WHERE DOES THE NAME “MARIN” COME FROM?
Marin County was named for a Coast Miwok Indian warrior known as Chief Marin. He fought against the Spanish military occupation and its effects on the local native people. During one incident, the Spanish chased Marin to what are now known as the Marin Islands, in the bay off San Rafael. Marin was finally captured and taken to San Francisco in 1824. When he was set free he returned to what is now Marin County and worked as a boatman for the Mission San Rafael. He died in 1834.

WHAT DID SIR FRANCIS DRAKE DO IN MARIN COUNTY?
Sir Francis Drake was an English pirate in the employ of Queen Elizabeth I of England. He attacked Spanish vessels carrying gold and silver from South America. He sailed through the Strait of Magellan, up the west coast of South America and eventually well into the north Pacific looking for the fabled Northwest Passage. On his way back south in 1579, he sailed into a small harbor to repair his ship, the Golden Hinde. Most historians believe the harbor was Drake’s Bay on the Point Reyes peninsula, although there is considerable debate as to the exact location. The only account of the landing is in Francis Fletcher’s book The World Encompassed. Drake and his crew stayed on the coast for 36 days. During that time, he had many occasions to meet with the native Coast Miwok people, and claimed to have been crowned as their king. He claimed the land for England, calling it Nova Albion (New England in Latin), and sailed westward to complete his circumnavigation of the world.

IN WHAT YEAR DID THE NORTHWESTERN PACIFIC RAILROAD END ITS PASSENGER SERVICE IN MARIN COUNTY?
The passenger service ended in 1941. After the Golden Gate Bridge was finished in 1937, more people started driving cars and train ridership fell off. Ferry service was also stopped for several decades.

WHEN WAS THE MISSION SAN RAFAEL FOUNDED, AND BY WHOM?
The Mission was founded on December 14, 1817 by Father Prefect Francisco Sarria, Father Luis Gil y Taboada, and friars Ramon Abella and Narciso Duran. Lieutenant Luis Arguello, the Commandant of the San Francisco Presidio, was also present with several soldiers. In the beginning, the Mission was known as an asistencia, or hospital, for sick Indians who were living at the Mission Dolores in San Francisco, and who were transferred to San Rafael for the supposed health effects offered by the warmer, drier climate.

WHAT WAS MARVELOUS MARIN?
Marvelous Marin was a booster club founded to promote Marin County. It was formed in 1925 to promote real estate and business investment in the county. At that time, plans for the Golden Gate Bridge were being considered, and Marvelous Marin provided important political and civic support for the bridge.

MARIN IN BOOKS AND FILMS

• Marin County has been used as the venue for numerous films and books; in some cases these works have also incorporated scenes set in neighboring San Francisco or Sonoma County. The following are representative works produced in whole or in part in Marin County:
• Marin County lifestyles of the 1970s were spoofed in the 1977 novel The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County by Cyra McFadden, and in the subsequent film Serial (1980 film) which was based on the novel.
• The book The Body Snatchers was set in Mill Valley.
• Key scenes in the 1973 movie American Graffiti were filmed in Marin at Tamalpais High School and on 4th Street in downtown San Rafael.
• Scenes from The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II were filmed in Marin.
• Marin County's reputation as a counterculture enclave, especially the town of Bolinas and its isolationist reputation, made it a location of many key events in the 1981 novel Ecotopia Emerging by Ernest Callenbach.
• The 2002 film High Crimes takes place in Marin.
• Many scenes of the 1971 film Dirty Harry and its sequels were filmed in Marin.
• The 2006 film The Beckoning was filmed in Marin, and tells of Sir Francis Drake's landing.
• The 1995 film Village of the Damned was filmed entirely in Marin.
• The 1996 film Jack was filmed almost entirely in Ross.
• The 2001 film Bandits was filmed in Marin.
• The 1997 film Gattaca was filmed at the Marin County Civic Center.
• Scenes from the 1971 film THX 1138 were filmed at the Marin County Civic Center.
• In the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark, the college scenes were filmed at Dominican University of California; additionally, Indiana Jones' home exteriors was filmed in San Rafael.
• In the book Youth in Revolt: The Journals of Nick Twisp, the Twisp family resides in Oakland and Nick's father is in jail in Marin County.
• The book A Time For Dancing was set in Mill Valley, and the characters attended Tamalpais High School
• Scenes from the 1992 film Basic Instinct were filmed in Marin, particularly the car chase scene when Nick Curran (Michael Douglas), follows Catherine Trammell (Sharon Stone) from Mill Valley to Muir Beach on Highway 1.
• In the 1978 movie Foul Play Chevy Chase's character, Tony Carlson, lives on a houseboat in Sausalito.
• Short scenes in the 1995 movie Nine Months were set in Tiburon with a view of San Francisco.
• Short scenes from the 2007 film "Zodiac" were filmed in and around Marin County. Note: the stabbing scene at the lake was not filmed in Novato but at Lake Berryessa.
• The staging of George Grisby's shooting in Lady From Shanghai was shot on the dock outside what is now the Gaylord Indian Restaurant in Sausalito.
• In the television series M*A*S*H, the fictional character Capt. B.J. Hunnicut (played by actor Mike Farrell) was from Mill Valley in Marin County.