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THE 2 MILE STORY

In the 1960s, Bolinas was a small fishing village with a few vacation homes along the cliff and beach. In the early 70s, a huge oil spill off the coast threatened to kill much of the natural habitat and marine life. It was at this point that Bolinas was discovered. Hundreds of hippies from Berkeley and the Haight-Ashbury made their way to Bolinas to rescue birds and clean up the oil spill. Many of them liked Bolinas so much that they decided to settle down here. In the early 70's the number of homes more than tripled, changing Bolinas from a small fishing village to a thriving community full of young idealists. In mid 70's the new community decided to stop all growth in Bolinas by restricting water rights to new homebuilders. It was during this period that the road sign to Bolinas was first torn down with the hope of making the town more difficult for new people to find. Every decade or so, the county of Marin replaced the sign, but it was always torn down within days. The last sign (seen above in 1992) wasn't up for more than 24 hours. (The original road sign read "Bolinas 2" with an arrow pointing in the direction of the town. Thus creating the 2 mile legend.)

Restricting development and taking down road signs was an effective way to keep Bolinas off the map into the early 90s. But in the age of MapQuest and million-dollar remodels, it isn't enough. Bolinas has been changing into what you might expect of a beach town just an hour away from San Francisco. The changes have created mixed feelings for the local community. For some carpenters, real estate agents, and local businesses, the changes have created new opportunities. But it has also become more difficult for free-thinking artists and idealists to survive, and the town has probably lost some of the isolation that first attracted them.