Rockaway Beach is a shoreline area of the

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

in the southern portion of

Pacifica, California Pacifica (, meaning "Peaceful") is a city in San Mateo County, California, on the coast of the Pacific Ocean between San Francisco and Half Moon Bay, California, Half Moon Bay. Overview The City of Pacifica is spread along a stretch of sandy c ...

, United States, approximately south of the city 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 ...

. It is located within a gently curving

embayment 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 ...

with direct access via Rockaway Beach Avenue and providing easy access to Highway 1. The beach itself is a popular place to visit with many restaurant and shopping venues although erosion has decreased its size over the years. It is noted for its scenic overlook, and is one of the cleanest beaches in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

.Bay Area beaches grade well for safe swimming
May 27, 2010 by Carolyn Jones, San Francisco Chronicle

History

There are no known prehistoric remains in Rockaway Beach itself; however, the site of the

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 ...

Native American village site of Timigtac is located about a half mile away on

Calera Creek Calera Creek (Pacifica, California) is a stream in the Rockaway Beach and Vallemar neighborhoods of Pacifica, California. The creek is named for the limestone deposits and historical Rockaway Quarry located nearby. With headwaters in the Sw ...

, immediately to the east of Rockaway Beach by State Route 1. The Rockaway beach area has played a role in local history since the arrival of the

Portola Expedition Portola may refer to: * Portola (album), ''Portola'' (album), a 1998 album by Rose Melberg * Portola, California * Portola, San Francisco, California * Portola Music Festival People with the surname * Gaspar de Portolá (ca. 1717-aft.1784), Spanish ...

, the Spanish explorers credited with discovery of the

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 ...

. As early as 1776,

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

quarried in the

Rockaway Quarry The Rockaway Quarry was a Calera limestone quarry in Pacifica, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Limestone from the site was first extracted by Ohlone from the village of Pruristac. Beginning in 1776, New Spain, New Spaniards used Indig ...

lime Lime most commonly refers to: * Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit * Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide * Lime (color), a color between yellow and green Lime may also refer to: Bo ...

pits was used to

whitewash Whitewash, calcimine, kalsomine, calsomine, asbestis or lime paint is a type of paint made from slaked lime ( calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2) or chalk (calcium carbonate, CaCO3), sometimes known as "whiting". Various other additives are sometimes ...

the newly built

Presidio of San Francisco The Presidio of San Francisco (originally, El Presidio Real de San Francisco or The Royal Fortress of Saint Francis) is a park and former U.S. Army post on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Francisco, California, and is part ...

. More recent investigations suggest that early settlements in

San Pedro Valley The San Pedro Valley starts 10 miles (16 km) south of the United States–Mexico border and extends 140 miles (230 km) north through Arizona. The San Pedro River flows from the state of Sonora, Mexico, through Cochise, Pima, Graham, and Pinal Co ...

also used this limestone for their foundations. In 1907, the Rockaway Beach quarry was established as a continuously-operating commercial entity known as the Stone Brothers. After construction of the

Ocean Shore Railroad The Ocean Shore Railroad was a railroad built between San Francisco and Tunitas Beach, Tunitas Glen, and Swanton, California, Swanton and Santa Cruz, California, Santa Cruz that operated along the Pacific coastline from 1905 until 1920. The rou ...

in 1907, limestone from this quarry was conveyed to assist with the rebuilding of

after the

1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 AM Pacific Time Zone, Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated Moment magnitude scale, moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli inte ...

. Quarry materials were actually used as

ballast Ballast is dense material used as a weight to provide stability to a vehicle or structure. Ballast, other than cargo, may be placed in a vehicle, often a ship or the gondola of a balloon or airship, to provide stability. A compartment within ...

for the

trackbed The track bed or trackbed is the groundwork onto which a railway track is laid. Trackbeds of disused railways are sometimes used for recreational paths or new light rail links. Background According to Network Rail, the trackbed is the layers of ...

of the railroad; moreover, after completion of the railroad, Rockaway Beach was considered a suburb of

due to convenient access. This all changed after legal problems resulting from

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, rockslips or rockslides, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, mudflows, shallow or deep-seated slope failures and debris flows. Landslides ...

repair caused the railroad to go bankrupt in 1921. Highway 1 was completed from Montara to Rockaway Beach in 1937, thereby reopening the local area again to easy northern access. Horace Hill operated the quarry from the early 1940s to 1953, along with a profitable sand dredging business on the quarry's backside. Ideal Cement took over the quarry operation after that time and owned it until 1971; later operators were Rhodes and Jamison and Quarry Products. The quarry ceased operation in 1987, and is currently (2019) being stabilized and restored.History of the Pacifica Quarry
accessed 11/9/2019

Natural features

The coastal bluffs have verticality as steep as 60 percent, while some of the quarry surfaces are completely sheer. The limestone beds within the quarry are hard and fresh, with close- and widely-spaced fractures. Some of these beds are underlain by greenstone, an altered

volcanic A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often fo ...

rock that becomes less weathered with depth. The eastern portion of the quarry area is underlain by

alluvial Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...

terrace deposits. The beach

littoral The littoral zone, also called litoral or nearshore, is the part of a sea, lake, or river that is close to the shore. In coastal ecology, the littoral zone includes the intertidal zone extending from the high water mark (which is rarely i ...

zone is underlain by

Holocene The Holocene () is the current geologic time scale, geological epoch, beginning approximately 11,700 years ago. It follows the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene to ...

age beach sand and the upper sands vary in depth by season, depending on the surf scouring of beach sands in the winter and the gradual rebuilding of sands in the summer. The beach and headlands are mostly

California coastal prairie California coastal prairie, also known as northern coastal grassland, is a grassland plant community of California and Oregon in the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome. This ecosystem is found along the Pacific Coast, from as f ...

and

northern coastal scrub Northern coastal scrub is a diverse scrubland plant community found along the Pacific Coast from Northern California to Southern Oregon, as well as some offshore islands. It frequently forms a landscape mosaic with California coastal prairie, coast ...

, while the riparian area of Calera Creek presents the most important upland

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

of the area. Although the beach and headlands area are the least disturbed natural areas of the Rockaway Beach area, they are used moderately as recreation spots. Vegetation is sparse on the beach with occurrences of succulent sea fig, Hottentot fig, and fat hen in the sandy areas. Farther away from the beach there are California poppies,

sand verbena ''Abronia'', the sand-verbenas or wild lantanas, is a genus of about 20 species of annual or perennial herbaceous plants in the family Nyctaginaceae. Despite the common names, they are not related to ''Verbena'' (vervains) or lantanas in the fa ...

, and bush lupines. The near

elevation gradually increases toward the north until it reaches a headland peak of 175 feet. Habitat on the headland east-facing slope consists of

, considerable prostrate

coyote brush ''Baccharis pilularis'', called coyote brush (or bush), chaparral broom, and bush baccharis, is a shrub in the family Asteraceae native to California, Oregon, Washington, and Baja California. There are reports of isolated populations in New Mexi ...

, bush monkey flower, and colonies of bush lupine. A gamut of coastal wildflowers inhabit the headland slopes; in addition to California poppy, there are goldenasters,

Douglas iris ''Iris douglasiana'', the Douglas iris, is a common wildflower of the coastal regions of Northern and Central California and southern Oregon in the United States. It grows mainly at lower elevations, below , though it is occasionally found at hei ...

, and many other native species. The steep bluff faces host plants that are tolerant of wind and sea salt mist, such as silver beachweed,

sea rocket ''Cakile'' is a genus within the flowering plant family Brassicaceae. Species in this genus are commonly known as searockets, though this name on its own is applied particularly to whatever member of the species is native or most common in the ...

, and extensive patches of

yarrow ''Achillea millefolium'', commonly known as yarrow () or common yarrow, is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. Growing to tall, it is characterized by small whitish flowers, a tall stem of fernlike leaves, and a pungent odor. The plan ...

. North of the developed area of Rockaway Beach is a hidden

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...

, whose habitat is severely disturbed.

Rip-rap Riprap (in North American English), also known as rip rap, rip-rap, shot rock, rock armour (in British English) or rubble, is human-placed rock or other material used to protect shoreline structures against scour and water, wave, or ice erosion. ...

boulders protect the developed area from marine

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...

. Near Calera creek there is

aquatic vegetation Aquatic plants, also referred to as hydrophytes, are vascular plants and Non-vascular plant, non-vascular plants that have adapted to live in aquatic ecosystem, aquatic environments (marine ecosystem, saltwater or freshwater ecosystem, freshwater ...

including rushes,

bulrush Bulrush is a vernacular name for several large wetland graminoid, grass-like plants *Sedge family (Cyperaceae): **''Cyperus'' **''Scirpus'' **''Blysmus'' **''Bolboschoenus'' **''Scirpoides'' **''Isolepis'' **''Schoenoplectus'' **''Trichophorum'' ...

es,

horsetail ''Equisetum'' (; horsetail) is the only living genus in Equisetaceae, a family of vascular plants that reproduce by spores rather than seeds. ''Equisetum'' is a "living fossil", the only living genus of the entire subclass Equisetidae, which ...

, fat hen, and plantain. The quarry area hosts a surprising number of amphibians, reptiles, small mammals, and a variety of birds. Avafauna sighted here include

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 ...

California least tern The California least tern (''Sternula antillarum browni'') is a subspecies of least tern that breeds primarily in bays of the Pacific Ocean within a very limited range of Southern California, in San Francisco Bay and in northern regions of Mexi ...

s, and

red-winged blackbird The red-winged blackbird (''Agelaius phoeniceus'') is a passerine bird of the family Icteridae found in most of North America and much of Central America. It breeds from Alaska and Newfoundland south to Florida, the Gulf of Mexico, Mexico, and ...

s. The headland cliffs within the quarry provide nesting sites for bank swallows,

pelagic cormorant The pelagic cormorant (''Urile pelagicus''), also known as Baird's cormorant or violet-green cormorant, is a small member of the cormorant family Phalacrocoracidae. Analogous to other smallish cormorants, it is also called the pelagic shag occas ...

s, and

Brandt's cormorant Brandt's cormorant (''Urile penicillatus'') is a strictly marine bird of the cormorant family of seabirds that inhabits the Pacific coast of North America. It ranges, in the summer, from Alaska to the Gulf of California, but the population north ...

s. Three

endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

are found proximate to Rockaway Beach: the

San Francisco garter snake The San Francisco garter snake (''Thamnophis sirtalis tetrataenia'') is a slender multi-colored subspecies of the common garter snake. Designated as an endangered subspecies since the year 1967, it is endemic to San Mateo County and the extreme ...

, the

San Bruno elfin butterfly The San Bruno elfin (''Callophrys mossii bayensis'') is a U.S. federally listed endangered subspecies that inhabits rocky outcrops and cliffs in coastal scrub on the San Francisco Peninsula. It is endemic to this habitat in California. Its patchy ...

, and the

California red-legged frog The California red-legged frog (''Rana draytonii'') is a species of frog found in California (USA) and northern Baja California (Mexico). It was formerly considered a subspecies of the northern red-legged frog (''Rana aurora''). The frog is an I ...

. These last two are found within the quarry property; the California red-legged frog is a critical food source for the San Francisco garter snake that is known to exist on the Mori Point National Park property immediately adjacent to the north.

Developed area

Hugging the coast at the center of Rockaway Beach is a cluster of restaurants and shops, the oldest of which is a Pacifica landmark, Nick's Seafood Restaurant. Another restaurant, historically the romantic Moonraker, hosts nighttime views over the illuminated waves of the Pacific crashing at the restaurant foundation bulwarks. Newer shops nestle behind the Moonraker, many a product of the city's 1986 redevelopment plan.

References

Bibliography

* Curtis Alling, Phyllis Potter, et al., ''

Environmental Impact Report An environmental impact statement (EIS), under United States environmental law, is a document required by the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for certain actions "significantly affecting the quality of the human environment". An EIS ...

for the West Rockaway Beach

Redevelopment Redevelopment is any new construction on a site that has pre-existing uses. It represents a process of land development uses to revitalize the physical, economic and social fabric of urban space. Description Variations on redevelopment include ...

Plan'', prepared for City of Pacifica by Earth Metrics Inc.,

Burlingame, California Burlingame () is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States. It is located on the San Francisco Peninsula and has a significant shoreline on San Francisco Bay. The city is named after diplomat Anson Burlingame and is known for its ...

, March, 1986 * ''General Plan'', city of Pacifica (1980) * ''Pacifica Quarry Reclamation Plan'', Martin Carpenter Associates (1983) * Phyllis M. Faber, ''Common

Wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

Plants of Coastal California'' * ''Geologic Map of Unconsolidated and Moderately Consolidated Deposits of San Mateo County, California'',

U.S. Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on March ...

, Field Studies Map MF-575 (1974)

External links