California Coast & Ocean

Not Just Natural History
The day before my visit saw the start of Phase II--brush cutting, in preparation for extensive trail building (including the linkage of the Coastal Trail from north to south)--and Sue was eager to see what had been done. Although the trail work is under way, she explained, “we’re on the cusp of bird nesting season, so we need to cut things low now.” Mori Point, with its confluence of wetland, seashore, coastal scrub, and coastal terrace prairie habitats, is also a birder’s paradise.

As we walked, Sue described the cultural history of the area, which she said is “almost as exciting as the natural history.” The point was first settled in the late 1800s by Stefano Mori, who started out grazing cattle and horses and raising brussels sprouts, cabbage, and artichokes. Facilities to feed and house the ranch hands eventually developed into the income-earning Mori Point Inn, a welcome roadhouse for travelers between San Francisco and Half Moon Bay. In the 1920s, Sue said, local culture “got a little more colorful, when the inn became something of a bordello” and Prohibition sent the then tavernkeeper, Stefano’s son Jack, into a brief career as bootlegger, running Canadian scotch from smugglers’ ships off the point. That all ended in 1923, when Jack was arrested and 24,000 cases of whiskey were confiscated. (The timber steps that connect the bluff and the seawall are called “Bootlegger’s Trail” in honor of this short-lived era.) The roadhouse was revived in 1932 as a restaurant, hotel, and dancehall and remained in use until 1965, when it was condemned and, soon thereafter, burned to the ground.

Other uses of the area have included limestone, rock, and sand quarrying, a cement operation, and motorcycle riding. The former presence of humanity means that “you never know what you’re going to find when you take scrub out,” Sue said. In Phase I, bathtubs, a shopping cart, tires, and vehicle axles were removed. “When we started digging our ponds, we also found diesel fuel”--a nasty surprise that required expensive cleanup. Here and there, small mounds of old asphalt still dot the ground--remnants, probably, of the cement operation.

Near Laguna Salada, on City of San Francisco land, dozens of car tires lie heaped in a large oval--perhaps the remains of an old corral. “The problem with the tires,” said Sue, “besides that they’ll be expensive to get rid of, is that they hold water--which is prime habitat for mosquitoes, of course, but also for frogs.” Although the frogs eat the mosquitoes, they don’t do it fast enough. Recognizing this dilemma, the Mosquito Abatement District helped with the design of the ponds. They will also treat the ponds with Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis, a natural, selective pesticide), Sue said, “which deals specifically with the larvae of the mosquito. All these things are tricky.”

As we made our way along the old road to the south pond, Sue pointed out a hawk rising into the air, a long serpentine creature writhing in its talons. “Put that down!” she yelled. Most likely, it wasn’t a rare San Francisco garter snake but the common coast garter snake, which also inhabits the area. That’s what we hoped, anyway.