Muir Woods National Monument, located on Mount Tamalpais on the Marin Peninsula north of  San Francisco, California, is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The monument protects 554 acres of old-growth redwood forest, one of the few remaining stands in the San Francisco Bay Area. Designated the country’s tenth National Monument in 1908 by President Theodore Roosevelt, it was the first federal or state park established in the region.

Before the European settlement of the Marin Peninsula in the early 19th century, Muir Woods and the surrounding lands of Redwood Canyon were part of the homeland of the Coast Miwok people. Little archaeological evidence has been found on habitation in Redwood Canyon. The Indians most likely used the area for hunting, fishing, and gatherin,g and considered the redwood forest a part of their home. In the early 19th century, the Coast Miwok people were decimated by European diseases soon after Spanish missions were established at present-day San Rafael in about 1817. By 1840, their population was reduced by an estimated 90%.

In 1836, the Mexican government granted much of the Marin Peninsula, including Redwood Canyon, to William Antonio Richardson, who named the land “Rancho Sausalito.” Richardson maintained most of the ranch as open grazing lands, although forested areas were logged, particularly after the California Gold Rush of 1849. In 1856, Richardson sold most of Rancho Sausalito to Samuel R. Throckmorton, who rented out subdivided parcels to farmers. Throckmorton retained a large, unsubdivided area encompassing Redwood Canyon and extending north to the upper reaches of Mount Tamalpais as his private hunting preserve. Although most of the remaining redwood groves on the Marin Peninsula were logged during Throckmorton’s ownership of Rancho Sausalito, he retained the forest in Redwood Canyon. In 1883, Throckmorton died and left his debt-ridden estate, which included 14,000 acres of the ranch, to his daughter, Susanna Throckmorton.

Unable to pay off her father’s debts, Susannah Throckmorton sold Rancho Sausalito in 1889 to the Tamalpais Land & Water Company, which set about plans to develop the ranchlands along the east side of Marin County into the community of Mill Valley. On the west side, the company continued to rent out the subdivided ranch lands. Still, it retained Samuel Throckmorton’s hunting preserve, including Redwood Canyon, as undivided lands and granted their use to the Tamalpais Sportsman’s Association. With the help of one of its prominent members, William Kent, the club managed the redwood forest through the turn of the century, during a period of increasing visitation. Much of this increased activity had resulted from development in the region by the Tamalpais Land & Water Company and rail access to the summit of Mount Tamalpais.

By the turn of the century, development pressures increased, including a proposal to dam Redwood Creek and destroy part of the redwood forest. At the same time, local conservation and hiking groups began to press for the public acquisition of Mount Tamalpais. These pressures and his conservation sensibilities led William Kent to acquire 612 acres of Redwood Canyon in 1905 to safeguard its redwood forest and improve public access. Together with Mill Valley and the Mt. Tamalpais Scenic Railway, Kent developed Redwood Canyon into a public park with rail access, improved road access, and visitor amenities, including footpaths, bridges, and benches, all designed in a rustic style typical of parks and forested landscapes of the period. An inn at the terminus of the mountain railway, which formed the main entrance to the park, was also planned as part of the improvements.

In the fall of 1907, a year after the great earthquake in San Francisco increased demand for water and timber, a private water company, the North Coast Water Company, filed condemnation proceedings to acquire 47 acres of William Kent’s Redwood Canyon tract for the construction of a reservoir. The reservoir construction would have flooded the upper portion of the canyon floor, necessitating the logging of many of the giant redwoods, dividing the park into two parts, and destroying improvements made by Kent and the mountain railway. To circumvent the condemnation proceedings and secure the long-term preservation of the redwood forest, Kent gifted 298 acres of his 612-acre Redwood Canyon tract to the federal government on December 26, 1907, a gift that excluded the terminus of the mountain railway. On January 9, 1908, the 298-acre tract was declared a National Monument by President Theodore Roosevelt. Kent named the site Muir Woods National Monument after the noted wilderness preservationist John Muir, who lived in Martinez across San Pablo Bay from Marin County. Muir had no known association with Redwood Canyon besides a visit he had made there in 1904, nor had Kent met Muir then.

Despite the monument designation, the North Coast Water Company continued its legal suit for another year before dropping it. Muir Woods National Monument was managed through the General Land Office within the Department of the Interior until 1917. A few improvements were made to Muir Woods during this period, but it was managed primarily by the mountain railway and William Kent. In 1917, the management of Muir Woods was transferred to the National Park Service, which Congress had created the previous year to improve management of federal parks, and which was then administered by a wide array of agencies. For the next decade, the National Park Service assumed primary responsibility for managing Muir Woods, although the mountain railway and William Kent continued to play critical roles. The administration was carried out through Yosemite National Park and regional park offices in San Francisco. In 1921, William Kent donated 150 acres to expand the monument. Improvements during this period included the addition of signs, an entrance gate, new footbridges, a residence for the custodian, and comfort stations, all designed in a particular rustic style developed by the National Park Service and employed at other forested parks in the region. A parking area was also formed at the south entrance on lands belonging to William Kent, with access from the Muir Woods Toll Road, built by Kent, and the mountain railway in 1925.

In 1928, William Kent died, coinciding with the financial decline of the mountain railway due to competition from automobiles. A fire in 1929 destroyed the branch line to Muir Woods and the Tavern of Tamalpais at the top of the mountain. The following year, the railway ceased operations. With the closure of the railway, the main entrance to Muir Woods shifted almost entirely to the automobile entrance at the south end of the monument. Kent’s death and the closure of the mountain railway gave the National Park Service full administrative authority over Muir Woods. Much of the land bordering Muir Woods that William Kent had owned became part of Mount Tamalpais State Park, established in 1930. Beginning in 1933 and lasting through 1941, the Civilian Conservation Corps undertook extensive improvement work in Muir Woods and the state park, based at a camp at the railway terminus. Many of these improvements to Muir Woods were constructed to accommodate increasing visitation, which had increased markedly with the opening of the Muir Woods Toll Road in 1925 and the adjoining Panoramic Highway in 1928.

The completion of the Golden Gate Bridge in 1937 increased visitation further. Work by the Civilian Conservation Corps, designed mainly by National Park Service regional architects and landscape architects, included massive log footbridges over Redwood Creek, a stone-faced arch bridge over Fern Creek, a log entrance gate, improved trails, a redesigned parking area at the south entrance on state parkland, new signs and picnic facilities, and several new buildings, all designed in a romantic rustic style employing features such as log construction, exposed timber framing, hand-hewn signs, and naturalistic plantings. In 1940, the largest building at Muir Woods —the Administration-Concession Building—was completed in a streamlined rustic style that departed from the earlier development of the monument.

By the early 1950s, visitation had ballooned after a period of relative stability during the 1940s. These large increases in visitation to Muir Woods led to significant crowding that strained the improvements made by the Civilian Conservation Corps, which had suffered due to a lack of maintenance and funding during the war and post-war years. This situation set the stage for a new era of development, coinciding with broad shifts in design, natural resource management, and planning throughout the National Park System. In 1956, NPS launched a ten-year improvement program that included removing development within the woods, constructing a visitor center and employee housing, expanding parking, and acquiring additional land for park support.

The 1970s saw the expansion of Mount Tamalpais State Park to encompass nearly all of the land surrounding Muir Woods and the creation, in 1972, of a metropolitan and regional park system, Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Muir Woods was incorporated into this new park system.

The monument is open to visitors daily, with a fee, from 8:00 a.m. to sunset. The National Park Service has launched a parking and shuttle reservation system to protect the area. To book your trip to Muir Woods, visit GoMuirWoods.com or call 1-800-410-2419.

No camping or lodging is in the park, and pets are not permitted. The monument is located 11 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge

More Information:

Muir Woods National Monument 
1 Muir Woods Rd
Mill Valley, CA 94941
415-561-2850