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Most Marinites will easily recognize the swaybacked horse in this beautiful photograph and the location. “Of course”, you say, “It’s Blackie standing out in his pasture overlooking Richardson Bay.” He has become such a Marin icon that many folks, and I include myself, believe that they remember seeing him as they drove past Trestle Glen Boulevard on the way to Tiburon. However, Blackie died in 1966 so the math just won’t work for those of us who have not been a county resident for at least 55 years. According to a 1964 Marin IJ interview with one of his owners, Anthony L. O’Connell (or Connell depending on which article you read), Blackie was brought to California in 1926 (or 1927) from Kansas (or Arkansas) by his brother John as a young cutting horse that worked the rodeo circuit in Northern California. Anthony, much like Daniel Peggotty in David Copperfield, lived in a converted house boat on a cove of Richardson Bay having moved there in 1904 raising and selling clams for nearly 40 years. Blackie was put out to pasture by the brothers around 1938 and became the beloved, solitary sentinel to several generations of travelers and residents of the peninsula. Children who grew up in the area remember feeding him apples and carrots and virtually every peninsula resident grew to associate Blackie with their town, their neighborhood, and the less hectic days of the early 20 th century. That connection to the past took center stage in 1965 after the train ‘trestles” at Trestle Glen Blvd. were torn down and the Tiburon Town Council approved a widening and re-routing of Tiburon Blvd. The original design for the new highway was to pass right through the middle of Blackie’s Pasture, but the local residents would have none of that. The Council was pressured to preserve part of the pasture and leave Blackie in peace. Blackie and John O’Connell were even invited to the November 1965 ribbon- cutting ceremony for the dedication of the new roadway. But Blackie, true to his nature, refused to cut the ribbon as urged and just stood there; staring straight ahead. Blackie went back to his pasture somewhat of a local hero. John O’Connell died a few weeks later, but Anthony, who had been looking after the horse from his nearby ‘beach house’ continued to watch over Blackie. On February 26 th , 1966 Blackie collapsed while standing in “his” spot and couldn’t be helped back onto his feet. A local veterinarian was called and administered shots to ease the horses suffering and Blackie was humanely put to sleep the following day. Burying a horse is no easy task and requests were made to inter Blackie in his bayside pasture even though it would violate County health laws. The efforts were successful, however, when the Marin County Health Department approved his burial where he had stood for so long. A small white picket
