Of all the urban developments that have become Marin County, the one with the greatest sense of community has been "Homestead."
-Henri Boussy, Mill Valley Historical Society Review, Spring 1986
Homestead Valley is an unincorporated community of about 1100 homes situated between the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and the city of Mill Valley; it shares shorter borders with three other unincorporated communities: Tamalpais Valley, Almonte, and Muir Woods Park. The community was founded in 1903 when the Tamalpais Land and Water Company subdivided a small area in the 19,571-acre Rancho Sausalito, a Mexican Land Grant awarded to William Richardson in 1835. In 1999, Chuck Oldenburg began research on the history of Homestead Valley. In April 2000 he began to write one-page articles that were published by the Homestead Valley Community Association in the Homestead Headlines Newsletter. A complete set of the 75 one-page articles he wrote from April 2000 to June 2006 entitled "History of Homestead Valley, are available for purchase for $15 in the HVCA office. With the July 2006 issue of the Homestead Headlines, Chuck started a new series of articles entitled, "Images of Early Homestead Valley." The articles include old photographs and related historical information. Chuck continues to research the subject, mostly at the Hisotry Room of the Mill Valley Public Library, with help from docents of the Mill Valley Historical Society. All of his articles are posted on www.millvalleyhistoricalsociety.org In 2007, Chuck's son Curt Oldenburg wrote an article on the visit of Christopher Earle, a redwood tree expert, on his visit to Stolte Grove to examine the preserved log of the Leaning Tree. This article can be viewed in PDF form by clicking on the link below.
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