Baker Beach is a public beach on the

peninsula A peninsula (; ) is a landform that extends from a mainland and is surrounded by water on most, but not all of its borders. A peninsula is also sometimes defined as a piece of land bordered by water on three of its sides. Peninsulas exist on all ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, 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 List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

The beach lies on the shore of the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

in the northwest of the city. It is roughly a long, beginning just south of Golden Gate Point (where the

Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the U.S. city of San Francisco, California—the northern tip of the San Francisco Pen ...

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 conte ...

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 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 nudity, nude. Nude beaches usually have mixed bathing. Such beaches are usually on public lands, and any member of the public is allow ...

."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 Fairfax Henry Wheelan (September 27, 1856 – March 26, 1915) was an American businessman, philanthropist, and political reformer. As the chief complaining witness of voter fraud in 1904, he played a primary role in the eventual downfall of San Fran ...

sued to have the title returned to the heirs of John H. Baker, claiming 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, which was a military base from the founding of

by the Spanish in 1812 until 1997. In 1904, it was fortified with disappearing gun installations known as

Battery Chamberlin Battery Chamberlin is an artillery battery in the Presidio of San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States. The battery is named in honor of Captain Lowell A. Chamberlin, who had served with distinction in the Civil War. It was added t ...

, 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, which is administered by the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

. From 1986 to 1990, the north end of Baker Beach was the original site of the

Burning Man Burning Man is an event focused on community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance held annually in the western United States. The name of the event comes from its culminating ceremony: the symbolic burning of a large wooden effigy, referred ...

art festival. In 1990, park police allowed participants to raise the traditional large statue but not 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 Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

. A fatal

shark attack A shark attack is an attack on a human by a shark. Every year, around 80 unprovoked attacks are reported worldwide. Despite their rarity, many people fear shark attacks after occasional serial attacks, such as the Jersey Shore shark attacks of ...

occurred on Baker Beach on May 7, 1959, when 18-year-old Albert Kogler Jr. was attacked by a

great white shark The great white shark (''Carcharodon carcharias''), also known as the white shark, white pointer, or simply great white, is a species of large mackerel shark which can be found in the coastal surface waters of all the major oceans. It is nota ...

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 Serpentine may refer to: Shapes * Serpentine shape, a shape resembling a serpent * Serpentine curve, a mathematical curve * Serpentine, a type of riding figure Science and nature * Serpentine subgroup, a group of minerals * Serpentinite, a ...

cliffs occur along the Pacific coast near Baker Beach. When rising from the land surface, serpentine produces a low-

calcium Calcium is a chemical element with the symbol Ca and atomic number 20. As an alkaline earth metal, calcium is a reactive metal that forms a dark oxide-nitride layer when exposed to air. Its physical and chemical properties are most similar to ...

, high-

magnesium Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg and atomic number 12. It is a shiny gray metal having a low density, low melting point and high chemical reactivity. Like the other alkaline earth metals (group 2 of the periodic ta ...

soil that can allow for rare species of plants to develop in the vicinity. This may explain the presence of ''

Hesperolinon congestum ''Hesperolinon congestum'', or Marin dwarf flax, is an annual herb, which is known to occur only in San Mateo, San Francisco and Marin County, California, United States. This plant occurs chiefly on serpentine soils, especially in dry native ...

'' (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 The was a -diameter torpedo of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), launched from surface ships. It is commonly referred to as the Long Lance by most modern English-language naval historians, a nickname given to it after the war by Samuel Eliot Mori ...

imbedded in the beach sand in 1946. Historian

Mark Felton Mark Felton (born 1974) is a British historian of the Second World War and author of more than twenty books. His most recently published work is 2019's ''Operation Swallow: American Soldiers' Remarkable Escape From Berga Concentration Camp'', wh ...

believes it was fired by

Japanese submarine I-15 ''I-15'' was an Imperial Japanese Navy B1 type submarine commissioned in 1940 that served during World War II. She supported the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, operated off the United States West Coast, and took part in Operation K-1, the Ale ...

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