Audio
Mr. and Mrs. Peddicord Part 2
Transcript
Martini: ... but it's solid as a rock. [Inaudible 00:00:08].
Norman: Yeah. Once they get wet, then the ready-made wall.
Martini: Paul, you were asking about the cattle guard. [Car signal clicking]. It’s… they bought this from a dairy company. They condemned it-
Curry: Right.
Martini: ... in '37 to build Fort Cronkhite [former U.S. Army post that was part of the coastal artillery defenses in San Francisco]. And what we think is that they may have allowed for a few years for them to still graze cows out here. May have given them the rancher right and made it part of the deal. But down below where the plotting room was at least up until 1941, there were still dairy buildings and a milking barn in that little valley right below the plotting room.
Norman: Yeah.
Martini: Do you remember those when you were there?
Norman: Not really. I don't remember anything about them.
Martini: Yeah. Was still a couple of troughs buried out in the weeds out there.
Curry: Could have been beginning of the war [World War II] and they removed it.
Norman: I just don't remember anything about this.
Martini: Yeah, would it-
Mrs. Peddicord: I don't know if I took a picture of [inaudible 00:01:04] if you want to get it on the way down.
Martini: Yeah, we'll go right by it. One of the great myths is that all these trees were planted for camouflage during World War II. That's why I was asking you about trees and what you said-
Mrs. Peddicord: Yeah. Would they be that big? Well, 40 years, 50 years ago?
Martini: No, they aren't because when we've cut some of these huge cypress down, they'll only be 25, 30 years old. They grew up very rapidly.
Mrs. Peddicord: Oh.
Martini: And that's why, what you said about they had you out, you weren't supposed to walk, you know, create new trails and all that and keep the natural vegetation.
Norman: Right.
Martini: That will make our naturalists very happy. [Laughter].
Norman: I just don't remember the trees at all. I don't know if you can see them or not, but up there, there's the pipes coming out of the ventilation. I think that was a generator room.
Martini: There you can see it.
Norman: And that they used those pipes for getting air in and out of there.
Mrs. Peddicord: Oh yeah. I see them in there, yeah.
Martini:
Inside through here, right inside it is the latrine and that's gas proofed, just like the whole plotting room's gas proof down below.
Norman: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Martini: Did they ever do gas drills? Did you still carry gas masks or was that kind of past?
Norman: We had them, but I don't recall any drills.
Martini: And outside of the casemate here, like you said, this is where if they were going to bring a truck, they'd just drive it inside under the camouflage real quick.
Norman: Right.
Curry: Was the camouflage high enough that you could go under or did they have to lift it when you came to it?
Norman: I don't recall having to lift it. Because I don't remember having to take it on and off of this side. We did all the time on the side where the guns were, but not back here. So it must've been just up high because I just don't recall having to take it on and off up here.
Martini: Piper, you said you remember stuff about camouflage nets.
Mrs. Peddicord: I'd swear that there was some down or down around near the lagoons someplace.
Martini: Where these things colored or were they just bare?
Mrs. Peddicord: What I remember was brown and green.
Norman:
Most of it was burlap. That was different colors of green, but just burlap strips.
Martini: Over like a [crosstalk 00:03:06] net?
Norman: Over a netting, yeah.
Mrs. Peddicord: What is that over there? That little square thing.
Martini: On the top of the hill? That's the reservoir for all the barracks buildings down below.
Mrs. Peddicord: Oh.
Martini: Yeah.
Mrs. Peddicord: Now was that here then? There then?
Martini: I don't know.
Norman: I don't remember it's there being there. I wouldn't say it wasn't, but I just don't remember.
Mrs. Peddicord: Look at this view. Give me the camera. Wait a minute. [Laughter]. You know, I told them, I says you were too young to enjoy all of this view then.
Martini: And you're saying you never went to the beach. The barbed wire was-
Norman: That's right. [Camera noises]. And I just can't tell you why, whether we were ordered off of there or what, but nobody was ever out on the beach. You'd think with a bunch of soldiers, they'd be out there playing games or throwing balls around or something.
Mrs. Peddicord: You could maybe make it down to the lagoons, could you?
Norman: But I just don't remember our being allowed out there.
Martini: Did you attend religious services at our little chapel? It was now our Visitor Center.
Norman: I can't remember going there.
Martini: Okay. Across the street at the theater? I guess what I'm getting at, did you guys go over to Fort Barry for recreation?
Norman: Yes.
Mrs. Peddicord: Would have taken you in that truck to go there, wouldn't they?
Norman: No, we'd walk.
Mrs. Peddicord: Walk there?
Norman: It's not that far.
Mrs. Peddicord: Oh. Isn't that through that tunnel?
Norman: No, no.
Mrs. Peddicord: Oh.
Norman: [Fort] Barry is where their office is.
Mrs. Peddicord: Oh, oh, oh.
Norman: That's where the hostel is.
Mrs. Peddicord: Oh, okay. All right.
Curry: This lagoon is the division between-
Norman: Those buildings over there, that's Fort Barry.
Mrs. Peddicord: Oh.
Curry: [Inaudible 00:04:39].
Mrs. Peddicord: All right.
Martini: The big theater, was that for entertainment shows or was that in a lecture hall or USO [United Services Organization, a corporation that provides live entertainment to members of the U.S. Air Force]? What went on there?
Norman: I don't remember entertainment shows. I just don't remember there ever having any of those up here. No doubt they did, but I sure don't remember any.
Martini: When you said USO [United Services Organization, a corporation that provides live entertainment to members of the U.S. Air Force], those were USO sponsored dances. Those weren't like the big shows with Bing Crosby?
Norman: No, no. Those are just a USO [United Services Organization, a corporation that provides live entertainment to members of the U.S. Air Force] sponsor.
Mrs. Peddicord: You never got any of that, did you?
Norman: Nope.
Mrs. Peddicord: They probably felt that they were too close to the city, you know, to have somebody big like that.
Martini: We're looking due south here, right up towards that Point Bonita Lighthouse. Now local nicknames. Do you have this big rock, just right off shore here at the end of the beach, we call it Bird Rock.
Norman: Yeah.
Martini: Did you have any special nicknames for that or-?
Norman: I don't remember any for them.
Martini: Okay. And I've heard of Gold Elephant Rock. And the beach, did it have a name or was it just the beach?
Norman: It was just the beach. And I see that you now have a name for it and I don't remember that name at all.
Martini: Rodeo Beach.
Norman: Yeah.
Mrs. Peddicord: The Potato Patch.
Norman: The Potato Patch was out over in there, yeah.
Mrs. Peddicord: Yeah.
Norman: That's in the water though.
Mrs. Peddicord: That I used to [inaudible 00:05:58].
Martini: One of our researchers dug up the Lifesaving Service and Coast Guard use the name Potato Cove for this beach at the turn of the century.
Mrs. Peddicord: Well, that's probably why then.
Martini: Because that's where the potatoes washed up at. Fell off in the Potato Patch.
Norman: That rough section of water beyond was always known as the Potato Patch.
Mrs. Peddicord: Oh, boy. This is eroding, isn't it?
Martini: Well, what you're seeing up there that real bad stretch... That's because some fool opened the drain valve on a water tank.
Norman: Ho, oh.
Mrs. Peddicord: Oh, no.
Martini: How many tens of thousands of gallons went gushing down the hill?
Norman: Yeah.
Mrs. Peddicord: Oh my God.
Martini: Yeah.
Mrs. Peddicord: Recently, or?
Martini: That there was years back. You can see that the big wide swath is re-vegetating-
Mrs. Peddicord: Yeah, got the greenery-
Martini: ... but on the left side, it's still continuing because of the heavy rains. It takes years for these hills to repair themselves.
Norman: You know, I don't remember that being up there at all.
Mrs. Peddicord: Well, I remember that it was much more covered up with dirt.
Martini: Oh, I'll let you take them out over here.
Mrs. Peddicord: Okay.
Norman: Let's see. There you go.
Mrs. Peddicord: You drive like [crosstalk 00:07:08] Where the heck is the... there it is. [Camera noises]. I'm out of practice with this.
Martini: Do you want to take one out the window?
Mrs. Peddicord: Huh? Another little place right in there.
Martini: They connect. The call that makes it big like a horseshoe in there.
Norman: Right.
Mrs. Peddicord: Is this where you walked up to that time? And I stayed just around the curve.
Norman: No, no, no.
Mrs. Peddicord: That you came up-
Norman: I walked up to the front of the gun battery.
Mrs. Peddicord: Oh. Oh yeah, because I've walked up this [inaudible 00:07:41].
Norman: Well, you walked up to the-
Mrs. Peddicord: I walked up to the plotting room-
Norman: ... you walked up to the plotting room with me when we could still get in.
Mrs. Peddicord: Yeah, that's right.
Norman: When the doors were open. They weren't closed yet. That was many years ago.
Martini: Hey, we finally welded the door shut on that one after somebody broke in and started stripping all the copper wire out of the walls.
Norman: Oh, no.
Mrs. Peddicord: Oh, no.
Norman: No.
Norman: I remember one time they just had it, had a lock on it and the day that I went up there, the lock had been broken off and the doors were opened so...
Martini: Yep. We're trying like mad to keep the kids out of here. And the only thing we found that works is quarter-inch steel plate welded over the doors. Because remember when I checked the back doors where you said you used to enter?
Norman: Yeah.
[00:08:30] Martini: Paul and I were hoping to keep those doors operable. Pulls up the main laterals, but the back doors and somebody broke through a two-inch solid steel casting to pop the doors open, to get in. They've gone up with portable little acetylene rigs. You know, you only get maybe a minutes burn out of them but it's enough to burn the government lock off.
Norman: Yeah.
Martini: Yeah.
Mrs. Peddicord: What do they do when they get in there? Or is it just the idea that they-
Martini: It's the idea. They drink. They spray paint the walls with gang names.
Mrs. Peddicord: Oh, God. I can't get over the number of cars there are in the middle of the week.
Martini:
Yep. Well this last double set of barracks buildings, both sides of the road are offices and some kind of conference center for a group called Pacific Energy Research. That's alternative energy options. Kind of a scattered group but nice people. And they must have 50, 60 people working in there.
Mrs. Peddicord: That many, huh?
Martini: Yeah.
Mrs. Peddicord: Now this part is more what I remember, right down the hill.
Martini: Turned out. Oh, great. You recorded me bad-rapping them, sitting here and [crosstalk 00:09:52]-
Norman: No, that's all right.
Martini: Thanks, Paul.
Mrs. Peddicord: Oh, boy. You better wipe that off.
Martini: Oh, God.
Mrs. Peddicord: No, you said they were nice people.
Martini: Oh, that's right. Yeah. [Laughter].
Norman: We didn't have to wax and polish the floors. They were always just mopping.
Martini: Just mop them. Do you remember when they had a Commando Training School out here in '43, '44?
Norman: No, I don't.
Martini: Some sort of a commando training went on. I asked Paul to kick out the tape recorder because that sheared off hill there, was apparently used for training guys and rappelling.
Mrs. Peddicord: Oh, back there?
Martini: Yeah.
Norman: I don't remember any activity like that at all.
Curry: There was a boiler house in there at one time.
Martini: Incinerator.
Curry: Oh, incinerator.
Martini: Yeah.
Curry: And I take it this-
Martini: I [crosstalk 00:10:37] as a word.
Curry: Taken out because of the asbestos.
Martini: I think it was just ugly. Like that… What happened up here? We’re right at what we called the Three Sisters.
Norman: So I was doing a little government work.
Martini: Yeah?
Norman: I was making my wife a shoe rack and used-
Mrs. Peddicord: Never got it.
Norman: ... using the little carpenter shop down here. And I managed to slit my finger open and ended up about three weeks in the hospital with that. [Laughter].
Mrs. Peddicord: You know when they had all the graffiti up here?
Norman: Yes.
Mrs. Peddicord: And I said, you really ought to stop and put it on there, "This is where I almost lost my finger." [Laughter].
Martini: So what was going on in these buildings? You had a carpenter shop.
Norman: We had, I think there was an electric shop, a carpenter shop. I don't think there was a sheet metal shop. But those two are the ones that I remember in here.
Martini: Would that have been in the long building on the-
Norman: On the right.
Martini: On the right, building 916. And the little buildings on the left?
Norman: I don't know what was in there. Somewhere up here there was a mess hall, but I don't remember exactly where it was.
Martini: There's three buildings now, that up until about 1960 or so, there were actually seven buildings. So it was quite a little complex. One fellow who was stationed on the side 41, referred to this as a ghost town because apparently not much was going on. They always received just a ramshackle assemblage. And up on top of the hill to our left is one of the anti- aircraft site.
Norman: They were around here. But I never ever paid any attention to them. I never had anything to do with them.
Martini: They were sited so that they'd be right over the major gun batteries. There was one on the hill, above [Battery] Townsley.
Norman: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Martini: The one on the hill here above Battery Wallace. But you never interacted with those guys, even though you were supposed to missile defense?
Norman: No.
Martini: Out in the Point Bonita area at that time, was Battery Mendell, was that still armed and manned?
Norman: There were people there, but we didn't have anything to do with them.
Martini: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Norman: And we ate in the same chow lines as they went through and so forth, but we didn't have anything to do with them at all.
Martini: Where were you quartered when you went over to the radar up here? Still in the barracks down there?
Norman: No, we were quartered up here. If I had to point it out to you, I couldn't point it out to you where we actually lived. But from the moment I was up here, we never had direct contact.
Mrs. Peddicord: Oh, can you stop here for a minute?
Martini: Sure.
Mrs. Peddicord: It's beautiful. Beautiful [crosstalk 00:13:30]
Norman: We never had direct contact with anything down in the gun batteries at all.
Martini: Excuse me.
Mrs. Peddicord: That's all right. [Camera noises]. OK, thank you.
Martini: Do you ever do anything with the Coast Guard guys down here?
Norman: Nope. We knew they were there and that was all.
Martini: You didn't socialize much.
Norman: No, we-
Mrs. Peddicord: I was just going to say that. They were in their own little thing. [Laughter].
Norman: We were kept pretty much to ourselves.
Martini: Were you in the radar that was down on the lighthouse?
Norman: No. Just right up here on the hill. See, where the antenna is now. [Walkie-talkie sounds].
Martini: Right.
Norman: Well, I used to be... I'm sure that that was the hill where underground is where all of it, the building was. The concrete building and it housed all the equipment. And on top was the water tower. [Walkie-talkie sounds]. I remember the water tower being higher than that one.
Curry: You had nothing to do with this building right here?
Norman: No.
Curry: That was the fellows running the mine control.
Norman: And we were down there to sleep and eat.
Martini: When you say down there and you motion that way-
Norman: Well, somewhere back here is where we walked down to the restroom and-
Mrs. Peddicord: Restroom or commissary?
Norman: The restaurant. [Laughter]. The mess hall.
Martini: The mess hall. More of the two story type buildings for quarters? There was a complex up near there that was torn down.
Norman: It was a complex, I can't picture it right now, but there was a complex where there were some barracks and they had the common mess hall where a lot of people all came together to eat.
Martini: Okay. Seems that would have been right there where the YMCA [Young Men’s Christian Association, a worldwide youth organization] is.
Norman: Yeah.
Martini: Short walk.
Mrs. Peddicord: Then you'd walk up to this place.
Norman: Then we'd walk up here. But we didn't have alternated crews up here. That's why I say, you either pulled night duty or you pulled day duty.
Mrs. Peddicord: Oh. And you weren't living... How long did you live up here then? Was that before or after?
Norman: Quite a few months up here.
Mrs. Peddicord: I mean, before you went down to [Fort] Cronkhite [former U.S. Army post that was part of the coastal artillery defenses in San Francisco] or-
Norman: No, that was after because at [Fort] Cronkhite [former U.S. Army post that was part of the coastal artillery defenses in San Francisco] I was on the gun battery. Once I was transferred over to the radar group, then I came up here first. And then I went from here up to Point Reyes.
Mrs. Peddicord: Hmm.
Norman: But except for off-duty hours, as I say, either a day shift or night shift-
Mrs. Peddicord: There's a tunnel down there.
Norman: ... all of our time was spent up here.
Martini: Can you... set of stairs, okay?
Norman: Yeah. That's okay.
Mrs. Peddicord: You going to bring your jacket this time?
Martini: [Aircraft noises]. For the tape recorder. We're standing right up behind the two story was times called a signal tower. And if you look here, those are two of the footings for your radar tower. So your water towers, you call it?
Norman: Right.
Martini: For the radar screen were right above us.
Mrs. Peddicord: Oh, you were right, you said that.
Norman: Yeah.
Mrs. Peddicord: Right over here.
Norman: Yeah, I remember we'd have to go up just to service the antenna. And the only way we had to get up there was just a ladder, a wooden ladder that was built right on the outside.
Mrs. Peddicord: Was it this close to the edge of the thing? [Laughter].
Norman: Well, yeah, but the ladder was on the opposite side.
Mrs. Peddicord: Oh, okay. [Laughter].
Martini: We've lost a little bit of hill too.
Norman: I didn't remember it being quite this close. [Laughter].
Martini: Now this building right behind us, you remember was this here?
Norman: I don't remember it.
Martini: Probably would, it's kind of one of those mystery buildings where we don't have a real date of when it showed up. It's been a long time.
Norman: I just don't remember.
Martini: Now, where was your operating room? Associated with greater number-
Norman: Down over here, somewhere.
Martini: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Norman: This is probably right down underneath here, isn't it?
Martini: I don't know if we can be. [Wind blowing]. We're pointing to the area right between the pylons and the fence closure for the Coast Guard to get around.
Norman: It could be right down in there, very close.
Mrs. Peddicord: Is that an air raid thing that I'm hearing?
Martini: Yes, could be.
Mrs. Peddicord: [Inaudible 00:17:48].
Martini: Outdoor from the breather pipes that might've been a fuel tank. There was a wood structure right here.
Norman: No, this was underground.
Mrs. Peddicord: You were underground.
Norman: And it was a concrete room and it was underground.
Martini: Could it have been one of the older fire control stations from the turn of the century that was adapted? Were there any vision slits or windows around?
Norman: No. No, not at all.
Martini: Solid room.
Norman: It was a solid room, no vents that you could see out of. It was just… I'm going to guess at the size as being somewhere around 12 to 15 foot square.
Martini: No kidding.
Mrs. Peddicord: Is that where that picture was taken?
Norman: Yeah.
Mrs. Peddicord: Yeah.
Norman: That's where the picture was taken.
Martini: The one that you donated to us [crosstalk 00:18:36]. What else was up here on the hill with you at that time?
Norman: That's all I can remember, it was just the tower and in the underground room.
Martini: None of these... Well, these were existing fire control stations. I don't know if they were still in use. There's a little stair-step section going down towards the lighthouse.
Norman: Well, there may be but, as I say, we just never didn't have anything to do with them. So I never paid any attention to it.
Martini: They were your neighbors. [Laughter]. You were so close.
Norman: We never even talked except in the mess hall. [Laughter].
Martini: That's great. So what would a typical day be like when you were working the radar on duty and just keeping track of the traffic in and out of the harbor?
Norman: That's right. And we always had the same crew. It wasn't like you had alternating crews. You had one crew, and you were on duty for 12 and off for 12. And then besides that, I think you were allowed to have two people on pass at the time and that was all.
Martini: So when you were down for 12 hours, would another one of these radar sets up the coast takeover?
Norman: Well, when I say on 12, off 12, I only meant that the people were on 12, off 12. The station was on around the clock.
Martini: I got it. Okay.
Norman: But there would be about six of us on duty at the same time. [Airplane noise]. And of the six, unless we were actually doing an exercise, generally there were two on the scopes and that was it. And the rest of you could just sleep on the benches or read or do what you wanted. Once the exercise started and then all of you would be busy.
Martini: Did they take any oath? Sign anything about the information you would've been exposed to and the technology and brief you that not talking about it?
Norman: Yes. And I can't remember to what detail we had to, but it seems to me I had to sign a secrecy or a secrecy oath when I was brought in. But the secrecy was really stressed and of course, they continued to stress it for just almost all the time I was in.
Martini: What would you tell your wife you're doing for a living?
Norman: Just, I was with the Coast Artillery. [Laughter].
Martini: You didn't-
Mrs. Peddicord: He told me he was a machinist, I didn't know what he was talking about then. [Laughter].
Martini: You said when an exercise began... what would that be?
Norman: Well, we would do dummy exercises with the gun batteries. And for example, we'd pick up ships that were coming in and we would track them if it was during the daytime. A lot of times we would track them in the guns would track them too. So we would just use it as drills.
Martini: Mm-hmm (affirmative). If you weren't doing an exercise, you were still just watching the traffic?
Norman: It was still surveillance, right.
Martini: Okay.
Norman: But we had around the clock surveillance unless we were down. And in that case, then some other station would pick up on our area. And usually I was never stationed there, but there was one over on the [Fort] Funston side someplace that would take over a lot of times when we'd be shut down. I don't know just where that station was. The next one I was familiar with was down at Sharps Park.
Martini: Sharps Park. There was one at Fort Funston, but they've been very temporary because I don't have any trace of it. There was one at Baker Beach. There was here. There was one up near Battery Townsley, a little bit north of Townsley.
Norman: I know I remember that one.
Martini: Yeah. These things seem to have cropped up and then gone down, so it was very quickly like, Command decided, "Eh, wrong place."
Norman:
[00:22:30] That could be too. Our group of people... You know what? It was a small group of people. And there were a lot of the fellows I didn't even know. I mean, they just never got us all together. We were assigned to a crew at a particular station. They're the ones you became familiar with and you didn't know anybody else. We never had general get-togethers or...
Martini: No class picture taken. [Laughter].
Norman: Well, that's right. We all didn't have to get together to go to classes or anything like that.
Martini: Uh-huh (affirmative).
Norman: So we just never ran into each other. We might recognize a name that was used, but that would be about all.
Martini: Did you ever get that paper that they put out called the Golden Gate Guardian that had the news of all the different batteries and units? What they were doing, what bowling team-
Norman: I think isn't that? Is that the name of paper I gave you?
Martini: Yes. Yeah, that's one page out of it.
Norman: Right.
Martini: Yeah. We have a couple of complete-
Norman: Yeah. So I used to see it-
Martini: Yeah.
Norman: ... once in a while.
Martini: You read that thing and they think everybody is getting together and-
Norman: Yeah.
Martini: ... going to football games. [Laughter].
Norman:
No, not really. Not as far as we were concerned, as I say we were detached. We didn't have anything to do with anybody. And we never saw any officers. We didn't have anything to do with any of the batteries. We were just totally isolated.
Martini: And you, you said you don't remember or were ever told where the central plot was, that all this stuff was sent to?
Norman: I don't know where it was.
Curry: When you started in the radar, did you go to a special school then? Or did you just learn on the job?
Norman:
I was just one that learned on a job. The fellows that were already here had gone to school and then they made up the nucleus and then they filled the balance of the crew in, from a few of us that were taken from the gun batteries.
Curry: I see.
Martini: Looking for your operating room, it's driving me crazy.
Norman: I still think it was right, just underneath where we're standing. That's what I-
Curry: Radar's up there.
Mrs. Peddicord: There's a big bush right here [laughter], maybe it's underneath that. Were you just learning or were you really doing something when you were here?
Norman: No, it was on the job training.
Martini: You know what I think happened?
Mrs. Peddicord: It's gone. [Laughter].
Norman: It was all just knocked out.
Martini: That's what I was thinking, because you got to get a nice kind of angular squares depression.
Norman: And that's just about the relationship to the tower that I remember. It was just right below the tower.
Martini: They almost always were.
Norman: Yeah. And there's the road and we had a horseshoe pit down there and then the pathway going down to the lighthouse, there was no road for cars.
Martini: Did you have a backup generator set up here too?
Norman: I don't remember one on this one. They did at Stinson Beach. We did at Point Reyes and we did at Sharps Park, but I don't remember one here. I'm sure that was not one here.
Martini: Probably there was the generator stations over at [Battery] Mendell. They probably tapped off-
Norman: That's probably what they use. Yeah.
Mrs. Peddicord: It does look like... Well, it'd be kind of right down in there.
Norman: I think you're right at, this had to be it because it's just the right location for it.
Martini: If you can, for the tape recorder, we're looking at sort of a big depression pit, it'd be directly south of the four pylons.
Curry: I see a little bit of concrete right down there.
Martini: You have to do an archeological dig and find the traces of it. The one is still complete up there at Stinson Beach.
Mrs. Peddicord: Oh.
Martini: Yeah.
Norman: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Martini: Big steel door. Hatch in the roof. That's about it. Never been in it. I've never been out to Point Reyes.
Mrs. Peddicord: I wonder how he got to the [inaudible 00:25:47] where he was?
Norman:
Point Reyes, I say that was, everything out there was underground. I'm sure that the quarters are gone now because they were wood and I'm sure they'd rotted away. You might still find the cement structure that the hall equipment was in.
Martini: Yeah. I think you're talking about Point Reyes and you mentioned a log cabin that you've built.
Norman: Well, it wasn't a log cabin. It was just a wooden barracks type of structure that was underneath the ground. Then it was bulldozed over and completely covered with dirt.
Martini: That's what it was.
Norman: So it just looked like a hill.
Martini: You never built anything with any attempt to make it blend like the farmhouse architecture.
Norman: The only one that was blended to look like a farmhouse was down at Sharps Park. Now that one, all the barracks were erected just like a farmhouse, with the water tower outside. But the equipment itself was still underground. [Bird chirping]. It was still in a cement room.
Martini: Sharps Park, right down by the golf course area?
Norman: Well you know, you recall a gun battery? I think it was a six-inch gun battery that was underground, down there just on the hill, right up above Sharps Park?
Martini: Battery number 243 is what they-
Norman: Okay. Then the radar station, if you walk right up the hill and over the top of the hill, that's where the radar station was.
Martini: Okay. Okay.
Norman: In fact, after that was all closed down, that was the last station I was in. And I brought my wife down to spend a day with us one time and we opened it. We had to keep it under lock and key where the gun battery was. And so I took her on a cook's tour down through and showed her all the batteries and everything that, all our standby power and that stuff.
Mrs. Peddicord: You took me and another fellow there.
Norman: Yeah.
Mrs. Peddicord: The other fellow had cooked dinner and it was really... I felt like I shouldn't be there.
Norman: [Crosstalk 00:27:25] you weren't supposed to. [Laughter].
Mrs. Peddicord: Didn't understand what I was seeing, anyhow.
Norman: But the radar station was right up on the hill, just over above the gun battery.
Martini: I'll find out if your operating room and all are still there. You go-
Mrs. Peddicord: I'd like to see it. I'd probably enjoy it now. [Laughter].
Martini: You go to most of these stations now and there's four concrete pylons-
Mrs. Peddicord: And that's it.
Martini: ... and that's it because-
Mrs. Peddicord: Why?
Martini: ... They buried over it. Hmm?
Mrs. Peddicord: Cement doesn't cave in, does it? Or anything-
Martini: They just keep vandals out. Backfill it, try to get rid of these old buildings that are mucking up the landscape.
Norman: You know, if somebody got in there and they got hurt or something, then they would be responsible.
Mrs. Peddicord: Yeah, that's true.
Martini: Phillip bought a piece of property somewhere down near Montara that, from what he described from the pylons and a square underground room, may have been another one of these stations might not have ever been activated, but he described exactly what one of these SCR [South Central Railway] stations would have been like.
Norman: I forgot there was also one on Devil's Slide [site of a military triangulation station].
Martini: Yeah, that too.
Norman: I'd forgotten about that one. I visited that station-
Mrs. Peddicord: Where was yours? Before that or, I mean, north of it?
Norman: No.
Mrs. Peddicord: It was south of it?
Norman: It was at Sharps Park.
Mrs. Peddicord: It was Sharps Park.
Norman: But I was up in the one at Devil's Slide [site of a military triangulation station], but I was never stationed there.
Curry: Was that partway up the hill or right up at the top?
Norman: No, you know where the Devil's Slide [site of a military triangulation station] because was kind of out on a rock point? It's west of the highway.
Curry: Right.
Norman: And there's a long staircase that goes up and you'd climb up that long staircase to get into it.
Curry: Now there's four gun sites up there. Or two gun sites up there.
Norman: I couldn't tell you anything about the gun sites.
Curry: Then further beyond is another underground room.
Norman: I couldn't tell you anything about that. I just remember going up into the radar station.
Martini: No, you mean base end stations up there probably?
Curry: Yes. Two base end stations, one right above the other built together. And then further out on the point, there's a set of stairs going down. I've never been into it, but that could be the room.
Martini: Could be.
Curry: Yes.
Martini: Yeah, there-
Curry: And there's also another room just as you start those stairs up and I haven't been in there. I didn't have a flashlight when I was up there. [Laughter].
Mrs. Peddicord: That sounds like it's bigger than the one you were at, huh?
Norman: Well, I wasn't stationed at the Devil's Slide [site of a military triangulation station]-
Mrs. Peddicord: No, no. I mean, that sounds like a bigger one than the one you were at.
Norman: Well, it's a lot more installations than just the radar station. That's for sure. Because the radar station has only one room and that's all you needed.
Martini: So you know, did they site these stations because geographically or strategically they were best or because they were close to other existing utilities and-
Norman: I don't know how they pick the sites. I just assume that they more or less picked them at a certain azimuth to give coverage to the area.
Martini: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Curry: On that one at Devil's Slide [site of a military triangulation station] is actually two points there. And there's two sets of gun sites. One on each.
Martini: Is it the first one you come to right by Devil's Slide [site of a military triangulation station]?
Norman: It's right by Devil's Slide [site of a military triangulation station].
Martini: Is it the tall promontory?
Norman: Yeah, it's kind of-
Curry: There's a lot of stairs there. There's another promontory maybe 150 feet beyond-
Norman: ... lot of stairs, you go up a long flight of stairs the one I went-
Curry: That's the one. Yes.
Norman:
The one further south is sort of a lonely little base end station and a column of sandstone now. It's all eroded away around us.
Paul Curry But somebody actually dug that out.
Martini: Yeah. I think someone with a D9 Caterpillar and nothing else to do and actually [crosstalk 00:30:37] away. [Laughter].
Curry: Well, he was going to do something with it, but I think the Coastal Commission is-
Martini:
Mrs. Peddicord: That's right. Good place for a house.
I wonder if that old farmhouse is still there.
Curry: I don't know.
Martini: I don't think so. No, that's inside the park boundary now.
Mrs. Peddicord: It is?
Martini: The battery is there, all buttoned up and I don't know that the pylons are.
Curry: Is the underground room right there?
Martini: There's no record of any of the above ground constructions. Those usually didn't last.
Mrs. Peddicord: I'll be damned.
Martini: Yeah.
Norman: It was built just like a farmhouse, except that inside, it wasn't divided up into rooms. It was just a great big room and a kitchen and a big, big shower.
Mrs. Peddicord: Hmm.
Martini: Down the way over here, there was a mess hall that they built, that they designed it to look like a barn. And they needed a large mess hall and it was way away from the other barracks so they wouldn't attract too much attention.
Mrs. Peddicord: I'll be darned.
Martini: They gave it, I guess, the board and batten sides and a big see through-
Description
An interview with Mr. and Mrs. Peddicord about life at Fort Cronkhite by National Park Historian of the Golden Gate Recreation Area John Martini and Volunteer in parks Paul Curry
Copyright and Usage Info