Vignettes

Mill Valley’s Memorial Day parade is a lot of fun, but today it barely honors war veterans. In 1868, General John A Logan, commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, designated May 30 as a day for decorating with flowers the graves of men who had fallen in the Civil War.  The…

In 1942 the federal government leased land on Mt. Tamalpais. First came a radar site looking for Japanese ships, submarines and airplanes. Then came a Cold War-era air defense radar station with 62 buildings plus a radar dome tower. Recreational facilities included a tennis court, pool, bathhouse, theater, gymnasium and bowling alley. Isolated on the…

In about 1919, leading members of various Swiss organizations in San Francisco decided to establish a Swiss clubhouse. They had been renting places for their activities: Swiss band practice, gymnastics, singing [yodeling?], dances, and Swiss theatre. They bought several lots under individual names “in the wild hills on Mt. Tamalpais, above the small village of…

AssassinationWilliam O. Weissich was born in 1921 and spent much of his childhood in Mill Valley. He was a lawyer whose 40-year career included several years as Marin County district attorney.   In 1986, Malcolm Schlette murdered Weissich. Schlette was a vengeful ex-convict who bore a grudge against Weissich because in 1955, he had been instrumental…

Just down the Dipsea Trail from Panoramic Highway, the Sun Trail veers off to the right. Follow it for 0.69 miles and you come to the Tourist Club, a local branch of Die Naturefreunde (Nature Friends) that has nearly 1500 clubhouses in 21 countries with over 600,000 members.  Die Nauturefreunde was founded in Vienna in1895…