Mark West Area Community Fund History
The Mark West Area Community Fund was formed in 2023 as the first community-based 501 (c)3 non-profit organization for the greater Mark West Area - including Wikiup, Mark West, Larkfield and Fulton. The MWACF was formed as a way for community members to work together to raise funds from the local Mark West Area Municipal Advisory Council, and other sources, to support local community improvement projects. The first community improvement project the MWACF developed was the Mark West Area Community Park. The MWACF is now working to establish an avenue of flags down the Old Redwood Highway corridor of the Mark West Area downtown area.
Historical timeline of recent activities:
12/19/24: Submitted Use Permit to Permit Sonoma
12/18/24: Playground equipment, fitness station and picnic tables ordered - funding provided by Saba Foundation
12/13/24: Fire Chief Doug Williams gazebo fundraising campaign committee formed.
12/10/24: Awarded $300,000 from Ag + Open Space Community Open Space Funding
3/11/24: Ribbon cutting ceremony
1/31/24: Escrow closed on park property.
11/22/23: The American and California State flags were raised at the park site.
11/14/23: The Fund has contracted with Community Soils, a local non-profit landscape/design organization, to develop park design plans for permitting and development purposes. Based on community input received, the design will be developed and approved by the Fund in winter 2024.
9/20/23: Acquisition funding successfully raised to purchase property for new Mark West Area park. See above press release.
9/20/23: Saba Foundation grant received to fund playground for kids. The playground will be called the “Saba Foundation Playground”
8/26/23: Open house event raised $10,500 from community members!
4/12/23: IRS determination letter received. The IRS determined that the Mark West Area Community Fund is exempt from federal income tax under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 501(c)(3). Donors can deduct contributions they make to you under IRC Section 170.
3/10/23: First Board of Directors meeting of the Mark West Area Community Fund
3/10/23: Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District grant application for $1.169 million submitted by Sonoma Land Trust for the acquisition of the property for the new Mark West Area Community Park.
3/8/23: Mark West Area Municipal Advisory Council approves $250,000 towards acquisition of new Mark West Area Community Park
2/1/23: Mark West Area community leaders meet with Sonoma Land Trust and discuss the formation of a non-profit to purchase a new Mark West Area Community Park at the site of a former pre-school destroyed by the 2017 Tubbs Fire.
The History of Mark West
Mark West was an early California pioneer. He was born William Mark West in England around 1800 and after seven years in Mexican territory, arrived in California in 1832. He became a Mexican citizen in 1834 and married Guadalupe Vasquez in June 1834 at Mission San Carlos Borromeo in Carmel. Guadalupe is listed in the 1813 Monterey Padron (census) as one years old. Marcos West and Guadalupe are listed in the 1836 Monterey Padron. In 1840 he was granted Rancho San Miguel, roughly 6,600 acres, by Governor Alvarado with a northern boundary of what is now known as Mark West Creek, extending west to Laguna de Santa Rosa.
Mark West built an adobe on the south side of the creek near today’s Old Redwood Highway. He lived here with wife and eight children. The adobe stood at the intersection of the main trails north-south and east-west, a natural stopping place for the stages. The site also included a blacksmith shop, a sawmill further up the creek, and a Spanish language school.
When California became a state in 1850, the Mexican land grants were contested by new arrivals to California. Soon across California squatters began to occupy the rancho land grants. At Rancho San Miguel squatters were on all but 200 acres of the rancho. The US government required those with Mexican land grants to prove their claim before a commission. Mark West died in early 1850, so his wife filed the claim. The United States Land Commission surveyed Ranch San Miguel in 1862; that map can be found in the Sonoma County Library. Although Guadalupe Vasquez West’s claim to the land grant was upheld, legal expenses and bills forced her to sell the property.
Like many pioneers, the Mark West Family had a family cemetery located on a hill at the eastern boundary of the rancho, indicated in the 1862 survey. In 1940 Mark West’s daughter-in-law named thirteen family members buried there, including Mark and Guadalupe West. A single gravestone for Mark West was moved from the hilltop site to the Museum of Sonoma County to protect it from the wildfire of 2017. A subsequent investigation in 2021 using scientific methods corroborated the presence of human burials at that site. A bench dedicated to Mark and Guadalupe West has been placed in the Mark West Creek Regional Park and Open Space, along the creek bearing his name.
Contributed by: Carol Eber
Maria West, wife of both William and Charles West, and her son Fred West.
1862 map of Rancho San Miguel
Mark West School