Point Reyes Station (formerly Marin and Olema Station) is a small unincorporated town in western

Marin County Marin County ( ) is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is ac ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, United States. Point Reyes Station is located south-southeast of Tomales, at an elevation of . Point Reyes Station is located along State Route 1 and is a gateway to the

Point Reyes National Seashore Point Reyes National Seashore is a park preserve located on the Point Reyes, Point Reyes Peninsula in Marin County, California. As a national seashore, it is maintained by the US United States National Park Service, National Park Service as an ...

, an extremely popular national preserve. The Point Reyes Station

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

(CDP) covers the unincorporated town and adjacent development to the north, with a total population of 895 as of the 2020 census.

Geography

Point Reyes Station is located at , just south and east of the southern end of

Tomales Bay Tomales Bay is a long, narrow inlet of the Pacific Ocean in Marin County in northern California in the United States. Geography Tomales Bay is approximately long and averages nearly wide, with relatively shallow depths averaging 18 ft, eff ...

, and slightly east of the

San Andreas Fault The San Andreas Fault is a continental Fault (geology)#Strike-slip faults, right-lateral strike-slip transform fault that extends roughly through the U.S. state of California. It forms part of the tectonics, tectonic boundary between the Paci ...

just before the fault submerges down the center of Tomales Bay. Via State Route 1, it is northwest of Stinson Beach and southeast of Tomales.

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

is to the southeast via Point Reyes–Petaluma Road, Nicasio Valley Road, and Lucas Valley Road. Formerly an actual port and railway terminus, Point Reyes Station nominally borders Tomales Bay; the introduction of European cattle and planting of European grass seed on the natural hills caused destructive erosion, and a combination of small dirt dams, silting, and intentional landfill for farming raised the level of former salt marshes and has left Point Reyes Station approximately from the nearest tidal flats, and that after expenditure of millions of dollars and recent efforts for reclamation of the natural environment. The CDP has a total area of , all land.

History

Once land of the

Coast Miwok The Coast Miwok are an Indigenous people of California that were the second-largest tribe of the Miwok people. Coast Miwok inhabited the general area of present-day Marin County and southern Sonoma County in Northern California, from the Golde ...

Indians, Point Reyes Station gets its name from the nearby Point Reyes Peninsula (a major peninsula sticking out into the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

) and its status as a terminus stop on the

North Pacific Coast Railroad The North Pacific Coast Railroad (NPC) was a common carrier narrow-gauge steam railroad begun in 1874 and sold in 1902 to new owners who renamed it the North Shore Railroad (California) (NSR) and rebuilt the southern section into a standard-ga ...

connecting

Cazadero Cazadero may refer to: * Cazadero (volcano), a mountain in Argentina * Cazadero, California, U.S. * Cazadero, Oregon, U.S. * Cazadero Dam, a dam in the U.S. state of Oregon See also

* {{disambiguation, geo ...

to the

Sausalito Sausalito (Spanish for "small willow grove") is a city in Marin County, California, United States, located southeast of Marin City, south-southeast of San Rafael, and about north of San Francisco from the Golden Gate Bridge. Sausalito's p ...

ferry. Point Reyes Station is very close to the

, which was responsible for the

1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 AM Pacific Time Zone, Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated Moment magnitude scale, moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli inte ...

. At one time, the epicenter of the quake was thought to be near Olema. A walking tour of the fault can be taken from the Point Reyes National Seashore's Visitor Center. The place was called "Olema Station" when the railroad arrived in 1875. The Point Reyes post office opened in 1882. Its name changed thrice in 1891: first to Marin, then back to Point Reyes, and finally to the modern Point Reyes Station.

Demographics

Point Reyes Station first appeared as a

census designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

in the 2000 U.S. Census. The 2020 United States census reported that the Point Reyes Station CDP had a population of 895. The population density was . The racial makeup of the CDP was 677 (75.6%)

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 9 (1.0%)

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 11 (1.2%) Native American, 16 (1.8%) Asian, 4 (0.4%)

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 72 (8.0%) from other races, and 106 (11.8%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 183 persons (20.4%). The census reported that 879 people (98.2% of the population) lived in households and 16 (1.8%) were institutionalized. There were 394 households, out of which 80 (20.3%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 182 (46.2%) were married-couple households, 26 (6.6%) were

cohabiting Cohabitation is an arrangement where people who are not legally married live together as a couple. They are often involved in a romantic or sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. Such arrangements have become incr ...

couple households, 131 (33.2%) had a female householder with no partner present, and 55 (14.0%) had a male householder with no partner present. 136 households (34.5%) were one person, and 84 (21.3%) were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.23. There were 228

families Family (from ) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictability, structure, and safety as ...

(57.9% of all households). The age distribution was 130 people (14.5%) under the age of 18, 40 people (4.5%) aged 18 to 24, 154 people (17.2%) aged 25 to 44, 243 people (27.2%) aged 45 to 64, and 328 people (36.6%) who were 65years of age or older. The median age was 56.0years. For every 100 females, there were 86.1 males. There were 487 housing units at an average density of , of which 394 (80.9%) were occupied. Of these, 229 (58.1%) were owner-occupied, and 165 (41.9%) were occupied by renters. Point Reyes-Petaluma Road View

Economy

A number of agricultural companies, many using organic and

sustainable Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...

practices, are located there, including Cowgirl Creamery and

Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company is an artisanal cheese company located in Point Reyes Station, California, Point Reyes Station in Marin County, California with dairy farmland located in the Point Reyes area. The company received the 2013 Calif ...

. Marin Organic operates out of the city.

Education

It is in the Shoreline Unified School District.
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References

External links

West Marin Chamber of Commerce''West Marin Citizen'' homepage''The Point Reyes Light'' homepagePoint Reyes Station Public LibraryKWMR - West Marin Public Radio
* {{authority control Census-designated places in Marin County, California West Marin Census-designated places in California Populated coastal places in California