The Old Ways in the Land of Tamalpais

Mount Tamalpais has been a place of magic and power throughout human history. The indigenous Miwok, Pomo and Wappo people held it as sacred, home to Coyote the trickster and therefore out-of-bounds for humans. Tamalpais is a Miwok word, composed of tamal - meaning “coast” or “bay” – joined with the word pais - meaning “mountain”. The correct pronunciation is Tam-ul-pie-us.

The Coast Miwok lived in small, extended family villages of about one hundred persons during the summer, in order to enjoy living at the peak of the environment without the need to destroy, and in larger, ceremonial and political centers during the colder months, all set among tremendous natural wealth and relative peace.

Each village had a male chief and a woman responsible for organizing the ceremonies. The tribal shamans, both women and men, performed both negative and positive rituals and used local plants to create trances. It was accepted that the shaman had the power to cure, kill, predict the future and start the rains.

The Miwok had lived in this area for thousands - possibly 6,000 - years. They desired no walls and walked lightly on the land, leaving no footsteps, always apologizing to the spirits in animals or nature whenever they disturbed them. There is no evidence that the Miwok had words for such concepts as war or prostitution. Their oral history was transmitted through the stories of the elders and shamans. Tribal boundaries were taught to children by rote.

The Miwok culture was rich, centered on hunting and gathering, dancing and music, and shamanism. The arts included fine basketry, feather work and clamshell beads used as money by tribes throughout California.

Wildlife was abundant and diverse, on land, in the waters and on the wing, such that the people needed only to catch something. The land is bordered by water on three sides – the Pacific Ocean to the west, San Francisco Bay to the east, and the Golden Gate entrance to the bay to the south, now spanned by the famous bridge that connects with San Francisco.

Before the arrival of Europeans, for thousands of years the land of Tamalpais was rich with diverse, and nourishing, plants and wildlife. On the earth walked Elk, Antelope, Bear, Deer, Cougar and Wolf. In the sky flew condor, eagle, hawk, numerous sea birds, migrating duck and other waterfowl, so numerous that it was said they blocked the light of the sun. In the ocean, bay, tidal flats, marshland and numerous creeks, there were seals, sea lions, sea otter, salmon, abundant varieties of shellfish and other water life. Also available were acorns, buckeyes, and other seed crops, as well as certain roots, leaves and seaweed.

In 1579, Sir Francis Drake likely stopped in what is now Drake’s Bay. This modern artist’s rendering shows Miwok people going to meet a small launch from Drake’s ship, whose hull is being repaired.

The Miwok had their first encounter with the Europeans in 1579 when Sir Francis Drake, of England, and his crew landed on the shores of Point Reyes, northwest of the mountain. This signaled the beginning of the end of the old ways.

Two hundred years later, in 1770, two Spanish explorers arrived and named the mountain La Sierra de Nuestro Padre de San Francisco, or The Mountain of Our Father, St. Francis.

The Spanish landed in the San Francisco in 1776, and built Our Lady of Sorrows mission church with the labor of Miwok people, who were housed in unhealthy living conditions and began to die from the European diseases and lifestyle. The Spanish raided surrounding tribes, including those in Marin, to replenish their diminishing labor pool.

The Spanish, and then Mexican, church, military and rancheros through the early 1800s brought the destruction of traditional life, through the separation of the indigenous folk from their land and communities.

Much credit for information on the indigenous Coast Miwok goes to Tamalpais Shambhalians Mary Haring and Devin Chatoian, both of whom are knowledgeable about the people and were a great asset to this research. Credit also goes to Mary's colleague, Betty Goerke, whose book, Chief Marin, Leader, Rebel, and Legend: A History of Marin County's Namesake and His People (Heyday Books, 2007) is an invaluable resource to all who care about the land and people of Tamalpais.

"Mount Tamalpais from Napa Slough", by William Marple (1869)

The Americans arrived in the mid-nineteenth century, seeking gold and in the process claiming and settling the land. Chinese immigrants arrived, too, calling California "Gold Mountain" - and landing at Angel Island, the American immigration station located just off Tiburon in Marin County. (Now a state park and museum, the old buildings on Angel Island carry poignant messages in poetry of homesickness and loneliness.)

Chinese and other immigrants from Asia arrived on Angel Island and were a vital part of creating San Francisco, mining the gold and building the railways, including the transcontinental railroad completed in 1869.

With the help of rail service, first-growth redwoods - hundreds, even thousands of years old and hundreds of feet high - were cut down throghout the San Francisco Bay Area to build towns and cities all along the coast of California and inland, and space was cleared first for grazing and agriculture, and later in the expansion of villages and towns. Marin County was no exception.

In Marin County, it was the trains that allowed new towns to sprout up and grow. The trains brought thousands of tourists from San Francisco - up to 10,000 a day in the summer - headed for the clean air, redwood forests and majestic views of Mount Tamalpais, West Marin or for weekend picnics in Fairfax.

The trains also served hundreds of commuters to San Francisco, who needed rail links to the transbay ferryboats in Sausalito, long before the Golden Gate Bridge was built.

And train service supported the dairy and lumber industries of Marin, carrying wood and the world-famous dairy producs of West Marin to San Francisco and beyond.

The North Pacific Coast Railroad was incorporated in 1871. The railroad began at Sausalito where the travelers from San Francisco landed aboard ferry boats. The tracks were constructed across Richardson Bay to Strawberry Point then on to Corte Madera, San Anselmo, Fairfax and over White’s Hill through Taylorville and then on to Point Reyes Station. The last stop in Marin was Tomales but the train continued on to Cazadero in Sonoma County.

The first train ran to Tomales in 1875 and by 1886 the tracks had reached Cazadero. Though the North Pacific Coast Railroad began as a means of transporting lumber to San Francisco, its presence in Marin and Sonoma Counties made those areas more accessible and hence land values rose. Soon people were coming to Marin to build homes.

Beginning in the early 1870s, rail service extended from the Sausalito ferry landing

San Quentin train depot, 1874 - a deep water dock met ferries from San Francisco,

and trains took passengers and freight to San Rafael and on to points west or north

Until the completion of the Golden Gate Bridge between Marin County and San Francisco, the only route to Marin was across the water; ferry services thrived, the Bay Area enjoying dozens of ferry companies serving bayshore cities throughout the region (and upriver to Petaluma, Stockton and Sacramento.)

The San Rafael train depot, now the site of the bus terminal adjacent to Highway 101

Over time, the railroad came to serve commuters and other passengers. To make the trip more attractive, the ferries that connected the railroad to San Francisco were luxuriously furnished. The passenger cars themselves were elegant and were painted a bright yellow. The railroad was always at the point of bankruptcy but it continued to operate and attract more passengers as the little villages along the route grew and the population expanded.

The advent of the narrow gauge railroad made land development possible. The real estate agents mentioned good transportation in their advertisements for development. Descriptions of Marin County as the ideal suburban area began with these early promotional schemes. Today it seems laughable that real estate agents would have to work so hard to sell Marin County homes. But quite a few changes have taken place since the days when you could ride the railroad to Tomales.

Northbound train leaving Sausalito and approaching Pine Point along Richardson Bay

A Mill Valley train headed back to Sausalito, along what is now Miller Avenue, 1898

Here the train arrives at the “Junction” where p assengers could decide to take the line into San Rafael or continue on to Tomales. Today we know this place as San Anselmo.

The great earthquake of 1906 destroyed all of San Francisco - what did not fall down was burned by the ensuing fires - and also affected Marin County. Buildings collapsed and other structures were moved, sometimes dramatically. BUt because Marin was mostly rural at that time, the damage was not as significant as suffered in The City, as locals call San Francisco.

But the earthquake didn't stop people from coming or moving to Marin County and having some fun...

Taylorville was a stop on the railroad for the resort and hotel built under giant redwood trees. The creek was dammed to allow boating and fishing. Circa 1908.

San Rafael Mission, in downtown San Rafael, at a place called Nanaguani by the Miwok, not far from where the Tamalpais Shambhala Meditation Group is now located.

Throughout the 19th and early 20th century, Marin was an important timber and dairy resource for the new inhabitants, providing much of California’s timber, butter, cheese and milk. It was not until the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge in 1936 that the North Bay area – Marin, Sonoma and Napa counties - became more than holiday and rural destinations.

Tourists and day visitors reached Marin County from the East Bay and San Francisco by ferries that docked in Sausalito or San Quentin (also called Tamal) from where trains took passengers (and freight) onward to their destinations.

From San Quentin, trains headed into San Rafael and from there out to San Anselmo, Fairfax and eventually to Point Reyes.

Another line led from San Rafael north to Petaluma, Sonoma and Cloverdale, a distance of 70 miles.

The year 1903 saw introduction of the first interurban electrified lines - self-powered electric cars called Doodle Bugs that carried commuters from town to town and to the ferry depots. Tangerine-colored cars were a familiar sight; students from the far Ross Valley commuted to Tamalpais High School - ten stops from Manor to Mill Valley - on the little self-powered trains.

One old-timer remembers the ride as, "a lot of fun - you got to know your friends really well." The five-car train had a boys car and a girls car; the boys always smoked, he says.

Ferry passengers to Sausalito met trains to Mill Valley, permitting residents to commute to San Francisco and affording visitors an opportunity to explore the slopes of Mount Tamalpais just above Mill Valley. In 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt and Scots immigrant conservationist John Muir dedicated Muir Woods National Monument, 550 acres of old growth redwood forest donated to the nation by a local businessman and member of Congress.

The Mill Valley and Mount Tamalpais Scenic Railway, which operated between Mill Valley, nestled at the south foot of the mountain, was completed in 1896. The Tamalpais Tavern resort and hotel - the first of three on the site - was built at the summit station in 1897. That building burned to the ground in 1923 and was replaced.

The 2,571-foot east peak commands a sweeping view of the entire San Francisco Bay area and most of central California. Part of the Pacific Ocean is also visible and, on clear days, the distant crest of the Sierra Nevada can be seen.

The completed railroad climbed 2,436 feet from Mill Valley, covering 8.25 miles and with 281 curves (including a mid-elevation "double bow knot"). The line was christened "the crookedest railroad in the world." A spur line was built in 1907 from the "bow knot" to nearby Muir Woods redwood grove, where passenger-braked "gravity cars" were a popular later feature.

Mount Tamalpais was a popular excursion destination for San Franciscans. A typical Saturday excursion from San Francisco at the turn of the century included a ferry ride to Sausalito on the Marin shore and a train ride to Mill Valley. There passengers switched to the Tamalpais train, had lunch at the Tavern, and hiked to the summit of the east peak. The day ended with the return to San Francisco by trains and ferry.

The advent of automobiles and paved roads, a major fire and years of declining patronage brought about the end of the railroad and the tavern in 1930.

The last building on the site of the tavern, an army barracks, was removed in 1950. Today the old tavern site is a picnic area, a parking lot and road occupy the dance hall and railroad station sites, and the old railroad grade is a fire break road and hiking trail.

Life in Marin County, along the San Francisco Bay, in the early 1900s was positively idyllic. Although the old growth redwoods had been cut down, gardens and new trees were planted, helping to create an atmosphere of gentility and style.

Towns sprang up along the rail lines and wherever people had congregated their homes, with names now gone, absorbed by larger towns - places such as Baltimore Park, Bivalve, Burdell Park, Dewitt, Hamlet, Hillarita, Manzanita, Meadowsweet, Old Town, Ocean Roar, Rafael Village, Reynolds, Seahaven, Tocaloma, Waldo and Woodville.

One such place was Tamal, the village alongside the deep water port at San Quentin Point, where California built a state prison in 1910. During the 1930s, a succession of progressive prison wardens brought "the Little Olympics" to the prison, providing both athletics and entertainment to the prisoners and local citizens.

Also in the 1930s, construction on a bridge to link Marin County with San Francisco began across a narrow strait at the entrance to San Francisco Bay. This opening had been called "the Golden Gate" for many years and so the bridge assumed the name as well.

Completion of the new bridge now made it possible for many more people to live in, and commute from, Marin County than ever before. Ferry service continue to operated for another decade or two but was diminished dramatically as use of automobiles and buses increased. Rail service continued to provide commuters with easy access to ferry terminals at San Quentin Point and Sausalito, as well as to points within Marin County.

Mill Valley depot, with train to Sausalito and buses, 1940 - Mount Tamalpais in background

Marin's rail system was strengthened when the Northwestern Pacific purchased the remaining lines in 1907 and operated them through the final years of service.

One former employee in the 1950s and '60s says the railroad struggled and changed in the ensuing years, although the freight operations continued strong through the 1970s. ("I remember one day in 1957 counting 100 freight cars in the San Rafael freight yard alone.")

Rail service was compromised with the advent of affordable automobiles and decent roads. The final blow was the Golden Gate Bridge, which opened in 1937, when residents deserted the trains in favor of automobiles and buses.

The last steam train ran on the main line in San Rafael in 1953; passenger service made its final run in 1958.

These days, Marin County is twenty-five per cent suburban - a continuous stretch of towns and cities along Highway 101 from the Golden Gate Bridge through Novato on the northern boundary - but still three-quarters open space protected under private agricultural ownership and an array of Federal, state and local park and preserves. From the air, the landscape is overwhelmingly green and forested or open space dotted with oak trees and chaparral.

Sailing, boating and, yes, taking a ferryboat to San Francisco remain popular ways to enjoy the bay. Although far fewer in number, there remain many active creeks running downhill to either the ocean or the bay in Marin. Salmon still make their annual spawn run in a few of these creeks and citizens actively work to increase their number and habitat. (Watch for the popular automobile bumper sticker, I brake for coho salmon.)

Time moves forward even in the magical land of Tamalpais, including among the descendants of the original peoples, the Miwok and others who once cared for and walked lightly on this place. New arrivals bring with them a vision for a peaceful society based on a greater vision, including the friends and practitioners of the Tamalpais Shambhala Meditation Group.

Credit for most of the images used to illustrate life and transportation in Marin county during the 19th and 20th centuries is owed to the following websites: