San Marcos, California, United States

History | Geography | Neighborhoods | Ethnic/cultural diversity | Economy : Top employers | Government | Education : San Marcos Unified School District | High Tech High, Middle and Elementary, North County | Palomar College | California State University | Transport : Road | Public transportation

🇺🇸 San Marcos is a city in the North County region of San Diego County, California. It is the site of California State University San Marcos. Lake San Marcos is an enclave, or county island, in the south-western part of the city, within San Marcos' sphere of influence but technically an unincorporated community.

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History According to historical legends, the San Luis Rey Mission flocks were robbed by a small band of Native Americans in the late 18th century. Fleeing the Spanish troops, the Native Americans escaped to the hills. While pursuing the Native Americans, in 1797 the Spaniards came upon a fertile valley, which was named Los Vallecitos de San Marcos (Little Valleys of Saint Mark) to honor the day of discovery: April 25, St. Mark’s Day. On April 22, 1840, Governor Juan B. Alvarado granted Rancho Vallecitos de San Marcos to his relative, Jose María Alvarado. Jose Alvarado was killed at the Pauma Massacre in 1846, and the land was left to his wife; she then sold the land to Lorenzo Soto. In the late 1850s, Soto sold part of his land to Cave Couts, and his family was soon raising livestock. Although Cave Couts owned the land, Major Gustavus French Merriam from Topeka, Kansas, made the first permanent settlement. Merriam homesteaded 160 acres (0.65 km²) in the north Twin Oaks Valley and began wine and honey production.

German and Dutch immigrants began moving into the area in the early 1880s. In 1883, a few miles south of the settlement, John H. Barham (for whom the present-day Barham Drive is named) founded the first town in the area, originally situated on the south-east corner of what are now Rancho Santa Fe Road and San Marcos Boulevard. By 1884, the town of Barham had a post office, blacksmith, feed store and weekly newspaper. In 1887, the San Marcos Land Company bought almost all of the San Marcos land formerly owned by the Couts family and promptly divided the land into tracts. Soon the hills began attracting home-seekers.

The original town of San Marcos was about a mile north of Barham, at the intersection of what is now Grand Avenue and Rancho Santa Fe Road. In 1887, the Santa Fe Railroad announced that it was going to lay tracks going through the valley, but to the disappointment of the citizens, the tracks were laid one mile (1.6 km) from the centre of the town. By 1896, San Marcos was a community with its own stores, post office, blacksmith, and railroad depot. The first school in the area, which was started in Barham in 1886, had been moved to San Marcos three years later, as Barham was fading due to its distance from the railroad. To prevent San Marcos from suffering a similar fate, in 1903 the people of the town picked up their homes and moved a couple miles east along the railroad tracks to what now are Mission Road and Pico Avenue. By 1905, the town had every convenience, including rural mail delivery and telephone service. Later that same year, the Richland School (now a wedding chapel on Woodland Parkway) was built, becoming the second school in San Marcos. The main business in San Marcos in the 19th and early 20th centuries was farming. In the mid-20th century, dairies and poultry production became a big part of the business in the town.

San Marcos experienced a period of growth from 1956 onward, when the first water from the Colorado River arrived. Several small businesses were founded and the population rapidly increased to 2,500. San Marcos became an incorporated city on January 28, 1963. In the 1970s, San Marcos was flourishing as the third fastest-growing city in the state, and had a population of 17,479 by 1980. The population continued to boom during succeeding decades, surpassing 30,000 in 1990 and nearing 100,000 by 2020.

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Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 24.4 square miles (63 km²). 24.4 square miles (63 km²) of it is land and 0.02 square miles (0.052 km²) of it (0.08%) is water. Due to the moderating influence of the nearby Pacific, temperatures rarely fall below freezing in winter and above 100 degrees F. in summer. Like most of coastal San Diego County, cool overcast from the Pacific is common in May and June ("May gray", "June gloom"). July through September are usually the warmest months, although hot and dry Santa Ana winds can strike any month (most commonly August) and raise risks of severe wildfires. Most of the rain falls between November and March, averaging about 13 inches per year, with up to 20 inches falling in the San Marcos Hills.

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Neighborhoods • Buenavida • Coronado Hills • Creek District • Discovery Hills • Discovery Meadows • Grandon Estates • Lake San Marcos (unincorporated) • Old Creek Ranch • Rancho Coronado/Rancho Tesoro • Rancho Dorado • Rancho Santalina • Rancho Tesoro • Richland • Richmar • Rock Springs/Bennett District • Sage Canyon • San Elijo Hills • Santa Fe Hills • Stone Canyon • Twin Oaks Valley • Village O • University District/North City.

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Ethnic/cultural diversity San Marcos has a diversity of races and ethnic groups common in suburban communities (not ranked, but for example): African Americans, Irish, Italian, Portuguese, German, Polish, Russian, Armenian, Iranian, Indian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Mexican, Salvadorian, Argentine, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Hawaiian, Jewish, and Samoan.

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Economy: Top employers According to the city's 2021 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, the top 10 employers in the city are: 1 San Marcos Unified School District; 2 California State University San Marcos; 3 Palomar Community College; 4 Hunter Industries; 5 United Parcel Service; 6 So. CA Permanente Med Group; 7 Costco Wholesale; 8 TrueCare; 9 Lusardi Construction Co.; 10 Wal-Mart,

Arts and culture

An illuminated cross, which stands on a hill above Lake San Marcos and is visible at night from many parts of the city, has been a community landmark for decades. Other landmarks include the Williams Barn (or "Red Barn"), a community centre and reception hall built in 1952 to resemble a "big red barn". It is located in Walnut Grove Park in Twin Oaks, along with a collection of historic houses from around the city maintained by the San Marcos Historical Society.

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Government San Marcos uses a council-manager system of government with a separately elected mayor. The city council consists of the mayor and four other members, who are elected in Districts 1 & 2 in 2018 and Districts 3 & 4 in 2020, the Mayor is elected at large.

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Education: San Marcos Unified School District The San Marcos Unified School District is one of the largest school districts in San Diego County and includes 20 schools with diverse educational programs for kindergarten through adult education students. SMUSD has 11 elementary schools, 3 middle schools (San Elijo Hills, Woodland Park and San Marcos middle schools), 2 K-8 school (Double Peak, La Mirada Academy K-8), 2 comprehensive high schools (San Marcos High School and Mission Hills High School), 1 charter high school, 1 independent study high school, 1 continuation school, and 1 adult school. SMUSD serves more than 21,000 students in San Marcos, as well as sections of Vista, Escondido, Carlsbad and Encinitas, and some unincorporated areas of the County such as: Buena, Twin Oaks Valley, Deer Springs, Lake San Marcos, Harmony Grove, and Elfin Forrest. San Marcos Adult School was established in 1993 by the San Marcos Unified School District. San Marcos Adult School is a provider of adult education services in the City of San Marcos and its surrounding communities. The adult school campus is located on the grounds of Twin Oaks high school which is nestled in beautiful and historic Twin Oaks Valley. San Marcos Adult School offers adult education courses for adults in the areas of: high school diploma, GED, HISET, adult basic education, and English as a Second Language. San Marcos Adult School works collaboratively with Palomar College and other local adult schools to connect students with post-secondary education and training. San Marcos Adult School is a member of the Education to Career Network of North San Diego County. ETCN is one of 71 Consortiums in the State of California and is funded by the California Adult Education Program.

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High Tech High, Middle and Elementary, North County High Tech High, Middle and Elementary are all charter schools located in San Marcos. High Tech High, which started with a single school in 2000, uses small-school settings, where students learn through projects, internships and interaction with professionals. It is located across the street from San Marcos High School on San Marcos Boulevard.

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Palomar College The main 200-acre (0.81 km²) campus of Palomar College is located in northern San Marcos. It is a public two-year community college and is a member of the California Community Colleges system. It enrolls approximately 30,000 full-time and part-time students. Palomar offers more than 250 associate degree and certificate programs, and residents of California are charged $46 per unit.

A giant letter P (for "Palomar") on the hillside above the campus is a ubiquitous landmark for San Marcos, visible miles away.

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California State University Cal State San Marcos is a campus in the California State University system. It was founded in 1989 and built on a 304-acre (1.23 km²) hillside in south-eastern San Marcos. It enrolls about 14,000 students and offers 44 undergraduate programs, 10 graduate programs and 1 Doctorate in Education in three colleges and one nursing school.

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Transport: Road State Route 78 provides freeway access to San Marcos, with six interchanges serving the city. Several roads in San Marcos are county routes that connect the city with other nearby cities including Vista, Carlsbad and Escondido, such as Rancho Santa Fe Road (CR S10), San Marcos Boulevard and Twin Oaks Valley Road (CR S12), and Mission Road (CR S14).

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Public transportation SPRINTER light rail service, which is operated by the North County Transit District (NCTD), is available in the city of San Marcos with stops located at Palomar College, the San Marcos Civic Center, Cal State San Marcos, and Nordahl Road. BREEZE buses, which are also operated by the North County Transit District, serve the city using lines 304, 305, 347, 353, and 445.

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San Marcos, California, United States 
<b>San Marcos, California, United States</b>
Image: Downtowngal

San Marcos has a population of over 83,781 people. San Marcos also forms one of the centres of the wider San Diego County which has a population of over 3,298,634 people.

To set up a UBI Lab for San Marcos see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork

Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license

East of: -117.167

🇺🇸 Temecula -117.167

🇺🇸 Redlands -117.167

🇺🇸 San Diego -117.15

🇺🇸 Chula Vista -117.084

🇺🇸 Escondido -117.074

🇲🇽 Rosarito -117.05

🇲🇽 Rosarito Beach -117.05

🇺🇸 Yucaipa -117.033

🇺🇸 La Mesa -117.023

🇺🇸 Lewiston -117.02

West of: -117.167

🇺🇸 Highland -117.204

🇺🇸 Murrieta -117.212

🇺🇸 Apple Valley -117.217

🇺🇸 Moreno Valley -117.233

🇺🇸 Vista -117.234

🇺🇸 Spokane Valley -117.249

🇺🇸 Encinitas -117.267

🇨🇦 Nelson -117.283

🇺🇸 San Bernardino -117.292

🇺🇸 Hesperia -117.293

Antipodal to San Marcos is: 62.833,-33.133

Locations Near: San Marcos -117.167,33.1333

🇺🇸 Vista -117.234,33.2 d: 9.6  

🇺🇸 Escondido -117.074,33.118 d: 8.8  

🇺🇸 Encinitas -117.267,33.033 d: 14.5  

🇺🇸 Carlsbad -117.344,33.159 d: 16.7  

🇺🇸 Oceanside -117.357,33.191 d: 18.8  

🇺🇸 Temecula -117.167,33.503 d: 41.1  

🇺🇸 La Mesa -117.023,32.766 d: 43  

🇺🇸 El Cajon -116.962,32.795 d: 42.2  

🇺🇸 Murrieta -117.212,33.558 d: 47.5  

🇺🇸 San Diego -117.15,32.7 d: 48.2  

Antipodal to: San Marcos 62.833,-33.133

🇲🇺 Mahébourg 57.7,-20.407 d: 18511.7  

🇲🇺 Curepipe 57.517,-20.317 d: 18496  

🇫🇷 Saint-Pierre 55.478,-21.342 d: 18517  

🇲🇺 Vacoas-Phoenix 57.493,-20.3 d: 18493.4  

🇲🇺 Centre de Flacq 57.718,-20.2 d: 18490.5  

🇲🇺 Quatre Bornes 57.479,-20.266 d: 18489.3  

🇲🇺 St Pierre 57.517,-20.217 d: 18485.5  

🇲🇺 Beau Bassin-Rose Hill 57.471,-20.235 d: 18485.8  

🇲🇺 Beau-Bassin Rose-Hill 57.467,-20.233 d: 18485.5  

🇲🇺 Moka 57.496,-20.219 d: 18485  

Bing Map

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