Site of Shell Mound

This was a burial ground of the Ohlone, the largest of the shellmounds that once ringed the bay, and the state's register still calls it a heap of shells thrown aside. Its top was cut away in the 1870s for a dance pavilion. When the amusement park closed in 1924, archaeologists removed more than 700 graves before the mound was leveled for a paint factory. Cleanup for the Bay Street shopping center in 1999 found hundreds more; many still lie beneath the stores. Ohlone-led protests return every year on the day after Thanksgiving. No plaque marks it.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Muir Woods National Monument — 16 mi
  A redwood canyon saved from a reservoir by a gift, and named for a man who had been there once.
• Muir Beach Overlook — 16 mi
  A cliff edge on Highway 1, and the concrete dugouts where two-man crews watched the sea after Pearl Harbor.

More markers nearby

• Site of Saint Mary's College — 2.0 mi
• Camino of Rancho San Antonio — 2.0 mi
• First Unitarian Church of Oakland — 2.1 mi
• Paramount Theatre — 2.1 mi