Place Where You Live:

Inverness Park, California

Driving through the town of Inverness Park is a quick ten seconds at 25 mph. On one side of the road is Perry’s Deli and Grocery, the Busy Bee Bakery, Spirit Matters, a shop filled with treasures from around the world, and a small two-story office building. On the other side of the road are the wetlands and Tomales Bay. Hills roll up behind Perry’s Deli. It looks as though few people inhabit those hills, but under the canapé of oak, pine, and fur trees are more people and houses. Inverness Park is a community of homes. You are guaranteed to run into someone you know while shopping at Perry’s, or wave to a passing car.

We live in an area made of many small communities: Point Reyes Station, Inverness Park, and Inverness, all in a five-mile radius of each other. Point Reyes Station was the first town to be founded, then Inverness. Inverness Park was not formed for some time because of its steep hills. It was hard for a horse and buggy to travel up into the hills and ridges, but with the invention of the automobile came the ability to easily transport supplies onto the Inverness ridge. You could say Inverness Park is an environmentally aware community. We are a community with a strong drive to buy locally and support our community.

Underneath Tomales Bay runs the San Andreas Fault line. Each year Inverness Park creeps an average of two inches northward. Looking across to the East side of Tomales Bay is a beautiful view of rolling farmland. Because of the San Andreas fault dividing Tomales Bay, each side has a subtle difference.

On the East shore of Tomales Bay are mellow hills covered with shrubs and very few trees. In the spring the hills are a vibrant green, and in the summer they are golden brown. The West side of Tomales Bay, where Inverness Park is located, is very wooded. Because this side of the bay is on the Pacific Plate, we have been slowly moving north for hundreds of years. Because of this movement, many of the trees in Inverness Park are the same species as in Monterey; we have Monterey Pines right here in Inverness Park, 90 miles north of Monterey.

Many people would assume that living on a fault line is dangerous. I take some degree of comfort in knowing that we don’t live where the most dangerous earthquakes occur. Because the San Andreas fault line is a strike slip fault, meaning that the two plates are moving parallel to each other, there is not a colliding force. The San Andreas fault line moves each year, releasing small amounts of tension, so that tension never builds up and creates a huge slip. We still do have earthquakes, but they are not very severe.

There is a wildness to Inverness. Nature has a way of not letting humans tame every part of it. We are moving, there is no way to stop it; nature will take its course. Manicured gardens and matching houses are not a part of Inverness Park. The simplicity of the town is inviting. Nature has a way of making me a feel a part of it. Inverness Park is a gem in a rich man’s ring.