Samuel P. Taylor State Park is a

state park State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "Federated state, state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on accou ...

located in

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

, United States, which includes approximately of redwood forest and grassland. The park contains about of

old-growth forest An old-growth forest or primary forest is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without disturbance. Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Natio ...

, some of which can be seen along the Pioneer Tree Trail.

History

The park is named for

Samuel Penfield Taylor Samuel Penfield Taylor (October 9, 1827, in Saugerties, New York – January 22, 1886, in San Francisco, California) was an entrepreneur who made his fortune during the California Gold Rush. He is best known for building the Pioneer Paper Mill, t ...

, who found gold during the

California Gold Rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...

and used some of his money to buy a parcel of land along

Lagunitas Creek Lagunitas Creek is a U.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 largest s ...

. 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 rebuilt the southern section into a standard-ga ...

was built between

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 ...

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 p ...

where passengers could transfer to a ferry to

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 ...

. 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 The Panic of 1893 was an economic depression in the United States. It began in February 1893 and officially ended eight months later. The Panic of 1896 followed. It was the most serious economic depression in history until the Great Depression of ...

. 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 6, 2011, reported that "the National Park Service has agreed to take over security and operations of Samuel P. Taylor Park."

Notes

External links

*
San Francisco Wiki - Samuel P. Taylor State Park
Maps, hiking trails, winter run coho salmon

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 Coast redwood groves