In 1936, a tiny park with a single oak tree in Visalia, California, lost its claim to be the “world’s smallest park” when the tree was removed after being hit by a car. San Rafael had long contested the claim, but Visalia’s city engineer had visited San Rafael to survey the city’s park and found it to be four times larger than Lone Oak Park in Visalia. After the tree was removed in 1936, the Plumas Independent of Quincy, California, formally handed the claim to Marin’s central city after the loss of Visalia’s tree. It was even published in the “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” syndicated column. San Rafael’s tiny park measured just 5 by 10 feet, containing a 200-year old oak tree located right in the middle of E Street, between the First Presbyterian Church and the San Rafael Public Library. Legend has it that Capt. John C. Fremont and his army of men camped under the tree in the 1840’s. Before the construction of the Marin County Courthouse in 1872, it was used to carry out justice, earning it the name “The Hanging Tree.” Independent Journal reporter Florence Donnelly published a story in 1964 about Pueblo Santos, who in 1851 killed his wife and was found guilty at trial for beating her to death with a club. The sentence was death, and his hanging was scheduled for early 1852. “One morning the condemned man sent for the sheriff and said he wanted to go to Marshall to visit his wife’s grave and bid goodbye to his mother, brothers and sisters before the fatal day.” Bets were made about whether Pueblo would return. On the scheduled day of the hanging, the sheriff led a crowd from the old courthouse (located at Timothy Murphy’s adobe at the NW corner of 4th and C Streets) with a wagon and rope to the old oak tree on E Street. “The crowd had no sooner reached the tree than a man was seen coming up the path from the west end of town on the dead run. It turned out to be Pueblo.” The hanging proceeded, and the winners went downtown to collect their winnings. In 1947, the “hanging tree” died and was removed. The Mill Valley Record of July 11, 1947, used the event to remind readers that a tiny park surrounding a giant Redwood tree in the middle of the Eldridge and Blithedale intersection was actually smaller than San Rafael’s, and had always been the “smallest park in the world.” That “park” was presented to the city by Sidney Cushing, founding president of the Mill Valley and Mt. Tamalpais Railway, and can be seen now with three Redwood trees! |