40 Fun Facts About Marin County

Which city, grown from an 1817 Spanish mission hospital, is the county seat of Marin County?

San Rafael is named for Raphael, the archangel associated with healing. Its mission was planned as a hospital for converts who had fallen ill at the colder mission in San Francisco.

Which number became cannabis slang after Marin County teens called the Waldos met at that time?

420 was shorthand for 4:20 p.m., when the Waldos gathered at a statue of Louis Pasteur to hunt for an abandoned cannabis crop. They were following a treasure map made by the grower.

Which sport is traced to Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, where riders raced old cruisers downhill?

Mountain biking grew out of timed descents of a fire road nicknamed Repack. The long drop burned the grease out of the old coaster brakes, so riders had to repack the bearings after every run.

Which filmmaker built Skywalker Ranch, a secluded retreat in the Marin County hills near Nicasio?

George Lucas bought the first parcel in 1978 and called it Bulltail Ranch. The ranch stands on Lucas Valley Road, which was named for an earlier landowner who was no relation.

Which prison on the Marin County shoreline, in use since the 1850s, is the oldest in California?

San Quentin was built by inmates who had been held on the Waban, a wooden prison ship anchored in San Francisco Bay. Its first cell block, opened in 1854, was nicknamed the Stones.

Which architect designed the Marin County Civic Center, his largest public project, but died before it was built?

Frank Lloyd Wright died in 1959, and the complex went up between 1960 and 1976. It has been cited as his only completed government project and is a National Historic Landmark.

Which Marin County city just north of the Golden Gate Bridge is known for its houseboat communities?

Sausalito saw a struggle between houseboat residents and developers in the 1970s that was dubbed the Houseboat Wars. The city's name is Spanish for a small willow grove.

Which rapper moved to Marin City in 1988 and acted in school plays at Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley?

Tupac Shakur arrived from the Baltimore School for the Arts, where he had studied acting, poetry, jazz and ballet. Within three years he made his recording debut with Digital Underground.

Which comedian and longtime Marin County resident is the namesake of the rainbow-arched tunnel on Highway 101?

Robin Williams was honored after a petition that followed his death in 2014. Both houses of the state legislature approved renaming the old Waldo Tunnel without a single vote against.

Which tree, the tallest species on Earth, fills the old-growth groves of Muir Woods in Marin County?

Coast redwood can grow to nearly 380 feet, although the tallest tree in Muir Woods stands 258 feet. The monument's old-growth stand is one of the few left in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Which Marin County site held an immigration station for arrivals from Asia between 1910 and 1940?

Angel Island's station was nicknamed the Ellis Island of the West. Chinese poetry carved into its barrack walls, found by a ranger in 1970, saved the buildings from demolition.

Which US president declared Muir Woods a national monument in 1908 after William Kent donated the land?

Theodore Roosevelt acted under the Antiquities Act of 1906 after Kent offered the land to stop a water company from damming the creek. Kent insisted the monument be named for John Muir.

Which English captain is thought to have landed in Marin County in 1579 and claimed it as Nova Albion?

Francis Drake spent several weeks ashore cleaning and repairing the hull of the Golden Hind. He chose the name because the white cliffs reminded him of the English coast.

Which fault lies beneath Tomales Bay and divides the Point Reyes peninsula from the rest of Marin County?

San Andreas movement in the 1906 earthquake carried the peninsula about 20 feet north. Point Reyes rides the Pacific Plate, while the rest of the county sits on the North American Plate.

Which animal, once believed extinct, was returned to Point Reyes in Marin County in 1978?

Tule elk came back as a herd of just two males and eight females brought from Merced County. The subspecies is found only in California.

Which soul singer began his posthumous number-one hit in 1967 while staying on a Marin County houseboat?

Otis Redding was offered the houseboat as a retreat by the promoter Bill Graham. (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay came out after his death and became the first posthumous number one in the US.

Which band began recording a Grammy Album of the Year at Marin County's Record Plant studio in 1976?

Fleetwood Mac made Rumours there under the working title Yesterday's Gone. One of the studio's owners later said the band took it over for long and extremely expensive sessions.

Which clothing chain began in 1978 as a safari outfitter with a shop in Mill Valley, Marin County?

Banana Republic was the work of Mel and Patricia Ziegler, known for a hand-drawn catalog with travelers' stories printed beside the clothes. Gap bought the company in 1983.

Which Star Wars character stands in bronze beside Indiana Jones in a park in San Anselmo, Marin County?

Yoda stands about two and a half feet tall there, beside an Indiana Jones of roughly six foot three. Their creator unveiled both bronzes himself, saying the characters were created in the town.

Which county, known for its wine country, lies across the northern border of Marin County?

Sonoma was home to the Russian-built Fort Ross. Spain planted its first settlement in Marin in 1817 partly in response to that outpost.

Which Marin County town, once a railroad ferry terminal, takes its name from the Spanish word for shark?

Tiburon began as the name of the peninsula, probably inspired by the leopard sharks that are common in the surrounding waters. Trains kept running to its waterfront until 1967.

Which reclusive Marin County coastal town is known for residents who tear down the road signs to it?

Bolinas voters, offered a ballot measure on the matter by county officials, said they preferred no more signs. The community can be reached only by unmarked roads.

Chief Marin, usually cited as the namesake of Marin County, belonged to which Native people?

Coast Miwok villages once numbered about 600 across the county. Marin himself, born Huicmuse, escaped from the Spanish and hid for months on small bay islets that also carry his name.

Which Marin County footrace, first run in 1905 from Mill Valley to Stinson Beach, is America's oldest trail race?

The Dipsea sends runners up about 700 stairs out of Mill Valley. A handicap system gives the oldest and youngest a head start of up to 25 minutes, and winners have been as young as 8.

Which East Bay city is joined to Marin County by a 5.5-mile bridge that replaced a car ferry in 1956?

Richmond's bridge ranked as the second-longest in the world when it was completed, behind only the Bay Bridge. The ferries kept running until the night before it opened.

Which Grateful Dead guitarist died in 1995 at a treatment center in Forest Knolls, Marin County?

Jerry Garcia died of a heart attack eight days after his 53rd birthday. His band had earlier been the most famous tenant of Rancho Olompali, an old Marin County ranch that is now a state park.

Which catch supported the Chinese fishing village preserved at China Camp State Park in Marin County?

Shrimp came ashore at about three million pounds a year in the late 1800s, much of it exported to China and Hawaii. The village then held roughly 500 people.

Which shellfish is the main crop of the aquaculture farms in Tomales Bay on the Marin County coast?

Oysters are the bay's major industry. Its two largest producers, Hog Island Oyster Company and Tomales Bay Oyster Company, both sell their catch straight to the public on the east shore.

Which World War II vessels did Marin County's Marinship yard launch first, before retooling for tankers?

Liberty ships were emergency cargo vessels, and Marinship laid its first keel only three months after work on the yard began. Housing for 6,000 workers went up next door.

Which 1997 film about a future ruled by genetic screening was shot at the Marin County Civic Center?

Gattaca was the first film shot at the building since THX 1138 in 1971, and its crews cleaned up parts of the complex. The rent they paid helped cover a maintenance shortfall.

Which 1980 John Carpenter horror film shot scenes at the Point Reyes Lighthouse in Marin County?

The Fog was filmed there in April and May 1979. The real lighthouse sits low on its cliff, below the high fog that is typical of the headland, and about 300 steps lead down to it.

Which Cold War weapon was based at Fort Barry in the Marin Headlands, where site SF-88 has been restored?

Nike missile site SF-88 was first armed with the Ajax model and then, from 1958, with the larger Hercules. It was shut down in 1974 and handed to the National Park Service.

Which uprising of settlers included the 1846 Battle of Olompali, fought at a ranch in Marin County?

Bear Flag Revolt rebels proclaimed a California Republic, a name that appeared only on the flag they raised. The Marin County clash took place at an adobe house on the ranch.

Which radio pioneer built a Marin County hotel in 1913 to house the staff of his transpacific station?

Guglielmo Marconi's station was sold to RCA in 1920 and closed in 1939. The hotel survives on the shore of Tomales Bay inside a state historic park that carries his name.

Which Marin Headlands lighthouse is the only one in America reached solely by a suspension bridge?

Point Bonita's first tower of 1855 stood too high, so the light was moved down the cliff in 1877. A 118-foot tunnel was carved by hand through the rock to reach the new site.

Delegates founding which organization met in Muir Woods in 1945 to honor a president who had just died?

United Nations delegates from 50 countries were in San Francisco to draft the charter. They placed a plaque in Cathedral Grove to the wartime president, who had been due to open their conference.

Which marine mammal took over a Point Reyes beach parking lot during the 2019 government shutdown?

Elephant seal mothers gave birth on the sand and in the lot itself while park rangers were off work. Once the shutdown ended, the park ran small-group tours to watch them from the edge of the lot.

Which product came from Samuel P. Taylor's Marin County mill, the first of its kind on the Pacific Coast?

Paper came from the Pioneer Paper Mill, and when a railroad passed nearby Taylor added a resort beside the tracks. The mill burned down in 1916, and the site is now a state park bearing his name.

Which federal agency built the Bay Model in Marin County, a giant working hydraulic model of San Francisco Bay?

Army Corps of Engineers staff finished the model in 1957 to test the Reber Plan, a scheme for two large dams across the bay. The tests showed the plan was not viable, and it was scuttled.

Which 1973 film about a night of teenage cruising had its Marin County shoot cut short by the city council?

American Graffiti moved about 20 miles north to Petaluma without losing a single day of shooting. The council had worried about the disruption that filming caused for local businesses.