Camp Mather — San Francisco

Wikimedia Commons · MikeVdP · CC BY-SA 4.0

Grounded summary

Camp Mather is a family camp San Francisco owns in Tuolumne County, near the north entrance to Yosemite, and its records read as a long argument about who gets to use it. It began as an industrial site: a history of the Hetch Hetchy system notes that sawmill operations at Hog Ranch — the future Camp Mather — were terminated as the water project advanced. Recreation and Park Commission minutes then carry the ordinary business of running a camp. In 1967 the commission approved the season's dates and rates and awarded a $13,887 construction contract to Malott & Peterson-Grundy for reconstruction of the camp's tennis courts; in 1998 it approved the first fee increase since 1995, presented as covering maintenance and repairs. The department's annual report counts 26,600 visits in a season, alongside its city playgrounds and pools. The sharpest document is the 2002-2003 Civil Grand Jury report, released in June 2003 as "Sharing Camp Mather, San Francisco's Secret Jewel, With All San Franciscans", which recommended that the city improve publicity and accessibility and study the use of the camp's facilities and grounds. Vendors have been paid $2.59 million on contracts recorded against the camp.

Built from: 5 archive documents, city budget data — no outside knowledge added.

$2.6M

paid to contractors for work here

25250 Mather Rd · City-owned · 8 buildings · parcel 681600100 · City Facilities registry

What public money did here

Paid to contractors for work here$2.6M

Crook Logging IncFY2018–2025 · 2 contracts$2.6M

Aquatic Environments IncFY2019$17,995

What the City actually paid, across 2 contractors. Contractors big enough to have their own page are linked; the rest are named only.

Run by the Recreation & Parks, whose whole-department budget is $250.4M across 2,161 staff (FY2025) — citywide, not this place’s own. The City does not publish a running cost per building.

In the archive

The 2003 Civil Grand Jury report urging the city to open its "secret jewel" to more San Franciscans.
Civil Grand Jury reports · 1977 ↗
Internet Archive — San Francisco Public Library partnership scans
A history of the Hetch Hetchy system, recording the end of sawmill operations at Hog Ranch — the site that became Camp Mather.
San Francisco water & power : a history of the Municipal Water Department and Hetch Hetchy System · 1985 ↗
Internet Archive — Democracy's Library
A Recreation and Park annual report counting 26,600 visits to the camp and describing its two pools.
Annual report · 1965 ↗
Internet Archive — San Francisco Public Library partnership scans

2 procedural records — minutes, agendas, calendars — not listed.

Same kind