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Health & Fitness

Park Champions Take on Olompali State Historic Park

The Park Champions program is a series of volunteer work days sponsored by the California State Parks Foundation. On Friday, March 23, it was held at Olompali State Historic Park.

The California State Parks Foundation has been sponsoring a series of volunteer work days over the past few months, focusing especially on the parks that are slated to close on or before July 1 of this year. On Friday, March 23, the Park Champions program was held at Olompali State Historic Park, a park that represents layers of history that go back thousands of years. Olompali was a large Coast Miwok village long before the arrival of the Spanish, and it played an important role in trade routes among the Miwok, Pomo, and Ohlone peoples.

Olompali was home to Camilo Ynitia, the first and only Native American to be awarded a Mexican land grant. The ruins of his abobe residence, built in 1834, can be seen here through the glass windows of the Burdell Mansion. The Burdell Mansion, itself a ruin, was built around the adobe in 1911. Betty Goerke, in her landmark biography of Chief Marin, attests to the status and importance of Camilo, stating that he was "… a friend of both Vallejo and the Patwin chief Solano." She describes Olompali as "… a common eating and resting stopover for travelers on their way from San Rafael north to Colony Ross or to the Sonoma mission."

I joined the volunteer group to learn more about this State Historic Park that is just north of Novato. We spent most of the morning cleaning out the Cook's House, a little shack that has been used for storage. We gathered large piles of tule reeds from the Cook's House and laid them out on the ground nearby. Then we tied them together in tight bundles to create large stalks. The tule reeds were brought from Lake Ilsanjo in Annadel State Park, and are harvested to build traditional Miwok kotchas, or dwellings. After bundling up the tule, it was loaded onto a truck to be hauled up the hill to the Miwok Village.

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We took a break and had lunch at a picnic area, situated in a round platform that was used as a stage when the Grateful Dead and some of their followers lived here in the 1960s. In another one of its historical layers, Olompali was a countercultural hotspot, first as gathering place for the Grateful Dead and their followers, and later as a commune for a group called the "Chosen Family." During the time the Grateful Dead were in residence, Olompali was a popular destination for many musicians, artists, poets, and philosophers when they passed through the Bay Area.

After lunch we went up the hill to the Miwok Village, where we spent the rest of the day building a kotcha with the tule reeds. There were a couple of other kotchas at the Miwok Village, made out of slabs of tree bark. Biologist Clint Kellner, from The Olompali People, explained that the tree bark kotchas were permanent residences, while the ones made out of tule reeds were seasonal camp shelters that were rebuilt each year. The frame for the kotcha, made out of small tree branches, was already built, so we started to fill it in with the bundles of tule. We gradually formed walls around the frame, tying the tule bundles tightly together to make an airtight shelter.

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Next to the Miwok Village is the ethno-botanical Native Plant Garden, with interpretive signs that tell the common name of the plant, the scientific name, the name in two different dialects of Miwok, and the way the plant was used by the Miwok. Plants used can be organized into four different categories: food, medicine, tools, or ceremonial purposes.

The Olompali People, a committee of the nonprofit Marin State Parks Association, is working to keep Olompali State Historic Park open and preserve an important part of many different eras of California heritage. The July 1 closing date is rapidly approaching, so there is a sense of urgency to protect Olompali. The next Park Champions Day at Olompali will be on Sunday, April 15, in celebration of Earth Day.  The complete calendar of Park Champions volunteer work days can be found at the California State Parks Foundation website.

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