n the years preceding the Civil War, long before the mass immigration of Europeans who would sail to the shores of the United States, an adventurous group of young men made their way across the Atlantic Ocean from their homeland in Calabria, Italy to the rugged regions of Argentina. They found work on farms and ranches and soon learned the art of the Vaquero.

One of these young men was Francesco Giovanni Marino, who spent many evening hours by the campfire reading American dime store novels of the Old West. The tales of the gold rush, emerging heroes, bustling towns, and life on the prairie, caused young Francesco to dream of traveling to the United States and observing this rugged new territory firsthand. Years of work on the ranches in the vast lands of Argentina had turned Francesco and his pals into experienced riders and ropers and given them the skills of the famed Argentinean cowboy. Francesco, in particular, had become quite adept with a six-shooter and had earned the nickname of "Dead-Eye Frank." Pleased with his learned skills and new found way of life, Frank continued to stay connected with his dreams of migrating further to the American frontier through his now favorite pastime of reading dime store novels.

It was 1864, and the far away land of the United States was emerging from the depths of a mighty Civil War. Young Frank had followed the news of this conflict closely and, during its course, was further captivated by the thought that he might come to the divided United States and enter into the fray. It would, however, be another two years before Frank finally gained passage to New York harbor. His years of saving money earned as a Vaquero, enabled Frank to board a stage to Virginia City, Nevada, where he bought a horse and saddle and found work as a foreman on the vast Ponderosa Ranch. Frank's employer, Ben Cartwright, had also immigrated to the West, years earlier, and had established a career in the cattle and timber business.  Cartwright immediately ,took a liking to this young European. Frank's acquired skills at handling a firearm soon caught the attention of the Sheriff in Virginia City and Frank was hired on as a deputy. A few years later, having developed a reputation as an honest and adept lawman, Frank decided to head to the rugged Texas territories to work as a U.S. Marshal for the famed Judge Roy Bean, "the only law West of the Pecos."

On one occasion, at the behest of Judge Roy Bean, Frank led a small posse to Dodge City, Kansas to round up "Blackjack" Kirkwood, a fugitive who had escaped execution while in the custody of Judge Bean's court. "Blackjack", whose real first name was Stephen, had crafted a plan with his lady friend, Lizzie Burke, a saloon hall dancer from Dodge City, to distract one of the Judge's court deputies while "Blackjack" made good on his escape, killing the deputy in the process. The Judge was furious over the escape and trusted that Frank would do the job of recapturing Kirkwood for his date with the gallows. It was in Dodge City that Frank met Marshal Matt Dillon who assisted the posse in capturing both "Blackjack" and Lizzie Burke and assisted Frank in transporting the two fugitives back to the Texas territories where a smiling Judge Roy Bean ordered their immediate execution.  The two lawmen became fast friends and corresponded with each other after Matt Dillon's return to the Dodge City.  Months later, while in Tombstone, Arizona to recapture another fugitive wanted by Judge Roy Bean's court, Frank had the pleasure of meeting a saloon dancer named  Miss Kitty Dalton, who, along with her friend Miss Bonnie, had run into some trouble with a corrupt local sheriff named Frank Beehan. Sensing Miss Kitty's need to flee the corrupt environs of the Sheriff, Frank urged her to head north to Dodge City and contact his friend, Marshal Matt Dillon, for help in getting relocated.

As Frank's reputation grew, many local towns and counties approached him with offers to become a city marshal or county sheriff, including the Town of Tombstone, Arizona where Frank had spent some time rounding up fugitives. Frank thought about the job prospect briefly, but decided against it when he heard that a fellow lawman and his brothers were headed for the Tombstone Territory. Knowing that Tombstone would be in good hands with the Earps, Frank decided to head West to California, to a place he would read about so often by the campfire in Argentina, thrilled by those dime store novels depicting the glory days of the gold rush.

It was now into the late 1870's and Frank decided to travel to northern California by way of the Nevada territories, where he planned to stop and visit with the friends he left behind on the Ponderosa Ranch and in Virginia City. While at the ranch, Ben Cartwright insisted that Frank contact the Stockton, California town council, after learning that they were looking for a new city marshal. Ben had made many trips to Stockton on cattle matters and was well acquainted with the local officials there. When the council received word that Frank was headed to northern California, they immediately telegraphed a job offer.

Frank took over as City Marshal of Stockton and remained in that position for five years. On one of his trips to nearby San Francisco, Frank was introduced to a young woman named Madelina Realli, the daughter of an Italian immigrant who had been brought to San Francisco by A.P. Giovanni, founder of a small financial institution known as the Bank of Italy. Frank and Madelina were married shortly thereafter and had two children during the time Frank served as city marshal. While in Stockton, Frank became well acquainted with the Barkleys, a family who owned a large ranch in the nearby valley. Frank and Madelina would occasionally have dinner with the Barkleys when they came to town or out at the Barkley's ranch in the big valley just west of Stockton.

Frank's tenure as City Marshal was a welcomed experience by the townspeople and his well deserved reputation as a tough, yet fair lawman earned him respect throughout the region. His years as City Marshal would also provide Frank with a period in which he would come into contact with many individuals, including the Barkleys, and new friendships would be formed.

Meanwhile, Frank's father-in-law had elevated himself to a comfortable position in San Francisco social circles as Mr. Giovanni's right hand man at the Bank. When Frank would accompany Madelina to San Francisco for a visit, Madelina's father would delight in introducing his now legendary lawman son-in-law to his friends and acquaintances. It was at a social gathering that Frank met a well dressed and distinguished gentleman named Richard Broome. Broome handed Frank a business card stamped with a knight's head, one of the pieces used in a chess game. Across the card was printed "Have Gun Will Travel."  Broome told Frank that most people just called him Paladin, a name or title which Frank recognized to mean the defender of a cause. The two men met for lunch the following day at San Francisco's bustling wharf and spoke of their experiences out on the frontier. Sensing a strong connection between them, Frank invited Paladin to visit Stockton and thus began a friendship that would last a lifetime.

On another occasion, early in the summer of 1881, a group of gypsies rode into town under the guise of a touring vaudeville show. The leader of this group, Shorty Ashcroft, was a quick witted, sly man who had years earlier performed on the New York stage as a puppeteer with his attractive assistant, the young Miss Loretta. When his stage act folded, Ashcroft and Miss Loretta headed West with their touring vaudeville show and somewhere along the way picked up a couple of saloon girls named Calamity Lorna and Kimmerlee Oakley. Word had spread in parts of Nevada and California that a few intoxicated cowboys who had watched their act in local saloons somehow woke up missing their wallets. Frank confronted the group when they arrived in Stockton, introduced himself as city marshal, and instructed them that their shenanigans, if proven, would not be tolerated in the city limits. Frank, however, eventually took a liking to Shorty and the ladies and after a few months, talked the city council into supporting a small theater where the group could perform outside of the saloon environment. As with Paladin, the two men and their wives would become lifelong friends, a friendship that would descend through two generations of families.

In the Spring of 1882, as others had before him, "Terrible Tom" Chaminski, a Russian born gunslinger, came to Stockton to challenge Frank's legendary reputation. Frank desperately tried to persuade "Terrible Tom" to head out of town but the man was senselessly eager to establish a reputation for himself and Frank was forced to kill him in a street showdown. Learning that Terrible Tom had left behind a wife and child, caused Frank to believe that his notoriety had possibly become too legendary and perhaps it was time to retire as a lawman.

By the Fall of 1882, through a San Francisco businessman, Frank had located a small ranch for sale in a rural, growing area of the Central Coast called the Santa Ynez Valley. Two new townships, named Ballard and Santa Ynez, had just been established. Frank purchased the ranch, tendered his resignation as city marshal of Stockton, and planned to move his family south the following year.

Prior to their relocation, Frank took Madelina and the children back to San Francisco to visit Madelina's family. It was agreed that Madelina and the children would join Frank in the Santa Ynez Valley after Frank built the ranch house. While in San Francisco, Frank and his friend Paladin met for dinner and some late evening poker at one of San Francisco's posh hotels. The "game" was high stakes with multiple card tables in the hotels' bar. A young dapper cowboy sitting at one of the corner tables was having a tremendous streak of luck until he was confronted by a couple of crusty characters, dressed in fancy vests and boler hats, apparently jealous of his winning ways. Frank immediately observed that both men were carrying sidearms tucked inside their waistbands, underneath their vests. They began to taunt the young cowboy at which time Frank observed one of them reach under his vest for the sidearm. Frank, always the lawman, and Paladin, always the crusader, immediately drew their guns and told the two men to back away. Frank quickly retrieved the weapons from both men and he and Paladin detained them until a deputy sheriff arrived to take them into custody. Sensing that the young cowboy was quite shaken by the experience, Frank invited the young man to join him and Paladin. The young man introduced himself as Brett Maverick, a gambler who rode the West. The three men spent the next few hours talking about the frontier and at the end of the evening both Frank and Paladin agreed to keep in touch with this young cowboy named Maverick.

Frank rode to the Santa Ynez Valley in the Spring of 1883 and immediately fell in love with the territory. Frank began to clear the land and start building a new ranch house. The area was growing at a fast pace and the township of Santa Ynez was becoming the center of activity in the Valley. Nearby, the Danes were beginning to settle in an area they named Solvang and a newly constructed stagecoach depot was erected in the town of Los Olivos.

They say an honest and respected lawman is a well remembered one and such was the case with Frank. It was not long before the county commissioners in Santa Barbara approached Frank and asked him if he would take the job of Sheriff. Frank told them he did not want the job, but would agree to become the interim Sheriff while the commissioners continued to look for the right candidate. Little did Frank know that it would be almost two years before they found the "right" candidate.

Meanwhile, with the ranch house under construction, Frank and his family moved into a nice home, in town, on Edison Street. The home had been built a year earlier by a land speculator who had purchased a large section of land nearby, formerly part of a huge land grant. The speculator had intended to use the house to accommodate prospective buyers for his subdivided lots, however when a few wealthy cattle owners from northern California arrived in the Valley, they offered the speculator a tidy sum for the entire land parcel and the subdivision never occurred. Frank had learned of the vacant home through his father-in-law at the bank in San Francisco and, with some borrowed money, Frank and his father-in-law purchased the property, intending to sell it after Frank had completed construction of the ranch house.

Construction on the ranch property was slower than expected due to Frank's position as interim sheriff. Rapid development in the county meant more people, which in turn created more need for active law enforcement. Frank's home was often used as a meeting place for county officials when visiting the northern part of the county. In turn, Frank would also spend considerable time at the county seat in Santa Barbara.

It was rumored that bandits, headed by the notorious Juaquin Murietta, were roaming the hills of the central coast area. On a sunny summer day in 1884, two of Murietta's men were spotted in the Santa Ynez Valley at which time Frank formed a posse to hunt them down. Frank met up with one of the bandits who had been seen tending to his horse near the water tower directly behind Frank's house. When Frank and his deputy approached the water tower, they observed the bandit, later identified as Eddie "Rattlesnake" Ridens, climb the rafters to the deck of the tank at which time he fired upon Frank and his deputy. Frank returned fire hitting "Rattlesnake" in the left shoulder, causing him to fall against the handrail. The rail snapped and the bandit fell, screaming, to his death below. Years later the townspeople would claim that on occasion, in the still of night, one might hear a faint scream accompanied by the sounds of a rattle coming from the deck of the water tower, thus creating the town's first "haunted" legend.

By the time the ranch house was finally completed, in the Spring of 1885, the house on Edison Street had become quite a popular retreat for Frank's guests and county officials. Frank's wife loved the activity and even the children became involved. As such, Frank and Madelina decided to keep the house on Edison Street, following their move to the ranch, at which time Frank placed a new sign out front which read, "Edison Street Boarding House."

In 1886, the county finally hired a new sheriff, relieving Frank of his interim duty, however county officials asked Frank to remain on in a newly created position as Director of County Services. At Frank's request, a small county office was constructed west of the new town of Solvang. Frank was allowed to run his department from this location in order to spend less time at the county seat in Santa Barbara.

The Boarding House prospered into the 1890's and was a popular destination on the old stagecoach route to and from Santa Barbara. Many of Frank's old friends from his days as City Marshal of Stockton came to visit, including the Barkleys. Frank later decided to name one of the rooms at the Boarding House in honor of his friends, calling it the Big Valley Bunkhouse in remembrance of the many wonderful occasions he and Madelina spent with the Barkleys at their Big Valley Ranch.

It was early in the 1890's when Frank's old friend Paladin came to Santa Ynez, before heading east to Sutter's Mill where some remaining miners were having issues with renegade bandits. Frank, who was still a commissioned U.S. Marshal, agreed to accompany Paladin on one last ride. They rode by stage and rail to Modesto and then to Angel's Camp in the foothills, where they rented horses and tracked down the bandits, killing two of them in the process. Their job done, the two men rode back to Modesto together and talked for many hours about the changing West, where the need for the "old style" lawman and crusaders such as Paladin, were fading into the sunset of a new era. The two men shook hands firmly before Paladin boarded a train back to San Francisco and Frank caught the stage back to Santa Barbara. Little did each of them know that this crusade would be their last meeting.

A short time later, in the fall of 1898, Frank received a telegram from San Francisco informing him that his dear friend Paladin had succumbed to pneumonia and had died in his sleep. Frank, Madelina and their children traveled back to San Francisco where Madelina visited with her family while Frank attended the funeral of a great frontiersman and friend. As Frank walked from the gravesite, he heard someone call to him. Frank turned around and immediately recognized the young gambler Brett Maverick, who vigorously shook Frank's hand. Frank and Maverick then went to an eatery at San Francisco's wharf and talked about Paladin and life on the frontier. Maverick said he was in San Francisco when he learned that Paladin had died. He told Frank that he had constantly carried the memory of their last meeting, sixteen years earlier, when Frank and Paladin had saved his life. Maverick told Frank that he had saved much of his winnings over the years and had returned to San Francisco as he, too, was witnessing a changing frontier. A few years earlier, he and his two brothers, Bart and Beau, had purchased a two hundred acre parcel of land in a remote area called the San Fernando Valley, just west of the rapidly expanding city of Los Angeles. They had rented the land to a farming cooperage and were now getting ready to settle in the area and perhaps continue farming or section the land for future development. Frank congratulated Maverick for his determination to build a future and asked him to stop and visit him in Santa Ynez on his journey to Los Angeles. Maverick agreed to do so and the two men said goodbye.

When Frank and Madelina returned to the Santa Ynez Valley, Frank named another of the rooms at the Boarding House, the Paladin Suite, in memory of his dear friend. It was but a short time later when yet another tragedy struck Frank's extended family of new American friends. As Frank sat at his desk in the county office near the new town of Buellton, a man appeared from the Western Union Telegraph Service and presented Frank with a telegram informing him of the passing of his old friend and mentor, Ben Cartwright. Frank immediately telegraphed Ben's son, Adam Cartwright whom he had known best while working on the ranch, and offered his condolences to the family. He praised Ben Cartwright as one of the last great pioneer ranchers in the Western territories.

Frank and Madelina's life had prospered by the turn of the century with the success of the Boarding House and Frank's land holdings in both Santa Barbara County and the rapidly developing Los Angeles County, which had seen the town of Los Angeles turn from a sleepy pueblo into a thriving new farming and industrial center. Though Frank had officially retired as a lawman, the United States Marshal's Service had insisted that he remain active, without assignment, and often called upon him to advise the Service on recruitment procedures and training for a new breed of U.S. Marshal. It was through this association with the Service that Frank sadly learned of Matt Dillon's death. Frank subsequently wrote a small article in the Santa Barbara Newspaper praising the career of U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon and mourning the loss of a courageous lawman and dear friend.

A pleasant surprise awaited Frank as he returned to the Boarding House from a trip to Los Angeles in the Summer of 1905. Frank was greeted warmly by Shorty Ashcroft and Miss Loretta, who had come up from the Los Angeles area where they had settled just before the turn of the century. Shorty told Frank that his stage production had prospered in Stockton and he and Miss Loretta had later moved on to San Francisco for a few years where they had been embraced by the town's theatrical society. Shorty went on to tell Frank that in 1893, Thomas Edison had built a studio in Orange, N.J. to experiment with Kinetescope, making way for the motion picture. This new invention caused a film industry of sorts to develop in a remote area of Los Angeles and the first motion picture house, the Electric Theater, was opened in downtown Los Angeles in 1902. This rapidly expanding industry had attracted vaudevillians like Ashcroft to Los Angeles, where he and Miss Loretta had purchased a small home in a growing area which would, in a few years, come to be known as Hollywood. The two men reminisced about their first meeting in Stockton and spent many hours talking of the rapidly changing West. The Ashcroft's offered Frank lodging on his next trip to Los Angeles.

As the new century took shape change had become inevitable. The pounding of the "golden spike, years earlier at Promontory Point in Utah, connecting the East to the West by rail had marked the beginning of a new frontier and would forever change the face of the Old West. The ways of the old trail cowboy would eventually fade away and the horse drawn carriage and stage would give way to trains and the emerging motor car. Small towns grew into big towns and big towns into cities. The transition would require a new breed of lawman, fighting crime differently in a more civilized West.

Frank had made the transition well and by 1910, in his sixties, had become a prosperous businessman and land developer. He had since retired from County service and had finally been "officially" retired from the U.S. Marshal's Office. Frank and Madelina had turned the Boarding House over to two of their children who continued to operate the business in the same quality fashion. Madelina had suggested they name another of the rooms for a "living" person and Frank had decided to call this room "Maverick's Corner," remembering the young gambler he and Paladin had befriended years ago. Actually, the Maverick brothers had gained great success with their land purchase just east of Los Angeles and were subdividing the property and selling the lots to prospective homeowners. Frank had done the same with a few parcels of land he had secured from an old Spanish land grant along the coastal area just south of Los Angeles. He and Madelina would regularly travel to the Los Angeles area and spend time at the seashore near the new land developments aptly named Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach.

In the Summer of 1924, while in Los Angeles, a memorable meeting occurred between two old stalwarts of the Western frontier. Frank's friend, Shorty Ashcroft, who had become a prominent figure in motion pictures, invited Frank to the Studio one day where they were filming a movie starring Tom Mix. It was here that Shorty introduced Frank to the movie's technical advisor, Wyatt Earp. Frank had never met Earp during their days as U.S. Marshals, but remembered that he had almost taken the job of Marshal in Tombstone before Earp and his brothers arrived. The two men embraced each other and talked at length about their frontier days. It was a wonderful meeting with lasting memories shared between the two famed lawmen. It was also a timely meeting, as Wyatt Earp would pass away in Los Angeles three years later.

It was the dedication of these men and others like them that preserved a sense of order in what was often seen as a lawless West. Their skills helped open the way to a new life for the men and women who settled this vast new territory promoting America's new destiny from sea to shining sea.

In 1928, Frank was diagnosed with a cancer that had ravaged his brain. He died the following year at his hilltop home near Redondo Beach. Madelina transported Frank's body back to the Santa Ynez Valley where burial services were held. At graveside, a preacher simply commented that the frontier had witnessed the passing of yet another member of a band of courageous lawmen who had, " tamed the West." Frank was then laid to rest in the Ballard Cemetery overlooking the great oak trees and rolling hills of an area he had truly loved.

Madelina remained in the small ranch house she and Frank had constructed on the hilltop overlooking the blue Pacific Ocean, near Redondo Beach, until her death in 1938. At the time of her death, she and Miss Kitty, then living in Los Angeles, had become best of friends. The remaining room at the Boarding House was named Miss Kitty's Parlor in memory of their friendship.

In 1939, the Boarding House was badly damaged by a fire that had engulfed the building next door. It would be twenty years before Frank's children would undertake restoration and reconstruction of the building and re-open the Boarding House for business.

Frank's grandson, Larry, followed in the footsteps of his legendary lawman grandfather, spending thirty years as a deputy sheriff in Los Angeles County and now operates the old Boarding House, re-named the Edison Street Inn.

One of Larry's fellow lawmen was the grandson of "Terrible Tom" Chaminski. They remain best friends today.

One of the Larry's first guests were the grandchildren of vaudevillian Shorty Ashcroft and Miss Loretta.

If you sit out on the east balcony of the Inn after dark, you can often see a great white owl fly into the large oak tree near the water tower. Some say the owl is drawn to this location by the faint haunting screams of "Rattlesnake" Ridens. Others say the owl simply stops to rest in the oak, after passing over the nearby Ballard Cemetery, in memory of another wise creature of life.