Lobos Creek as it makes its way by the Seacliff neighborhood, west of Lincoln Boulevard.
Lobos Creek is now channeling alot of water from our ongoing series of spring rains and it is a perfect time to tune in. This prolific stream flows from Mountain Lake in Presidio Heights to Baker Beach at the Golden Gate. Since the late 1800s it has been the main source of potable water for the Presidio, over one million gallons/day. I feel wet, green and vibrant down here in the creek bed with the waters of life.
Mountain Lake at the top of the Presidio- the headwaters of Lobos Creek. This is where Juan Batista de Anza and his scouting party camped to stake out the Presidio in 1776. In the fall, as seen above, when all surroundings are hot and dry, this is a place of refuge and refreshment.
Lobos Creek served the growing City of San Francisco well beyond the boundries of the Presidio.I recently saw a photo taken in the 1860s that shows a redwood flume running around the bayside cliffs of Black Point (now Fort Mason). This wooden aqueduct brought water to the base of Russian Hill where it was pumped up to the new residences above via a private water company. The was no municipal water works for San Francisco until the mid 1930s.
Lobos Creek enters the sea at Baker Beach/Seacliff and the outer Golden Gate. There is a water treatment plant just a few hundred yards upstream that serves the Presidio and it diverts over half of the creek's water for human use. The sense of history, strategic importance, and the natural splendor of the converging elements make this place powerful and magnetic.
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