Mori Point

An archaeological survey in 1969 revealed a shell midden at Mori Point, demonstrating pre-Columbian Native American residency. The limestone at Mori Point has been quarried by Native Americans and, later, by the Spanish.Postel (2010), p. 200 Francisco Sanchez received Rancho San Pedro in 1839 during the Rancho period, which encompassed much of present-day Pacifica, including the land that would later be called Mori Point.

The land now occupied by Mori Point was purchased by Stefano Mori and his family in 1888, who operated a farm and ranch at the point.{{cite web |url=https://www.nps.gov/goga/planyourvisit/upload/sb-mori-2008.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080216212725/http://www.nps.gov/goga/planyourvisit/upload/sb-mori-2008.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 16, 2008 |title=Mori Point |author= |date=2008 |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=10 January 2017}}Postel (2010), p. 201 The kitchen, built to feed employees, eventually became the Mori Point Inn, which remained in operation until 1965. The exact date of establishment is in question, but newspaper reports from 1910 cite Steve Mori as manager of the Inn in 1910.Postel (2010), p. 228 During Prohibition, the Inn was a well-known speakeasy.Postel (2010), p. 227

File:Fishing village on the ocean south of San Francisco, California.jpg for the Farm Security Administration (1938)]]

Limestone from the Rockaway Quarry were used as track ballast for the Ocean Shore Railroad and to rebuild San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. Highway 1, which divides Mori Point from Sweeney Ridge, occupies a cut first intended to accommodate the Ocean Shore Railroad.Postel (2010), p. 209 A 1938 photograph by Dorothea Lange shows a fishing village and the quarry in the background.

During the 1920s, bootleggers used the site to bring alcohol into the Bay Area. Federal agents confiscated 24,000 cases of whiskey worth {{US$|2000000|1923|round=-4}} in 1923 from Jack Mori's farm, but Ray (or Rey) Mori was the only family member ever arrested for alcohol-related offenses during Prohibition. Ray was arrested in 1929 for serving alcoholic drinksPostel (2010), p. 223 at the Francisco Sanchez Adobe, which was operated as a restaurant on the surface and clandestinely as a speakeasy and bordello. He received four months of probation and a $225 fine.Postel (2010), p. 229 Ray and his wife Marie took over the operation of the inn by 1932, reportedly because Jack was being pressured by federal agents. The Inn closed in 1965 and it burned down on February 26, 1966, just three months after going out of business.Postel (2010), p. 231{{cite web |url=http://www.parksconservancy.org/assets/visit-your-parks/park-sites/pdfs/mori-point-cultural-history.pdf |title=Mori Point: Cultural History |date=2007 |publisher=Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170113031601/http://www.parksconservancy.org/assets/visit-your-parks/park-sites/pdfs/mori-point-cultural-history.pdf |archive-date=2017-01-13 |url-status=dead |access-date=10 January 2017}}

After the Inn closed in 1965, the hillsides were used for motorcycle racing and sand quarrying, creating scars on the hillsides that are still visible. A development was proposed in 1984 and approved in 1988 by the City Council of Pacifica. The development would have encompassed 60 single-family homes, a horse show arena, and a 275-room hotel and conference center. The group "Pacificans for Mori Point" filed suit to block the development, charging the environmental impact report was incomplete.{{cite news |url=http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Abused-Mori-Point-leaps-back-to-life-3217314.php |title=Abused Mori Point leaps back to life |author=Fimrite, Peter |date=26 April 2008 |newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |access-date=10 January 2017}}

The National Park Service published the Pacifica Boundary Study in 1998, which identified several parcels of land in Pacifica it would like to add to the GGNRA.{{cite news |url=http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Parkland-Conflict-Erupts-in-Pacifica-Plan-to-3277692.php |title=Parkland Conflict Erupts in Pacifica: Plan to enlarge Golden Gate National Recreation Area |author=McCabe, Michael |date=10 March 1998 |newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |access-date=10 January 2017}} The total proposed addition of land was fifteen parcels totaling {{convert|1075|acre}}, including the Mori Point parcel, and if completed, would result in nearly one-third of the entire land area of the City of Pacifica being controlled by the National Park Service. 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{{cite book |author1=Delehanty, Randolph |author2=Meyer, Amy |title=New guardians for the Golden Gate: how America got a great national park |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |year=2006 |pages=187 |isbn=0-520-23534-7 |url=http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520235342 |access-date=10 January 2017}} with a successful bid of {{US$|3300000|2000|round=-4}}.{{cite news |url=http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Preserving-Pacifica-s-gem-Beautiful-Mori-Point-2700257.php |title=Preserving Pacifica's gem: Geautiful Mori Point meshes nicely with mission of GGNRA |author=McHugh, Paul |date=10 February 2005 |newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |access-date=10 January 2017}} The property was purchased at public auction and donated to the Federal Government in 2002, when it was added to GGNRA.{{cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/goga/maps/bulletins/sb-mori_point.pdf |publisher=National Park Service |title=Mori Point |author= |date=2004 |access-date=10 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040722010643/http://www.nps.gov/goga/maps/bulletins/sb-mori_point.pdf |archive-date=22 July 2004 |url-status=dead}}{{cite news |url=http://www.sfgate.com/outdoors/urbanoutings/article/Mori-Point-hike-offers-expansive-vistas-4017196.php |title=Mori Point hike offers expansive vistas |author=Todd, Gail |date=9 November 2012 |newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |access-date=10 January 2017}}

By 2005, two ponds were dug on the north side of the Mori Point plot to restore habitat for the red-legged frog and Pacific tree frogs, hoping to establish frog colonies and attract their predators, the San Francisco garter snake. Frog eggs were spotted by the spring of 2005 and the snakes were seen foraging next to the ponds in 2007.

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 nicknamed "Bootlegger's Steps" up to the top of Mori Point bluff.{{cite web |url=http://www.pacificariptide.com/pacifica_riptide/2007/10/mori-and-quarry.html |title=Mori's Warriors: November 10 Next Work Party in Pacifica's Own National Park |author=Bennett, Susie |date=21 October 2007 |website=Pacifica Riptide [blog] |access-date=10 January 2017}}

File:Beached Sperm Whale at Mori Point, Pacifica (17181158012).jpg

In April 2015, a {{convert|48|ft|abbr=on|adj=on}} long sperm whale washed up on the beach below Mori Point.{{cite news |url=http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Necropsy-planned-for-beached-sperm-whale-in-6201760.php |title=Beached sperm whale becomes pungent science lab in Pacifica |author=Rubenstein, Steve |date=15 April 2015 |newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |access-date=10 January 2017}} Although the whale was emaciated, a necropsy ruled out common causes of death such as disease, age, shark attack, or being struck by a ship.{{cite news |url=http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Cause-of-death-a-mystery-for-whale-found-6204360.php |title=Pacifica beached whale's cause of death remains a mystery |author=Rubenstein, Steve |date=19 April 2015 |newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |access-date=10 January 2017}} A second whale, a {{convert|32|ft|abbr=on|adj=on}} long female humpback whale, washed up just {{convert|0.25|mi}} north of the sperm whale three weeks later on Sharp Park Beach.{{cite news |url=http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Another-dead-whale-washes-up-in-Pacifica-6243319.php |title=Beach mystery: Another dead whale washes up in Pacifica |author1=Rubenstein, Steve |author2=Sernoffsky, Evan |date=5 May 2015 |newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |access-date=10 January 2017}} The second whale had injuries consistent with a ship strike{{cite news |url=http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/2nd-dead-whale-on-Pacifica-beach-possibly-hit-by-6246848.php |title=2nd dead whale on Pacifica beach may have been hit by ship |author=Aleaziz, Hamed |date=6 May 2015 |newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |access-date=10 January 2017}} and due to the odor, both whales were buried later in May.{{cite news |url=http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Pacifica-whales-to-be-buried-Tuesday-6271851.php |title=Smelly dead whales on Pacifica beach to get proper burial |author=Williams, Kale |date=18 May 2015 |newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |access-date=10 January 2017}}

{{wide image|Pacifica Pano 2.jpg|800px|From atop Mori Point, a view of the coast looking south}}

Mori Point is featured in the climactic scene from the 1971 movie Harold and Maude. A customized Jaguar E-Type, modified to look like a hearse, is driven off the bluff, landing on the beach below.{{cite web |url=http://www.boffo.us/haroldandmaude/cliff.html |title=The cliff where Harold drives his car over the edge |author=Meretzky, Steve |author-link=Steve Meretzky |date=April 2013 |publisher=The Harold and Maude Project |access-date=10 January 2017}}{{YouTube |id=OIb-P7KPIrM |title=Harold & Maude Final Scene}}

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• {{cite report |url=https://parkplanning.nps.gov/document.cfm?parkID=303&projectID=13093&documentID=14041 |title=Environmental Assessment: Mori Point Restoration and Trail Plan |author=May and Associates |date=2006 |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=10 January 2017}}
• {{cite report |url=https://www.nps.gov/goga/learn/historyculture/upload/San-Mateo-HRS-Introduction.pdf |title=Historic Resource Study for Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Mateo County |author=Postel, Mitchell P. |date=2010 |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=10 January 2017}}

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{{Portal|San Francisco Bay Area}}

• {{cite web|url=https://www.parksconservancy.org/parks/mori-point|title=Mori Point|author=|date=2016|publisher=Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy|access-date=10 January 2017}}
• {{cite web |url=http://www.pacificariptide.com/pacifica_riptide/2008/01/mori-point-bust.html |website=Pacifica Riptide |title=Mori Point Bustles with Activity: Join the Fun |date=29 January 2008 |author=Bennett, Susie |access-date=10 January 2017}}
• {{YouTube |id=ma-QHYBy-w4 |Mori Point Transformation (Part 1 of 3)}}
• {{YouTube |id=xObRzZU78rw |Mori Point Transformation (Part 2 of 3)}}
• {{YouTube |id=EHEPqh2W1vY |Mori Point Transformation (Part 3 of 3)}}

{{Golden Gate National Recreation Area}}

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Category:Golden Gate National Recreation Area

Category:Pacifica, California