Skaggs Island Naval Communication Station

Skaggs Island evolved from a tidal marsh beside San Pablo Bay, long used by Native Americans and important to migratory birds along the Pacific Flyway, into diked wetlands, hay farms, and salt ponds after nineteenth-century development reshaped California wetlands. The Navy bought the 3,310-acre site in 1941 and operated it from 1942 to 1993 as a secretive communications and intelligence station, including Cold War direction-finding work for the Navy and other federal agencies. After closure, its antennas lingered for a time, but by 2013 the buildings and towers were gone. Since March 31, 2011, the site has formed part of the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge as protected marsh habitat.

California · United States