The Last Gun: Load & Aim a 50-ton Cannon | Baker Beach

Submitted by the Event Organizer

How can a 50-ton gun simply disappear? Learn this and other factoids while helping load and aim the last operational gun of its kind.

The Army built Battery Chamberlin, just above Baker Beach, in 1904 to protect the harbor’s minefields. The battery’s “disappearing” guns could be cranked in and out of their hidden emplacement on the beach. In 1977, the Golden Gate National Parks acquired a 97,000-pound cannon of the type originally emplaced here; it is the only gun of its kind that can still “disappear.” Photos of the century-old Endicott system batteries in action are on display in an underground cartridge room.

Located in the Presidio at Battery Chamberlin, north end of the Baker Beach parking lot.

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