San Geronimo Valley is located in

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 a ...

, California, composed of four unincorporated towns: Woodacre, San Geronimo, Forest Knolls, and Lagunitas. It is a fairly close-knit community, with a rather liberal citizenry. The farther west one goes along the valley, the more forested the land becomes. The valley is bisected roughly east-to-west by Sir Francis Drake Boulevard; a number of streets in the towns along this road were constructed on the former right-of-way of the

Northwestern Pacific Railroad The Northwestern Pacific Railroad is a regional shortline railroad utilizing a stretch of the 271 mile mainline between Schellville and Windsor with freight and Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) commuter trains. Formerly, it was a r ...

. The valley has numerous hiking/biking trails. Most of the residents reside on the south, shadier, side of the valley. The San Geronimo Valley derives its name from the San Geronimo Ranch, established by Adolph Mailliard and Ann Eliza Ward in 1868, where they bred thoroughbred horses, including the famous stallion Monday, who sired most of the race horses in California. San Geronimo Valley Community Center 2

The Valley is part of the

Lagunitas School District The Lagunitas School District is a public K–8 school, K–8 school district located 18 miles northwest of San Francisco in western-central Marin County, California. The district serves students in the unincorporated San Geronimo Valley, includin ...

, unique in that it operates two alternative elementary programs and a traditional middle school program on two connected campuses with one superintendent, one principal, and one school board. Each elementary program (

Open Classroom An open classroom is a student-centered learning space design format which first became popular in North America in the late 1960s and 1970s, with a re-emergence in the early 21st century. Theory The idea of the open classroom was that a lar ...

Montessori The Montessori method of education involves children's natural interests and activities rather than formal teaching methods. A Montessori classroom places an emphasis on hands-on learning and developing real-world skills. It emphasizes indepen ...

-inspired) has its own unique philosophy and pedagogical methods, all working within the framework of the California professional and academic standards. Each program involves parent participation to some degree. The main businesses in the Valley are the Papermill Saloon in Forest Knolls, Arti Cafe, Woodacre Market and Deli, and the Lagunitas Grocery, though there are numerous others. Woodacre is home to

Spirit Rock Meditation Center Spirit Rock Meditation Center, commonly called Spirit Rock, is a meditation center in Woodacre, California. It focuses on the teachings of the Buddha as presented in the vipassana, or Insight Meditation, tradition.Van Biema, David, "Buddhism in A ...

, dedicated to the teachings of

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in ...

and

Vipasannā ''Samatha'' (Pāli; sa, शमथ ''śamatha''; ), "calm," "serenity," "tranquillity of awareness," and ''vipassanā'' (Pāli; Sanskrit ''vipaśyanā''), literally "special, super (''vi-''), seeing (''-passanā'')", are two qualities of the ...

mediation; Dickson Ranch, and the

Marin County Fire Department The Marin County Fire Department (MCFD) is the principal fire department for the county of Marin. History The first formal fire department in what is now Marin County was The Tamalpais Forestry Association, formed around the turn of the 19th c ...

headquarters. San Geronimo Valley also comprises the greater part of the Lagunitas Watershed, in which some of the last remaining

coho salmon The coho salmon (''Oncorhynchus kisutch;'' Karuk: achvuun) is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family and one of the five Pacific salmon species. Coho salmon are also known as silver salmon or "silvers". The scientific species n ...

spawn. The San Geronimo Valley Community Center, attached to the school district, is a hub for community events and hosts the local food bank.

References

See also