Editing San Anselmo, California (section)

==History==

=== Early history ===
San Anselmo sits on [[Coast Miwok]] land which was inhabited prior to American and Spanish settlers.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}} The land in and around San Anselmo was mostly [[pastoralism|pastoral]] until 1874, when the [[North Pacific Coast Railroad]] (NPC) added to its line a spur track from San Anselmo to San Rafael. In 1875, the railroad completed a line from [[Sausalito, California|Sausalito]] to [[Tomales, California|Tomales]] and north to [[Cazadero, California|Cazadero]] via San Anselmo. For a few years, the town was listed on railroad maps as "[[Junction (rail)|Junction]]", but in 1883 the name San Anselmo came back into use. The San Anselmo post office opened in 1892.<ref name=CGN /> Two postal substations were operated: Lansdale, from 1924 to 1962, and Yolanda, from 1924 to 1954.<ref name=CGN />

[[File:San Aselmo, CA USA - San Francisco Theological Seminary - panoramio (1).jpg|thumb|left|The San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo]]
From 1902 until the early 1940s, San Anselmo was part of Marin's [[Northwestern Pacific Railroad|Northwestern Pacific]] (in 1907, investors formed the NWP) Electric Train system.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oberail.org/system/6.php |title=OB&E - Marin County |access-date=December 18, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090416044625/http://oberail.org/system/6.php |archive-date=April 16, 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://mill-valley.freemasonry.biz/railways-railroad-fraternities-marin.htm |title=History of Labor Unions in Marin County - Railroad / Railway Untions |publisher=Mill-valley.freemasonry.biz |access-date=July 29, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120717001611/http://mill-valley.freemasonry.biz/railways-railroad-fraternities-marin.htm |archive-date=July 17, 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oberail.org/page/northwestern_pacific_railroad/ |title=OB&E &#124; Northwestern Pacific Railroad |publisher=Oberail.org |date=October 1, 1939 |access-date=July 29, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120301185229/http://www.oberail.org/page/northwestern_pacific_railroad/ |archive-date=March 1, 2012 }}</ref>  The Miracle Mile's and Center Boulevard's current "raised roadbed" were the railroad's right of way.
Becoming unprofitable as a result of competition from the automobile and the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge, the railway was officially closed on March 1, 1941. The last of the major San Anselmo railroad station buildings was razed in 1963.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Chronological History |url=https://sananselmohistory.org/brief-history/chronological-history/ |access-date=2024-12-03 |website=San Anselmo Historical Museum |language=en-US}}</ref>

The population of San Anselmo increased after the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake]]. Wealthy individuals displaced from San Francisco moved to their summer homes in San Anselmo, making them their permanent residences.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

The 1913 electric train schedule shows a commute time from San Anselmo to the [[Sausalito]] Ferry to the Ferry Building in San Francisco of a mere 58 minutes, including the 32-minute ferry transit.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.oberail.org/system/images/6/NWP_Timetable_October_1_1939.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=December 18, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090107010109/http://www.oberail.org/system/images/6/NWP_Timetable_October_1_1939.pdf |archive-date=January 7, 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

San Anselmo [[municipal corporation|incorporated]] on April 9, 1907. Its name came from the Punta de Quintin land grant, which marked the valley as the Canada del Anselmo, or Valley of Anselm, ''Anselm'' being the name of a Native American who was buried in the area. San Anselmo was a [[silent film]] capital in the early 1900s.

=== World War II ===

==== Sleepy Hollow ammunition storage ====
During World War II, the Army based a small ammunition storage dump, known as ASP #2, about {{convert|2|mi|km}} up Butterfield Road from Sir Francis Drake Blvd. The facility was located between the road and San Anselmo Creek and had 23 to 45 men stationed there.<ref>[http://www.sananselmohistory.org/sleepyhollowmemories.html Claude E. Cook oral history] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100707072007/http://www.sananselmohistory.org/sleepyhollowmemories.html|date=July 7, 2010}}</ref>
There were two batteries composed of four-inch antiaircraft cannon manned by five soldiers on a 24-hour basis. One battery was on Stuyvesant Drive and the other on Oak Springs Hill.<ref>[http://www.shha.org/history.htm Sleepy Hollow Country Club Homeowner's Association] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080902001126/http://www.shha.org/history.htm|date=September 2, 2008}}</ref>
During the war, the [[Sleepy Hollow, Marin County, California|Sleepy Hollow]] Country Club, located in the old Hotaling mansion, was still open and provided a pleasant break from "grueling" guard duty, according to those stationed at the ammo dump.<ref>[http://www.sananselmohistory.org/sleepyhollowmemories.html] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100707072007/http://www.sananselmohistory.org/sleepyhollowmemories.html|date=July 7, 2010}}</ref>

====Air raid wardens====
During World War II, [[air raid warden]]s, like Zinnia and Alfred Heiden of San Francisco Blvd., patrolled their assigned neighborhood during nighttime air raid drills to notify neighbors of any light that shone out of their houses. Windows were covered with cloth or thick paper during the war to deny enemy bombers illuminated nighttime bombing targets.<ref>[http://www.sagehistory.net/worldwar2/topics/homefront.html] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090126052314/http://www.sagehistory.net/worldwar2/topics/homefront.html|date=January 26, 2009}}</ref>

====Pilot training accidents====
In the late afternoon of November 2, 1941, five weeks before the US entered the war, San Anselmo residents were startled when two low-flying [[P-40|Curtiss P-40]] warplanes roared up the valley at just above roof level and crashed into the east side of Bald Hill (often incorrectly reported as Mount Baldy or Bald Mountain) at 5:40 pm.

Element leader Lt. Thomas "Bud" L. Truax and Lt. Russell E. Speckman were killed when their planes crashed, in low visibility, into Bald Hill, just shy of the peak. It was almost dark, was misty and they were under a low cloud ceiling. They were critically low on fuel and part of a larger training group that had gotten separated. They were under the wintertime marine layer of low clouds that are common in the Marin County area, searching for nearby [[Hamilton Air Force Base|Hamilton Field]] to land.<ref>[http://www.sananselmohistory.org/baldhill7.html] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100707071828/http://www.sananselmohistory.org/baldhill7.html|date=July 7, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=The Night it Rained P-40's in Marin|url=http://pacaeropress.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=3780727|publisher=Pacaeropress.websitetoolbox.com|access-date=July 29, 2012}}</ref> [[Dane County Regional Airport|Truax Field]] / Dane County Regional Airport, located in Madison, Wisconsin, was named in memory of Lt. Truax.

A third pilot, Lt. Walter V. "Ramblin" Radovich,<ref>[http://www.dfcommand.com/walter_radovich_his_life.htm Walter Radovich life story] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110709020039/http://www.dfcommand.com/walter_radovich_his_life.htm|date=July 9, 2011}}</ref> had left the formation over San Rafael, almost hit the city courthouse on 4th Street, circled the Forbes Hill radio beacon (37°58'44.73"N,122°32'50.78"W), clipped a tree and then turned northeast, towards Hamilton Field. Unsure of what the oncoming terrain would be and critically low on fuel, he decided to climb up though the typically thin marine cloud layer to {{convert|2500|ft|m}}, trim the airplane for straight and level flight and bail out. According to USAAF accident reports, his left leg was broken when exiting the plane and he parachuted down, landing near Highway 101 in Lucas Valley, reportedly near where Fireman's Fund / Marin Commons is currently located (38° 1'10.66"N, 122°32'29.36"W). Ironically, after Lt. Radovich bailed out, the airplane slowly descended back down through the clouds and made a relatively smooth "gear-up" landing.

=== Post-WWII ===
On March 12, 1974, San Anselmo officially became a town. In 1963, a cast iron statue of a deer affectionately known as "Sugarfoot" by locals was donated to the town by Joeseph Dondero. This statue still stands today and children enjoy riding on his back after trips to the library next door.

The town features in the song "[[Hard Nose the Highway|Snow in San Anselmo]]" by Irish-born singer/songwriter [[Van Morrison]], about an unusual bout of winter weather that occurred when he was living in Fairfax, near San Anselmo, in the 1970s.

San Anselmo's most prominent resident, movie director [[George Lucas]], used some of the proceeds from his film ''[[American Graffiti]]'' to buy an old [[Victorian house]] in San Anselmo; his then-wife [[Marcia Lucas]] named it "Parkhouse."<ref>[[Biskin, Peter]], ''Easy Riders Raging Bulls'', Simon & Schuster, 1998, p. 557.</ref>  Lucas worked on his ''[[Star Wars]]'' script for two and a half years, writing much of it at the back of his San Anselmo house in a room he shared with a gaudy [[Wurlitzer jukebox]]. In 1977, Lucas screened an early version of ''Star Wars'', without completed special effects, at his San Anselmo home for a small group of Hollywood friends, including the producer [[Alan Ladd Jr.]], directors [[Steven Spielberg]], [[Brian DePalma]], and [[Martin Scorsese]], and screenwriters [[Jay Cocks]], [[Willard Huyck]], and [[Gloria Katz]].<ref>''Easy Riders Raging Bulls'', p. 582</ref>