By Robert L. Harrison and Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society
This lightly edited article comes from the website of the Anne T. Kent Room at the San Rafael Civic Center library:
The spelling of Sausalito has had two official versions over the years. In the 1880s the Sausalito News took note of this in an editorial: “It is a lucky town that knows its own name. Sausalito is unlucky for it has a lurking suspicion that it ought to be called ‘Saucelito’.”
Illustration Courtesy of Anne T. Kent California Room
Detail from Frederick Beechey's survey of the Harbour of San Francisco made in 1827-8. Map was published in 1833.
The history of the town’s name most likely begins with the first expedition of Europeans into San Francisco Bay. Juan Manuel de Ayala commanding the Spanish ship San Carlos entered the Bay on August 6, 1775. As de Ayala’s crew explored the area, they undoubtedly noticed brushy willow thickets covering the area that is now known as Sausalito. Where willows grow there is usually a supply of water. The Spanish word for willow is “sauce” and a place of abundant willows is “sauzal”. The early explorers would surely have been grateful for the source of fresh water and added the suffix “ito” meaning endearment to form the name Sauzalito. Another possible source of the name was formed by adding the suffix “lito” to the Spanish word “sauce” to derive Saucelito.
Whichever was the original Spanish name, it was anglicized in 1827 by British Royal Navy Captain F. W. Beechey when his survey map designated a portion of today’s Richardson Bay as Sausalito Bay. In 1834 John Reed’s application for the grant of Rancho Corte Madera del Presidio included a sketch map showing his house in a region labeled Sausalito.
William Richardson was granted Rancho Saucelito by California’s Mexican governor in 1838. When California became a state the Mexican land grants were legalized through the American court system. It appears in this process the name of Richardson’s rancho was given the legal spelling Saucelito. An 1840 sketch map titled “Diseño (survey or sketch in Spanish) del Rancho Saucelito” was attached to the court documents.
In the mid-1800s the spelling of the Rancho’s name included several variants: Saucelito, Saulito, Sancolito, Sancilito, Sousilto and Sausilito. The Pacific Railroad Survey of the 1850s used the land grant legal spelling of Saucelito. This Survey and the Land Grant Court procedures made Saucelito the more prevalent spelling. Many maps and property titles of that era adopted the Survey’s spelling.
The United State Post Office at Saucelito was established on December 12, 1870. The 1873 Map of Marin County compiled from official records identified the Rancho, the Township and the School District with the spelling Saucelito. The 1892 Official Map of Marin County continued to recognize Rancho Saucelito but also labeled the town and ferry terminal as Sausalito. This map identified Lands of the Saucelito Land and Ferry Company as contrasted to its legal name when incorporated on September 27, 1869 as the Sausalito Land and Ferry Company.
In the 1880s the Sausalito News presented a discussion of the correct spelling of the town’s name. A letter to the News of December 3, 1885 expressed one point of view, “As a newcomer to your village I have quite naturally been somewhat surprised to find such a diversity of ways in the spelling of the Sausalito.” The letter’s author suggested that reference to the original Rancho Sausalito land grant, the Sausalito Land and Ferry Company and the historic use of Sausalito by the county’s newspapers should be sufficient justification for designating the spelling as the correct one.
A contrary opinion was submitted in a letter published a week later, “Long established usage, confirmed by the official spelling, county, state and national, fixes ‘Saucelito’ as the name of our town. This ought be sufficient warrant for us to continue its use unquestioningly….The tens-of-thousands of maps, globes and charts, official and otherwise in use, the official records of Marin county and of the State of California, the National post-office here, government reports of harbor and coast defenses, topographical and military surveys, etc., etc., designate the name as ‘Saucelito’.”
Despite the official recognition of Saucelito by the county government and in many deeds and legal documents, the spelling Sausalito was gaining in usage. The United States Post Office was officially re- labeled Sausalito on November 12, 1887. The ferry Saucelito burned at San Quentin in 1884 and a new larger ferry Sausalito was launched in 1894.
On February 4, 1886 the Sausalito News reported the results of an informal survey of Sausalito residents taken on the steamer San Rafael. Six voted for Sausalito and four argued that Saucelito was the correct way to spell the name of their hometown. It is not surprising that the newspaper titled the Sausalito News found, “It is only a matter of time when ‘Sausalito’ will be predominant, as many of the more intelligent class of our residents are now spelling it that way.”
Yet confusion over the correct spelling continued into the 1890s. An 1894 Grand Jury report on the operation of Marin County government offered an illustration. The report showed a Tax Collector’s account for “Unprotested municipal tax, town of Saucelito”. In an explanation of this item the Grand Jury referred to the town of Sausalito. Many of Marin’s property records continue today to reference Saucelito.
It is not clear, as suggested by the Sausalito News, that acceptance of the current spelling was prompted by the “more intelligent class of our residents”. But today Sausalito is acknowledged as the spelling for one of Marin’s most scenic, historic and interesting towns.