A little History of Pacifica

Pacifica  Coastside  Museum

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Before European settlers arrived, Pacifica was home to two significant Ohlone Indian villages: Pruristac located at San Pedro Creek near present day Adobe Drive, and Timigtac on Calera Creek in the Rockaway Beach neighborhood. Pacifica is the location of the oldest European discovery of the San Francisco Bay. An expedition led by Gaspar de Portolà sighted the bay by climbing the hills of Sweeney Ridge in Pacifica on October 31, 1769.[19] Before then, earlier Spanish maritime explorers of the California coast (such as Juan Cabrillo and Sebastian Vizcaino) had missed the San Francisco Bay because heavy fog so frequently shrouded the entrance of the San Francisco Bay into the Pacific Ocean (the Golden Gate). Sighting the San Francisco Bay accelerated the Spanish colonization of Alta California because it was the only large, safe, centrally located harbor on the Alta California coast. The Spanish had used Monterey Bay up until then as their main harbor, but it was much more dangerous than San Francisco Bay. In the Spanish era, Pacifica was the site of the San Pedro Valley Mission Outpost (1786–1793) of Mission Dolores. This was dissolved when a newly independent Mexico secularized the mission system. Pacifica is also the site of the still extant Mexican-era Sánchez Adobe built in 1846. The city is located on a part of the Mexican land grant Rancho San Pedro given to Francisco Sanchez in 1839. Located in Pacifica, the Sanchez Adobe is the oldest structure in San Mateo County. Pacifica was incorporated in 1957, relatively recently in the history of San Mateo County, as the union of nine previously separate, unincorporated communities, including Edgemar, Sharp Park, Pacific Manor (or just Manor), Vallemar, Rockaway Beach and San Pedro Terrace-By-The-Sea,[20] stops on the short lived Ocean Shore Railroad.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A New Museum in Pacifica!

Pacifica

The name "Pacifica" was chosen by vote. A close runner-up was the name "Coastside". In 1960, the city seal was designed by resident Ralph Barkey, who was inspired by Ralph Stackpole's towering "Pacifica" statue produced for the 1939–1940 Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay.