Inverness, California, United States

🇺🇸 Inverness is an unincorporated community and place (CDP) in western Marin County, California, United States. It is located on the south-west shore of Tomales Bay 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers) north-west of Point Reyes Station and about 40 miles (64 km) by road north-west of San Francisco, at an elevation of 43 feet (13 meters). The community was named by a Scottish landowner after 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Inverness in Scotland.

Community Inverness is located on the west shore of Tomales Bay, which runs south-east along the line of the San Andreas Fault. Surrounded by Point Reyes National Seashore, it is primarily a residential community, with little industry other than tourism. It has a small downtown area with a general store, post office, library, two restaurants, one gift shop and a coffee shop. A third restaurant is located a short way north of downtown. There are also a number of hotels and inns spread throughout the town.

One aspect of the town is a concentration of recreational (and some commercial) boating. There is a small public marina, a few private piers, and the Inverness Yacht Club.

Portions of the John Carpenter film The Fog as well as most of his film Village of the Damned were shot in and around Inverness.

History The town is 5 miles (8 km) or so north-east of Drakes Bay on the Pacific Ocean, named after Sir Francis Drake, who explored the coast in the 16th century. Although Drake's official log was lost, the ship's doctor's log described landing in an area that reminded him of the White Cliffs of Dover. Drakes Bay is backed by similar-looking cliffs, leading many to believe this is where the ship landed.

The region became the property of James Shafter, who began to develop the property in the 1890s. It became a summer resort where people from San Francisco and Oakland came to camp, hike and swim in Tomales Bay. Many built small summer cabins that still exist today. Small steamboats took day trippers down the bay to secluded beaches. They left from Brock Schreiber's boathouse, which has been preserved and is a prominent local landmark with its prominent sign "Launch for Hire".

The first post office opened in 1897.

In 1995, Inverness Ridge was the site of the Mt. Vision Fire, which burned a large area of Point Reyes National Seashore and a number of homes built on the ridge. The town itself was threatened but was saved by helicopters dipping water from Tomales Bay to drop on the Bishop pine forest between the town and the burning ridgetop.

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 6.8 square miles (18 km²), of which 6.4 square miles (17 km²) are land and 0.4 square miles (1.0 km²), or 6.38%, are water. The CDP includes the secondary community of Inverness Park, south-east of Inverness proper. It is bordered to the east by Point Reyes Station.

The town is adjacent to the San Andreas Fault and is spread out along approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) of the western shore and valleys of Tomales Bay on the Point Reyes Peninsula. It provides services to visitors to the Point Reyes National Seashore and Tomales Bay State Park.