Small Towns

Tomales currently has about 200 residents, although the town should have been larger. At times it was, with perhaps 2,000 residents at the height of the railroad era. However, Dutton's town has periodically suffered from Keys' luck. In 1877, a fire destroyed a hotel, the bank, a hat store, a drug store, and the watchmaker's shop. In 1891 and 1898, fires did damage in the eastern parts of town. The 1906 quake leveled farm houses and a new Catholic church. And in 1920, another fire almost leveled everything including three hotels, a restaurant, a saloon, the barbership, the butchershop, the blacksmith's shop, the livery stable, and the bank.
This is called a cow pond, sounds cute, just like the little town.


Warren Dutton - built neighboring settlements here in the 1850s. Keys' was a port lined with warehouses. Small schooners hauled local butter, potatoes, hogs down the creek that for a time flowed freely more than a mile to Tomales Bay. Dutton developed property on higher ground into a trading post and post office.
Dutton's "Upper Town" lasted. Keys' "Lower Town" did not; its founder died youngish in 1873, and maybe it was the potatoes that did him in. By that time, Keys Creek had silted in, the victim of erosive potato farming practices.



A small church in a small town of Tomales...lol


This is Tomales location on the map, the map didn't come out to clearly but it gives you a general idea where about in the California area.


Cows in a pasture in this little town of Tomales, beautiful scenery.


Population (year 2000): 210
Males: 100 .... (47.6%)
Females: 110 .. (52.4%)

Median resident age: .....46.1 years
California median age: ...33.3 years