The first people here
Who lived here before the houses?
Mill Valley's Coast Miwok. A true story near Mill Valley, CA, told for kids 4–7.
The Mount Tamalpais story, read aloud
You live in Mill Valley, near the big mountain called Mount Tam. Before all these houses and shops, who lived here? The Coast Miwok people! They lived right around here, long, long ago. Longer ago than your grandma's grandma's grandma.
And way more grandmas after that! So many grandmas, they would not fit in a school bus. Right around here, they had fourteen villages. A village is like a little neighborhood of homes. And not far from here, on a hill called Ring Mountain, they carved pictures into big rocks.
Those pictures are still there today! Can you see Mount Tam out the window? Coast Miwok kids saw that same mountain!
Quiz the back seat
What did the Coast Miwok carve pictures into?
Show the answer
Big rocks. Big rocks! Rock pictures last a super long time, much longer than crayon on paper.
Mount Tamalpais facts for kids
- The Coast Miwok were the first people known to live in Marin County, arriving about 6,500 years ago.
- About 14 Coast Miwok village sites have been found in the Mill Valley area.
- Rock carvings have been found on Ring Mountain, not far from Mill Valley.
Questions kids ask about Mount Tamalpais
Who lived in Mill Valley before the houses?
The Coast Miwok people lived here long, long ago, and their families still live in Marin today.
How many Coast Miwok villages were in the Mill Valley area?
About fourteen village sites have been found right around Mill Valley.
Did the Coast Miwok make art?
Yes, they carved pictures into big rocks on Ring Mountain, and those carvings are still there.
For grown-ups
Written with AI from public sources, then checked claim by claim against the sources below before it was published; stories that don't pass stay off the app and this site. Narration is pre-recorded, and nothing you do on this page is tied to your kids.
Sources
- parks.ca.gov/mounttamalpais
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Tamalpais
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mill_Valley%2C_California
- cityofmillvalley.gov/2013/The-Coast-Miwok
- sharonkramlich.com/blog/before-it-was-mt-tam-the-coast-miwok-and-the-mountain-above-mill-valley
- weekendsherpa.com/stories/hike-to-petroglyphs-on-ring-mountain
- atlasobscura.com/places/ring-mountain-petroglyphs
- megalithic.co.uk/Ring-Mountain-19244
More stories in Mill Valley
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Mountains, trees and weather The Giant Redwoods
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Long, long ago Why It's Called Mill Valley
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Trains, ships and planes The Train That Wiggled Uphill
You live in Mill Valley, right at the foot of Mount Tam, the big mountain that watches over Marin. About a hundred and thirty years ago, a…How things work: roads, bridges, oceans →All stories →
Between stories: 25 road trip games for kids · Road trip bingo cards · Road trip trivia · Christmas light scavenger hunt · Christmas trivia
Town and county names: GeoNames (CC BY 4.0).