on June 25, 1942. The campus was built in a cleared area of the Knoll. The Basic School at San Mateo Point opened on August 15, 1942 and was officially dedicated on August 21, 1943 with a capacity of 528 cadets. Cadets regularly practiced "abandon ship" drills, climbing to the top of a three-story tower and jumping feet-first into the Bay, sometimes into water deliberately fouled with oil and set afire. By June 1944, 4,111 had completed basic training at San Mateo Point, but budget cuts forced the school's closure by January 1947. In 1946, the Cadet School buildings were purchased by San Mateo Junior College to serve as the main college campus, accommodating the expected influx of students taking advantage of the GI Bill after the war. The entrance to the Coyote Point campus featured two pillars topped with eagles, leftover from the Cadet School. Under an agreement with the county, when enrollments had decreased to a certain level, the land and buildings would revert to the county. However, Elon Hildreth, who became the new president of San Mateo Junior College in 1952, loved the site and lobbied to have Coyote Point established as the College's permanent site; Hildreth moved into the Commandant's House, which was renamed the President's House, and had served as the residence for the commanding officer of the Maritime Academy. After Hildreth resigned in 1956, he was replaced by Julio Bortolazzo, who turned the college's efforts to a new campus at its present site in the San Mateo Highlands. The new campus opened in 1963, and Coyote Point reverted to the county. Park At the time, the county acquired , of which were underwater. A master plan was prepared in 1971. Under Ralph Shaw, Director of Parks and Recreation, and his successor, Harry Dean Jr., the park's trail system was laid out. Dean recounted: "After a while, Coyote Point was my favorite park. When I came to the county, the Point was just a small beach and a few picnic areas ... the park had to be designed around the already existent rifle range, the museum and the marina." By the time Dean retired in 1991, Coyote Point was the most-visited park in the county park system, welcoming more than 500,000 visitors per year. Since the initial acquisitions, an additional have been acquired from the Ideal Cement Company, bringing the present size of the park