Adventures Afoot

Local hike leader Doris Klein has put together a series of short (3 to 4 mile) historically-themed hikes that will be held on Wednesdays from mid-August through the end of October. Registration for the entire series of eleven “Adventures Afoot” guided hikes will be $10 for Museum members and $15 for the general public, with all proceeds benefiting the Museum. Hikers will carpool from the GVRD parking lot at 401 Amador Street in Vallejo every Wednesday morning at 8:15 a.m.. Register for the “Adventures Afoot” hikes at the Museum or call Doris Klein at 643-4468 for more information. Pre-registration is required. Here is the schedule of hikes:

August 19th - Muir Woods: A cool, less-than-four miler on lesser known trails to hear the story of this beautiful redwood canyon and its 100 years of fame. A car fee (about $5) or free parking if someone in your carpool has the National Park’s Golden Age card. A little tiny hill; at our placid rate we’ll hardly notice it.

August 26th - Cool Coastwalk at Limantour Spit: Explore the lagoons behind grassy sand dunes for birds and sea-going wildlife – and a look-see at the inlet where Sir Francis Drake careened the Golden Hind in June of 1579. Four miles, sand-walking, both wet and dry.

September 2nd - Lynch Canyon: Opposites attract! This is 15 minutes away, no shady conifers, but there is always a welcome breeze. And this has special, local history. Play Cowboys and Indians today as we admire sleek cattle and admire Wintun artifacts. Three miles, some hills, but the view is ours, and Our Own Open Space may be less open in days to come.

September 9th - Samuel P. Taylor: Back to shady redwoods and a cool creek, and look for early salmon as we walk the Pioneer Tree trail and the old railroad grade. History galore! Sailing around the Horn. Gold dust. His favorite mule, “Barnaby”. The old hotel. Young San Francisco’s paper industry. One modest hill, nicely graded, less than four miles today.

September 16th - Pinole: East Bay Regional Park’s shady trails near our breezy bay. About four miles, no hills, and perhaps a Monarch Butterfly tree. Lots of history, and only a short drive.

September 23rd – Mt. Tamalpais North Side: Lakes on Mt. Tam? Yes, there are several, and we’ll circum-ambulate one, and see another. We’re close to the coast, so a mile of morning sun will be kind, and the afternoon will be shady, and no hills to speak of. About 4 miles. Try for a full carpool, as this Water District land has a car fee.

September 30th – Carquinez Strait Overlook: A short drive to walk on Vallejo’s “opposite coast.” Our towns look so different from there! Absorb the story of the gallant sailing ships that sailed back and forth to Europe and around Cape Horn, taking grain from our great valley. Reminisce about the whales who’ve swum up here. See a ship or two. A short walk up and down the old streets of Port Costa, though that does call for a short hill-climb.

October 7th – Jack London’s Home: Beauty Ranch, in the Valley of the Moon. A walk up a mild hill to savor the vineyard’s fall colors, and discuss the historic and colorful past of this “sailor on horseback.” We pass ranch buildings and the old house where he wrote. The car fee includes a walk to the ruins of Wolf House, and their museum home, filled with artifacts of a fascinating life.

October 14th – Bothe/Napa State Park: The site of Lily Hitchcock Coit’s summer place. Drive through Napa Valley at harvest time to walk in the cool forest, alongside a cool creek. No hills! We may hear the cry of the pileated woodpecker, and see red poison oak climbing 60 feet for sunlight.

October 21st – A Visit to Sand Hill Cranes. Cosumnes River, for the feel of fall, at the Nature Conservancy’s lovely preserve of the only un-dammed river in California. Such fun to see and hear these great birds who fly down from northern climes to over-winter here. And to see beaver evidence, other birds, a passing train, and to think how it would be to kayak or canoe here on this slow and lovely river.

October 28th – Admiral Nimitz Way. Level walking on a view hill from Inspiration Point, almost to the old Nike site. San Francisco Bay and Richmond’s old shipyard in full view for our history lesson, and a visit to the Peace Grove to ponder. This is Tilden, East Bay Regional Parks District’s first.


Remember, these trips are by carpool, so please be prepared with enough gas in your tank so you can do your part. Your passengers will be grateful. Doris says: “I’m looking forward to sharing some of my favorite places with you. May we walk together in good health, and learn what a truly interesting region we live in, while supporting our own Museum. For information, please feel free to call me anytime.”

Drydock No. 1

On this day in 1872, work commenced on Mare Island’s first permanent drydock. It would take nearly 20 years to complete the massive stone drydock, the first of four that eventually served the Shipyard. Drydock #1 was lined with enormous granite blocks, quarried near Rocklin, California, and brought to Mare Island by rail and barge. The excavation of the dock was done with horse drawn scrapers, ox carts, and wheelbarrows.

Prior to the construction of this drydock, ship repairs at Mare Island were done in a floating sectional dock, built in New York and brought around the Horn to California in the early 1850s. Construction of the permanent drydock forced the removal - and eventual destruction - of this original historic floating drydock.

On Wednesday, August 14, 1872, the Vallejo Evening Chronicle offered this account of the beginning of construction of drydock #1:

“The proposed location of the stone dry docks will necessitate the moving of the sectional docks down stream several hundred feet. Men are now engaged in drawing the timbers out of the boom, and storing them away in the timber shed.”

“The government dredger will be put to work in a few days scooping the mud from the bottom of the basin.”

“Ground was broken on Tuesday [August 13] for the dry docks, under Foreman Sargent. The work thereupon is not to be done by contract, as at one time reported.”

The final paragraph of the article shows that some things never change:

“All of the men in the Construction Department will probably lose five days this month on account of the appropriations being overrun.”

The original hand-drawn plans for drydock # 1 are in the collection of the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum.

Below left: Sectional Drydock
Below right: Drydock #1 in 2005

New Exhibit at Vallejo Museum

A new exhibit opening at the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum on July 18th will give visitors a fresh perspective on Mare Island. “Walk the Island: Photographs by Mike Narciso” features a series of black and white images of Mare Island buildings and landscapes taken over the past several years by this outstanding California photographer.

“I moved to Vallejo in 1990, my wife’s hometown,” says Narciso, “We moved up from Los Angeles where we were both pursuing art careers. Nancy was expecting our first son and she needed to be close to family. I didn’t know much about this area or Mare Island, but from across the channel it looked like a great place to explore. One day I found myself working in Shop 680, cleaning up after a movie crew. I brought my camera and took a few photographs. The large milling table, lathes and other machines were still there at that time. I wanted to come back and seriously photo-graph the buildings and the Island in general. I didn’t get that opportunity until 2000, when I started “walking the Island.” Since then I have collected a few thousand images, most of which have yet to be edited.

“Each year the work developed into a new group of photographs. This exhibit is a sampling of the various groups of images taken over the last seven or eight years.”

“I started documenting the Island and ended up with a completely different point of view. So, these photographs are not really about the structures on Mare Island, they’re about the memories we see through the crumbling facades, the rusted steel, the ships resting along the docks. These photographs are about the shapes and textures, the light and shadows, of a once thriving community. They’re photographs taken today looking at the Island’s past; looking at it’s rich history. Each year from the end of fall to the beginning of spring I found the right conditions to walk in. The shadows seem heavier, the rain and fog add to the darkness of the day, and the black and white film blends it all together.”

“I love black and white film. Although I’m scanning and printing my negatives digitally, these days, I’m still processing film. After all these years it’s a ritual that has stayed with me.”

Mike Narciso has exhibited throughout California and his Mare Island images were most recently featured in a one-man exhibit at the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara. “Walk the Island” runs through September 5th. The Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum is located at 734 Marin Street, Vallejo, California. Call (707) 643-0077 for more information.

USS Grayback (SSG 574)

On July 2, 1957 – 52 years ago today – Mare Island launched the USS Grayback (SSG 574). The Grayback was the first submarine entirely designed at Mare Island and marked an important transition in submarine warfare. While Grayback was the last conventional diesel-electric powered sub built at Mare Island, she was also the first Mare Island sub designed to launch guided missiles. The two Regulus missiles carried by Grayback were housed in a hanger on the sub’s foredeck. Within a few years, vertical launch, ballistic-missile carrying, nuclear powered subs would become the standard bearers of the U.S. fleet, but when Grayback was launched, she was considered state-of-the art Cold War technology.

The submarine was christened by Mrs. John A. Moore, widow of the skipper of the first USS Grayback (SS 208), a sub lost in the Pacific during WWII. Principal speaker at the launching ceremony was Vice Admiral Charles A. Lockwood, USN (ret), who had commanded the U.S. Submarine Force Pacific Fleet during the war. Lockwood’s comments underscored the intense fear sweeping the world as the U.S. and the Soviet Union escalated their nuclear arms race. The Grayback’s nuclear missile capability, said Lockwood, “reduces, by comparison, the atomic bombs dropped at Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the level of Fourth of July firecrackers.”

In his speech, Lockwood warned against the dangers of Communist propaganda. “You may be assured,” he told the 7,000 people gathered for the launching, “that the current Communist drive to outlaw nuclear weapons is not motivated by love of humanity. Their purges in Russia, their ruthless slaughter of Hungarians, their slave labor camps, and the recent boastfully announced executions in Red China, all clearly show their real feelings toward humanity.”

Lockwood’s lengthy speech concluded with an assurance that “the good Lord, who has brought us up from a mere handful of colonists to our present world stature – and with whose divine aid we have won all our wars – gave us that weapon (the fissionable and fusionable atom), as a sword and shield with which to protect ourselves against the godless hordes of Communism.”

Although the Regulus missile program would prove to be short-lived, the USS Grayback would have a long and distinguished career. Her later conversion to Special Operations and Amphibious Transport duties kept Grayback on the front lines of the U.S. Navy’s submarine force throughout the Cold War.

Mare Island Boiler Shop, 1901

Mare Island grew in importance as a shipbuilding and repair facility following America’s naval victories during the Spanish-American War. In July 1901, workers from the Navy Yard’s Boiler Shop posed for this photo in front of a massive riveted ship’s boiler. Shop employees, from left to right, included (front row) George Boyle, William Kelly, Jackson W. Oliver, Richard Caverly, Edward Fugier, John Sherry, George J. Campbell, William Robb, John F. O’Keefe, Robert Bruce, Isaac Shaw, Elmer Gormley, Richard Ryall, John J. Nolan, Orville Tobias, Thomas McDonough; (second row) John Hughes, John Healy, Patrick Hefferman, Frank R. Klotz, William Conboy, T. Brosnahan, John Mangold, James Earley, Fred Brown, Henry Mackenzie, Mike Conley, Grant Allen; (back row) John Witt, P. M. Barrett, James McCue, Edward Kavanagh, S. J. Reardon, George Day, William Taliaferro. Standing in the rear is A. J. Noble, Jr.

John B. Frisbie

General John B. Frisbie died one hundred years ago this month – in May, 1909. Although the City of Vallejo is named for General Mariano G. Vallejo, it is Gen. Vallejo’s son-in-law, John Frisbie, who is widely accepted as the city’s true founder. John Frisbie was married to Vallejo’s oldest daughter, Epifania, also known as Fannie. After his father-in-law donated land to the State of California for the construction of a new state capital, it was John Frisbie who set out to make the city successful by promoting business in the fledgling community. He donated land for the construction of Vallejo’s first public school, city park, and cemetery. Frisbie also donated land to many of Vallejo’s early churches for the construction of their houses of worship. Frisbie’s death was reported in the Vallejo Evening Chronicle on May 11, 1909:

"J.R. English received a telegram this morning from J.B. Frisbie Jr. announcing the death of his father, Gen. J.B. Frisbie, which occurred in the City of Mexico at 3 a.m., today. And with his passing one of the founders of this city was numbered with the great army of the dead, for during the years that he made Vallejo his home General Frisbie worked untiringly for its good. He was the builder of the Bernard Block, and developed the White Sulphur Springs, his original investment there exceeding $100,000.

"The deceased was a native of Albany, New York, where he was born May 20, 1823. He studied law and enjoyed a lucrative practice in his home state until 1846 when he was elected captain of the Van Rensselaer Guards, acknowledged then to be the best drilled body in the state. War then existed with Mexico and as many of the young men of Albany were desirous of entering the service in defense of their country, Captain Frisbie recruited a company, which under the name of Company I, joined Col. J.D. Stevenson’s regiment at Governor’s Island and, embarking for San Francisco, reached the little hamlet of Yerba Buena after a six month’s trip.

"The regiment continued in service until July 1848 when it was mustered out, General Frisbie then associating himself with General Vallejo and occupying himself with the management of the latter’s extensive estates. From that time dated Frisbie’s extensive work for the advancement of the interests of Vallejo and Benicia. He was largely instrumental in securing Mare Island as a location for the navy yard and was also the promoter of the California Pacific Railroad, designed to connect Vallejo with the interior of the state, touching at Marysville, Sacramento and other points. The road was speedily built and, with indications of its success, it was further extended, the plan being to run branches into Napa Valley, Sonoma and the Russian River territory.

"The project was too great for that time, however, and it brought financial embarrassment to those who had hoped for so much from it. General Frisbie was not the man to succumb to temporary embarrassments, and the fact that he was at this time dispatched by the President and Secretary of State to the City of Mexico, where his missions resulted in amicable relations being established between the two countries and the government of General Diaz being recognized, led him to determine to make that land his adopted country and it it there that he has since made his home.

"In Mexico, as in California, he was ever a progressive, enterprising citizen, and his loss will be felt by many. He is survived by three sons and four daughters, all married and all residents of Mexico." [note: Fannie Vallejo Frisbie preceded her husband in death, passing away in 1905. Both are buried in Mexico City].

Vallejo's Wartime Housing

America’s entry into WWII brought drastic changes to the City of Vallejo. Temporary defense housing projects sprang up almost overnight as people from nearly every state in the Union came seeking jobs at the Mare Island Navy Yard. The City's population exploded from approximately 30,000 residents in 1939 to nearly 90,000 in 1945. Wartime housing projects were often built of prefabricated sections and used innovative new building materials and techniques. Several well-known architects were involved in Vallejo's wartime housing boom, including William Wurster, who later became dean of the University of California Architecture School at Berkeley.

By far the largest of Vallejo's defense housing projects was Chabot Terrace, located north of present day Highway 37 and east of Broadway. By late 1944, nearly 11,000 people were living in this project. Other wartime housing projects in Vallejo included Federal Terrace, Roosevelt Terrace, Guadalcanal Village, Carquinez Heights, Floyd Terrace, Hillside Dormitories, Northside Dormitories, Amador Apartments, Solano Apartments and Victory Apartments. Nearly all of these were torn down soon after the war ended.

In 1945, a report by the City of Vallejo declared that the city had "undergone one of the most radical changes of any community in America in the past four years. Nowhere else has the impact of the war, with all of its resultant confusion, congestion, and expansion been more direct." Many families who lived in Vallejo's temporary defense housing projects later built or bought their own homes in the community. Others returned to their home states once the war had ended.