What is the Emerald Triangle? The Emerald Triangle refers to an area located on the northwest coast of the United States (northern California) and comprises Mendocino, Humboldt, and Trinity counties. To delve into the origins and traditions of cannabis cultivation in this region, we must go back to the 60s, during the Summer of Love in San Francisco. During the second half of the decade, and with the hippie counterculture as a backdrop, a good number of growers settled in this area in search of a place that would meet the ideal conditions for the outdoor cultivation of cannabis, namely isolation and a privileged climate. Since then, the Emerald Triangle has been one of the main sources of cannabis supply to California. As of 1996, and after the approval of California's Proposition 215 for medical cannabis, the production in these three counties shot up due to the increase in demand, reaffirming the Emerald Triangle as one of the main producing areas of the country.