Olompali

In honor of the recent passing of Bob Weir, I decided to sketch an early bit of Grateful Dead history.

This history is not to be found in the Haight-Ashbury but in the county where the members of the Dead spent much of the time when not touring incessantly: Marin County. Most of band lived in Marin, Bobby in Mill Valley, Mickey in Novato, and Jerry Garcia died at a rehab center in Forest Knolls.

The Dead house at 710 Ashbury. Home to the band in 1966 to 1968.

Just north of the town of Novato is Olompali State Historic Park. They are many layers of California history at Olompali: Miwok, Mexican, the Bear Flag Republic, Californios, and the estate of a wealthy San Franciscan dentist.

In 1911, James Burdell, built a 26-room mansion for the then hefty sum of $15,000.

The land and the house on it was eventually sold to the University of San Francisco. In the 1960s the university attempted to sell the property but the buyers always defaulted, leaving Olompoli unsold.

The properties’s most famous tenet was the band the Grateful Dead. The band moved here for a two month stay (May and June) in 1966 to take a vacation away from the Haight-Ashbury.

Stairway to . . . The buildings at Olompali have seen better days.

Their two month stay was a “happening”, a nonstop party that included the likes of Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Moby Grape, Janis Joplin, David Crosby, Santana, the Merry Pranksters, Ken Kesey, Neil Cassady, and Timothy Leary.

Jerry Garcia referred to his time at Olompali as “idyllic”. It was also the setting for his last acid trip (it was a bad one). He returned here over the next three years.

Sketching the remains of the Burdell Mansion. Bands would set up in front of the mansion to jam as people danced on the lawn or cooled down in the swimming pool. The pool was off to the right.

After the Dead left, Don McCoy, a wealthy businessman, turned to the hippie life and started a commune, called the Chosen Family at Olompali in 1967.

Field sketch of the mansion, which is boarded up.

26 people moved to the mansion where they home schooled their kids and baked bread for charity, amongst other things.

Things soured after about a year with the influx of new members and more drugs and alcohol. Two children drowned in the mansion’s swimming pool. Much of the mansion burned down in a fire in 1969 and the commune was soon evicted.

The land was purchased by the state of California in 1977 and it became Olompali State Historic Park.

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