Presidio of San Francisco
Former US Army post turned sprawling national park with forests, coastal bluffs and historic sites.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Presidio of San Francisco follows an anonymous retired Navy man who, sometime in the 1970s, quietly began restoring the post's abandoned pet cemetery, buying paint and lumber himself and refusing to give his name. It traces the cemetery back to 1952, when Army families stationed here buried dogs, cats and other pets for a dollar a grave dug by local Boy Scouts. The best damn dog we ever had, reads one of the roughly four hundred hand-painted headstones inside the fence.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Crissy Field
Restored tidal marsh and beachfront meadow on a former Army airfield, framed by Golden Gate views.
Buena Vista Park
Hilltop park with wooded trails and gutters paved with broken marble headstones from old city cemeteries.
Mission Dolores Park
Sloped, sunny hillside park with sweeping skyline views, once a cemetery and an earthquake refugee camp.
Lyon Street Steps
Steep hillside staircase of terraced landings and hedges, framing sweeping bay and Palace of Fine Arts views.
Angel Island State Park
Rugged bay island of hiking trails, old military posts, and a haunting former immigration barracks.
The Walt Disney Family Museum
Interactive museum in a converted 1897 army barracks tracing one filmmaker's life through personal artifacts and film.