Canyon is a tiny unincorporated community located in Contra Costa County, California, in the East Bay Hills between Oakland and Moraga in the San Francisco Bay Area. The homes of the community are nestled amongst the steep, narrow private roads and footpaths that extend from the redwood groves and ferns along the creek, through the mixed live oak, bay, and madrone forests on the steep hillsides, up to the chaparral and knobcone pines that grow along the ridge. Location Location of Contra Costa County within California. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 3rd 410,000 km² 402. ... Oakland, founded in 1852, is a major city on the east side (also called East Bay) of San Francisco Bay in Northern California in the United States. ... Moraga is an affluent suburban town located in Contra Costa County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. ... USGS Satellite photo of the San Francisco Bay Area. ... Binomial name Sequoia sempervirens (D. Don) Endl. ...

Canyon has a colorful history. Logging camps and notorious saloons helped establish a local reputation for rowdiness in the nineteenth century, and in the late 1960s Canyon became a center of political and social protest and creative alternative lifestyles. Today’s residents still work together to maintain their own roads and water systems, and Canyon Community Association volunteers provide mediation services, emergency planning, and interface with county and state agencies.

The only public services in the community are the local post office (ZIP Code 94516) where all mail is picked up and the Canyon School, a 65-student K-8 public school, located on Pinehurst Road on the banks of the Upper San Leandro Creek. A notion of the community's unconventionality may be gleaned from the fact that the school lunch menu features organic milk and produce, Nieman Ranch Beef, and hormone and antibiotic free chicken.

An example to the success of the model the community uses has been seen in the achievements of the children who have grown up in the community, with over 10% attending Ivy League Schools; although there are at least as many with drug problems as well.

As John van der Vee wrote in his book about the town, Canyon (1972): A small assemblage of mostly unconventional dwellings, mostly built by the nonconformists who live in them, it is a consciously ecological community that recycles everything it can. In Canyon, the mutual respect and the cohesion of neighbors revive the vital satisfactions once intrinsic in human communities, and its 'civil agencies' are functions of the inhabitants.

Bibliography

John van der Zee, Canyon: The Story of the Last Rustic Community in Metropolitan America (ISBN 0345228057)

External links

• Maps and aerial photos
  • Street map from Google Local or Yahoo! Maps
  • Topographic map from TopoZone
  • Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
  • Satellite image from Google Local or Microsoft Virtual Earth

• Canyon School