Grand opening set for 
Nicasio history museum

A scale model of an 1830s-era Coast Miwok village in the Nicasio Valley, which features spears made from porcupine quills and woven baskets so tiny they “wouldn’t fit over your pinkie,” is the centerpiece of the first exhibit of the Nicasio Historical Society’s new museum on the town square, said president Elaine Doss. The Nicasio Valley was a cultural hub and the site of a permanent village for Nicasio’s Miwok, who referred to themselves as Tamal or Hukuiko, long before European settlers occupied the land, Ms. Doss said. The scale model recreates the decade after American Indians returned to the valley in 1834, following decades at Bay Area missions being “civilized” by European missionaries. (Nicasio’s Miwoks eventually lost the vast rancho deeded to them by the Mexican government after a series of underhanded maneuvers by a Mexican military general and other officials; many of the last remaining Miwok died of European diseases by the 1880s.) The model was made about eight years ago by a class at Nicasio School, with help from Ms. Doss and historian Dewey Livingston and funded by a $4,000 grant from the California Arts Council. The museum’s first exhibit also includes art depicting the small town, as well as a model of the town square from 1900. At the museum’s grand opening, which will be held next Saturday, Oct. 18, Mr. Livingston will talk about early settlers in the valley and Betty Goerke, an instructor of archeology and anthropology at the College of Marin, will discuss “phallic charmstones and petroglyphs” found in Nicasio, according to a press release. “I thought, maybe I should leave out the word phallic,” Ms. Doss said. But when she checked with the Nicasio School’s principal, the principal said, “What are we, a censored society?” Ms. Doss said she walked away as a little girl came up to them during the conversation and asked what “phallic” meant. The grand opening of the Nicasio Historical Society’s museum begins at 1 p.m. on Oct. 18 at the Druid’s Hall and will include refreshments, games, a raffle and music. Free entry. Horse-drawn carriage rides, offered from 3 to 5 p.m., are $10. The museum’s regular hours are from 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.