Mission Bayhttps://www.sfcityguides.org/public_guidelines.html?article=316&submitted=TRUE&srch_text=&submitted2=true&topic= Southeastern view of San Francisco taken from Jones and California Streets in 1867 shows Mission Bay and Long Bridge. historic photo, S.F. History Center, S.F. Public Library. was a

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

and the

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime enviro ...

of Mission Creek, on the west shore of

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...

, between Steamboat Point and Point San Quentin or Potrero Point. It is now mostly filled in and is the location of the Mission Bay neighborhood of

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

History

Mission Bay was a

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') an ...

nestled inside of a +500 acre

salt marsh A salt marsh, saltmarsh or salting, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. I ...

and was occupied by year-round tidal waters.Nancy Olmsted, Mission Bay Gazeteer of Historic Places, foldout at the end of "Vanished Waters: A History of San Francisco's Mission Bay" published by the Mission Creek Conservancy
and republished by foundsf.org with their permission. From foundsf.org accessed 3/29/2015. This area was a natural habitat and refuge for large

waterfowl Anseriformes is an order of birds also known as waterfowl that comprises about 180 living species of birds in three families: Anhimidae (three species of screamers), Anseranatidae (the magpie goose), and Anatidae, the largest family, which i ...

populations that included

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family (biology), family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and goose, geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfam ...

geese A goose (: geese) is a bird of any of several waterfowl species in the family Anatidae. This group comprises the genera '' Anser'' (grey geese and white geese) and ''Branta'' (black geese). Some members of the Tadorninae subfamily (e.g., Egyp ...

heron Herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 75 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genus ''Botaurus'' are referred to as bi ...

egret Egrets ( ) are herons, generally long-legged wading birds, that have white or buff plumage, developing fine plumes (usually milky white) during the breeding season. Egrets are not a biologically distinct group from herons and have the same build ...

s, ospreys, and

gull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the subfamily Larinae. They are most closely related to terns and skimmers, distantly related to auks, and even more distantly related to waders. Until the 21st century, most gulls were placed ...

s. The indigenous people who first inhabited this area were the Yelamu people who spoke the Ramaytush dialect of

Ohlone The Ohlone ( ), formerly known as Costanoans (from Spanish meaning 'coast dweller'), are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people of the Northern California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the l ...

. After the creation of Mission Dolores in 1776, European immigrants exposed the indigenous population to various deadly diseases that decimated the original inhabitants of Mission Bay. From the 1850s the area was used for shipbuilding and repair, butchery and meat production, and oyster and clam fishing. History of Mission Bay
from acc-missionbayconferencecenter.com accessed 3/29/2015. Beginning in the mid-1800s, in attempts to make this area suitable for building, Mission Bay, like most of the shoreline of the city of San Francisco, was used as a convenient place to deposit refuse from building projects and debris from the 1906 earthquake. As the marsh stabilized with the weight of the infill, the area quickly became an industrial district. With the addition of the railroad, Mission Bay became the home to shipyards, canneries, a sugar refinery, and various warehouses.History of Mission Bay
from missionbayparks.com accessed 3/29/2015.

References

External links

1852 Coastal Survey Map showing Mission Bay and surrounds
About Mission Bay/Mission Creek from sfsailtours.com accessed March 29, 2015.
1857 Coastal Survey Map showing Mission Bay and surrounds, with additions to 1852 map to up to 1857
About Mission Bay/Mission Creek from sfsailtours.com accessed March 29, 2015. {{coord, 37.77018, -122.39091, region:US-CA, display=title Bays of San Francisco Bay Estuaries of California Wetlands of California Bodies of water of San Francisco Mission Bay (San Francisco)