Will S. Green

On July 1, 1850, Green piloted a steamboat up the Sacramento River, taking his uncle and cousin to their land, where they founded the town of Colusa.

Over the next several years, Green held a number of different jobs, such as hotel keeper, joint founder of a bakery, selling fresh vegetables and writing magazine articles.

He also saw it as means to resist advertisers who sought articles putting them in favorable light in return for vague promises of future business, in addition to local bodies that demanded free newspaper space for material they were required to publish by law.

In 1900, Green helped to found the Sacramento Valley Development Association, an organization created to advance the area's political and commercial interests as well as market its agricultural products.

Proposals championed by Green in the Association's early days (despite a dearth of funds at the time) were the Orland Project with its East Park Dam as well as a Geological Survey of possible reservoir sites, the first study of water storage problems in the valley.

The county had wanted to demolish the home for a parking lot, but the owner refused, instead selling it to Richard E. Patton, a retired judge, who initiated the restoration.