La Purisima State Historic Park

   

Situated near the city of Lompoc sits the most completely restored of California’s twenty one missions, Mission La Purisima Concepcion de Maria Santisma. The eleventh of the missions, founded on December 8, 1787 by Father Fermin de Lasuen, the feast day of the Immaculate Conception in the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church. The mission was one of three, along with San Buenaventura and Santa Barbara which were built to link the missions in the south to those farther north, to solidify the Spanish presence along the Santa Barbara Channel, and to keep the indigenous tribes in the area under Spanish control.

The original mission was situated south of the town of Lompoc, near what is now 508 South F Street. The site was well chosen, and soon after its founding the Mission was prospering. By 1804, the mission reached its highest number of neophytes, 1520. This was not to last. By 1812, a series of drought years and epidemics of measles, smallpox, and other diseases decimated the indigenous population. It was reported by the friars at the mission that the neophyte population had fallen to 999 and that the mission had several years of inadequate harvests. Then the earthquake of 1812 struck. The mission was severely damaged, torrential rains and flooding made the mission site uninhabitable. After trying to continue in rudimentary structures made of “poles and grass”, the mission padres decided to rebuild the mission at its present location about four miles northwest of the original site.

The padres petitioned the government to build and on March 30, 1813, permission was given to build a replacement mission on its current site. By 1821, the mission was largely completed with the exception of a mill that was added in 1827. By the death of Padre Mariano Payeras in 1823, who had led the mission since 1804, the mission had over ten thousand head of cattle, ten thousand sheep, over fourteen hundred horses, over three hundred mules, one hundred ten hogs, and thirty three goats. While the mission had a remarkable recovery from drought and natural disaster, the path had not been easy.

Beginning with the relocation of the mission in 1812, funding had not been forthcoming from the government in Mexico City. The Hidalgo Revolt had thrown the government into chaos and the missions and civil government in Alta California were left to their own devices. The civil and military officers began to require contributions from the missions in both goods and labor to meet the expenses of governing the province. The next setback was the Earthquake of 1812 which necessitated the relocation and rebuilding of the mission. Third was the death of Father Payeras, whose administrative skills helped the mission thrive, in the face of hardship and last, there was the Revolt of 1824, in which the indigenous people at Santa Ines revolted after a Chumash was severely beaten by a soldier. The Chumash set fire to the mission, partially destroying it. The Chumash at La Purisima forced the mission’s soldiers to surrender and took over the mission for a period of thirty days until they were forced to surrender after a three hour battle in which sixteen Chumash and one soldier were killed.

The Revolt of 1824 severely weakened Mission La Purisima’s ability to sustain itself. By 1832 only 322 Chumash remained at the mission and there were fewer that 14,000 head of livestock. Th annual report of 1832 would be the last one made for Mission La Purisima. In 1835, the mission was secularized and the last two resident padres were ordered to Mission Santa Ines. The mission became the property of the Government of Mexico and in six months the value of the buildings and land declined by over fifty percent. Despite a decree in 1843, which restored ownership of the mission to the Franciscans, Governor Pio Pico sold the remains of the mission, valued at nearly $62,000 in 1835, to John Temple of Los Angeles at auction for a mere $1,110.

In 1851, after California became a state, the Bishop Alemany of Monterey sued to have the property returned to the church. The suit was successful and the land was awarded to the Church. President Grant signed the patent on January 24, 1874. Mission La Purisima would remain church property for another nine years. In 1883, the Diocese of Monterey sold all of the mission property, with the exception of the church and cemetery and the former mission property was bought and sold several times as the mission buildings crumbled. In 1903, Union Oil of California acquired the mission and in 1915, deeded the property to the Landmarks Club of Southern California on condition that they raise $1500 to begin restoration. The Landmarks Club failed to do so and title reverted back to Union Oil.

In 1933, the land and remains of the mission were deeded to Santa Barbara County and then the deed was transferred to the state. In 1934, a Civilian Conservation Corps cam was established on site and with the National Park Service and restoration of the mission began in earnest. Using existing records and artifacts, the mission was restored as accurately as possible. The restored mission was dedicated on December 7, 1941 and became part of the Mission La Purisima State Historic Park. It remains the only fully restored mission in California. In 2009, a new visitor’s center was built with displays highlighting the Chumash, mission life and the restoration.

GETTING THERE: From 414 Mason Street: Get on I-80 West and continue onto US 101 South. Stay on US 101 South. Take exit 166 and turn right onto East Union Valley Parkway. After 1.5 miles, turn left onto CA 135 South/Orcutt Expressway. Continue onto CA 1 South. After 3.2 miles, take the ramp onto CA-1 South toward Lompoc/Vandenberg AFB. When you arrive at Vandenberg, turn left to stay n CA-1 toward Lompoc. Bear left onto La Purisima Road. The park entrance will be on your left. The trip is 298 miles and takes approximately five hours. The park’s address is 2295 Purisima Road, Lompoc, CA 93436.

The park is open from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm daily except for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Days. The Visitor’s Center is open 10:00 to 4:00 Tuesday through Sunday and 11:00 to 4:00 on Mondays. The park’s phone number is: (805) 733-3713. Day use fees are $6.00 for parking and there is a discounted fee of $5.00 for those 62 and over. There are many places to stay and eat in Lompoc and the surrounding towns and cities.

Lake Corcoran

 Somewhere between 655,000 and 758,000 years ago, California’s Central Valley was covered by a shallow body of water known as Lake Corcoran. Lake Corcoran covered the valley from what are now the Tehachapi Mountains to the Sierra Buttes and at its greatest extent was as large as Lake Michigan is today. It drained into the Pacific through what is now the Salinas River and Monterey Bay. It is hypothesized that Lake Corcoran provided much of the water for precipitation in the Sierra Nevada through evaporation and that water partially formed several pluvial lakes in Nevada. Wildlife flourished and fossil remains of the short-faced bear, mammoth, dire wolf, giant sloth, early horses, camels, and antelopes have been found in the Central Valley.

This vast freshwater inland sea was not to last. Some 650,000 years ago, the Earth began to warm and the glaciers which held the Sierra Nevada in an icy grip began to melt. The water began to rush into the lake raising the water level. At the same time, tectonic uplifting of the Coast Range near Monterey left Lake Corcoran with no outlet to the sea. Something had to give and it did. Approximately 600,000 years ago, Lake Corcran carved a new outlet to the sea through what is now Carquinez Strait. The water poured through a low spot in the Coast Range carving a channel 100 feet deep between what are now Contra Costa and Solano counties and permanently draining Lake Corcoran and changing the landscape of the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Valley forever.

Lake Corcoran didn’t completely disappear. Kern, Buena Vista, and Tulare lakes were all remnants of the former freshwater inland sea. In fact, up until the late 19^th century, the Central Valley was prone to flooding which turned the land into a vast swamp. During the Spanish and Mexican periods, maps labelled the valley as “Cienega de Tulares” or “Marsh of the Tules”. While the Spanish and others saw the Central Valley as a marshy place with little to no value, the indigenous people who lived there thought very differently. The entire valley teemed with wildlife and the wetlands provided fish and fowl. Elk, deer, and beaver were plentiful. The plentiful tules provided the raw material for houses, baskets, clothing, and boats. The largest of the three lakes, Tulare Lake or Pa’ashi as it was known to the local Tachi people was the largest fresh water lake west of the Mississippi and the ninth largest in what would be the United States.

In the mid to late 1800’s many people drained and diverted the water from the marshy areas of the Central Valley to create farm and ranch land. By 1899 Tulare Lake went dry due to diversion of its source water for flood control and agricultural purposes. Buena Vista Lake lasted as an agricultural reservoir and recreational lake until 1953 when the Lake Isabella dam was built across the Kern River creating Lake Isabella. That isn’t to say that the former lakes remained dry. In the years in which there are large amounts of precipitation, most recently in 2022-23, the Tulare Lake basin has been partially refilled allowing the lake to be “reborn” and give today’s Californians a glimpse of what the Central Valley and the Tulare Lake Basin looked like in the past.

More Information: The prehistoric and historic past of the Central Valley is one of change and of human interaction and intervention which has had a direct and profound impact on the geography, history, and economy of California as a whole. Luckily, there are a few institutions who have attempted to preserve the unique history of the Central Valley.

Sarah A. Mooney Museum

542 W “D” Street

Lemoore, CA 93245

MooneyMuseum@gmail.com

(559) 904-9669

Hours: 12 to 3 p.m. on Sundays (closed on major holidays.)

The Sarah A. Mooney Museum is a preserved Victorian house with exhibits highlighting how a well off family lived in the area during the Victorian Era.

Buena Vista Museum of Natural History and Science

2018 Chester Avenue

Bakersfield, CA 93301

info@buenavistamuseum.org

(661) 324-6350

Hours: Thursday-Saturday: 10am-4pm, Sunday: 12p-4pm, Monday-Wednesday: Closed

Admission: Members: Free, Children 2 and under: Free, Adults: $10, Seniors (60+): $8

Students 12 years and older: $8, Children (3-11): $6. The Museum also has special admission days. Please visit its website @ https://www.buenavistamuseum.org/hours-and-admission

The Buena Vista Museum of Natural History and Science has exhibits about the Central Valley during the Miocene Epoch and Indigenous American life as well as exhibits on Paleontology and other areas of Science.

Kern County Museum

3801 Chester Ave, Bakersfield,

California 93301

bebe@kerncountymuseum.org

(661) 437-3330

Hours: Monday & Tuesday: Closed, Wednesday – Sunday 9:00 am – 4:00 pmClosed ALL Federal Holidays. 

 Admission: Adults: $10.00, Seniors/Military: $9.00 Children: – ages 3 to 12: $5.00 – ages 2 and under FREE when accompanied by an adult. Members: FREEFree admission to Active Duty Military and their immediate families from Memorial to Labor Day. Please visit the Kern County Museum’s Website @ https://kerncountymuseum.org/ for more information.

The Kern County has many exhibits covering the general history of Kern County including indigenous peoples, the ranching, farming, oil, and music industries. One of the museum’s highlights is the childhood home of Merle Haggard.

 

San Juan Bautista State Historic Park

 

South of Gilroy, east of US-101, located near the mouth of San Juan Canyon on CA-156, lies the city of San Juan Bautista. Founded on June 24, 1797 with the establishment of Mission San Juan Bautista by Fermin Lasuen; the site for what would become California’s fifteenth mission was chosen due its proximity to a large population of the indigenous Mutsun people. Soon after the mission’s founding over 1,000 Mutsun were living, working, and worshiping at the mission. As with most of the missions, a Spanish settlement developed and the town of San Juan Bautista was born.

By 1803, the congregation had outgrown the original adobe church and construction began on the present mission which was completed in 1812. This construction and expansion made it the largest of the twenty one missions. Mission San Juan Bautista remained an active church after secularization in 1835. In 1859, the mission buildings and fifty five acres of land were returned to the Catholic Church. Today, the mission remains an active parish church in the Diocese of Monterey. Besides being an active house of worship for 226 years, the mission also was a location in Alfred Hitchcock’s film “Vertigo”, starring Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak. It sits on the western edge of the last remaining intact Spanish plaza in California and on the northern edge of the plaza is a remaining section of the original El Camino Real which linked all of the missions in California.

The mission has a gift shop and a museum which has displays of Indigenous, Spanish, Mexican, and American era artifacts including handwritten choir books by Padre Esteban Tapis using the system of colored notation he developed and the Breen family bible. The Breens temporarily lived in a storeroom of the mission, which is now the gift shop, after surviving the ordeal of the Donner Party and before moving into, and eventually purchasing an adobe from General Jose Antonio Castro. The Breen family lived in the adobe until 1933 when it was donated to the state. It is now known as the Castro-Breen Adobe. It houses exhibits on the Breen family and life during the early American Era.

The Castro-Breen Adobe is but one of several buildings preserved or restored in the San Juan Bautista State Historic Park. Also included are the Plaza Hotel, the ground floor of which was originally constructed in 1792 as a barracks for indigenous converts and laborers. It became the barracks for Spanish soldiers in 1813. It was also a private residence and a commercial building before being remodeled into the current hotel in 1853 by Angelo Zanetta. It currently serves as the park entrance and museum. Several rooms are furnished as they would have been in the 1860’s.

On the plaza is the Plaza Hall/Zanetta House, originally built in 1815 as a home for the unmarried indigenous girls of the mission, purchased, torn down and rebuilt as a home and community hall in 1868 by Angelo Zanetta. It has exhibits of period furnishings and early children’s toys. Next to it is the Plaza Stable with exhibits of stages, wagons, and fire wagons. Behind the stable is the blacksmith’s shop. Across the street are the original town jail and a restored settler’s cabin.

The downtown area of San Juan Bautista has been designated a National Historic District and the San Juan Historical Society, along with other organizations, has designated 49 buildings and sites on a historic walking tour. Many of the buildings date from the late 1700’s through the 1920’s and are still in use. Examples are the Anza Adobe, the Texas Masonic Lodge, the San Juan Bautista Cemetery and the Carl Luck Museum. Most of the historic buildings are clustered along Third Street, a block south from the mission.

During the Gold Rush, San Juan Bautista benefited from a boom as it was along the route from Los Angeles to San Francisco and then to the gold fields. Notables like William T. Sherman visited the town. When the Southern Pacific railroad bypassed San Juan Bautista in favor of Hollister the town’s fortunes declined. The building of the San Juan Pacific Railway and the San Juan Cement Company plant, beginning in 1906, revived the local economy. When the cement plant closed in 1973 due to increasingly tighter environmental regulations, the city turned to agriculture and tourism. San Juan Bautista calls itself, “The City of History”, and not without some justification.

GETTING THERE: From 414 Mason Street: Take US 101 South to Exit 345 to CA-156 East. Follow CA-156 East to The Alameda. Turn left onto The Alameda. Turn right onto Franklin St. Turn left onto 2^nd St. The park entrance is in the Plaza Hotel on you left. The Mission is on your right. The entrance fee for the park is $3.00 per person. The Mission charges a $10.00 entrance fee. ($7.00 for Seniors over 60) It is a 1 hour and 40 minute, 94 mile, drive from 414 Mason Street.

San Juan Bautista SHP is open every day from 10am to 4:30pm. Closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day.

The Mission Gift Shop, Museum and Garden are open from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM on Wednesday through Sunday.

Admission: Self-Guided Tour

$10.00 adults

$7.00 seniors – 60 years and over

$5.00 – vets

Under 5 years of age – FREE

Mission San Juan Bautista admission is separate from the State Park admission.

For the walking tour, please visit: https://historicwalkingtrail.com/

French Camp

 

        In front of an elementary school in an unincorporated community near Stockton; there is a California State Historic Marker, placed by the California State Parks Commission, partially in cooperation with the Native Daughters of the Golden West.  It recognizes the community of French Camp as a historic place as the terminus of the Oregon-California Trail and as a camp used by traders and trappers of the Hudson’s Bay Company, at one time one of, if not the largest fur trading corporation in the world. 

The text of the plaque reads: 

“Here was the terminus of the Oregon-California Trail used from about 1832 to 1845 by the French-Canadian trappers employed by the Hudson's Bay Company. Every year Michel La Framboise, among others, met fur hunters camped with their families here. In 1844 Charles M. Weber and William Gulnac promoted the first white settlers' colony on Rancho del Campo de los Franceses, which included French Camp and the site of Stockton.”

As early as 1493, Spain laid claim to all the lands 100 leagues west of the Azores based on the Papal Bull “Inter Caetera” issued by Pope Alexander IV.  This bull gave Spain a monopoly to colonize the lands west of the 100 league line.  In the next year, Pope Alexander VI mediated the Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain and Portugal which moved the demarcation line between the two countries’  respective spheres of colonization to 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands, granting Brazil to Portugal and the rest of the “New World” to Spain.  With Balboa’s sighting of the Pacific Ocean in 1513,  Spain had a solid claim to the west coasts of North and South America.  It wasn’t until Cabrillo and Bartolome Ferrelo’s  voyages in 1542-43 that Spain made any attempt to see how far their claim actually went and what it might contain. Later voyages in the 1700’s by Juan Perez and Bruno de Hecta kept Spain’s claims viable. 

Spain was not alone in laying claim to the Pacific Coast.  England based it’s claims to parts of the Pacific Coast on the voyages of Sir Francis Drake and George Vancouver.  Russia claimed parts of the Pacific Coast too, based on the 1728 and 1741 voyages of Vitus Bering.  The United States also claimed parts of the area based on the 1792 voyage of Robert Grey and the overland expedition of Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery as well as John Jacob Astor’s establishment of Fort Astoria in 1811.  With all these competing claims, conflict was inevitable.  When the Spanish captured four British ships in 1789 in Nooka Sound near Vancouver Island, Great Britain threatened war, leading to what what was called the “Nootka Crisis”.  Spain quickly negotiated a settlement and relinquished its exclusive claims to the Pacific Coast.  By 1824, both Russia and Spain had given up their claims to the Pacific Northwest.

Why did these counties all want a piece of the Pacific Coast?  Well, for trade with the native tribes, for a harbor on the Pacific to facilitate trade with China and the rest of Asia, and most importantly, for the vast natural resources of the region one of the most valuable of which were the pelts of fur bearing animals.  Before the Gold Rush, the main impetus for coming to California was trade.  The Russian American Company established Fort Ross as both a trading and agricultural supply post for its outposts in Alaska.  John Jacob Astor established Fort Astoria and an outpost for his Pacific Fur Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company established Fort Vancouver on the north bank of the Columbia River.  American, British, and French-Canadian trappers and mountain men combed the Cascades, Sierra Nevada, Coast Ranges, Willamette, and Central Valleys for otter and beaver which were becoming scarce further east. Meanwhile, at sea, seals and sea otters were hunted from the Aleutian Islands to Baja California.  

With the absorption of the North West Company in 1821, the Hudson’s Bay Company had a monopoly on the fur trade in British North America.  Its agents roamed from the Rockies to the Pacific, from the Arctic Ocean to California’s San Joaquin Valley searching for beaver and otter and trading with the Native tribes.  Fort Umpqua was established in Southern Oregon in 1836 and, in 1841, the Hudson’s Bay Company opened a store in Yerba Buena.  French Camp arguably was the southernmost extent of the Company’s activities in California.  Beginning in about 1832, Michel La Framboise, a French-Canadian “voyageur” hired by the Hudson’s Bay Company made annual visits to French Camp as the leader of several fur hunting expeditions.  In fact La Framboise had been warned against taking beaver in California in 1834 and in 1835; General Mariano Vallejo warned him to leave and stay out of California altogether.  Eventually, the activities of the “Spanish Brigade” as the company of Hudson’s Bay men were called, became bothersome not only to Vallejo, but to John A. Sutter and Dr. John Marsh, both of whom complained to the government and demanded that something be done.  As a result, the governor placed a duty on furs taken in California and by 1842, the HBC trappers withdrew.

The fur trade was one of the major impetuses for the westward expansion of the United States and the early exploration as settlement of the Pacific Coast.  However, it was not to last.  By 1846, the Hudson’s Bay Company withdrew from California and the Oregon Treaty was signed ending the dispute between Great Britain and the United States over their competing claims.  In the treaty, the HBC was allowed to continue operating Fort Vancouver, on the Columbia, but the Company abandoned the fort in 1860.  By the late 1800’s many of the fur bearing animals had been hunted to near extinction.  Due to the decline of fur bearing mammals, the United States, Great Britain, Russia, and Japan signed the North Pacific Fur Seal Convention of 1911,  which was the first international treaty concerned with wildlife conservation.  This led to the Fur Seal Act of 1966 which extended protection to sea otters and the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, which prohibits the taking of any marine mammal in United States waters and by any US citizen on the high seas, with a very few permitted exemptions. Today, the Hudson’s Bay Company continues as a retail company in Canada and in 1943, the HBC renamed its fur trading division as the “Northern Stores Division”, and in 1987 the “Northern Stores Division” was sold and became a new “North West Company” and operates stores in northwest Canada and Alaska.  The “California Fur Rush” only lasted a few short years, but it is remembered in a few places, like French Camp, and it’s legacy are some of the first wildlife protection laws in history.

GETTING THERE: From 414 Mason Street:  Get on I-80 East.  Take exit 8B onto I-580 East. After 45 miles stay left onto I-205 toward Tracy and Stockton.  Merge onto I-5 N.  Take exit 467A onto Eldorado Street.  Turn right onto East Mathews Road, continue onto Ash Street.  Turn left onto French Camp Road and then right onto Elm Street.  The marker will be on your right.  It is about a two hour drive from San Francisco.

Fort Humboldt

Sitting on a windswept bluff above Eureka sit the remains of one of the most important military outposts on the west coast.  There isn’t much there today, a couple of buildings, one of which is a reconstruction, some informational signs and an outdoor exhibit of logging equipment; but in it’s heyday, Fort Humboldt played an important part in the military history of the west coast and of the United States.

The end of the Mexican War and the discovery of gold brought sweeping changes to California.  Before the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill, emigration to California had all but come to a standstill, partially due to the press reports of the ill-fated Donner-Reed Party and the start of the Mexican War.  Yet, the situation changed with President Polk’s announcement in his December 5th State of the Union address that: 

It was known that mines of the precious metals existed to a considerable extent in California at the time of its acquisition. Recent discoveries render it probable that these mines are more extensive and valuable than was anticipated. The accounts of the abundance of gold in that territory are of such an extraordinary character as would scarcely command belief were they not corroborated by the authentic reports of officers in the public service who have visited the mineral district and derived the facts which they detail from personal observation.

Argonauts from around the world began making their way to California.  These individuals fanned out across the state, looking for gold in every stream and river.  Before long, the prospectors, miners, gold seekers, traders, and con-men who rushed into California came into conflict with the Californios and Indigenous People who already lived here.  More importantly, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo guaranteed that the United States would respect the “property, language, and culture” of Mexicans now living in the United States.  As a result, many of the United States army troops who had fought in Mexico now found themselves being sent to California to perform garrison duty and to shore up United States control of the land at the edge of the continent.

The discovery of gold on the Trinity River by Major Pierson B. Reading, for whom the City of Redding is named, in July of 1848 opened what had once been a remote area of California to non-indigenous settlement and in 1849 and 1850 thousands of gold seekers entered the area.  With the influx of new people came inevitable conflict.  The Europeans and others who flooded the area soon had a multitude of gold claims almost entirely without Indigenous permission or consideration for the traditional boundaries of tribal settlement.  There were violent clashes between the Indigenous peoples and the interlopers.  The devastation wreaked upon the Indigenous people of the area is well documented and is deserving of a more detailed telling than I have room for here; suffice to say that depending on the tribe and the estimate, 75 to 95% of the Indigenous population died through a combination of disease, competition for resources, starvation, and outright murder.

In January 1853,  Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Robert C. Buchanan and the 4th US Infantry arrived to establish Fort Humboldt and mediate between the native and settlers in the region.  By 1857 there were 14 buildings situated on the bluff overlooking Humboldt Bay.  The Army’s mission to bring peace between the European settlers and Indigenous tribes was hampered from the beginning.  The settlers in the area wanted the Native Peoples removed to reservations and did not support the idea of the military authorities negotiating with the tribes.  Seven treaties were negotiated and signed with the tribes who lived between Clear Lake and the Klamath River.  None of those treaties were ever ratified and the Natives never received any of the land nor any other considerations which were contained in the treaties.

While unsuccessfully trying to maintain a sustainable peace between the settlers, gold seekers and the native peoples, Fort Humboldt also served as a supply depot for many other forts and outposts in Northern California and Southern Oregon.  On January 5, 1854, Captain Ulysses S Grant arrived at Fort Humboldt to serve as the Quartermaster and take command of Company F, 4th Infantry.  Grant and Buchanan did not get along and the tedium of garrison duty did not sit well with Grant.  He was a newly wed and missed his wife and he felt very isolated and depressed.  He often rode to a nearby tavern and found solace in drink. After being reprimanded, Grant resigned his commission effective July 31, 1854 and went home.  Grant was not the only soon to be famous officer to be stationed at Fort Humboldt,  Gabriel Rains, who became a Confederate Brigadier General, George R. Crook who rose to fame during the Civil and Indian Wars, and Dr. Lafayette Guild, who became Medical Director of the Army of Northern Virginia, all served at Fort Humboldt.  

On February 26, 1860, one of the darkest incidents in the History of California occurred, one that the garrison of Fort Humboldt was supposed to prevent.  On that day, a goup of “vigilantes”, calling themselves the “Humboldt Volunteers, Second Brigade” attacked and massacred 80-250 Wiyot people who lived on Tuluwat Island in Humboldt Bay.  Called the “Indian Island Massacre”, this event showed just how ineffective the US Army was at protecting the native people.  The many of the survivors  of the massacre were put in “protective custody” at Fort Humboldt and eventually transferred Klamath River Reservation.  The island was then owned and ranched by European settlers.  It was also the site of a shipyard. In 2019, the City of Eureka deeded the island back to the Wiyot people.

With the coming of the Civil War, the regular US Army troops were withdrawn from Fort Humboldt.  The fort was garrisoned by units of the California Volunteers.  In 1866, the US Army re-garrisoned the fort and it was abandoned in 1867.  As surplus land it was sold to WS Cooper in 1893, the Cooper family owned the site of the fort and it’s one remaining building until 1923, when Mrs. Laura Cooper donated the land to the City of Eureka as a public park.  In 1955, Eureka deeded the site to the state and Fort Humboldt became a state historic park in 1963.  The park is open from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM daily.

Petaluma Adobe

 

Located in the City of Petaluma on the banks of Adobe Creek sits the remains of the largest privately owned rancho in Northern California, Rancho Petaluma. The Petaluma River Valley had long been home of the Coast Miwok. The valley had a mild climate, abundant fresh water and wildlife, fertile soil and it’s proximity to the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean made the valley an ideal place for the Coast Miwok to settle. For centuries before European contact, the Coast Miwok lived in this resource rich area.

The establishment of Mission San Francisco Solano in Sonoma in 1823, forever changed the lives of the Coast Miwok in the area. Villages were emptied and the indigenous people became part of the mission system. Yet, the area north of San Francisco was sparsely populated for some time. That began to change with the establishment of Fort Ross, the Russian outpost on the coast in 1812. When Mexico became independent of Spain in 1821, foreign trade was tolerated and, in some cases, encouraged. However the new Mexican Republic became very wary of “foreign influence”. The passage of the Decree for the Secularization off the Missions of California by the Congress of the First Mexican Republic in 1833 was an attempt to lessen the Spanish influence of the mission system.

In 1834, Governor Jose Figueroa ordered Mariano G. Vallejo, the Commandant of the Presidio of San Francisco, to move north, secularize the mission of San Francisco de Solano in Sonoma, and establish a military presence north of San Francisco in order to counter Russian expansion from Fort Ross. Figueroa also granted Vallejo the initial 44,000 acres of what would become Rancho de Petaluma; partially as a reward for his service and partially to provide a means of support for the military presence north of San Francisco Bay.

Vallejo began construction on what would become his Petaluma Adobe in 1836. Rather than have numerous small building scattered over the rancho lands, Vallejo decided to build one large building to house workshops and living quarters. Construction, expansion and improvement continued over the next ten years and the Petaluma Adobe became the largest privately owned adobe building in California. At its height, Rancho Petaluma employed 600-2000 laborers including Californios, local Miwok, Hawaiians, and others. The primary economic activity was cattle ranching, but there was also sheep ranching, grain farming, a grist mill, a blacksmith’s shop, harvesting and weaving of wool, and candle making.

With the Bear Flag Revolt and the Mexican American War, the Rancho Petaluma became less and less profitable. General Vallejo sold and subdivided much of the land and in 1857 sold the remaining land and the building to William Whiteside. In 1859, Whiteside deeded the property to local attorney, William D. Bliss. In 1910, the Bliss family wanted to donate the adobe and seven acres of property to the City of Petaluma to be used as a public park. Petaluma Parlor #27 acquired the property in March of 1910 and maintained it until 1951 when it was deeded to the state.

The Adobe currently is in need of more restoration and it is open to the public. Various rooms hold authentic artifacts to illustrate what life was like during the Ranch Era. The Park hosts various school and living history groups during the year.

Getting there: From San Francisco: Take US 101N to Exit 472B to CA-116 East. Follow CA-116 East to the entrance to the park.

For further information please contact: Petaluma Adobe State Historic Park

3325 Adobe Road Petaluma, California 94954

(707) 762-4871

Oakland Museum of California

 

  

  Over two years ago, when the lock-downs for the COVID-19 pandemic began, I wrote a column naming several museums and historic landmarks around the state which had online exhibitions, virtual tours and other online resources for people to visit from the safety of their homes. Admittedly, most online museum tours, exhibitions, or galleries simply not the same as physically visiting the place and viewing the items. One of the museums which I listed was the Oakland Museum of California, which has a large part of many of its collections available for online perusal. The Oakland Museum is unique in that it showcases the natural history, history, and art of our beloved state, often with a focus on the interaction of people in California and groups who have been underrepresented in the “standard” historical narrative.

    The Oakland Museum was created by amalgamating three separate museums, the Oakland Public Museum, the Oakland Art Gallery, and the Snow Museum of Natural History. Each of these museums had a focus upon one of three areas, California History, California Art, and California’s Natural History so it seemed natural to combine the three museums into one. The eventual merger of the three museums began in 1954 when the boards of the three organizations formed a non-profit to merge the institutions into one. In 1961, the voters authorized a bond issue to build a new home for the combined museum and, in 1969, the museum opened its doors. Created during the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Power Movement, and the anti-Viet Nam War protests, the new museum’s goal was to be more inclusive, more “a people’s museum”, more interactive, and more “open”. This approach was not without controversy and still guides the museum’s overall mission to this day.

    After you enter the museum, I suggest that you go to the California History Gallery first. There you will find a number of displays telling the story of our state from the indigenous people, to first contact, to the Spanish Era, the Mexican Era, the Gold Rush, the coming of the railroads, the growth of the movie industry, petroleum, and agriculture, to the growth of the electronics and technology industry and beyond. Of special interest are the exhibits on the contact between the indigenous peoples and the early Spanish, the Gold Rush and the effects of the railroads. In each of these exhibits, the curators do an excellent job of not only presenting the history but of telling of the interaction between groups and cultures, and how that created the society in which we live.

    Next is the Natural History Gallery. Here the curator has decided to begin with the physical geography of California and then the rest of the collection is divided by geographic area. There are exhibits on coastal regions, the Sierra Nevada, the Central Valley, the deserts, the Bay Area and even the Sierra Buttes. One of the highlights, for me at least, was an exhibit on what happened to the oaks which gave Oakland its name and how their fate was unplanned, unforeseen, and serves as a cautionary tale for environmental preservation.

    Finally, there is the California Art Gallery. This can be considered, alongside the History Gallery, the “gem” of the museum. First, the museum is the repository of the Dorothea Lange archive and has a display of many of her photographs. It is also home to Albert Bierstadt’s 1868 painting of the Yosemite Valley, William Keith’s 1878 painting of the King’s River Valley, and Henry Raschen’s “California Miner with a Pack Horse”. There is also an exhibition on Edith Heath and Heath Ceramics, a retrospective on Hung Liu, and works from many contemporary artists and craftspeople. What is displayed in the gallery is but a fraction of the museum’s holdings and the staff rotates exhibits on a regular basis.

    So, now for the important items. The cost to enter the museum is $16.00 per adult 18 years of age or older. For Seniors, 65 and older the cost is $11.00. Youths between the ages of 13-17 pay just $7.00 and Children 12 years of age and younger are free. There is an additional $5.00 charge for any “special exhibitions”. The Museum is currently open Wednesdays through Sundays 11:00-5:00 with extended hours on Fridays until 9:00 pm. It is closed on various holidays and public observances. Please check the museum’s website at: https://museumca.org/ for further information and to purchase tickets. Be advised that the museum still requires masks, proof of vaccination, and social distancing at this time.

Getting There: The Oakland Museum of California is easily reached by BART. The station nearest the museum is Lake Merritt which is on the Orange Line. If you take BART. You exit the station and walk one block east on Oak Street from 9^th to 10^th Street. The Museum’s address is 1000 Oak Street.

If you are driving from 414 Mason Street: Cross the Bay Bridge and take 580 East to 980 West/Downtown Oakland. Take the Jackson Street exit; you will be on 5th Street. Continue straight on 5th Street to the third stoplight (Oak Street). Turn left and continue on Oak to 10th Street.

The OMCA garage is located at 1000 Oak St. with entrances on Oak and 12th Streets. Parking fees are $5 per hour with an early-bird discounted flat rate of $20 (in before 10 am, out before 5 pm). Those parking before 8 am and leaving before 10 am will pay the regular incremental rate.

The Museum has a café and a gift shop.

Fortuna

 

 On the northeast bank of the Eel River, four and one half hours north of San Francisco lies the city of Fortuna. It is the third largest city in Humboldt County, the home to the annual Fortuna Rodeo and several other events. Before European settlement, the area where Fortuna is today was the home of members of the Wiyot Tribe, who named the area Vutsuwitk Da’l, after a legend where a young woman cooked eels for a young man with whom she was in love and threw the ashes of her cooking fire into the river where Fortuna now sits.

Fortuna was founded in 1874, and originally named “Slide” for a large earth slide nearby. In 1875, the town was called “Springville” after the construction of the Springville Lumber Mill and the numerous natural springs in the area. Because there was already another “Springville” in California, the post office, which opened in 1876 was named “Slide”, the original name of the town. In 1884, the citizens of the town petitioned the state legislature to change the name of the town to “Fortuna” after the Spanish word for “fortune” and in 1888, the petition was granted.

For years, the primary industries in Fortuna were lumber, ranching, fishing and farming. While, farming and ranching are still large industries in the area, fishing and lumber have been on the decline. Today, Fortuna is still dependent on ranching and farming but tourism is becoming more and more important too. The city hosts several events throughout the year from the Daffodil Festival in March, the Fortuna Rodeo and Redwood AutoXpo in July, the Apple Harvest Festival in October to the Lighted Parade in December, there is always something going on in or near Fortuna.

Nearby are the Humboldt Redwoods, Richardson Grove, and Grizzly Creek State parks, all of which preserve old growth redwood trees. Humboldt Redwoods State Park is home to the famed “Avenue of the Giants”. It and Grizzly Creek State Park were the forest moon of Endor in Return of the Jedi. In Fortuna itself is Rohner Park, home to the Fortuna Rodeo Grounds and the Depot Museum. The museum, housed in the former Northwestern Pacific Depot, built in 1889 and relocated to its present location in 1974, the museum has several displays tracing Fortuna’s history from the Native Wiyot people to the present era. It also houses the archive of the Humboldt Beacon newspaper, providing a valuable research collection for those who are interested. The museum is open from 12:00 pm – 4:30 pm Thursday through Sunday, September through May and daily in June through August. It is best to call the museum to make sure that it is open and staffed. (707) 725-7645. The museum is located at 3 Park Street, Fortuna, CA.

GETTING THERE: From 414 Mason Street, Get on US 101 N and drive north for approximately 4 hours, take exit 668 to 12^th Street in Fortuna. Turn right onto Main Street and then Left onto Park Street. The Museum will be on your right.

Since you may wish to spend the night in Fortuna, I can recommend the Redwood Riverwalk Hotel, 1859 Alamar Way in Fortuna. (707) 725-5500 and I can also suggest the Double D Steakhouse for dinner. 320 Main Street, (707) 725-3700.