Fort Cronkhite

Fort Cronkhite.

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Scenic View/Photo Spot

Once the site of a Coastal Artillery post, Fort Cronkhite in its modern incarnation is used to educate visitors about its past. Its facilities house a number of park partners including the Marine Mammal Center, NatureBridge and the Marin Headlands Nursery.

Fort Cronkhite During WWII

When the US joined the Allied powers in 1941, a real concern grew in the minds of citizens and the armed forces that the California coast was subject to attack by the Japanese. Soldiers were posted up and down the coast, digging foxholes along ridges where they hid while using spotlights and listening stations to monitor the skies for enemy aircraft.

The buildings at Fort Cronkhite are typical of thousands of wartime barracks, mess halls and supply buildings from the WWII era and retain that aesthetic today, though their facilities have been repurposed for modern use.

Fort Cronkhite originally housed hundreds of Coast Artillery soldiers assigned to the army's Harbor Defenses of San Francisco. These men lived in wood-frame structures, temporary military posts similar to others built around the country for the wartime training and housing of soldiers. The soldiers manned gun batteries, radar sites and other fortifications on the high ridges overlooking the fort, waiting for an enemy that never came.

Holy Collapsing Cows, Batman!

You may have noticed that a 16-inch gun is a little bigger than its name suggests, but just how much of a wallop did it pack? Newspapers ran quotes from locals reporting that when soldiers had target practice, cattle in the surrounding area were knocked off their hooves.

Come for the View, Stay for the Smell

Did you know Rodeo Beach was once the site of a sewage outlet? Waste from military and civilian activities was piped onto the beach leach field and the ocean near the southern end of Rodeo Cove, to be carried offshore by the waves.

Current water quality tests show that the beach and lagoon are now free from sewage contamination. Survey says, people prefer the beach to the leach field.