by the McFadden, Ottinger and Gallagher Ranches, on the north by 

 Platform Bridge and Point Reyes-Petaluma Roads, on the northeast by private 

 lands, and on the south by the Mclsaac Ranch. The property is mostly 

 grassland with wooded gulches and very small amount of level land. The ranch 

 complex sits on a rise next to the county road in the southern corner of the 

 property. 



2. History of the Zanardi Ranch 



William J. Miller, a major landowner of the vast Rancho Nicasio, divided 

 much of his property hi the 1860s. In 1866 he sold a 1,201.64-acre portion on 

 the extreme western section of his holdings to brothers Joseph and John 

 DeMartin for $6,000. The Swiss brothers apparently developed a dairy on the 

 property. Three years later, on August 25, 1869, the DeMartins sold slightly 

 less than half of the ranch, 582.5 acres, to two other brothers from Switzerland, 

 Luigi (Louis) and Joseph Mazza for $10,400. The Mazzas set to work 

 developing their own dairy ranch, although Joseph died soon after, in 1873. 19: 



Luigi Mazza came to California in 1868 the long way, by ship around 

 Cape Horn. Mazza was already well-traveled: he had participated at the young 

 age of 13 in the Swiss gold rush to Australia in the mid-1850s. Mazza worked 

 on a dairy at Petaluma for a year before buying his Marin County property. 

 Five years after settling at Tocaloma he married Lucia Giacomini, possibly a 



192 



: Deeds Book F, p. 89, Book I, p. 548, and death records, MCRO. 



337 



