GETTING OUT
Get a glimpse of county's newest park
Tolay Lake still in planning stages, won't be open for unsupervised use for at least a year
By George Lauer
Thursday, March 9, 2006
''This is your park. We want to hear what you think should happen here."
That's how Sonoma County Regional Park Ranger Jeff Taylor explained part of the rationale behind inviting the public on walking tours of Tolay Lake, the county's newest park, still in the planning stages.
Park rangers offer two- and three-hour walks exploring different parts of the huge new park near Petaluma. Although it won't be open for unsupervised use for at least a year, these free public tours let people get a glimpse of what's in store at the 1,737-acre park, second largest of the county's 43 regional parks. (Hood Mountain, at 1,750 acres, is largest.)
The next two-hour walk is Saturday and more are planned later this month and in April. All three-hour walks are full, but more may be planned, park officials said. In addition, two of the Regional Parks department's Saturday morning wildflower walks are at Tolay this spring.
"These tours are designed to let people see what we have here so when the public hearings begin, we'll get lots of feedback," Taylor said. "Plus it's just a good excuse to get out here and explore some beautiful landscapes."
Two of Tolay's best features are the two rims of the long, slender bowl that holds the lake. The north ridge, a longer walk and part of the three-hour tour, offers the biggest view, but the south ridge on the two-hour tour offers pretty much the same vista, a little lower. From either rim, you see rolling hills and creeks zig-zagging their way to San Pablo Bay in the foreground. And in the distance on a clear day, skyscrapers of San Francisco, part of the Golden Gate Bridge and the waters of San Francisco Bay are framed by Mount Diablo to the east and Mount Tamalpais to the west.
Between the ridges, your eyes are naturally drawn to Tolay Creek and the once-spiritually significant lake. Before European settlers began to farm the land in the 1800s, Native Americans from as far east as the Central Valley and as far north as the Trinity mountains made pilgrimages to Tolay Lake, which was said to have healing properties.
"People from several different nations would meet here and talk about medicine -- what worked, what didn't, what was new," Taylor said. "One of the rituals performed here involved small carved or altered stones called 'charm stones.' We think these stones were worn by people with ailments who came here and threw the stones into the lake to rid themselves of the illness."
Charm stones and other artifacts from Tolay Lake, some 4,000 years old, are on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Others are on display in the informal museum kept by the Cardoza family, which has lived on and worked the property for more than half a century. The Cardozas, who sold the land to the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation & Open Space District last year, are still living on the property through the summer.
There are at least two versions of how the lake got its name. And they both could be accurate. The Alaguali tribe lived in the area and spoke a language associated with the Miwok language. In Alaguali, "tolay" means wildcat, according to California Coastal Conservancy research. Another version has it that the lake is named after a leader of one of the local groups of Native Americans, perhaps an Alaguali leader who walked stealthily.
The name Lakeville -- as in highway -- comes from Tolay.
Twenty-seven walkers took the two-hour walk a couple Saturdays ago.
"Driving along Lakeville Highway, you have no idea all this is back here," said Flora Haluzak of Santa Rosa. "It's really amazing. So much to see."
Several public hearings are planned to map out what happens with the property. None are scheduled yet. To submit public comment or to be advised when hearings are scheduled, call 565-2746 or check the park department's Web site: www.sonoma-county.org/parks <http://www.sonoma-county.org/parks> .
Among the questions and possibilities for the park:
Trail development; initial plans call for about 8 miles of trails.
Water rights issues surrounding Tolay Creek and the formerly year-round lake.
Restoring the natural hillside that blocked Tolay Creek to revive the formerly year-round lake. The hills were reconfigured in the 1940s to drain the lake so a greater portion of the valley could be farmed.
Continuing or ending the popular pumpkin patch and festival started 30 years ago by the Cardoza family. The patch and Halloween festival attracted as many as 30,000 visitors a year.
Creating a historical/archaeological center to display artifacts from the valley.
Continuing parts of the farming and ranching operations as a demonstration farm or ranch.
Continuing or discontinuing cattle ranching on the property.
Article ID: 0603090143
You can reach Staff Writer George Lauer at 521-5220 or glauer@pressdemocrat.com.
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