One of the most unusual and popular aspects about this unincorporated community between Pleasanton and Fremont was its canine mayor.

Mayor Bosco, a black Labrador-Rottweiler mix, kept his title about 10 years after his election in 1981, when he defeated human challengers Honest Paul Zeiss and Wolf.

Bosco’s mayorship became world news when the People’s Daily, China’s Communist Party newspaper, featured Bosco in a front-page article mocking free elections.

The mayor died two years ago. This tiny hamlet’s roots date back to the 1800s, when a number of businesses, a church, a school and two hotels anchored the center of town. In 1866, James Trimingham began farming in Sunol.

In 1880, his family moved to the town’s center, setting up the Trimingham Store and supplying Sunol with feed, hay and general merchandise. One of the town’s oldest landmarks, the 125-year-old Lyon’s Brewery, was consumed in a fire in 1987 that also claimed the Sunol Hay and Feed.

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