During the mid-1800s, this valley and its surrounding hills were part of a sprawling Mexican rancho where vaqueros herded cattle, and beach roundups gave Rodeo Beach and Rodeo Valley their names. As ownership changed, the land was divided for uses including dairy ranching and military defense. In 1937, the U.S. Army acquired 800 acres north of Rodeo Lagoon to build Fort Cronkhite, a coast artillery post protecting ship lanes outside the Golden Gate, and its largely undeveloped military lands later became a keystone of Golden Gate National Recreation Area, created in 1972. Fort Cronkhite's temporary wood barracks, mess halls, and other structures were completed in the summer of 1941 before the United States entered World War II, housed more than 2,200 men, and supported troops who manned fortifications on the hills north of Rodeo Lagoon; this barracks group is one of only two of its type still preserved. In 1942, African-American soldiers of the 54th Coast Artillery Regiment were briefly assigned there before being sent with tractor-drawn 155mm howitzers to defend California beaches against possible Japanese invasion. Battery Townsley, completed in 1940 a half-mile uphill, was built for two 16-inch guns with a 26-mile range meant to keep enemy ships from reaching the Golden Gate, and in 2014 the park acquired and mounted a similar 16-inch gun barrel outside the battery. During World War II, pillboxes hidden in the hillsides let observers watch the sea and sky without detection, and shielded searchlights swept the night for seaborne infiltrators. In 1955, during the Cold War, a Nike missile launch site was added at Fort Cronkhite against possible Soviet air attack, while a radar site atop Hill 88 controlled another missile battery at Fort Barry across Rodeo Lagoon; that restored complex is the only intact U.S. Nike missile complex with missiles still complete.

Photo: Fort Wiki / Creative Commons

Photo: Fort Wiki / Creative Commons

Photo: Fort Wiki / Creative Commons

Photo: Fort Wiki / Creative Commons

Photo: Joseph Alvarado

Photo: Joseph Alvarado

Photo: Joseph Alvarado