Skeggs Point is a scenic turnout in

San Mateo County San Mateo County ( ), officially the County of San Mateo, is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 764,442. Redwood City is the county seat, and the third most populated city following Daly ...

along State Route 35 between Kings Mountain and State Route 84. The feature is marked with a guide sign along the road and is listed on the

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...

7.5 minute quadrangle, "

Woodside, California Woodside is a small incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, United States, on the San Francisco Peninsula. Woodside is among the wealthiest communities in the United States, home to many technology billionaires and investment manager ...

" as well as in the

National Geographic Names Database The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database of name and locative information about more than two million physical and cultural features throughout the United States and its territories, Antarctica, and the associated states of ...

. The area is about three miles (five kilometers) west and 2,000 feet (600 m) above the town of Woodside. If not for the vegetation, there would be a panoramic view of the

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...

south of

Candlestick Park Candlestick Park was an outdoor stadium on the West Coast of the United States, located in San Francisco's Bayview Heights area. The stadium was originally the home of Major League Baseball's San Francisco Giants, who played there from 1960 un ...

, (a.k.a. Monster Park, 3Com Park) (Candlestick Park was demolished in 2015). Skeggs Point is about 2,300 feet (700 m) above mean

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

, (AMSL).

NAD83 The North American Datum (NAD) is the horizontal datum now used to define the geodetic network in North America. A datum is a formal description of the shape of the Earth along with an "anchor" point for the coordinate system. In surveying, ...

coordinates for the location are . The USGS shows a benchmark of at the vista point. A peak named

Sierra Morena The Sierra Morena is one of the main systems of mountain ranges in Spain. It stretches for 450 kilometres from east to west across the south of the Iberian Peninsula, forming the southern border of the ''Meseta Central'' plateau and providi ...

(elevation ) is a prominent local feature about 100 feet (30 m) west of the Skeggs Point turn-out. One of the highest points in San Mateo County (according to U.S. Geological Survey maps), Sierra Morena is closed to the public because of communication antennas and microwave equipment. Land along the roadway is largely owned by a Special District, the

Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District Formed in 1972 by voter initiative, the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) is a non-enterprise special district in the San Francisco Bay Area. It has acquired and preserved a regional green belt of open space land and provides o ...

Named for Caltrans District 4 engineer

The geographic feature was named for Colonel John Hunt Skeggs, (US Army ret.), who served in World War I. On returning from the war, he worked as

California Department of Transportation The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is an executive department of the U.S. state of California. The department is part of the cabinet-level California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA). Caltrans is headquartered in Sacrame ...

(Caltrans) District 4 engineer from roughly 1919 until his retirement in 1952. Skeggs was a high-profile factor in early Caltrans District 4 project work building

US 101 U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101 (US 101), is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, on the West Coast of the United States. It is also known as (The Royal Roa ...

, SR 35, SR 152 through

Pacheco Pass Pacheco Pass, elevation , is a low mountain pass located in the Diablo Range in southeastern Santa Clara County, California. It is the main route through the hills separating the Santa Clara Valley and the Central Valley (California), Central Val ...

, the

Waldo Tunnel The Waldo Grade is a highway grade between the Golden Gate Bridge and Marin City along U.S. Route 101 and State Route 1. It is defined as the stretch of roadway between the Spencer Offramp and Marin City, within the city of Sausalito. This grad ...

, the

Altamont Pass Altamont Pass, formerly Livermore Pass, is a low mountain pass in the Diablo Range of Northern California between Livermore in the Livermore Valley and Tracy in the San Joaquin Valley. The name is actually applied to two distinct but nearby c ...

(then

US 50 U.S. Route 50 or U.S. Highway 50 (US 50) is a major east–west route of the U.S. Highway system, stretching from Interstate 80 (I-80) in West Sacramento, California, to Maryland Route 528 (MD 528) in Ocean City, Maryland, on the Atlantic ...

and now part of I-580), as well as a pre-1952 El Camino Real widening project. Before the war, he worked for the City of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Department of Water and Power, (DWP). Col. Skeggs died 28 August 1959 in

Santa Clara, California Santa Clara (; Spanish for " Saint Clare") is a city in Santa Clara County, California. The city's population was 127,647 at the 2020 census, making it the eighth-most populous city in the Bay Area. Located in the southern Bay Area, the cit ...

In popular culture

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...

's autobiography, '' Waging Heavy Peace: A Hippie Dream'', he describes writing " Like a Hurricane" at Skeggs Point Scenic Lookout in the back of a 1950 DeSoto Suburban.Young, Neil, '' Waging Heavy Peace: A Hippie Dream'', page 117. New York, 2012

Sources

* Beal, Richard, ''Highway 17: The Road to Santa Cruz'', (Aptos, Calif.: Pacific Group, 1991). * Woodside, California, 7.5 minute Quadrangle, US Geological Survey, 1997. * AncestryLibrary.com (death record information). * Photo courtesy of Auburn University.

References

External links

{{Portal, San Francisco Bay Area
Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District MROSD map of area
Landforms of San Mateo County, California Parks in San Mateo County, California Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District