Midcoast Park Lands · POB 1754 · El Granada CA. 94018       www.mpl.sanmateo.org

Our Mission: " To promote land stewardship, conservation and recreation on the San Mateo Coast"

The History of Quarry Park

In 1905, the Shore Line Investment Company purchased 1,271 acres for a showplace town they called Balboa (now El Granada). The design, by famed landscape architect Daniel H. Burnham, envisioned 640 acres of open space behind the proposed town, including today's 40-acre Quarry Park. However, in 1920 the Shore Line Investment Company went bankrupt and the parkland was sold.

For 75 years the land was used first for grazing then as a quarry, which supplied rock for both Highway 1 and the WWII airport runway - now Half Moon Bay Airport. Then, in 1995 after a private developer offered to sell back the land to the community at his cost, a group of coastsiders convinced San Mateo County to purchase the 40-acre parcel. The final plan entailed leasing the property to a local nonprofit. MPL was formed to manage and operate the land as a community park. Today, Quarry Park stands both as a historic monument to the designer's vision of El Granada and as a refuge for a variety of native plants and animals.