Skeggs Point is a scenic turnout in

San Mateo County San Mateo County ( ), officially the County of San Mateo, is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 764,442. Redwood City, California, Redwood City is th ...

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), founded as the Geological Survey, is an government agency, agency of the United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geograp ...

7.5 minute quadrangle, "

Woodside, California Woodside is a incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, United States, on the San Francisco Peninsula. It has a council–manager system of government. The population of the town was 5,309 at the 2020 census. The town's population ha ...

" as well as in the National Geographic Names Database. 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 (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 ...

south of

Candlestick Park Candlestick Park was an outdoor stadium located in the Bayview-Hunters Point, Hunters Point area of San Francisco, California, United States. It was originally the home of Major League Baseball's San Francisco Giants, who played there from 1960 S ...

, (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 mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

, (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, c ...

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

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 (government), executive department of the U.S. state of California. The department is part of the Government of California#State agencies, cabinet-level California State Tran ...

(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 major north–south highway that traverses the states of California, Oregon, and Washington on the West Coast of the United States. It is part of the United States Numbered Highway Syst ...

, 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. As with most passes ...

, the Waldo Tunnel, 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 nea ...

(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, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

Department of Water and Power The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is the largest municipal utility in the United States with 8,100 megawatts of electric generating capacity (2021–2022) and delivering an average of 435 million gallons of water per day (487, ...

, (DWP). Col. Skeggs died 28 August 1959 in

Santa Clara, California Santa Clara ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "Clare of Assisi, Saint Clare") is a city in Santa Clara County, California. The city's population was 127,647 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities and towns i ...

In popular culture

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, forming the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield. Since the begi ...

'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 The DeSoto Suburban is an automobile produced by DeSoto from 1946 through the 1954 model year. The Suburban was a continuation of DeSoto's long-wheelbase models, first introduced in 1946. While in production, the Suburban was available under the ...

.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