Fairfax, California, United States

🇺🇸 Fairfax is an incorporated town in Marin County, California, United States. Fairfax is located 3.25 miles (5.2 km) west-northwest of San Rafael, at an elevation of 115 feet (35 m).

History The Coast Miwok Native Americans occupied stretches along local creeks, spring and seep areas; moreover, prehistoric habitations were usually chosen near permanent and seasonal drainages, typically along flat ridges and terraces.

The town was named for Lord Charles Snowden Fairfax. In 1861, Fairfax was the site of the last political duel in California. Daniel Showalter and Charles W. Piercy, both former assemblymen in the state legislature, decided to settle a political dispute at the home of Lord Fairfax, a mutual friend. Although Fairfax provided lunch to both men and tried to talk them out of it, they eventually headed to an open field nearby and dueled, with Showalter killing Piercy.

The first post office opened in 1910. Fairfax became an incorporated town in 1931.

On May 16, 1946, a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, crashed on White's Hill just west of Fairfax.

Geography Fairfax is in eastern Marin County, bordered to the east by San Anselmo and to the north by unincorporated Sleepy Hollow. The community lies in the valleys of San Anselmo Creek and its tributary Fairfax Creek, and climbs the surrounding hills. It is bordered to the south by the Mount Tamalpais protected watershed.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 2.2 square miles (5.7 km²), all of it recorded as land.

Soils in the Fairfax area mostly belong to the Tocaloma Series as classified by the U.S. Soil Conservation Service. These soils consist of moderately deep, well-drained soils on uplands. These soils are typically formed from sandstone and shale and often occur on slopes ranging above 15 percent.

Culture In the mid-1960s, a softball game between Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead took place at Central Field (also known as Contratti Park), a public downtown baseball field.

Irving Berlin used to serenade from a treetop piano at Pastori's Hotel, formerly Bird's Nest Glen, the home of Lord Charles Snowden Fairfax, and later known as the Marin Town & Country Club.

The popularity of outdoor hot tubs soared after Al Garvey designed his own redwood hot tub in July 1966, installed outside Al and Barbara Garvey's home on Scenic Road on the hillside leading up to Fairfax Manor. The Garvey hot tub was used by hundreds of people in the first few months, including jazz musician John Handy, eccentric architect Roger Somers and sex worker/feminist Margo St. James. Barbara Garvey said, "We decided to make the hot tub a social enterprise and started throwing parties". Soon, many others had hot tubs of their own. The social fashion of hot-tubbing with friends became connected with Marin County culture and style.

Education Fairfax is in the Ross Valley Elementary School District and the Tamalpais Union High School District.