Mount Tamalpais Scenic Railway
Mount Tamalpais Scenic Railway

Author: Fred Runner

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 9780738559421

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"A hundred years ago, high on the summit of Mount Tamalpais, stood a grand lodge with a breathtaking view. For 33 years, elegantly dressed men and women came to visit on the gritty steam trains of a famous twisting railroad known affectionately as the Crookedest Railroad in the World. They could dine, dance, and spend the night, and in the morning coast down the mountain in a gravity car. The Mount Tamalpais Scenic Railway had 281 curves in 8 1/5 miles. It had a branch into Muir Woods. It was built by business-minded conservationists in seven months in 1896 and climbed from a depot on the dirt streets of Mill Valley through a redwood forest and on to the rocky summit one-half mile above San Francisco Bay"--P. [4] of cover.

Early Mill Valley
Early Mill Valley

Author: Claudine Chalmers

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 9780738530420

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Mill Valley rests in the shadow of Mount Tamalpais, the tallest peak of the Coast Range. Ancient redwood groves cloaking the mountain's flanks and nearby canyons attracted a pioneer sawmill that gave the town its name. As the timber industry was replaced by dairies, Mill Valley became a destination for those drawn to beauty: hikers, campers, naturalists, artists, writers, and dreamers who gave the town its early bohemian atmosphere. Tamalpais Scenic Railway once ran the "crookedest railroad in the world" to the summit, where passengers exulted in the taste of salty ocean winds, rolling fog, and stunning vistas of the inner bay and ocean shores. Pres. Theodore Roosevelt reserved some of the area's majestic trees, now national parkland webbed with 200 miles of scenic trails, and named them Muir Woods for naturalist John Muir.

The Crookedest Railroad in the World
The Crookedest Railroad in the World

Author: Ted Wurm

Publisher: Gem Guides Book Company

Published: 1983

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780870460630

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Imagine 281 curves, which make 42 complete circles in 8.5 miles of track. This book, filled with 216 photos, tells the history of California's Mt. Tamalpais and Muir Woods railroad, known as "The Crookedest Railroad in the World."

Creating the National Park Service
Creating the National Park Service

Author: Horace M. Albright

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 374

ISBN-13: 9780806131559

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Two men played a crucial role in the creation and early history of the National Park Service: Stephen T. Mather, a public relations genius of sweeping vision, and Horace M. Albright, an able lawyer and administrator who helped transform that vision into reality. In Creating the National Park Service, Albright and his daughter, Marian Albright Schenck, reveal the previously untold story of the critical "missing years" in the history of the service. During this period, 1917 and 1918, Mather's problems with manic depression were kept hidden from public view, and Albright, his able and devoted assistant, served as acting director and assumed Mather's responsibilities. Albright played a decisive part in the passage of the National Park Service Organic Act of 1916; the formulation of principles and policies for management of the parks; the defense of the parks against exploitation by ranchers, lumber companies, and mining interests during World War I; and other issues crucial to the future of the fledgling park system. This authoritative behind-the-scenes history sheds light on the early days of the most popular of all federal agencies while painting a vivid picture of American life in the early twentieth century.