Top of The Shellmound

Consider the distance you just walked from the Shellmound Monument. Then look up 40 feet to the second floor of the apartments above you. (You can also see approximately 40 feet marked on one of the photos included here.) Now, hopefully, you can begin to understand just how large this shellmound was. You're standing in what is roughly the center of the mound, and the location of it's highest peak before it was partially leveled to 36' to build the pavilion for Shell Mound Park. Centuries of Ohlone habitation built what was not just a place for eaten shellfish, but also the site of burials, ceremonies, and housing. The shellmound was so large and extended so far from this center, that it couldn't begin to be leveled until automotive technology created tractors and trucks to cart the sediment away for factories to be built.