Mori Point

From atop Mori Point view of the coast looking south.

Mori Point is a 110-acre (0.4 km2) park located in Pacifica, California that is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Mori Point itself is a bluff next to the Pacific Ocean that provides scenic views of the peninsula coastline. In addition to the bluff and ridge, Mori Point contains a few small ponds and wetlands. Trails, many newly built, connect the ridgeline to the entrances to the park and to Sharp Park beach.

The ponds and wetlands of Mori Point serve as habitat for the threatened California red-legged frog and the endangered San Francisco garter snake.[1] Mori Point also has northern coastal scrub and California coastal prairie habitat in upland areas, and is well known for its spring wildflower displays [2]

History

Mori Point was purchased by Stefano Mori in the 1880s, who operated a ranch and inn at the point. The inn remained in operation until 1965, and the building burned down in 1966.[3] During the 1920s, bootleggers used the site to bring alcohol into the Bay Area. Jack Mori was eventually caught with 24,000 barrels of whiskey. After the inn closed, the hillsides were used for motorcycle racing and sand quarrying, creating scars on the hillsides that are still visible.[2]

In 2000, Mori Point was put up for sale at auction, and the Pacifica Land Trust, the California Coastal Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land launched a campaign to purchase the property for preservation.[4] The property was purchased at public auction and donated to the Federal Government and added to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.[5]

In the Fall of 2007, the Mori Point Project, made up of staff from the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, and volunteers, completed the removal of soil contaminated with diesel fuel, the creation of a new pond and wetlands area and a new path with access steps up to the top of Mori Point bluff.

In popular culture, Mori Point is featured in a scene from the 1971 movie Harold and Maude in which a modified sports car is driven off of the bluff, landing on the beach below.

External links

References

  1. ↑ http://www.parksconservancy.org/conservation/plants-animals/endangered-species/san-fancisco-garter-snake.html
  2. 1 2 http://baynature.org/articles/moris-story/
  3. ↑ http://www.parksconservancy.org/old-website/assets-2/pdf/image_1_1959.pdf
  4. ↑ Delehanty, Randolph; Meyer, Amy (2006). New guardians for the Golden Gate: how America got a great national park. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 187. ISBN 0-520-23534-7.
  5. ↑ National Park Service Mori Point bulletin

Coordinates: 37°37′13″N 122°29′54″W / 37.62028°N 122.49833°W / 37.62028; -122.49833

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