Occidental is a historic, small town located in Wine Country in rural West Sonoma County, a little over an hour north of the Bay Area. It has a colorful history tied to both the railroads and the redwoods. The zipcode is 95465. There is no mail service in Downtown Occidental. Everyone has a post office box. The two main streets are Main Street (which is actually the main parking lot) and Bohemian Highway which runs parallel and is about 10 feet away. Both streets run north-south. This is due to the legacy of the railroad that used to run right down the middle of town with Main Street on one side and Bohemian Highway on the other. Years after the railroad left, a large parking lot was put in place of the dirt parking area that had been used. This explains why businesses have a Main Street address on the east side of town and a Bohemian Highway address on the west side. As long as the Occidental Fire Department (all volunteer, befitting a small town) can keep it straight, that's what matters. Everyone else figures it out eventually.

There are about 1300 people in the greater Occidental census area, according to the last couple of censuses. It is interesting how Occidental is laid out from a postal perspective. Some locations, such as Westminster Woods, have an Occidental address, but are located on the other side of Camp Meeker, a town about 1.5 miles north of Downtown Occidental, and are not in the Occidental Fire District. Others are in the Occidental Fire District, but have a Sebastopol address (zipcode 95472). If you count the "Greater Occidental Area" as the Occidental Community Services District (which is also the Fire District), then it covers about 25 square miles and has an estimated population of about 5,000. No matter how you count it, Occidental is a small, rural town.

For photographs of Occidental, see a short slideshow of Occidental. For the history of Occidental, visit the history section of the Occidental Chamber of Commerce website.