Gertrude Southworth (1862 - 1946)

For decades, schooners, barges, lighters, and other craft entered the Bolinas Lagoon and docked along Wharf Road. At that time the road ended by today’s Bolinas Rod and Boat Club and a rough trail ran along the steep hillside to the mouth of the lagoon.

Since the beginning of logging in the 1850s, local boat builders and captains had noted the rapid sedimentation of the Bolinas Lagoon (which is actually an estuary). When the channel became too narrow for boats to turn around, the town took action to remove part of the hillside and extend the road. Eventually there were three warehouses, a long dock, and a place for wagons to deposit goods at the mouth of lagoon.