Moonlight Beach in Encinitas, California, has long been a center of recreation and community life. Its early use centered on Cottonwood Creek, where settler women washed clothes and held family picnics, and it later grew under J. S. Pitcher into a popular outing spot with a bathhouse, boardwalk, dance hall, playground, and picnic grounds. From 1915 to 1925 it drew North County crowds for activities including horse races. In the decades since, it has remained known for surfing, swimming, volleyball, and community events, while also reflecting changing surf conditions and environmental efforts that improved water quality at Cottonwood Creek.

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