The Natural History of Foster City, California

by James K. Sayre

a draft manuscript

12 May 2005

Chapter 7 - The levee system around Foster City;

 

About one hundred years ago, this area was all natural baylands, untouched by human hand, except for the shell mounds left by the early Native Americans. There is a possibility that these Indians used fire as a means of eliminating forested areas and creating grasslands that provided themselves with better hunting grounds. It is not known whether these fires would have extended down to the baylands. In any case, the California residents began draining marshlands early on - San Francisco's marshy margins were diked and drained to allow construction of better harbor facilities. This activity happened in the gold rush times - the early 1850's. Near the turn of the century, Mr. Frank Brewer obtained title to the marshlands south of .i.Little Coyote Point; and north of the Belmont Slough. He constructed a system of levees to keep out the salt water and proceeded to cultivate hay fields for his dairy farm. The land became known as Brewer's Island. These were periodically reinforced in the intervening years. In 1947, a program of rip-rap protective facing on the outer levees was initiated; it was completed in 1960 [Lopez]. In 1958, Mr. Jack Foster and Mr. Richard Grant took an option to buy the 2,600 acres of Brewer's Island from Leslie Salt Co. and Schilling Estate Co., the owners at the time [Simon]. There were no rules against filling in bay or marsh lands edging the San Francisco Bay at that time. So he proceeded to get permits to dredge the Bay and to bring the spoils to Brewer's Island. The levees were strengthened and raised at that point. More recently, in 1993, the City of Foster City, in response to concerns by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers about possible flooding in the winter due to a combination of high tides and heavy rains, again raised the level of the outer levee system around the perimeter of the City.

 

 

End.

 

Return to the home page of Bottlebrush Press: The homepage of Bottlebrush Press

This web page was recently created by James Sayre.

Author's Email: sayresayre@yahoo.com

Copyright 2005 by Bottlebrush Press. All Rights Reserved.

Web page last updated on 12 May 2005.