Golden Gate Park most-visited city park in the United States after Central Park in New York City, Lincoln Park in Chicago, and Balboa and Mission Bay Parks in San Diego. In the 1860s, San Franciscans began to feel the need for a spacious public park similar to Central Park, which was then taking shape in New York City. Golden Gate Park was carved out of unpromising sand and shore dunes that were known as the Outside Lands, in an unincorporated area west of San Francisco's then-current borders. Conceived ostensibly for recreation, the underlying purpose of the park was housing development and the westward
Golden Gate Park William Hammond Hall to stabilize the sand dunes. They still play that role in the western portion of the park and are common all around the park. The Coast Live Oak is the only tree native to Golden Gate Park. Some of the oldest plants in the park are the coast live oaks in the Oak Woodlands in the northeastern portion of the park which are hundreds of years old. Oaks also grown on Strawberry Hill and in the AIDS Memorial Grove. Acorns from the oak trees were an important food source to Native American groups in San Francisco. Blue