The Depot Hotel, not the one on First Street West in Sonoma, was located on Agua Caliente Road and Lake Street in Agua Caliente. It was probably preceded by Annie’s Resort at the same location, which David Luzzi listed in his liquor application in 1939. Luzzi was listed as the proprietor of the Hotel in an ad in the IT in 1945.

 Annie’s had gained some ink in the Index Tribune as far back as 1932, when two men, one of whom, Joaquin “Duke” Faber, know as “The Sheppard of the Hills,” was arrested there for the alleged molestation of girls from the Sonoma State Home (later known as the Sonoma Developmental Center.) According to the IT two of the ”victims, decided Monday to pay a visit to “their Shepherd” and stole away from home under cover of darkness. They reached the home in the hills shortly before midnight, following the railroad tracks from the home, using a map furnished them by another inmate who had visited the ”temple of the Shepherd” on previous occasions.”!

The girls later confessed to their transgression. The two accused men denied any involvement with the girls. “When the men were arrested at Annie’s Resort, near Agua Caliente, the officers were surrounded by a group of Mexicans and Indians who demanded the reasons for the arrest of their two pals. Officers rushed the men into awaiting automobiles and brought them to the county jail.”  As we used to say, this story is “one for the screenplay!”

Faber’s trial date was set for later in 1932. The outcome is unknown as of this writing, however he was sentenced to 90 days for stealing chickens in 1941.

In 2017, Robert Singleton shared this on Facebook: “A little history of the OK corral on Agua Caliente. and Lake St. Originally the Depot Hotel. In or about 1948 (actually 1942) the trains stopped running and it sat abandoned until 1951 when my Dad and Mom bought the old hotel and about 4 acres. My older brother built or remodeled a house under the water tower and lived there. In 1961. Or 62. Jim Doyle and Eddie Hadem rented the Depot hotel and stated the OK Corral. my Mother sold the buildings to Mr.and Mrs Bates. They owned the  place for about 10 years. End of my recall.”

The only mention of the OK Corral I found is of the building being for sale in 1966. The ad called it “roomy and historical.”

David Luzzi died in april of 1955 in Ukaih. His wife Cecilia, co-proprietor of the Hotel, had died in 1954 in Sonoma.

Index Tribune courtesy of the Sonoma Valley Historical Society.