If you are contemplating relocating to Marin County, you are in for truly enjoyable times ahead. One of the most beautiful and unique areas in America, Marin County not only promises gorgeous scenery, but also excellent schools, fine restaurants, endless open spaces and parks, great shopping, and that only grazes the surface.
Marin County’s southernmost reaches are some of the most sought-after places to live – and most of them are in direct view of the amazing Golden Gate Bridge. A first time visitor to the area was so overwhelmed with the fantastic scenery as he drove up US101 that he literally “had to pull off the road.” Amazingly, he was a jaded advertising man from New York City!
Sausalito, with its houseboats and long waterfront, has incredible views of San Francisco. Tiburon, which is just west of Sausalito, not only has phenomenal views of the City; it also has wide-open spaces. The pice de rsistance is the island City of Belvedere, one of the wealthiest municipalities in the United States, which sits between Tiburon to the west and Sausalito to the east.
Located in Mill Valley, Tamalpais High School – also open to attendance from Sausalito – was awarded the California Distinguished School Award in 1999, 2005, and 2009 and has ranked in the top 5% of American schools since 2005. Mill Valley is perhaps the most popular municipality for families with children in Marin County.
The process of relocating to Marin County is made much simpler by easily accessed online information that is available about virtually every aspect of each town that one could wish to know. To illustrate, copy and enter the following URL into your browser window: http://www.city-data.com/city/Mill-Valley-California.html. To learn about Tiburon, Belvedere or Sausalito, simply substitute these places for the Mill Valley part of the URL.
Another exceptional characteristic of Marin is its topographic variety, starting with tidal flats along the shoreline and rising up the craggy 2,600 foot Mt. Tamalpais. Verdant and soaring Redwood groves and the open trails of the Tennessee Valley Trailhead, which is part of the Marin Headlands and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area National Park Service, are ideal places for hikes and horseback riding.
Swimming, boating, fishing are all possible in the San Pablo and San Francisco Bays as well as the Pacific Ocean.
Marin County is also interesting from a historic point of view. Inhabited by the Miwok Indians at the time of the Gold Rush in the early 1850s, the area became most fully populated after the 1906 Earthquake and fires that followed in San Francisco, driving many people of different nationalities across the Bay to Marin County. Owned by Mexico before the US Mexican War, the area was broken into enormous ranchos that were given to Mexicans and Americans who spoke Spanish.
The famous explorer, famed Sir Francis Drake, sailed into a small harbor in western Marin County in 1579 to repair The Golden Hind, his ship after a year of pillaging along the Mexican coast. As was his custom, he claimed the surrounding territory for Queen Elizabeth I and England, but those claims were never acknowledged.