How Lakeville got its name

Lakeville, on the Petaluma River southeast of Petaluma, was named for Tolay Lake, two miles to the east.|

Lakeville, on the Petaluma River southeast of Petaluma, was named for Tolay Lake, two miles to the east. In the 19th century, Tolay was described as 2/3 of a mile long and up to 1,000 yards wide. It was one of the region’s largest bodies of fresh water.

In those days, Sonoma County was a “Land o’ Lakes.” Ten miles west, Laguna San Antonio was two miles long and a half-mile wide, at least after a wet winter. To the north lay the Laguna de Santa Rosa, a string of perennial lakes as much as 23 feet deep.

Every winter, the plains and valleys were dotted with vernal pools. An early map depicts one such pool covering 100 acres of modern-day Rohnert Park, probably the biggest one in the county. By summer, all that water had seeped into the ground or evaporated away, leaving only a small, permanent lake of a few acres.

Tolay Lake also changed in size with the seasons but was less reliant on winter rains. Located on an active fault, it’s what’s known as a sag pond. Tectonic activity often brings groundwater to the surface, creating springs. Much of Tolay’s water came from this kind of spring, while a natural dam prevented it from running off.

In the 1860s, Lakeville was a major transportation hub. Passengers arriving by steamboat from San Francisco transferred there onto stagecoaches bound for Petaluma, Sonoma, Santa Rosa and beyond. The town boasted a hotel, dance hall, post office, saloons, a school and a race track.

In those same years, German immigrant William Bihler dynamited Tolay’s dam to drain it so he could plant potatoes. Dynamiting and ditching channels were common at the time, and many of the county’s lakes and wet areas were turned into fields and pastures.

In the 1870s, Lakeville itself was drained of its economic lifeblood when Peter Donohue built a new landing downstream, near the terminus of his San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad. Now passengers could travel all the way to Santa Rosa by steam power.

More recently, the Cardoza family raised grain, hay, cattle, vegetables and, yes, potatoes on Tolay Lake’s old lake bed. In the 1980s there was talk of creating a “new” Tolay Lake for wastewater treatment. Thankfully, that never happened, and today most of the lake bed is part of a new regional park.

Restoration plans are being made and, if all goes well, the waters of Tolay will once again grace the land, reflecting the ever-changing sky.

Contact Glen Ellen-based historical ecologist Arthur Dawson at baseline@vom.com.

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