Marin County, California
Map
Location in the state of California
California's location in the U.S.
Statistics
Founded	February 18, 1850
Seat	San Rafael
Largest city	San Rafael
Area  - Total  - Land  - Water	828 sq mi (2,145 km²) 520 sq mi (1,346 km²) 308 sq mi (799 km²), 37.24
Population  - (2000)  - Density	247,289 476/sq mi (184/km²)
Time zone	Pacific: UTC-8/-7
Website: www.co.marin.ca.us

Marin County 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 5th highest per capita income 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. United States Senator Barbara Boxer is from Marin.

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 km²) 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:

Parcel Type	Tax ID	Quantity	Value
Vacant	10	6,900	$508.17 million
Single Family Residential	11	61,264	$30,137.02 million
Mobile Home	12	210	$7.62 million
House Boat	13	379	$61.83 million
Multi Family Residential	14	1,316	$3,973.51 million
Industrial Unimproved	40	113	$12.24 million
Industrial Improved	41	562	$482.83 million
Commercial Unimproved	50	431	$97.89 million
Commercial Improved	51	7,911	$4,519.64 million

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

		Sonoma County	Sonoma County
	Pacific Ocean
		Marin County, California
		San Francisco County	Contra Costa County

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 Francisco International Airport and Oakland International Airport as well as Charles M. Schulz - Sonoma County Airport north of Marin County.

Education

• Education in Marin County
• List of high schools in California

Marin County Free Library is the county library system. It is headquartered in Room 414 in the Marin County Civic Center Administration Building at 3501 Civic Center Drive in San Rafael.

Ecology

Marin county is considered in the California Floristic Province, a zone of extremely high biodiversity and endemicism. There are numerous ecosystems present, including coastal strand, oak woodland, chaparral and riparian zones. There are also a considerable number of protected plant and animal species present: fauna include the California Red-legged Frog (Rana aurora draytonii) and California freshwater shrimp, while flora include Marin Dwarf Flax, Hesperolinon congestum; Tiburon Jewelflower, Streptanthus niger; and Tiburon Indian paintbrush, Castilleja neglecta.

A number of watersheds exist in Marin County including Walker Creek, Lagunitas Creek, Miller Creek, and Novato Creek.

The Lagunitas Creek Watershed is home to the largest-remaining wild run of coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) in Central California. These coho are part of the "Central California Coast Evolutionarily Significant Unit," or CCC ESU, and are listed as "endangered" at both the state and federal level.

Significant efforts to protect and restore these fish have been underway in the Watershed since the 1980s. Fifty-percent of historical salmon habitat is now behind dams. Strong efforts are also being made to protect and restore undammed, headwater reaches of this Watershed in the San Geronimo Valley, where upwards of 40% of the Lagunitas salmon spawn each year and where as much as 1/3 of the juvenile salmon (or fry) spend their entire freshwater lives. The Salmon Protection and Watershed Network leads winter tours for the public to learn about and view these spawning salmon, and also leads year-round opportunities for the public to get involved in stream restoration, monitoring spawning and smolt outmigration, juvenile fish rescue and relocation in the summer, and advocacy and policy development.

Around 490 different species of birds have been observed in Marin County.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 247,289 people, 100,650 households, and 60,691 families residing in the county. The population density was 476 people per square mile (184/km²). There were 104,990 housing units at an average density of 202 per square mile (78/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 84.03% White, 2.89% Black or African American, 0.43% Native American, 4.53% Asian, 0.16% Pacific Islander, 4.50% from other races, and 3.47% from two or more races. 11.06% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 11.5% were of Irish, 11.0% English, 10.2% German and 8.4% Italian ancestry according to Census 2000. 80.8% spoke English, 9.6% Spanish, 1.4% French and 1.1% German as their first language.

In 2005 76.9% of Marin County's population was non-Hispanic whites. 12.6% of the population was Latino. 5.3% of the population was Asian and 3.1% was African-American.

In 2000 there were 100,650 households out of which 27.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.4% were married couples living together, 8.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.7% were non-families. 29.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.34 and the average family size was 2.90.

In the county the population was spread out with 20.3% under the age of 18, 5.5% from 18 to 24, 31.0% from 25 to 44, 29.7% from 45 to 64, and 13.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females there were 98.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.4 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $71,306, and the median income for a family was $88,934. These figures had risen to $83,732 and $104,750 respectively as of 2007. Males had a median income of $61,282 versus $45,448 for females. The per capita income for the county was $44,962. About 4.7% of families and 9.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6.9% of those under age 18 and 2.5% of those age 65 or over. Marin County has the second highest median household income in California behind Santa Clara County.

Marin County has the highest per capita income of any county in the United States. This is driven in particular by expensive enclaves in Belvedere, Kentfield, Larkspur, Ross, Tiburon, Mill Valley, Sausalito, San Anselmo, Corte Madera and portions of San Rafael and Novato where displays of conspicuous consumption, especially luxury cars, are common. The county has the highest density of BMW cars (locally known as 'Basic Marin Wheels') in the United States, according to the local BMW dealership.

The traditionally middle class towns of Fairfax, Novato and San Rafael (where per capita incomes typically paralleled the California state average as late as 1985) also have experienced especially sharp rises in real estate values, due in part to their proximity to the "prestige" address areas. The county's resistance to urban sprawl and its preservation of open space have also had an upward impact on housing prices by reducing the number of new subdivisions built in the area since 1970. The precedent for this was set after a huge development project that would have put a suburb atop the Marin Headlands called Marincello was defeated in court.

The trend of increased affluence has not held true for two neighborhoods in particular, populated almost exclusively by low-income disadvantaged groups: Marin City and the Canal area in San Rafael. Government policies have both forbidden property owners from raising rents and have also subsidized housing prices in these neighborhoods for tenants who do not report incomes higher than 200% of the poverty level on their IRS tax return. Marin City has a population of 3,000 and is ethnically diverse with large East Asian, Hispanic, and African American populations. Many families live in public housing apartment buildings. The population in the Canal area is largely Hispanic, with many households residing in apartment units. San Rafael has asserted to the Federal Government that this population is significantly undercounted by the U.S. Census due to the high percentage of undocumented immigrants. They assert that the 6.6% of the county-wide population listed as below the poverty line is both under-reported and heavily concentrated in the Canal area.

"Marin County hot-tubber"

In 2002, former U.S. President George H.W. Bush denounced convicted American terrorist John Walker Lindh as "some misguided Marin County hot-tubber," as a snide reference to the county's liberal, "hippie" political culture. Outraged by the label, some local residents wrote scathing letters to the Marin Independent Journal, complaining of Bush's insensitive remarks. In response, Bush wrote a letter to readers in the same newspaper, admitting regret and promising to not use the phrases Marin County and hot tub "in the same sentence again."

Politics

Presidential election results

Year	DEM	GOP	Others
2008	78.0% 109,320	20.2% 28,384	1.8% 2,493
2004	73.2% 99,070	25.4% 34,378	1.4% 1,877
2000	64.2% 79,135	28.3% 34,872	7.4% 9,148
1996	58.0% 67,406	28.2% 32,714	13.8% 16,020
1992	58.3% 76,158	23.3% 30,479	18.4% 24,070
1988	58.9% 69,394	39.7% 46,855	1.4% 1,671
1984	49.6% 57,533	49.0% 56,887	1.4% 1,630
1980	36.2% 39,231	45.8% 49,678	18.1% 19,598
1976	42.9% 43,590	52.5% 53,425	4.6% 4,700
1972	45.6% 47,414	52.1% 54,123	2.3% 2,346
1968	43.8% 36,278	50.1% 41,422	6.1% 5,055
1964	61.6% 46,462	38.1% 28,682	0.3% 220
1960	42.5% 27,888	57.3% 37,620	0.2% 157

Marin is part of California's 6th congressional district, held by ninth-term Democrat Lynn Woolsey.

In the state legislature, Marin is in the 6th Assembly district, held by second-term Democrat Jared Huffman, and the 3rd Senate district, held by first-term Democrat Mark Leno.

The county has become a stronghold of the Democratic Party in recent decades. Out of California counties, only San Francisco County and Alameda County voted more Democratic in the 2008 Presidential election, all three counties voted more heavily for Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama than Cook County, Ill., Obama's home county.

On Nov. 4, 2008, the citizens of Marin county voted strongly against Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment which eliminated the right of same-sex couples to marry, by a 75.1 percent to 24.9 percent margin. The official tally was 103,341 against and 34,324 in favor. Only San Francisco County voted against the measure by a wider margin (75.2% against).

According to the California Secretary of State, as of March 20, 2009, Marin County has 150,679 registered voters, out of 181,918 eligible (82.8%). Of those, 82,549 (54.8%) are registered Democrats, 29,980 (19.9%) are registered Republicans, 6,384 (4.0%) are registered with other political parties, and 32,094 (21.3%) have declined to state a political party. Democrats hold wide voter-registration majorities in all political subdivisions in Marin County, except for the town of Belvedere, in which Democrats only hold a 46-vote (2.9%) registration advantage. Democrats' largest registration advantage in Marin is in the town of Fairfax, wherein there are only 426 Republicans (8.1%) out of 5,261 total voters compared to 3,413 Democrats (64.9%) and 1,092 voters who have declined to state a political party (19.7%) voters.

Economy

As of 2008, the largest private-sector employers in Marin County were:

1. Kaiser Permanente (1,626 full-time employees in Marin County)
2. Marin General Hospital (1,267)
3. Autodesk (1,200)
4. Fireman's Fund Insurance Company (1,200)
5. Comcast (619)
6. Safeway Inc. (452)
7. Macy's, Inc.
8. Frank Howard Allen Realtors (423)
9. BioMarin Pharmaceutical
10. Fair Isaac
11. MHN (350)
12. Dominican University of California (325)
13. W. Bradley Electric (295)
14. Brayton Purcell (288)
15. Guide Dogs for the Blind (287)
16. Novato Community Hospital (274)
17. Mollie Stones (270)
18. Wells Fargo
19. Costco
20. Ghilotti Bros. (250)
21. Kentfield Rehabilitation and Specialty Hospital
22. Lucasfilm
23. Longs Drugs
24. Nordstrom (211)
25. Coldwell Banker (207)

Media

Marin county has several media outlets that serve the local community.

• Marin Independent Journal, a daily newspaper with headquarters in Novato.
• Pacific Sun (newspaper), a free weekly distributed throughout the county.
• Novato Advance, a daily newspaper that serves Marin's second-largest city.
• The Point Reyes Light, a weekly newspaper.
• West Marin Citizen, a weekly newspaper.
• KWMR radio, West Marin Radio,
• Channel 26, public access television in Marin.
• Marin Local Music, Music listings for Marin's Restaurants & Venues who host live music.
• San Francisco Examiner, Rick Marianetti, Marin County Culture & Events.

Cities, towns and unincorporated districts

• Belvedere
• Bolinas
• Corte Madera
• Dillon Beach
• Dogtown
• Fairfax
• Inverness
• Inverness Park
• Kentfield
• Lagunitas-Forest Knolls
• Larkspur
  • Greenbrae
• Marshall
• Mill Valley
  • Strawberry
  • Tamalpais-Homestead Valley
• Muir Beach
• Nicasio
• Novato
  • Bel Marin Keys
  • Black Point-Green Point
  • Hamilton
• Olema
• Point Reyes Station
• Ross
• San Anselmo
  • Sleepy Hollow
• San Geronimo
• San Rafael
  • Lucas Valley-Marinwood
  • Las Gallinas
  • Santa Venetia
  • Terra Linda
• Sausalito
  • Marin City
• Stinson Beach
• Tiburon
• Tomales
• Woodacre

Adjacent counties

• San Francisco County, California

south (across the Golden Gate Bridge)

• Contra Costa County, California

east (across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge)

• Sonoma County, California

north

Books and films

Marin County has been used as the venue for numerous films and books; in some cases these works have also incorporated scenes set in neighboring San Francisco or Sonoma County. The following are representative works produced in whole or in part in Marin County:

• Marin County lifestyles of the 1970s were spoofed in the 1977 novel The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County by Cyra McFadden, and in the subsequent film Serial (1980 film) which was based on the novel.
• The Oakland, CA punk band Short Changed first 7" Ep is titled "Burn Down Wagon Town". Wagon Town being a negative connotation of Marin. The song itself appears on their self titled full length, and criticizes the place that several of them grew up.
• The book The Body Snatchers was set in Mill Valley.
• Key scenes in the 1973 movie American Graffiti were filmed in Marin at Tamalpais High School and on 4th Street in downtown San Rafael.
• Scenes from The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II were filmed in Marin.
• Marin County's reputation as a counterculture enclave, especially the town of Bolinas and its isolationist reputation, made it a location of many key events in the 1981 novel Ecotopia Emerging by Ernest Callenbach.
• The 2002 film High Crimes takes place in Marin.
• Many scenes of the 1971 film Dirty Harry and its sequels were filmed in Marin.
• The 2006 film The Beckoning was filmed in Marin, and tells of Sir Francis Drake's landing.
• The 1995 film Village of the Damned was filmed entirely in Marin.
• The 1996 film Jack was filmed almost entirely in Ross.
• The 2001 film Bandits was filmed in Marin.
• The 1997 film Gattaca was filmed at the Marin County Civic Center.
• Scenes from the 1971 film THX 1138 were filmed at the Marin County Civic Center.
• In the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark, the college scenes were filmed at Dominican University of California; additionally, Indiana Jones' home exteriors was filmed in San Rafael.
• In the book Youth in Revolt: The Journals of Nick Twisp, the Twisp family resides in Oakland and Nick's father is in jail in Marin County.
• The book A Time For Dancing was set in Mill Valley, and the characters attended Tamalpais High School
• Scenes from the 1992 film Basic Instinct were filmed in Marin, particularly the car chase scene when Nick Curran (Michael Douglas), follows Catherine Trammell (Sharon Stone) from Mill Valley to Muir Beach on Highway 1.
• In the 1978 movie Foul Play Chevy Chase's character, Tony Carlson, lives on a houseboat in Sausalito.
• Short scenes in the 1995 movie Nine Months were set in Tiburon with a view of San Francisco.
• Short scenes from the 2007 film "Zodiac" were filmed in and around Marin County. Note: the stabbing scene at the lake was not filmed in Novato but at Lake Berryessa.
• The staging of George Grisby's shooting in Lady From Shanghai was shot on the dock outside what is now the Gaylord Indian Restaurant in Sausalito.
• In the television series M*A*S*H, the fictional character Capt. B.J. Hunnicut (played by actor Mike Farrell) was from Mill Valley in Marin County.
• Much of the film Radio Flyer was filmed in Novato (other portions were filmed in Sonora, CA).
• The independent film The Moneytree was set in Marin County.
• Segments from the 2009 film Funny People were filmed in Marin County.