c. North Pacific Coast/Northwestern Pacific 

 Railroad 



A syndicate formed the North Pacific Coast Railroad (NPCRR) in 1871 

 for the purpose of constructing a railroad and ferry line from San Francisco to 

 the timber-rich Russian River area. Syndicate president James McMillan 

 Shatter influenced the engineers to route the railroad through the Tomales Bay 

 area to benefit the dairy ranchers, many of which were tenants of Shafter's. 

 After procuring rights-of-way from local landowners, the narrow-gauge railroad 

 was constructed during 1873-74 and opened for traffic on January 7, 1875. With 

 termini in Sausalito and San Rafael, where company-owned ferries completed 

 the connection to San Francisco, the line passed through the Ross Valley, over 

 White's Hill and through the San Geronimo Valley, then into the narrow 

 Lagunitas Canyon and across a trestle to the future site of Point Reyes Station. 

 Here the NPCRR built a depot, and within a decade the new town had 

 surpassed Olema in importance and commerce. The railroad continued north 

 along the east shoreline of Tomales Bay and then inland to Tomales and 

 onward to the Russian River area. 85 



Local dairymen and residents, as well as travelers from the city, used 

 stops along the line including Camp Taylor, Taylorville (Pioneer Paper Mill), 

 Jewell's, Tocaloma and Garcia. Jewell's and Garcia were dairy ranch flagstops, 

 while Camp Taylor and Tocaloma attracted tourists to the hotels and camping 

 facilities. A stage could be caught at Tocaloma for Olema and Bolinas. 



After a decade of failures and physical deterioration, the line was 

 purchased and renamed North Shore Railroad. The new owners made 

 improvements and, in 1907, sold out to a consortium of North Bay railroads, the 

 Northwestern Pacific Railroad (NWP). The NWP rebuilt the tracks to standard 

 gauge in 1920, but loss of lumber freight business and the advent of 

 automobiles, trucks and improved roads led to the abandonment of the line 

 northwest of Fairfax in 1933. The right-of-way reverted to the ranch owners. 86 



About 9 miles of the railbed of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad 

 remains intact from Lagunitas to Point Reyes Station. It is paved as a multi- 



85 A. Bray Dickinson, Narrow Gaufte to the Redwoods (Berkeley: Trans-Anglo Books, 1967), 

 pp. 41-42; Mason, Earthquake Bay, pp. 28-29. 



86 Dickinson, Narrow Gauge, p. 128. 



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