Marin County (pronounced /məˈrɪn/ ) is a county located in the North San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. As of 2007, the population was 248,096. The county seat is San Rafael and the largest employer is the county government. Marin County is renowned for its natural beauty, liberal politics, affluence and a strong New Age reputation. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Marin County has the fifth highest income per capita in the United States at $91,483. It is governed by local cities and the Marin County Board of Supervisors.
San Quentin Prison is located in the county, as is Skywalker Ranch. Autodesk, the publisher of AutoCAD, is located there, as are numerous other high-tech companies. The headquarters of film and media company Lucasfilm Ltd., previously based in San Rafael, have moved to the Presidio of San Francisco.
The Marin County Civic Center was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and draws thousands of visitors a year to guided tours of its arch and atrium design.
America's oldest cross country running event, the Dipsea Race, takes place annually in Marin County, attracting thousands of athletes. Mountain biking is said to have been invented on the slopes of Mount Tamalpais in Marin.
Marin County's natural sites include Muir Woods redwood forest, the Marin Headlands, Stinson Beach, Point Reyes National Seashore, and Mount Tamalpais.
History
Marin County is one of the original 27 counties of California, created February 18, 1850, following adoption of the Constitution of 1849 and just months before the state was admitted to the Union.
The origin of the county's name is not clear. One version is the county was named after Chief Marin, of the Coast Miwok, Licatiut tribe of Native Americans who inhabited that section and waged fierce battle against the early Spanish military explorers. The other version is that the bay between San Pedro Point and San Quentin Point was named Bahía de Nuestra Señora del Rosario la Marinera in 1775, and it is quite possible that Marin is simply an abbreviation of this name.
The Coast Miwok Indians were hunters and gatherers whose ancestors had occupied the area for thousands of years. About 600 village sites have been identified in the county. The Coast Miwok numbered in the thousands. Today there are few left, and even fewer with any knowledge of their Coast Miwok lineage. Efforts are being made so that they are not forgotten.
The English explorer and privateer, Sir Francis Drake and the crew of the Golden Hind was thought to have landed on the Marin coast in 1579 claiming the land as Nova Albion . A bronze plaque inscribed with Drake's claim to the new lands, fitting the description in Drake's own account, was discovered in 1933. This so-called Drake's Plate of Brass was later declared a hoax.
In 1595 Sebastian Cermeno lost his ship, the San Agustin , while exploring the Marin Coast. The Spanish explorer Vizcaíno landed about twenty years after Drake in what is now called Drake's Bay. However the first Spanish settlement in Marin was not established until 1817 when Mission San Rafael Arcángel was founded partly in response to the Russian-built Fort Ross to the north in what is now Sonoma County.
Mission San Rafael Arcángel was founded in what is now downtown San Rafael as the 20th Spanish mission in the colonial Mexican province of Alta California by four priests, Father Narciso Duran from Mission San Jose, Father Abella from Mission San Francisco de Asís, Father Gil y Taboada and Father Mariano Payeras, the President of the Missions, on December 14, 1817, four years before Mexico gained independence from Spain.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 828 square miles (2,145 km²), of which, 520 square miles (1,346 km²) of it is land and 308 square miles (799 km²) of it (37.24%) is water. According to the records at the County Assessor-Recorder's Office, as of June 2006, Marin had 91,065 acres (369 km 2 ) of taxable land, consisting of 79,086 parcels with a total tax basis of $39.8 billion. These parcels are divided into the following classifications:
Geographically, the county forms a large, southward-facing peninsula, with the Pacific Ocean to the west, San Pablo Bay and San Francisco Bay to the east, and – across the Golden Gate – the city of San Francisco to the south. Marin County's northern border is with Sonoma County.
Most of the county's population resides on the eastern side, with a string of communities running along San Francisco Bay, from Sausalito to Tiburon to Corte Madera to San Rafael. The interior contains large areas of agricultural and open space; West Marin, through which State Route 1 runs alongside the California coast, contains many small unincorporated communities whose economies depend on agriculture and tourism.
Notable features of the shoreline along the San Francisco Bay include the Sausalito shoreline, Richardson Bay, the Tiburon Peninsula including Ring Mountain and Triangle Marsh at Corte Madera. Further north lies San Quentin State Prison along the San Rafael shoreline.
Adjacent Counties
- Sonoma County, California - north, northeast
- Contra Costa County, California - southeast
- San Francisco County, California - south
National protected areas
- Golden Gate National Recreation Area (part)
- Marin Islands National Wildlife Refuge
- Muir Woods National Monument
- Point Reyes National Seashore
- San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge (part)
- Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary (part)
Transportation infrastructure
Major highways
- Interstate 580
- U.S. Route 101 (Redwood Highway)
- State Route 1
- State Route 37
- State Route 131 (Tiburon Boulevard)
Scenic roads
- Conzelman Road, Marin Headlands
- Dillon Beach Road
- Bear Valley Road: connects Olema to Inverness Park
- Limantour Road: travels across central Point Reyes
- Crown Road
- Tomales Petaluma Road
- Chileno Valley Road: Connects Marshall Petaluma Road to Tomales Petaluma Road
- Marshall Petaluma Road
- Hicks Valley Road: Connects Marshall Petaluma Road to Point Reyes Petaluma Road
- Point Reyes Petaluma Road
- Novato Boulevard: Novato to Point Reyes Petaluma Road
- Sir Francis Drake Blvd: Point Reyes Lighthouse to San Quentin
- Panoramic Highway
- Bolinas Fairfax Road: Connects Sir Francis Drake Blvd to State Route 1 (also a scenic road) at Bolinas
- Bolinas Ridge Road: Connects Bolinas Fairfax Road to Panoramic Highway and Muir Woods Road
- Lucas Valley Road and Nicasio Valley Road: Connect 101 with Point Reyes Petaluma Road
- Point/North San Pedro Road: Connects Santa Venetia and Peacock Gap neighborhoods via China Camp State Park
- Bridgeway Blvd, Sausalito
- Ridgecrest Blvd: transverses the top of Mount Tamalpais
- Pierce Point Road: travels across Northern Point Reyes
- Paradise Drive: Tiburon to Corte Madera
- Camino Alto/Magnolia Avenue: connects Larkspur to Mill Valley
Public transportation
Golden Gate Transit provides service primarily along the U.S. 101 corridor, serving cities in Marin County, as well as San Francisco and Sonoma County. Service is also provided to Contra Costa County via the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. Ferries to San Francisco operate from Larkspur and Sausalito. Ferry service from Tiburon is provided by Blue and Gold Fleet and by the Angel Island Ferry.
Local bus routes within Marin County are operated by Golden Gate Transit under contract to the Marin County Transit District. MCTD also operates the West Marin Stage, serving communities in the western, rural areas of Marin County. The Marin Airporter offers scheduled bus service to and from Marin County and the San Francisco Airport. The lines run 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Greyhound Lines buses service San Rafael.
Airports
Marin County Airport or Gnoss Field (ICAO: KDVO) is a general aviation airport operated by the County Department of Public Works. The nearest airports with commercial flights are San
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