Bolinas and Stinson Beach: California

This is the story of two small towns, Bolinas and Stinson Beach, and the body of water that separates and joins them. Although San Francisco’s packed urban skyline is visible from its shores, this part of West Marin is isolated in spirit and in fact. For thousands of years the territory of the Coast Miwok Indians, this land became the six-mile-long Briones Mexican land grant, a ranch that lasted less than a decade before being overrun with entrepreneurs, farmers, and failed gold miners. The towns that they built have been visited by earthquake, shipwreck, forest fires, ranchers, rumrunners, bohemians, and the National Park Service, and all of these have shaped their story. While Bolinas maintained its spirit of isolation, removing the road sign that might beckon visitors, Stinson Beach grew from a tent camp for urban refugees to a favorite coastal beach town visited by millions annually.