Editing Lake Merced (section)

==History==
[[File:Francisco_de_Haro,_Alcalde_de_San_Francisco.jpg|thumb|left|[[Francisco de Haro]], 1st [[Alcalde of San Francisco]] (Mayor), purchased [[Rancho Laguna de la Merced]], which included Lake Merced, in 1837.]]
Lake Merced was originally christened '''Laguna de Nuestra Señora de la Merced''' by [[Bruno de Heceta|Captain Don Bruno de Heceta]] in 1775.<ref name=Durham>{{cite book |title=Durham's Place-Names of the San Francisco Bay Area: Includes Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Contra Costa, Alameda, Solano & Santa Clara Counties |author=David L. Durham |publisher=Word Dancer Press |year=2001 |page=[https://archive.org/details/durhamsplacename00durh/page/88 88] |isbn=978-1-884995-35-4 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/durhamsplacename00durh/page/88 }}</ref> Father Pedro Font, while on the [[de Anza Expedition]] to found the [[Presidio of San Francisco]] in March, 1776 wrote in his diary, "we saw a grove of live oaks near which is the Laguna de la Merced, where Captain Ribera stopped; and here we saw many bears ([[Grizzly bear|California Grizzly Bear]])..."<ref>{{cite book |title=Expanded Diary of Pedro Font |author=Pedro Font |url=http://anza.uoregon.edu/Action.lasso?-database=fontex&-layout=standard&-op=eq&pg2=180&-response=format/fontexpg2fmt.html&-maxRecords=1000&-noresultserror=/sorry.html&-search |access-date=2011-01-30 |archive-date=2011-07-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717201519/http://anza.uoregon.edu/Action.lasso?-database=fontex&-layout=standard&-op=eq&pg2=180&-response=format/fontexpg2fmt.html&-maxRecords=1000&-noresultserror=/sorry.html&-search |url-status=dead }}</ref>

At approximately 11pm of November 22, 1852, a shock was reported to have occurred by those in the areas around the Lake<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Youd, T. L. |author-link1=T. Leslie Youd |author2=Hoose, S. N. | title=Historic Ground Failures in Northern California Triggered by Earthquakes | publisher=United States Geological Survey | url=http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/1978/pp0993/pp993_text.pdf | date=1978 | access-date=2013-11-23}}</ref> and the following day reports were made that "...a fissure half a mile wide and three hundred yards long was discovered, through which the waters of Lake Merced were flowing to the sea."  The most probable cause of the shock was attributed to heavy rains forcing a passage through the sandbank at the north-west. The Lake is reported to have lost {{convert|30|ft|m|abbr=off|sp=us}} of water. A map from 1881 shows that the Lake still had a passage to sea, 29 years later.<ref name="David Rumsey's Map Collection">{{cite web|url=http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~26035~1100417?id=1-1-26035-1100417&name=Bancroft%2527s+Official+Guide+Map+Of+City+And+County+Of+San+Francisco |title = Bancroft's Official Guide Map Of City And County Of San Francisco. - David Rumsey Historical Map Collection}}</ref>

Once owned by [[Francisco De Haro]], first [[Alcalde]] of [[Yerba Buena, California|Yerba Buena]], as part of the [[Rancho Laguna de la Merced|Galindo ranch]], the [[Spring Valley Water Company]] bought the water rights for the Lake in 1868, and the surrounding watershed in successive years.<ref>{{cite journal | author1=Sara Marcellino | author2=Brandon Jebens | title=The History of Human Use at Lake Merced | publisher=San Francisco State University | url=http://online.sfsu.edu/bholzman/LakeMerced/landuse.htm | date=24 May 2001 | access-date=2013-09-18 | archive-date=2019-05-24 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190524133106/http://online.sfsu.edu/bholzman/LakeMerced/landuse.htm | url-status=dead }}</ref> By purchasing all local supply, the company created a monopoly on San Francisco's water. It was not until 1908, when the city approved construction of [[O'Shaughnessy Dam (California)|O'Shaughnessy Dam]] creating the [[Hetch Hetchy Reservoir]] in the [[Sierra Nevada (U.S.)|Sierra Nevada]] mountain range, that the city gained municipal control. Prior to the construction of the dam, Lake Merced was to serve as the city's main reservoir, with plans to expand the lake into land that is now the [[San Francisco State University]] campus. Around this time, Spring Valley sold off some of its land on Lake Merced, making way for the golf courses that exist today. In 1940, [[Metropolitan Life Insurance Company|Metropolitan Life]] bought the last of Spring Valley's land to build the [[Parkmerced, San Francisco, California|Parkmerced]] apartment complex.