Baker Beach is a public beach on the peninsula of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

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The beach lies on the shore of the

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in the northwest of the city. It is roughly a long, beginning just south of Golden Gate Point (where the Golden Gate Bridge connects with the peninsula), extending southward toward the

Seacliff Seacliff comprises a beach, an estate and a harbour. It lies east of North Berwick, East Lothian, Scotland. History The beach and estate command a strategic position at the mouth of the Firth of Forth, and control of the area has been con ...

peninsula, the

Palace of the Legion of Honor The Legion of Honor, formally known as the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, is an art museum in San Francisco, California. Located in Lincoln Park, the Legion of Honor is a component of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, which al ...

and the

Sutro Baths The Sutro Baths was a large, privately owned public saltwater swimming pool complex in the Lands End area of the Outer Richmond District in western San Francisco, California. Built in 1894, the Sutro Baths was located north of Ocean Beach, ...

. The northern section of Baker Beach is "frequented by clothing-optional sunbathers," and as such it is considered a

nude beach A nude beach, sometimes called a clothing-optional or free beach, is a beach where users are at liberty to be nude. Nude beaches usually have mixed bathing. Such beaches are usually on public lands, and any member of the public is allowed to ...

."Baker Beach"
ParksConservancy.org. Retrieved 8 May 2009. The property was settled by John Henry Baker in the 1850s and was known as Golden Gate Milk Ranch. The property location description varied, but is generally described as being approximately west of the city on the then Point Lobos Road (now Geary Blvd.) Baker died in 1863 and his widow, Maria, lost the property to foreclosure in 1879. In 1897, Baker's grandson, Fairfax Henry Wheelan sued to have the title returned to the heirs of John H. Baker citing the claim that Baker's widow did not have the legal power to mortgage the property.

History

Golden Gate Bridge from Baker Beach (Nighttime)

Baker Beach is part of the

Presidio A presidio ( en, jail, fortification) was a fortified base established by the Spanish Empire around between 16th and 18th centuries in areas in condition of their control or influence. The presidios of Spanish Philippines in particular, were cen ...

, which was a military base from the founding of

by the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

in 1812 until 1997. In 1904, it was fortified with

disappearing gun A disappearing gun, a gun mounted on a ''disappearing carriage'', is an obsolete type of artillery which enabled a gun to hide from direct fire and observation. The overwhelming majority of carriage designs enabled the gun to rotate back ...

installations known as Battery Chamberlin, which can still be viewed today. When the Presidio was decommissioned as a U.S. Army base, it became part of the

Golden Gate National Recreation Area The Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) is a U.S. National Recreation Area protecting of ecologically and historically significant landscapes surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area. Much of the park is land formerly used by the United ...

, which is administered by the National Park Service. From 1986 to 1990, the north end of Baker Beach was the original site of the Burning Man art festival. In 1990, park police allowed participants to raise the traditional large statue but not effigy, to set it on fire, since the beach enforces a limit on the size of any campfires. Subsequent Burning Man events have taken place in Black Rock Desert, Nevada. A fatal shark attack occurred on Baker Beach on May 7, 1959, when 18-year-old Albert Kogler Jr. was attacked by a great white shark while he was in water deep."Fatal Shark Attacks"
SoutheasternOutdoors.com. This was the only shark attack recorded on Baker Beach. Baker Beach path with shrubs and crow

Large outcrops of serpentine group, serpentine cliffs occur along the Pacific coast near Baker Beach. When rising from the land surface, serpentine produces a low-calcium, high-magnesium soil that can allow for rare species of plants to develop in the vicinity. This may explain the presence of ''Hesperolinon congestum'' (the Marin Dwarf Flax, a threatened plant) in surrounding areas. To the north of the beach is Marshall's Beach and was the site of a Japanese Type 93 torpedo imbedded in the beach sand in 1946. Historian Mark Felton believes it was fired by Japanese submarine I-15 in 1941, which was sailing near the waters off San Francisco.

References

External links

* {{authority control Golden Gate National Recreation Area San Francisco Bay Area beaches Nude beaches Beaches of San Francisco Presidio of San Francisco Parks in San Francisco

History

See also

References

External links