USS Tunny (SS 282)

Seventy years ago today, on November 10, 1941, a keel laying ceremony was held at Mare Island for the Gato-class submarine USS Tunny (SS 282). The United States' entry into World War Two was less than a month away, but already Mare Island was gearing up its production to meet wartime needs that seemed inevitable. Tunny was the 12th submarine built at Mare Island, but many more would follow once the U.S. entered the War. This is how the Vallejo Times-Herald covered the keel-laying ceremony:

"In a dramatic salute to Armistice Day, which the yard is observing tomorrow, Mare Island Navy Yard laid the keel of the submarine USS Tunny at 12 o'clock today"

"The keel laying of the Tunny marks the third submarine to occupy ways No. 3 during 1941 and the fifth submarine keel to be laid down during this year. The USS Gudgeon was launched from this spot on January 25 and the USS Trigger on October 22. Submarine keels laid during 1941 include the USS Trigger, laid February 1; the USS Wahoo and USS Whale, laid June 28; the USS Sunfish, laid September 25, and this, the USS Tunny, laid today."

"The brief formal program was void of speech-making or fanfare - it was a short, businesslike procedure - another job in the process of being done. Commencing at noon with a selection by the yard band, the actual keel laying commenced at 12:05 when Captain F.G. Crisp, U.S.N., yard manager, gave the order and the riggers hoisted the keel into position. Robert F. Cooke, foreman, electric shop, and W.N. Simons, chief quarterman, electric shop, acted as honorary welders by putting the first weld on the Tunny keel."

"At 12:15, upon completion of the welding, Lieut. Comdr. Leverett S. Lewis, U.S.N., acting hull superintendent, inspected the welds and reported: 'The keel is well and truly laid.' The national anthem by the yard band closed the ceremony."

USS Tunny was launched on June 30, 1942 and commissioned on September 1 of that same year. The submarine made nine war patrols in the Pacific during World War Two and survived the War, returning  to Mare Island for decommissoning in December 1945. The sub was later recommissioned and modified to serve in the Navy's experimental Regulus missile program. Tunny served through much of the Cold War and was decommissioned for the last time in 1969. She was sunk in 1970.

Celebrate Vallejo!

Prohibition Comes to Vallejo

Founded by German immigrants Charles Widenmann and Peter Rothenbusch, the Solano Brewery was renowned for its Solano Steam Beer. By 1891 the Marin Street facility had a brewing capacity of 6,000 barrels a year and boasted its own malting house. Charles Widenmann later bought out his partner and continued operating the brewery until 1918. Members of the Widenmann family were prominent in the area's political, educational, business, medical, and civic affairs for many years.

When Prohibition put the Solano Brewery out of business, the company's enterprising owners closed the Marin Street brewery and reinvented their business around the corner on York Street as the Solano Ice Cream Company. Nationwide Prohibition took effect in 1919, but in Vallejo taverns and breweries within five miles of Mare Island Naval Shipyard were ordered closed by the Secretary of the Navy in 1918 due to military restrictions imposed during World War I.

The Delightful Miss Carrie

      Please join us at the Museum on Tuesday, August 30 at 6:30 p.m. for a very special program and book signing with author Sonja Bartimus. The author’s recently released biographical novel is “The Delightful Miss Carrie,” which recounts the true-life adventures of Carrie Watson Dinsmore, born in Vallejo in 1889, who had summed up her experiences as a “life tapestry of gold and gray threads.”

     After her mother’s death in 1897 when Carrie was just 8, her father came   to her and said, “I’ve discovered a gold mine! We’re rich!” Carrie’s adventures then unfold, taking her from the mines of California and two major fires at the family’s lumber ranch in Calaveras County, through the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the Great Depression that robbed her of her fortune, and her eye-witness account of the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Along the way,  her life was punctuated with London tea parties, ocean voyages, and the heart-rending losses of the two men she loved. “A story of an ordinary person living in extraordinary times –  a story well worth telling,” says the book’s editor.

     The author grew up on a northern Missouri farm, and as a teenager in 1956 had met Miss Carrie. Several years ago Bartimus had a chance to read her memoir, being safe- guarded by Miss Carrie’s granddaughter Carol Borchers, of Kansas City, Mo. They decided to honor Miss Carrie’s wishes by turning   her story into a book. Bartimus has worked as a reporter and written freelance articles for several magazines. “The Delightful Miss Carrie” is her first book.

Bear in Mind: The Story of the California Grizzly

Although now extinct in this state, the grizzly bear has long been a central character in California’s history. Illuminating the story of the grizzly is our newest exhibition “Bear In Mind: The Story of the California Grizzly” which runs at the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum through September 24.

Over the centuries, the relationship that Californians have had with the grizzly bear has been one of dualities – expressed in both fear and fascination. The California grizzly possessed characteristics that we hold dear: independence, adaptability, resourcefulness, intelligence, and strong maternal care. Yet human interaction with the bears was often misguided, intolerant, and violent.

Scientists estimate that 10,000 grizzlies once lived in California, perhaps the densest population of brown bears on  the continent. However, through increased human settlement, loss of habitat, and hunting, by the early 1900s the California grizzly had vanished and could only be seen on the state flag. Although the loss of the California grizzly was a tragic lesson, we are not too late to save other threatened and endangered species.

Today, California grizzly bears only exist in our imaginations as symbols of things desired and things lost.  Since the mid-1800s, the grizzly has been used as an icon, advertiser, and entertainer, making the image of the bear a familiar one to most people. Little physical evidence remains of the grizzly bears that once roamed California. It is through stories, artifacts, striking images, and hands-on activities that the “Bear In Mind” exhibition provides an in-depth look at the history and science of California’s most revered and feared animal.

   The “Bear In Mind: The Story of the California Grizzly” exhibition is based on the Heyday Books publication,  Bear in Mind: The California Grizzly by Susan Snyder, as well as The Bancroft Library exhibition of the same name. “Bear In Mind: The Story of the California Grizzly” is produced and toured by Exhibit Envoy (formerly known as   the California Exhibition Resources Alliance). Don’t miss this fascinating new exhibit.

Bob Wills Swings Through Vallejo

On this day in 1945 Western Swing great Bob Wills, accompanied by his Texas Playboys, played two shows in Vallejo. During the afternoon the band played for more than 15,000 people at a huge Oklahoma-Texas-Arkansas picnic at Blue Rock Springs park. Many of the southwestern transplants attending the picnic had come to Vallejo at the outset of World War Two to work at the Mare Island Shipyard. The Texas Playboys performed a second show that evening at the Casino Ballroom in Vallejo.

Although dozens of different musicians passed through Wills' band over the years, the line-up in the mid '40s included Wills on fiddle, Everett Stover (trumpet), Less Anderson (steel guitar), Tiny Mott (saxophone), Louis Tierney (fiddle), Monte Mountjoy (drums), Rip Ramsey (bass), Jimmy Wyble (guitar), Tommy Duncan (vocals), Cameron Hill (guitar), Millard Kelso (piano), and Laura Lee Owens (vocals). That is the line-up pictured above, in a photograph taken in Los Angeles in 1944.

Buried Treasure in Vallejo?

   At the peak of World War Two nearly 50,000 people worked at the busy Mare Island Naval Shipyard. To accom- modate all of these wartime workers, the federal government built numerous defense housing projects throughout the city of Vallejo. The largest of those projects (pictured here) was Chabot Terrace, located in north Vallejo on land formerly owned by the Mini family. In late 1944 several boys who lived in the area found what they hoped would be a buried treasure. This is how the Vallejo Times Herald reported the story:

Treasure Hunt On At Chabot; Three $10 Gold Pieces Found

    "There's a treasure hunt on for buried gold pieces at Chabot Terrace.
    "It all started when four 10-year old boys, residents of the community, uncovered three gold pieces of the $10 denomination.
   "Now others in the community scratch about the excavation for the new athletic field in the hope that additional gold will be found.
   "Francis Kephart was the first to find treasure, a $10 gold piece dated 1853. Then Norman Chambers and William Parkerfound a coin dated 1881. A third $10 gold piece was recovered by a fourth boy whose name has not been obtained.
   "Encrusted with mud, the boys at first believed they were only metal slugs, but when the Kephart boy scratched the metal with a pocket knife and found "ten dollars" engraved on it, he knew it was more than a slug.
   "Then when the Chambers and Parker boys, together, found the second coin, others began to join in the search in the belief that the coins had been buried in an old tin can that had rusted and became scattered when the steam shovel struck it during excavation work.
   "The three boys named reported their find to the Vallejo Police Department and were advised to turn in the gold, which they did at the Mechanics and Merchants National Bank, receiving the equivalent monetary value in currency. The third coin, according to reports, is being kept as a souvenir.
   "But the hunt for buried gold continues at Chabot Terrace, with speculation rife as to who and when buried the treasure and how much there was when it was hidden."

The paper never followed up on whether more "treasure" was found, and the source of the coins was apparently never discovered.