Mariposa Bay Front Park

Mariposa Park sits on land that was once a tidal swamp teeming with shellfish and migrating birds. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, this marshy expanse was gradually filled in with sand dunes and, eventually, debris from the ruins of the nineteen-oh-six earthquake to create the solid ground you walk on today. For decades, the site served as a busy industrial railyard, a history that is now woven into the park’s design. If you look at the shade trellises and the layout of the paths, you are seeing recreations of the old roundhouse tracks and turntables that once dominated this landscape.