The nearest city is Petaluma, 16 miles (26 km) to the east by road, and the nearest large city is San Francisco, about 75 minutes (58 miles (93 km)) to the south.

[5] When Europeans first reached Tomales Bay, it was home to Coast Miwok people.

Numerous authenticated Miwok villages are known from this area, including one (named Utumia) sited near the present-day town of Tomales.

[9] Starting in the 1870s, Tomales was a stop on the North Pacific Coast Railroad connecting Cazadero to the Sausalito ferry.

One of the town's two cemeteries predates the earthquake, and the damage to the pre-1906 plots shows just how widespread the quake's effects were.

The racial makeup of the CDP was 94.6% White, 1.5% Native American, 2.0% Asian, and 2.0% from two or more races.

There were 122 housing units at an average density of 367.7 per square mile (142.0/km2), of which 59.6% were owner-occupied and 40.4% were occupied by renters.

The racial makeup of the CDP in 2010 was 90.2% non-Hispanic White, 1.5% Native American, 2.0% Asian, and 2.0% from two or more races.

Much of the 2001 movie Bandits was filmed in and around Tomales,[14] as were the opening shots of Mumford (1999),[15] and parts of Scream (1996),[16] and Village of the Damned (1995).