Bolinas, California

History

Prior to the European colonization of California, the Coast Miwok lived in the area, possibly calling the area "Bali-N".

Bolinas and present-day Stinson Beach were once encompassed by Rancho Las Baulines, a Mexican land grant given by Governor Pío Pico to Gregorio Briones in 1846.

The first post office in the town of Bolinas opened in 1863. The post office closed on March 3, 2023. The town's residents have petitioned for it to reopen.

In 1927, a 300 acres (121 ha) former dairy farm on the Big Mesa was subdivided into a grid of streets and 5,336 lots measuring 20 ft × 100 ft (6.1 m × 30.5 m). Many of these lots were sold for $69.50 by the San Francisco Bulletin as a subscription promotion. Portions of the mesa, including sections of Ocean Parkway, have since eroded into the sea. A few streets on the mesa are paved and maintained by the county, but many are unpaved, and either maintained by adjoining property owners or completely unmaintained. The Big Mesa doesn't have sewer system, and houses on the mesa have individual septic systems.

The Bolinas beaches were hit hard by the 1971 San Francisco Bay oil spill, with the community coming together to clean the beach of crude oil.

The Bolinas Museum was founded in 1983. It contains five galleries featuring contemporary art, historical information, and works from local artists.

From the History section of Bolinas, California on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.