Welcome new subscribers! On Monday afternoons we do several small features, including Marin History. On Wednesday morning, by the time you wake up, you’ll have the events and activities email.

Did you know there was recently a controversial Oyster War right here that might have caught scientists lying red-handed?

If you head out to visit the elephant seals in Point Reyes National Seashore, you pass Drakes Estero. It is the massive estuary in the middle of Drakes Bay:

Oysters have been harvested in West Marin for well over 5,000 years. The Coast Miwok would gather tiny Olympia Oysters the size of a quarter. During the Gold Rush era, commercial farms began to take things up a notch, including eventually importing much larger Pacific Oysters from Japan.

Since the 1930s, a farm called Drakes Bay Oyster Company had the rights to use Drakes Estero. They would stick massive wooden racks into the mud and use string to seed them with baby oysters. The tide would bring food to the oysters, then a year or two later, they would pull up the racks to collect the oysters. (That’s the simple version, there’s more expertise and upkeep of course.)

But the government had a different plan. They wanted to turn the area into a wilderness, which meant all businesses had to leave.

One battle in this legal war is known as "Seal-Gate." The National Park Service claimed that the oyster farm was hurting the local harbor seals. They said the farmers' boats were scaring the seals away from their pups. To prove it, park scientists used 280,000 hidden camera photos.

However, the farm owner, Kevin Lunny, fought back. He hired his own experts and found something shocking. He claimed the Park Service scientists had doctored the evidence. He argued that the scientists were using blurry photos of logs and birds and calling them disturbed seals. Not one of those 280,000 conclusively showed a seal scared by a boat.

Senator Dianne Feinstein took the farm's side and was furious. However, in the end, the government won. The farm was forced to close in 2014.

Today, Drakes Estero is the only marine wilderness on the West Coast. Are the large Pacific Oysters from Japan an invasive species that don’t belong in a National Seashore? Or a sustainable crop that helped clean the water? The Oyster War may be over, however the debate remains!

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Please note that this property isn’t associated with the banner sponsor above or Marin Buzz in any way. It is just a unique home you might be interested in seeing, for entertainment purposes only!

333 - 345 Willow Road, Nicasio

Here’s a unique property, just about 12 minute drive between both downtown Nicasio and downtown Point Reyes Station. It looks like it was a labor of love that someone invested way more money into than you’d be able to acquire it for.

Check out this wine cellar that looks like the Shire:

This property has been on and off the market for the last five years. It started at $18.5M, so maybe it is finally priced to sell at $10M? It was just at $12M a couple of months ago…

With “necessary agricultural and wine-making equipment to run the 32-acre ranch is included.” Two houses. 50,000-gallon spring-fed pool. At some point, the sum of these parts is going to make sense. Could you rent out the wine-making and host weddings there?

Check it out:

Zillow link

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Thanks for reading. We will be back with the regular events and activities email Wednesday morning!

— Allison + Brian