History of the Sausalito/Viña del Mar Sister City Relationship

Note: The majority of the materials upon which this timeline is based are located in the archives of the Sausalito Historical Society. Many thanks for the Society docents who assisted in locating them.

1956

September 11-12, 1956: US President Dwight Eisenhower holds a White House conference on citizen diplomacy to promote personal diplomacy and nongovernmental contacts between people in the US and overseas. Several "People-to-People" committees are formed as a result of the Conference, one of them being the Civic Committee which develops the idea of creating sister cities between US and overseas cities. Ultimately the Civic Committee is consolidated under the Sister Cities International organization.2

1958

Early 1958: Sausalito Mayor Howard Sievers attends a League of California Cities meeting where the People-to-People program is discussed. Mayor Sievers brings the concept back to Sausalito.3

1 Prepared by Michael Moyle, a Sausalito resident.

2 See the history of the Sister Cities International organization at http://www.sister-cities.org/about/history.cfm

3 See comments by Representative Clem Miller of California in the US House of Representatives (“A Sister-City Success Story: Sausalito, Calif., and Vina [sic] del Mar, Chile”) on June 26, 1961 (hereafter, “Miller Comments”)

4 See Miller Comments.

5 See Miller Comments.

6 See March 5, 1960 Proclamation signed by Sausalito Mayor Howard Sievers

7 See Miller Comments.

8 See Miller Comments.

9 See newspaper article (“Sausalito Hunts for ‘Sister City’”) - undated

10 See Miller Comments.

Early 1958: Mr. Mark Bortman, Chairman of the Civic Committee of the People to People Program, visits Sausalito to make a presentation on how to establish a sister city program.4

Early 1958: Sausalito City Councilwoman Marjorie Brady is appointed chair of a City Council committee to study a possible sister city program.5

November 18, 1958: The Sausalito City Council passes Resolution No. 1457 pursuant to which Sausalito determines to participate in President Eisenhower program by appointing a People-to-People Citizens’ Committee to pursue the program.6

Late 1958: The Sausalito Citizens’ Committee for the People-to-People Program (the “P2P Committee”) is organized and Mrs. M. Justin (“Gladys”) Herman of Sausalito (“Mrs. Herman”) is elected as its Chair.7

1959

Early 1959: The P2P Committee studies various cities as possible sister city candidates. “The preference [is] soon narrowed to South America because of its importance and because teaching of Spanish had just been introduced in Sausalito’s elementary schools.”8

June 1959: The search narrows to Chile. Mrs. Herman is quoted: “Chile appears to be the country in which it would be most likely to find a waterfront community which would possibly affiliate with Sausalito.”9

November 1959: “With the help of the American Municipal Association and the U.S. Information Service, contact [is] established…with Viña del Mar. The mayor of Viña, the Honorable Gustavo Lorca Rojas, took up the idea with equal enthusiasm.”10

11 See Independent-Journal article (“City in Chile to be ‘Sister’ to Sausalito) dated February 3, 1960.

12 See Jack Tracy, “Moments in Time,” page 116

13 See Independent-Journal article (“Sausalito Selects Name for its Plaza”) dated February 17, 1960.

14 See photo from the San Francisco Chronicle (“Chilean Consul Honored”).

15 See photo from Marin News dated March 19, 1960.

16 See copy of English translation of an article that appeared in the March 14, 1960 issue of El Diario Ilustrado (Santiago, Chile).

1960

February 2, 1960: Sausalito Councilwoman Marjorie Brady reads to the Sausalito City Council a telegram from Viña’s Mayor Lorca Rojas accepting Sausalito’s proposal to become sister cities.11

February 16, 1960: The Sausalito City Council acts to name Sausalito’s central plaza, which had, up to that time, been named Depot Park12, as “Viña del Mar Plaza.”13

March 5, 1960: A kick-off ceremony is held at the Alta Mira Hotel attended by, among others, Sausalito Mayor Howard, Sievers, Mrs. Herman, and Eugenio Ovalle, Chile’s Consul General in San Francisco, all pictured below.14 Mayor Sievers signs a Proclamation stating “that the City of Sausalito accepts with pleasure adoption by the City of Viña del Mar an in turn adopts with pride the City of Viña del Mar as its Sister City.” Chilean artist Luis Guzmán presents a statute of a Chilean woman to Sausalito as a gift commemorating the event. A cedar tree donated by Mr. Fred Turner is planted in the Plaza.15

March 1960: Viña del Mar renames its El Tranque stadium and the park that surrounds it after Sausalito, changing their names to Estadio Sausalito and Parque Municipal Sausalito.16

17 For more about the Valdivia earthquake, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_Valdivia_earthquake

18 See single page with copies of the texts of both letters that was sent to local newspapers.

19 See Independent Journal article (“Pictures of Sausalito to be Shown in Chile”) – no date provided. See also Marin News article (“Earthquake Funds for Port City”) dated February 3, 1961, and letter dated July 28, 1960, from Mrs. Herman to Ambassador Howe.

20 Unfortunately we have to date been unable to locate this tray.

May 22, 1960: The Valdivia earthquake (also known as the Great Chilean Earthquake - El Gran Terremoto de Chile/Valdivia) hits Chile with a magnitude of 9.5 and an epicenter near the town of Cañete, about 500 miles south of Viña del Mar. While Viña del Mar does not suffer any significant damage, thousands are killed in Chile by the quake and the resulting tsunami, and property damage is measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars.17

May 24, 1960: Sausalito Mayor Philip Ehrlich sends a letter of sympathy to Viña Mayor Lorca Rojas regarding the Valdivia earthquake. Viña Mayor Lorca Rojas responds with a letter to Mayor Erhlich on June 2, 1960, advising that Viña escaped damage but is assisting quake victims.18

July 28, 1960: $1,468 is collected in Sausalito and sent to Mr. Walter Howe, the US Ambassador to Chile in Santiago, to be used in the areas hit hardest by the Valdivia 19

September 1960: The Sausalito Sister City program receives an engraved copper tray fromMayor Lorca Rojas. The photo

21 See Marin News article (“The Show to Go on in Chile”) dated July 9, 1960

22 See Marin News article (“Earthquake Funds for Port City”) dated February 3, 1961. See also subsequent letter dated May 29, 1961, from Mr. Robert Woodward of the US Embassy in Santiago to Mrs. Herman regarding the Corral project.

23 See Independent-Journal article (“Plaque Unveiled for Sister City”) dated March 6, 1961, with photograph of ceremony. Pictured are James Bellino of the Sausalito Lions Club and John Bocci of Lions International

November 20-27, 1960: Chile-North America Week in Chile. Sausalito collects a group of 71 photos to be sent to Viña del Mar to display there. Ted Castle of Sausalito coordinates the collection of the photos.21

1961

February 1961: A letter is received from Walter Howe, US Ambassador to Chile, advising that the funds sent from Sausalito the previous year for earthquake relief were used to help to rebuild a waterfront park in the center of the coastal town of Corral22

March 4, 1961: Upon the first anniversary of the sister city relationship a plaque, presented by the Sausalito Lions Club, is affixed to the base of the northern elephant at the entrance to Sausalito’s Viña del Mar Plaza.23

The below photo shows Mrs. Herman making remarks at the first anniversary celebration..

24 See Miller Comments.

25 See Marin News article (“Sausalito Goes All Out to Honor its Sister City”) dated February 24, 1962.

26 Per program announcement (“Literary Event”).

June 1961: During the World Conference of Local Governments in Washington, DC, Mrs. Herman receives a citation from the Civic Committee of the People-to- People Program with respect to Sausalito’s efforts to establish its sister city relationship with Viña del Mar.24

1962

March 1-3, 1962: A series of events take place to commemorate the second anniversary of the establishment of the sister city relationship. Those include a fashion and art show and a lecture by Professor Fernando Alegria on “ The Image of Chile.” The Sausalito Rotary Club presents to the Sausalito Library a cabinet to be called “The Chilean Niche” especially designed by Charles Finney to house (a) the statue presented to Sausalito by Luis Guzmán in 1960, (b) the copper tray given to Sausalito by Viña Mayor Lorca Rojas in the Fall of 1960, and (c) various books and magazines related to Chile.25

May 20, 1962: Mr. Manuel Tello, Chile’s Consul General in San Francisco, attends an event at the Sausalito Cruising Club to donate 87 books to the Sausalito Library and a map of Chile to the city.26

1963

February 1963: California is selected by President Kennedy for a pilot project to provide technical and educational assistance to Chile.27

27 See San Francisco Chronicle article (“Plan for California Aid to Chile”) dated February 14, 1963. This appears to have been the start of the special relationship between California and Chile which developed into the “Chile –California Partnership – see http://chile.usembassy.gov/chile_california_partnership2.html

28 See San Francisco Chronicle article (“Sausalito Sending a Son to Chile”) dated March 3, 1966, with photograph of Terry Copperman

March 9, 1963: A celebration of the third anniversary of the sister city relationship is held at the Alta Mira Hotel. Comments are made by, among others, Sausalito Mayor Paul Micou, Mr. Loren Jay, Chair of the P2P Committee, Mr. Manuel Tello, Chile’s Consul General in San Francisco and Mr. Hernán Lillo, a visitor from Viña del Mar.

1966

March 3, 1966: Terry Copperman, a junior at Mt. Tamalpais High School living in Mill Valley, departs San Francisco for Viña del Mar where he will study for eleven months as the first student exchanged between the cities.28

29 From from the April 5, 1966 issue of Valparaiso's "La Union"

[Note: On 6/30/11, Mike Moyle was able to speak with Terry Copperman, now a doctor living in Eugene, Oregon. He confirmed that the time he spent in Viña del Mar was very special, that he has returned on a number of occasions, and that he continues to maintain contact with people in Viña who he met on his first trip there. He promised to send some information. Contact info: Office: (541) 687-8581. Email: coppermn@msn.com]

March 2 – April 10, 1966: Mr. Loren Jay, Chair of the P2P Committee, and his wife visit Viña del Mar. The below photo29 shows the Jays at a lunch hosted by the Viña del Mar Rotary Club, attended as well by Viña Mayor Juan Andueza Silva.

June 1966: Viña del Mar Mayor Juan Andueza Silva and his daughter, Carmen, visit Sausalito. This is the first visit to Sausalito by a Viña public official since the sister city relationship was

30 Taken from an article (“Chilean Mayor Gets Look at Sister City”) appearing in the June 27, 1966 issue of the Independent Journal

31 See Pacific Sun article (“Presto: Sculpture Grows”) dated October 22, 1969

established. The below photo shows Mayor Audueza with Mr. Loren Jay, Chair of the P2P Committee.30

1968

January 17, 1968: Mill Valley Record article (“Disinterest Threatens Sister City Program”) reporting that the Sausalito City Council was considering disbanding the P2P Committee due to lack of interest. “The People-to-People Committee, headed by Loren Jay, has been running the extensive Sister City Program for the past several years with only six to eight committeemen. Jay has been chairman for six years, mainly, he said, because he could not get anyone else to take the job.”

1969

Fall 1969: Well-known Chilean sculpture Sergio Castillo (who was born in Viña del Mar), while teaching at UC Berkeley, erects a sculpture entitled “Hermandad” (“sisterhood”) near the current site of Gabrielson Park along the Sausalito waterfront. Mr. Castillo agrees to provide the sculpture to Sausalito for a fee of $4,000, his cost of labor and materials. Funding for the acquisition was provided by the Sausalito Foundation.31 The below pictures show Mr. Castillo with his work, and chatting with Mrs. Loren Jay and Mrs. Brookner Brady.

32 The framed seal is in the possession of the Sausalito Historical Society.

33 This date is not certain. The circumstances related to this plaque and how it came to be in Sausalito remain unclear.

1978

May 1978: The Chilean naval training ship “La Esmeralda” visits San Francisco. La Esmeralda’s captain, Victor Larenas, delivers to Sausalito a framed metal seal of Viña del Mar. The piece includes an inscription: “The Mayor of Viña del Mar (Chile) to our Sister City Sausalito – Official Visit of the Esmeralda – San Francisco, May 1978.”32

1982

April 198233: At some point a metal plaque with the Spanish inscription “Viña del Mar – Chile a la Ciudad Hermana de Sausalito – Abril 1982” is affixed to the base of the southern elephant at the entrance to Sausalito’s Viña del Mar Plaza.

34 The plaque that was replaced is in the possession of the Sausalito Parks & Recreation Department.

2008

September 2008: After suffering significant damage in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, through the efforts of several Sausalito organizations and individuals, the Hermandad sculpture is restored and relocated to its current location in Gabrielson Park.

2010

June 12, 2010: Through the efforts of Alex Geiger, Chile’s Consul General in San Francisco, a plaque is prepared to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the sister city relationship. That celebration, originally scheduled for March, is delayed in consideration of the earthquake which hit Chile on February 27, 2010, with an epicenter in the Maule Region and a magnitude of 8.8. It is finally held on June 12. The new plaque is affixed to the base of the southern elephant at the entrance to Sausalito’s Viña del Mar Plaza and replaces the 1982 Spanish language plaque shown above.34 The unveiling is performed by Consul General Geiger and Sausalito Mayor Jonathan Leone. A demonstration of cueca songs and dancing is provided by the Bay Area-based Chilean dance troupe the Araucaria Dancers. In a very nice touch, Eugenio Ovalle, Jr. (the son of Eugenio Ovalle, Sr., Chile’s Consul General in San Francisco in 1960 at the time the sister city relationship was established - see above photo), is present for the ceremony.

Sausalito’s First Sister City: Viña del Mar

by Larry Clinton

The following column is based largely on research prepared by Sausalito resident Michael Moyle. The majority of source materials for this history are in the archives of the Sausalito Historical Society.

President Dwight Eisenhower held a White House conference in 1956 to promote nongovernmental contacts between people in the US and overseas. This conference led to the establishment of  the Sister Cities International organization.

In early 1958, Sausalito Mayor Howard Sievers attended a League of California Cities meeting where the People-to-People program was discussed, and brought the concept back to Sausalito. Later that year, City Councilwoman Marjorie Brady was appointed chair of a City Council committee to study a possible sister city program. Soon the

Sausalito Citizens’ Committee for the People-to-People Program (the “P2P Committee”) was organized, under the direction of  Mrs. M. Justin (Gladys) Herman.  Mrs. Herman was the wife of urban planner M. Justin Hermann who soon was appointed by  Mayor George Christopher to head the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency. Today, he is memorialized at Justin Herman Plaza at the foot of Market Street.

The P2P Committee studied various possible sister city candidates. “The preference was soon narrowed to South America because of its importance and because teaching of Spanish had just been introduced in Sausalito’s elementary schools,” according to comments by Representative Clem Miller of California in the U.S. House of Representatives.  

Mrs. Herman noted: “Chile appears to be the country in which it would be most likely to find a waterfront community which would possibly affiliate with Sausalito.”

Eventually, contact was established with Viña del Mar. Rep. Miller reported that the mayor of Viña, “took up the idea with equal enthusiasm.” So the relationship began.

In  February, 1960, the City Council renamed the old Depot Park “Viña del Mar Plaza.” A kick-off ceremony was held at the Alta Mira Hotel attended by, among others, Sausalito Mayor Howard Sievers, Mrs. Herman, and Chile’s Consul General in San Francisco. Chilean artist Luis Guzmán presented a statute of a Chilean woman to Sausalito as a gift commemorating the event. This was years before Sausalito developed a second sister city relationship with Sakaide, Japan.

In May of that year a magnitude 9.5 earthquake hit Chile. While Viña del Mar did not suffer any significant damage, thousands of Chileans were killed by the quake and the resulting tsunami; property damage was measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Sausalito staged an earthquake relief fundraiser and forwarded  the proceeds  to the U.S.

Ambassador to Chile in Santiago. Ironically, another devastating earthquake struck Chile in May of last year, almost exactly 50 years later, and Sausalito again staged a relief drive to aid victims.

The Chilean naval training ship La Esmeralda visited San Francisco in May, 1978. La

Esmeralda’s captain delivered a framed metal seal bearing the inscription: “The Mayor of Viña del Mar (Chile) to our Sister City  Sausalito – Official Visit of the Esmeralda – San Francisco, May 1978.” The framed seal is now on display at City Hall along with other artifacts from the Sister City program. La Esmeralda returned to San Francisco Bay this week, and the ship’s band played at a ceremony at Viña del Mar Plaza on the 21^st. 

Virginia Reginato, mayor of Viña del Mar, and other visitors will attend the Jazz & Blues by the Bay event on Friday evening, July 22.

Mrs. M. Justin Herman and Mr. Robert McCabe, Master of Ceremonies, at a 1961 celebration marking first anniversary of the affiliation of Vina del Mar, Chile, and Sausalito, California as Sister Cities.

Photo courtesy of Sausalito Historical Society

Old Sailor's Graveyard Still Eludes Us

by Tim Rosaire

This story is from the Fall 1994 issue of the Historical Society Newsletter. It has been modified.

It's a balmy August afternoon in 1850 and a small group of men are pushing and pulling a cart up a narrow trail that meanders up the side of a hill south of Sausalito's Old Town. Resting precariously on the cart is a simple wood coffin, made from scrap timber by the ship's carpenter aboard the U.S. Navy ship Vincennes. It contains the body of Henry Mortimer, a seaman who fell overboard and drowned while the ship was anchored in "Saucelito Bay." At thirty years of age, Mortimer was almost certainly a seasoned sailor, with many adventures under his belt. Unfortunately, like most seafaring men of his time, he probably didn't know how to swim. Now his crewmates were transporting him to his final resting place: a small cemetery for sailors who died while their ships were anchored off Sausalito. Over Mortimer's grave they placed a tombstone that reads:

SACRED

To the Memory of

HENRY MORTIMER

A Seaman of the U.S. Ship

"Vincennes"

Born in London, England, 1820, who

Was drowned in Saucelito bay

August 27, 1850, aged thirty years.

This tombstone was erected by his

Shipmates, though his body's under

Hatches, his soul has gone aloft.

But where exactly is Henry Mortimer buried? The answer to this question has baffled historians ever since Jack Tracy, the Society's founder and first director, chanced upon a brief mention of an old sailor's graveyard in an 1880 history of Marin County. It described a forty-foot square enclosure located "some distance south of the site of old Saucelito, on the brow of a hill overlooking the bay." The long-abandoned cemetery contained about a dozen graves.

How far south of town? On the brow of what hill?  Jack scoured the thickets and hillsides between Sausalito and Fort Baker for years without ever finding a clue to its location. Adding to its elusiveness is the fact that the graveyard does not appear on any city, country or military maps of the period. This indicates that it was never an official cemetery, but simply a piece of level ground that, during the early to mid 1800s, was considered an ideal spot for the seafaring community to bury its dead. After all, the "brow of a hill overlooking the bay" is the perfect place to bury someone who has spent his life at sea. It was also convenient to the ships that dropped anchor off Sausalito, yet far enough away from the community so as not to disturb the local residents.

In fact, this is not the only location where sailors were buried. The same history of Marin County mentions that several Russian sailing ships were quarantined in Richardson's Bay due to an outbreak of a contagious disease. A number of Russian sailors died from it and were buried in "shallow graves extending from the beach back some distance" at the north end of Hurricane Gulch. The story goes on to say that "since then the tide has washed many of these bodies up, and excavations for lots, and the filling in of others have unearthed many of them, and buried others far deeper, and very soon all traces of them will be lost and forgotten."

Jack Tracy has passed away, but the quest to find the old sailor's graveyard has been taken up by several other members of the Society. Several months ago, the Society's current director, Phil Frank, thought he had finally found it. While commuting to the City one morning, he noticed the remains of a row of fence posts near the top the hill where Alexander Avenue first cuts through the ridge just south of Old Town. The posts were very old and they seemed to form a small perimeter. Along with members Tim Rosaire and Dave Neck, Phil climbed through the brambles and poison oak to examine the site more closely. However, the posts turned out to be part of a barbed wire perimeter fence protecting an old World War II anti-aircraft gun position. Very interesting, but definitely not the long-lost graveyard.

Then, two aerial photographs taken in 1925 were found. One of the 8 x 10-inch photos included the ridge of hills that faces the Bay. Upon examining it with a magnifying glass, they spotted what appeared to be a flattened area with what looked like a row of fence posts that bordered what could be... a grave yard! Curiosity piqued, they hiked to site. However, all signs of the enclosure were completely obliterated since the aerial photo was taken 1925. Whatever it was in the aerial photo no longer existed. Excavations had been done and heavy electrical cables protruded from the site. There had obviously been a lot of military activity at this location since the photo was taken.

So where are Henry Mortimer and his fellow sailors actually buried? After years of searching and tracking down false leads, we do not seem any closer to finding the answer. But we haven't given up the hunt. In fact on-site inspection of the site of the fire control station above Battery Duncan suggests a slightly different placement than is shown in the 1925 photo, so there still may be a graveyard there.

 

An aerial photo of the shoreline near Ft. Baker, where the "brow of a hill overlooking the bay" could contain a sailor's graveyard.

Photo Courtesy Sausalito Historical Society.

The Sausalito-Indian Navy

Compiled by Larry Clinton

In the early morning hours of November 20, 1969, American Indians set out to occupy Alcatraz Island, following a failed earlier attempt. What few people recall is that they were transported to The Rock by a “navy” of Sausalito waterfront types, including no name bartender Peter Bowen and sailor/photojournalist Brooks Townes.  The following recollection is excerpted from their monograph “The Sausalito-Indian Navy.”

At about 1:00 a.m., two men came into the bar and asked for  Brooks and me.  One was large, not particularly tall, but broad across the beam.  He wore a flat brimmed, high, round-top black cowboy hat with a colorful feather stuck in its band, and a red serape.  The other, bareheaded, burly and compact, carried himself with a kind of tough swagger, under which lurked a smoldering dignity they both shared.  [Al] Miller introduced himself and his friend, Richard Oakes.  We had a couple of drinks and went over the ground rules. . .

In the meantime, it being a quiet night at the bar and pretty brisk outside, a couple dozen Indians had come into the bar behind Miller and Oakes.  Customers fell silent and stared.   . . they were young, some underage to be in the bar, and some in traditional Indian dress. . . At a word from me, Oakes eased most of them back outside.  He urged they keep a low profile. . .

We all soon went outside.  The Indians were assembling – and disassembling – in the big parking lots along Sausalito’s downtown waterfront.  . . When the prowl cars drifted near, searchlights probing, the Indians would vanish, melting into the night like the fog that appeared and disappeared around hills and waterfront. . .

Once across Bridgeway, in the parking lots, we were surrounded by Indians.  There were 92 with blanket rolls, sleeping bags, knapsacks of belongings, bags of food, bundles of cooking gear. . . We decided there was no way we could make the whole thing in one trip. We decided on second trips for [Bob] Teft’s and my boats while Oakes and Miller organized the Indians into groups for each trip.  Then Mary [Crowley] made a discovery: the engine on her borrowed cutter was not working; she was going to have to make the trip under sail.  That also meant she’d likely only be able to make one trip and that one could be tough.  Sailing at night, overloaded with Indians, braving the notorious black currents around the Rock and making a safe landing would be a challenge for any skipper.  Mary wasn’t “any skipper.”

We packed them into the boats like cordwood. . . The Indians would pile down onto the finger piers until their feet were underwater. The piers would support only about ten people. Meanwhile, the Sausalito police were still on land dashing hither and yon trying to locate crowds of people who continued to vanish like wisps of smoke. . .

We were trying to keep everyone quiet. Along every dock live-aboards were trying to sleep. “Hey, what’s that?! Lookout there! “ one of our crowd shouted, pointing across the water toward Alcatraz several miles away. It appeared Alcatraz was ablaze with dozens of very bright white lights. . .”God, how’d we ever count on so many people being able to keep their mouths shut?” Brooks said. . . Visions of confiscated boats danced in the air.

In the papers, the Feds had made it clear they’d make it hard on Indians – and anyone who helped them – who landed on the Rock.  It seemed entirely likely our plans had been leaked. And, the Indians had just ten days earlier promised in a press conference they’d be back . . .

A friend in an outboard skiff ran Brooks out into the bay where he could better see what was up.  The lights, he was relieved to discover, were on huge sand dredge working in the ship channel about half way out to The Rock – directly in line between Alcatraz and Sausalito.  Whew. . .

Bob, Mary and I agreed it was wise to head out first toward Belvedere/Tiburon, leaving the dredge and Alcatraz well to the west, then – when the boats’ running lights would be lost in the clutter of lights ashore in Berkeley and neighboring towns -- we’d douse our running lights and make for The Rock.

We cast off and motored quietly out of the harbor, running lights aglow.  The casual observer might think we were yachtsmen getting an early start on a vacation – we hoped.  Just outside the harbor entrance, I stepped on one of the blanket rolls stowed in the rear of SEAWEED’s cockpit.  A modified squeal erupted.  Richard Oakes had broken my no-children rule.  His eleven or twelve year old daughter Yvonne was in that blanket, but it was too late to turn back.  Later, I would question myself deeply about not turning around at that moment.  Weeks later, Yvonne would be killed [in a fall] on The Rock. . .

So, in the dark morning hours of that November day, the three boats of “The Indian Navy” ferried 92 adults and at least two children to the most formidable and inhospitable piece of real estate anywhere near San Francisco Bay.  For prisoners who had been incarcerated there and their guards, I imagine that the thing that drove them most was the notion that one day whey might return to a more livable place. . . Our passengers planned to live out there; the difference was that these people saw Alcatraz as the symbol of new hope – for themselves, for a people too long forgotten and invisible to most of white America.

The Alcatraz occupation lasted until June, 1971.  The full Bowen and Townes monograph is in the Sausalito Historical Society collection.

Peter Bowen (l.) and Brooks Townes aboard Peter’s boat the SEAWEED in Sausalito Yacht Harbor on the 30th anniversary of landing the Indians on Alcatraz.

Photo courtesy of Brooks Townes

The Sea Lion And The Sculptor

by Bill Kirsch

“The Sea Lion and the Sculptor” will be a book about the late Al Sybrian, the sculptor who made the sea lion on the waterfront in Sausalito.  It was created in 1957 and has since become the internationally recognized symbol for Sausalito, much the same as the “Little Mermaid” in Copenhagen. 

Al was a creative, soulful, reflective person who recorded his thoughts about himself, life, art and relationships in an insightful, profound and interesting manner.  He exchanged extensive correspondence with his myriad of friends over the decades and meticulously preserved his writings, sketches and photographs in journals. 

Al eventually moved away from Sausalito due to the rising rent costs and he continued to be a prolific sculptor.  One day, he had a car accident on his way to buy art supplies. During the final months of his life he entrusted his friends sculptor Mike Rice and myself with his personal effects and requested they assemble his life’s work in a manner that would benefit his only son Joseph, who was born late in Al’s life. 

We intend to create a photographic book that will include his sculptures, drawings, writing and stories about Al and his friends at a time of artistic renaissance in Sausalito and San Francisco.

Al left a wealth of writings in his journals and a few quotes from them follow:

“Gloom is a bore.  Despair is detestable.  Both are too easy.   Good cheer takes intelligence – or outright idiocy.   Not all idiocy in unbeneficial – not all intelligence is harmful.  As we go down the slide, it would be good to make a final smile or two.   There’s undetermined hope in a smile”

“Time takes and gives.  Keep your ears open to the concept of time as a giver and a receiver.  You give it your life, literally – it gives you the essence of wealth you were intended to have if allowed.  From this point of view, a love affair with time is easily conceivable”

“The poet is a song; a song is never replaced.  Displaced for a while perhaps, but comes back when the breeze swings south.  A song is like water existing on a looping course and absolutely essential – who is it that lives without it?”

“If I had taken the way of the San Bruno tract house and security by rote,  I would never have known Sciocette or Belloc or Kanenson or Jinx or Tashi or Bleeker or Beckman or Berkowitz or Carlson or Mike & Jill or Draper, etc, etc … my treasury of friends and acquaintances – knowing them is undoubtedly the better part of what I am.”

I look forward to the creation of this book, it will be the legacy of Al’s life in words and pictures and a gift to his son Joseph.    An Al Sybrian website will be available soon and we will be sending out a letter inviting people to participate and contribute to the project.  If you are interested or know someone who might be, please contact me at bill@kirschart.com or call 888-3919.       

The Sea Lion and the Sculptor   photographer unknown