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.

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/

Henry Clay and California

 

    On September 9, 1850, California was admitted into the United States. For years, Americans had been settling in the Mexican territory, many to trade, some to begin new lives. Men like Jedidiah Smith, Dr. John Marsh, Robert Semple, John Bidwell, John Bartleson. and others made the long and arduous trek to the Mexican territory. Even before Mexican Independence, there were men, like Andrew Jackson, who believed that the United States should rightfully possess all of “Spanish North America”. By the time of the discovery of gold, fewer than 1000 Americans lived in California. The entire population of Alta California was around 160,000, the vast majority of whom were native peoples. The United States expressed interest in California, primarily as a point of access to the Pacific Ocean as early as 1844, yet until the end of the Mexican War nothing much came of the dreams of the proponents of “Manifest Destiny”.

    Of course, the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill and the subsequent events changed all of that. An estimated three hundred thousand of gold seekers, the “49ers”, the “Argonauts” flooded the newly acquired region in search of wealth and adventure. The flood of gold stabilized the US economy and drove the desire that California should enter the Union. There were issues however, the United States was unraveling. Missouri entering as a slave state in 1820, the tariff and nullification crisis of 1828 and the annexation of Texas had all caused threats of disunion and civil war. Each of these resulted in a compromise which delicately held the Union together. In 1849, President Zachary Taylor urged leading Californians to write a constitution and apply for statehood as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, California, New Mexico, and the Latter Day Saints in the Great Salt Lake area all applied for statehood nearly simultaneously. There was almost no chance that three free states would be admitted to the Union at once and there were issues surrounding New Mexico’s boundary with Texas and with the practice of polygamy in the proposed state of Deseret. There was one man who could possibly get California admitted to the Union, the man who, as Speaker of the House, had crafted the Missouri Compromise, who had ended the Nullification Crisis, who had crafted the American System of internal improvements and that was Henry Clay of Kentucky.

    Henry Clay was born in 1777 in Virginia, the son of a Baptist minister. His father died in 1781 and his mother remarried. Clay learned how to read and write and his hand writing caught the attention of Virginia jurist George Withe, who was Thomas Jefferson’s mentor. Clay read law under Withe’s tutelage and was admitted to the Bar in Kentucky and Virginia in 1791. Clay began his political career in 1803 in the Kentucky legislature and eventually become a US Representative, Senator, Secretary of State and presidential candidate. He would be known as “The Great Compromiser” and play an important part in the three major compromises of the 1800’s that delayed the Civil War.

    To solve the issues surrounding the admission of California into the Union, Clay originally proposed eight resolutions. Eventually, the Compromise of 1850 consisted of five separate statutes, one admitting California into the union, one settling Texas’s debts and settling the boundaries of Texas, one establishing a new fugitive slave law, one ending the slave trade in Washington DC, and finally one creating two new territories, New Mexico and Utah and allowing the territories to decide whether or not to allow slavery. The bills were signed into law by President Millard Fillmore on September 9, 1850. There was jubilation, not only in California, but in the whole United States as many thought that the disputes that had led to threatened civil war had finally been put to rest; but in reality the crisis had only been forestalled.

    In 1806, Henry Clay purchased a 672 acre estate he named Ashland for the many ash trees on the property. Located near Lexington, conveniently close to his law office it has been preserved as a memorial to Henry Clay and his family who lived on the estate until 1950. Clay himself died in Washington DC in 1852 believing that his final compromise has saved the country from civil war. While Clay was alive, he took an active role in the running of the estate, introducing new breeds of cattle, horses, and donkeys. Many race horses can trace their ancestry to Henry Clay’s stock today. Hw as also a gambler who once famously waived $40,000 he has once won after asking for $500 of it from the loser. His greatest gamble however, was the compromise that brought California into the Union and delayed the Civil War for ten years. Henry Clay, the statesman responsible for California’s statehood never once visited California, yet he, with some help from Stephen A. Douglas, can be considered the person who brought California into the United States.

    Ashland is located in Lexington, Kentucky at 120 Sycamore Road. For more information about tours, exhibits and hours please visit their website at: www.henryclay.org

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

Broderick-Terry Duel

 

  

  Dueling has been a part of the human experience since at least the Middle Ages if not before. Starting as the medieval trial by combat, dueling as a method to establish the guilt or innocence of a person or to defend their, or another party’s “honor”, has a long and checkered history. One of the earliest recorded trials by combat occurred in 630 in the Kingdom of the Lombards in Northern Italy. Trial by combat was first sanctioned in France by Louis the Pious in 803, and in the Holy Roman Empire by Otto The Great in 967. It had long existed in Saxon, Burgundian, Frankish, and Lombard legal codes and well as Irish Brehon law.

    Beginning in the 1100’s, trial by combat was gradually replaced by trial by jury and the two coexisted for some time. In 1215, article 29 of the Magna Carta guaranteed the right to a trial by jury in England, yet the last judicial combats were fought long after. France’s last trial by combat was in 1386, Italy had trial by combat as late as 1560, and it wasn’t until 1819 that Great Britain abolished wager by battle. By the 17th century, trial by combat was a relic of a more “superstitious and barbarous time” to paraphrase Edmund Burke.

    Dueling to settle private disputes and “affairs of honor” had always been considered quasi-legal at best, even if it was not directly outlawed. Here in what would become the United States, the first duel was fought in 1621 in Massachusetts Bay, not long after the founding of the colony. The idea of a duel resolve alleged slights and insults had become ingrained in European upper middle class and aristocratic culture for some time, but here in the United States, it took on a new dimension. Not only was dueling a method to settle “affairs of honor” but often political disputes were resolved via the duel. The most famous of these was the duel in which Vice-President Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton at Weehawken on July 11, 1804, which later was immortalized in a famous “Got Milk” commercial. There were others, including a duel between Button Gwinnett, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and Lachlan McIntosh in 1777, in which Gwinnett was fatally wounded; a duel in 1806 between future president Andrew Jackson and Charles Dickinson, Dickinson was killed and Jackson became the only US president to have killed a man in a duel; a duel in 1820 between Stephen Decatur and James Barron, in which Decatur, hero of the Wars against the Barbary Pirates and the War of 1812, was killed, and a duel between Henry Clay and John Randolph of Roanoake in 1826 among others.

    Here in California, the most famous and the last “notable duel in the United States”, took place between Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court David S. Terry and US Senator David C. Broderick on September 13, 1859 near Lake Merced, just outside of San Francisco. This duel, which for all intents and purposes was the last political duel in the United States would have consequences not just for California, but for the United States as a whole.

    David C. Broderick was born in Washington DC in 1820. He was the son of an Irish stonecutter who immigrated to the United States to work on the US Capitol building. In 1823, Broderick’s parents moved to New York City and after attending public school, the young Broderick became involved in politics joining the Democratic Party and becoming active in the Tammany Society. In 1846 he was the Democratic Candidate for New York’s 5th congressional district and lost. Broderick headed west in 1849 and 1850 found him in San Francisco where he worked as an assayer and smelter of gold. He reportedly also minted ten dollar gold coins which contained only eight dollars worth of gold, keeping the difference to finance his political aspirations.

    Broderick quickly became involved in the nascent Democratic Party in California, serving as a state Senator from 1850 to 1852 and as the Acting Lieutenant Governor from 1851 to 1852. He was then elected United States Senator from California and served from 1857 until his death in 1859. While he was active in politics in California, Broderick was aligned with the “Free Soil”, anti-slavery faction of the Democratic Party. He also brought Tammany Hall style corruption to San Francisco and while he was acting Lieutenant Governor, he was San Francisco’s political boss.

    David S. Terry was born in 1823 in Kentucky and in 1831 moved to Texas and then California in 1849. Terry read law while in California, was admitted to the bar, and then became active in Democratic Party politics. In 1855 Terry became involved in his first high profile case, representing Maria Encarnacion Ortega de Sanchez who was being cheated out of the proceeds from the operation and partial sale of Rancho Llano de Tesquisquita and Rancho Lomerias Muertas, two land grands totaling over 49,000 acres that she had inherited from her husband. Also in August, 1855, Terry was elected to finish the remaining term of California Supreme Court Justice Alexander Well, who died suddenly and was reelected to a full term in November. In 1857, he was appointed Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court. Terry was a political ally of Broderick even though Terry was a member of the pro-slavery faction of the California Democratic Party.

    In 1856, Terry stabbed Sterling Hopkins, a member of the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance. He was released by the committee. In 1859, Terry sought another term on the state Supreme Court but the state Democratic Party nominated Warner Cope instead. Terry blamed is former friend and ally Broderick for failing to secure the nomination. He then proceeded to make some very caustic remarks about Broderick, which led to the duel.

    Broderick and Terry met to fight their duel in a ravine, just south of Lake Merced. Broderick’s pistol discharged early and Terry fired his at the Senator. At first, Terry thought that he had only wounded Broderick, but Broderick died three days later at the home of Leonidas Haskell, which still stands as Quarters 3 in Fort Mason. Terry was charged with murder but acquitted in 1860. He then moved to Texas and joined the 8th Texas Cavalry, fought in the Civil War for the Confederacy and became commander of the 37th Texas Cavalry by war’s end. He was involved in a scandal involving his wife Sarah in the 1880’s and was killed attacking a judge who had ruled against her.

    Broderick, became a martyr upon his death. He was seen as someone who died for the cause of abolition. Thousands attended his funeral and Broderick Street was named in his honor. California became one of the few states to pass a law specifically outlawing dueling. Terry and the pro-slavery Democrats were accused of assassination, thus further cementing California’s place in the “free soil” camp. In 1872, California make it illegal to duel in the state with punishments of up to four years in state prison. The laws prohibiting dueling in California were repealed as “obsolete” by AB 3326 in 1994.

China Camp State Park

   

 Since the first Chinese came here in the early 1800’s until the present day, Chinese Californians have played a part in the experiment that is California.  We all know of the contributions of Chinese during the Gold Rush and their labors building the Transcontinental Railroad, the buildings and wine caves of the Napa Valley and the discrimination and abuse they faced, yet the contributions of the Chinese who came here form an integral part of our state’s history and the Chinese community is still a major contributor to the economy, history and culture of our state.

While many of the Chinese who came to “Gold Mountain”, as they referred to California, did work in the gold fields and the service industries which provided the thousands of gold seekers with some semblance of a “civilized” life, operating laundries, stores, and restaurants; there were thousands of Chinese who worked in the young and very lucrative fishing industry.  From the border with the Oregon Country to San Diego, there was not a single fishing port that did not have Chinese fishermen.  

Here in California, Chinese fishermen plied the waters off the coast and in the San Francisco Bay and Delta.  In the San Francisco Bay, the major Chinese fishery was for shrimp, which as late as the  1950’s, were plentiful in the Bay.  In the 1880’s no fewer than seven major Chinese fishing villages ringed the Bay, and there were as many as 26 “fishing camps” in all.  From Richmond in the north to Redwood City in the south, Chinese shrimpers spread their nets to catch the shrimp as they “marched, in their thousands” along the bottom of the Bay.  Three species of shrimp were targeted, Crangon franciscorum, also known as the grass shrimp, Crangon nigricauda, the black tailed shrimp, and Crangon nigromaculata, the blue shrimp.  Before the 1900’s most of the shrimp was dried and exported to China.  

Beginning in 1910, restrictions were placed on the methods and seasons for shrimping.  The traditional Chinese shrimp nets were banned outright as was the export of shrimp.  The Chinese shrimp fishery went into a decline.  Then, in 1915, some restrictions were lifted and the fishery began to increase.  In 1924, a new net, designed by Frank Spenger, of Spenger’s restaurants, make shrimping in the Bay profitable again and by 1930 there were fourteen “shrimp camps” on the shores of San Francisco Bay; twelve on Hunter’s Point and two farther north, one in Marin and the other in Contra Costa Counties.  The total catch in 1930 was 2,687,831 pounds of shrimp harvested.  In 1930 the shrimp industry in San Francisco Bay employed 72 men and 35 boats.  

This was not to last, however. In 1939, the Navy seized Hunter’s Point by eminent domain and the shrimp camps were burned down.  That left two shrimp camps in on the Bay, Spenger’s located between Point Pinole and Point Molate and Quan’s located on Point San Pedro.  The Quan brother’s camp became known as “China Camp”.

The Quan family continued the tradition of shrimping in the Bay long after all the other shrimp camps were a memory.  From the 1930’s onward, the Quan Brothers shrimped, fished, rented out boats and ran a small cafe in the ever shrinking village they called home.  China Camp was donated to the State park system in the late 70’s with the stipulation that Frank Quan, the last of his family to still commercially fish, be allowed to live there until his death.  Frank sadly passed away in 2016, just shy of his 91st birthday.  Today, China Camp stands as a memorial to an industry which has faded away but it is still worth a visit.  

The Park has several preserved buildings, a museum, picnic grounds, six camp sites and several hiking trailheads.  The park also features a reconstructed shrimping junk, the Grace Quan. The beach is popular with kayakers and there is a small, but nice beach.  The cafe, which the Quan family ran for decades is preserved and serves as a snack stand and park store offering tee shirts post cards and other memorabilia.

GETTING THERE: From San Francisco, take 101N to exit 452 toward central San Rafael.  Turn right onto 2nd Street and then follow Point San Pedro Road approximately four miles to the state park enterance.