History
The site of the current Fitzgerald Marine Reserve was originally settled by Native Americans approximately 5,800 years ago. In 1908, the Ocean Shore Railroad extended through the town of Moss Beach, effectively creating this location as a tourist destination. Remains of the foundation and some original landscape features from the Smith-Doelger homesite from the early-1900s may be found on the bluffs overlooking the Reserve.
The site has long been a source of research and materials for marine biologists and collectors, so much so that, in 1969, San Mateo County urged the State of California to designate the site as a state reserve to protect the remaining flora and fauna. On August 5, 1969 the site was officially designated as a state reserve and was named after James V. Fitzgerald, former mayor of San Bruno and a longtime member of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors.
Read more about this topic: Fitzgerald Marine Reserve
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“History is the present. That’s why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.”
—E.L. (Edgar Lawrence)
“The history of any nation follows an undulatory course. In the trough of the wave we find more or less complete anarchy; but the crest is not more or less complete Utopia, but only, at best, a tolerably humane, partially free and fairly just society that invariably carries within itself the seeds of its own decadence.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“Tell me of the height of the mountains of the moon, or of the diameter of space, and I may believe you, but of the secret history of the Almighty, and I shall pronounce thee mad.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)