About Point Reyes Station

Point Reyes Station (formerly, Marin and Olema Station) is small unincorporated town located in western Marin County, California. Point Reyes Station is located 13 miles (21 km) south-southeast of Tomales, at an elevation of 39 feet (12 m). Point Reyes Station is located along State Route 1 and is a gateway to the Point Reyes National Seashore, an extremely popular national preserve. About 350 people live in the town. It is also the name of a census-designated place in northern California covering the unincorporated town and surrounding countryside, with a total CDP population of 848.

The town is home to two weekly newspapers, The West Marin Citizen and The Point Reyes Light. The latter won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for its reporting on the now-defunct cult group Synanon but is now under new ownership and editorial staff.

Formerly an actual port and railway terminus, Point Reyes Station, CA nominally borders Tomales Bay; the introduction of European cattle and planting of European grass seed on the natural hills caused destructive erosion and a combination of small dirt dams, silting, and intentional landfill for farming raised the level of former salt marshes and has left Point Reyes Station approximately 0.8-mile (1.3 km) from the nearest tidal flats, and that after expenditure of millions of dollars and recent efforts for reclamation of the natural environment.

Once land of the Coast Miwok Indians, Point Reyes Station gets its name from the nearby Point Reyes Peninsula (a major peninsula sticking out into the Pacific Ocean) and its status as a terminus stop on the North Pacific Coast Railroad connecting Cazadero to the Sausalito ferry.

Point Reyes Station is very close to the San Andreas Fault responsible for the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. At one time, the epicenter of the quake was thought to be nearby, in Olema. A faultline walking tour can be taken from the Point Reyes National Seashore's Visitor Center.

The place was called Olema Station when the railroad arrived in 1875. The Point Reyes post office opened in 1882, changed its name to Marin in 1891, changed it back to Point Reyes later in 1891, and changed it to Point Reyes Station later in 1891.