Samuel P. Taylor State Park is a state park located in Marin County,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. It contains approximately of redwood forest and grassland. The park contains about of old-growth forest, some of which can be seen along the Pioneer Tree Trail.

History

The park is named for Samuel Penfield Taylor, who found gold during the California Gold Rush and used some of his money to buy a parcel of land along

Lagunitas Creek Lagunitas Creek is a -longU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed December 27, 2017 northward-flowing stream in Marin County, California. It is critically important to the large ...

. In 1856, Taylor built the Pioneer Paper Mill, the first paper mill on the Pacific Coast. In the 1870s, 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 which rebuilt the southern section into a standa ...

was built between Cazadero and a pier in

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 ...

where passengers could transfer to a ferry to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. The railroad passed near Taylor's mill, and, ever the entrepreneur, he built the "Camp Taylor Resort" alongside the tracks. A destination for San Franciscans, the resort offered both a hotel and tent camping, as well as swimming, boating, fishing, and a dance pavilion.Dierke, James S.
Samuel Penfield Taylor: Forty-niner, Timber Tycoon, Freemason
." ''The Scottish Rite Journal, August 1999'' (accessed June 4, 2006). Taylor died on January 22, 1886, and his family lost the mill and resort in the Panic of 1893. However, a 1910 newspaper advertisement for the "Camp Taylor Resort," touting its dance pavilion and on-site grocery and butcher, indicates that the resort continued to operate. The mill burned down in 1916, and in 1945 the State of California took possession of the property for non-payment of taxes. During the state budget deficit, Taylor Park was one of many state parks that were at risk of closing due to lack of funding. Efforts were made to find funding to keep Samuel P. Taylor and other parks open. The ''San Francisco Chronicle'', on October 7, 2011, reported that "the National Park Service has agreed to take over security and operations of Samuel P. Taylor Park."''San Francisco Chronicle'', October 7, 2011

Notes

External links

* * San Francisco Wiki - Samuel P. Taylor State Park Maps, hiking trails, winter run coho salmon
Trailspotting: Hiking Mount Barnabe
GPS/mapping data, hike description & photos {{authority control State parks of California Parks in Marin County, California Protected areas established in 1945 1945 establishments in California Bay Area Ridge Trail