San Francisco Tour Guide Guild – 2007 Programs

San Francisco Tour Guide Guild – 2007 Programs

The Mission District, San Francisco’s First Neighborhood
March 30, 2007
If you’ve ever wondered how you could spend an entire day in the Mission District of San Francisco, you should join Jean Feilmoser for a tour! And for 19 SFTGG participants, including Jean’s mom, that is just what we did.
Our trip began with a stop at the controversial Armory building whose walls still echo with military history. Built in 1912, it is supposed to resemble a Moorish Castle (use imagination!!). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, it housed members of the National Guard from 1914 until the end of the 1960s. We saw the former stables and cavalry area, the dance hall where men learned to lead and follow as women were not allowed in, and also practice rooms for hand to hand combat. The administrative offices remained there until 1976 when they moved to Sacramento.
Since then, neighbors in the Mission have rejected proposal after proposal for the building’s use. Some prospects included an internet “farm”, low income housing (too expensive and construction would ruin the historic integrity), a community center, a high school, the Exploratorium, even George Lucas’ studios. He had the building rezoned for production and distribution, but never moved in. The parade scene in Star Wars was filmed in the drill court that holds up to 6,000 people with its 49,000 sq. ft. At some point, Barkay Realty purchased the building, hoping to convert it to condos, but that plan never materialized. Before reaching white elephant status, Kink.com won the rights to buy and use the building for $14.5 million under the name “Armory Studios, LLC.”
As usual, the neighbors were up in arms, wondering what the porn industry could possibly have to offer the neighborhood. We soon learned that the current full time staff of 3 employees plan to renovate the building to maintain its historic status and to host many fundraising events, in addition to filming adult movies. On April 7th, they had the “Bunny Affair.” Those dressed in full bunny attire pay $15 cover charge, “some bunny” $20 entry, and “no bunny,” $25 and they will “bunnify” you. Other spicy events include an AIDS Life Cycle benefit, Hotties for Harm Reduction to fight child porn, clean needle exchange, and the Gay Oscars party. Strangely enough, some of their filming sets are purchased from Disney for the dungeon, barn, and prison scenes, but they are kept at another location. Our hostess, Cat, told us that they would like to host many other types of events and offer space for building floats for the Carnaval parade or Burning Man, but insurance issues as well as not being fire rated prevent them from doing so.
Enroute to Mission Dolores, we passed neighborhood centers Centro Latino, Arriba Juntos – organizations dedicated to helping Latinos find places to live and work. At the intersection of Dolores and 16th streets, adjacent to San Francisco’s Mission Dolores, we found a gay synagogue, the Mission Basilica, a German Lutheran church which still holds mass in German every Sunday morning, and the Holy Family Dayhome for children. The original Mission structure was built at 16th St. and Albion Sts., but the one we visited today was completed in 1791, while the newer basilica next to it was finished in 1926 (the first basilica burned in 1906).
Luckily for us, Al Lopez, a San Francisco City Guide specializing in Mission Dolores itself, gave us some additional insight. Originally the area was very pastoral with a lagoon (now underneath the Mission District!!!) as well as a creek nearby. Apparently in the old days, when they rang the church bells they could be heard all the way in the Presidio! A tradition that still continues today is the annual march from the Mission to the Presidio. Located between the two buildings, a small replica of the mission from the 1939 Expo on Treasure Island provides a better look at what life was like at the end of the 1700s. Father Junipero Serra, of the Franciscan order, established 9 out of California’s 21 missions. He founded this mission on the feast day of Our Lady of Sorrows (the 30th of March) hence ‘Dolores’ or sorrow.
The older building has walls of adobe 3-4 feet thick. The original floor was made of dirt and the colors painted inside the mission were from natural dyes. Compared with other missions in the California chain, this one is very small. The artwork in the old mission is considered some of the finest in the Americas, especially the wood carvings near the front representing important saints to Catholicism. (St. Juan Capistrano, who defeated the Turks in the Ottoman Empire, St. Joseph, and St. Buenaventura, St. Pascual, patron saint of cooks and Father Solano, who inspired Father Serra as well as the Incas in Peru.) One painting is considered heretical, because Jesus is represented as all three parts of the trinity: the father, the son, and the holy spirit. Another work shows the galleons of Manila, regularly attacked by pirates like Sir Francis Drake en route for Mexican ports before returning to Spain.
A mural painted in 1810 illustrates the Judeo-Christian tradition of the Last Supper as a seder representing a combination of Old and New testaments. Much of the artwork came from Mexico as well as all of the gold in the main altar, still as shiny today as when it first arrived from San Blas, Mexico. St. Michael, St. Joaquin (the father of Mary), St. Claire (the best friend of St. Francis as well as the patron saint of television and internet) grace the altar. Before entering the Basilica, we were reminded that Vertigo was filmed here, with James Stewart following Kim Novak through the door and out into the cemetery.
In the Basilica, we viewed beautiful stained glass windows made in Munich, Germany in 1926 depicting all 21 of the California missions. San Jose is the patron saint of them all. Another interesting piece entitled, “Mother of Jesus of 7 daggers” represents seven stages of great suffering: 1) Jesus’ circumcision; 2) sorrow fleeing to Egypt because Herod wanted to kill first-born sons; 3) sorrow because Mary lost Jesus to the high temple in Jerusalem as a 12 year old; 4) when she met Jesus en route to be hung on the cross; 5) his crucifixion; 6) when he was brought down from the cross; and 7) when he was buried.
In the cemetery, we learned that 11,000 people are buried, with 5,000 of European descent and 6,000 Miwoks and Ohlones. Not surprisingly, Mission High was built right on top of many of their remains. Famous people like Noe, the last alcalde before the U.S. gained control of California, William Alexander Leidesdorf (half African, half Dutch) who created the first school in San Francisco (buried inside the Mission), Charles Cora, a victim of the second vigilante committee (the people’s party until the 1880s) for killing one of the vigilantes who insulted his beloved Ana Bella Cora, a highly sought after lady of the evening, Tanforan whose two small cottages dating to 1850 still stand on Dolores St. today (also responsible for the racetrack now a shopping mall), and Arguello, our first alcade, born and raised in San Francisco, are all buried here. His sister, Concha, fell in love with the Russian, Rezenov. They never married, because he first had to obtain permission and died en route coming back for her. The Native Americans did not have the funds for a fancy burial, so a simple wooden cross was used instead. The wealthier Europeans had headstones. Lambs represented children. Throughout the cemetery, rosemary is planted, symbolizing the Mother of Jesus. It is also used in religious processions. The latest addition to the cemetery is a replica of an Ohlone hut.
Leaving the Mission behind, we passed the former Notre Dame Girls High School, today a retirement home on Dolores St. We continued passed Everrett Middle School (Church and 17th) decorated with lovely Spanish tiles in mission style architecture. At the next corner looms Mission High, alma mater for Carlos Santana and Maya Angelou, Oprah’s mentor. Gorgeous green Dolores Park, today home to the San Francisco Mime Troupe, the SF symphony, and a whole host of amateur musicians, was once a Jewish cemetery! A former synagogue is only a block away, and many former funeral homes along Valencia St. (down which all funeral cars were transported along the now covered tracks) now serve other purposes like New College.
In 1905, the city decided that the park should be devoted to the living, and most of SF’s cemeteries were closed and bodies moved to Colma where well over 1.5 million people are buried. No wonder Colma’s motto is, “It’s great to be alive in Colma!!” The park is also called Dolores Beach as many neighbors don their swim suits to tan on warm sunny days.
At 20th & Church on the southwest corner of the park, you’ll find a golden fire hydrant, repainted every year on April 18th to commemorate saving the Mission in the 1906 fire. This neighborhood called the Liberty Hill Historic District, adjacent to the park, is where Lola Montez once lived and where Susan B. Anthony held suffragette meetings. Along Dolores St. is Christian Science church as well as a “Congregational” church shared by 5 different religious congregations—one even allows dogs to pray! Turning right onto 18th from Guerrero we found the hip Dolores Park Café on the corner, a brand new Bi-rite creamery across the street producing hand made ice cream. Further down “gourmet alley” is the Bi-rite grocery on the right and one of the City’s top 100 restaurants the chic Delfinas. Would you believe that of those 100, 10 are in the Mission District?? At the corner of 18th and Guerrero is the popular Tartine Bakery Platanos Nuevo California-Latino cuisine, one of the most popular culinary styles these days.
The next gem to admire was the Women’s Building with its stunning mural including famous women such as Nobel Peace prize winner, Guatemalan Rigoberta Menchu wearing a traditional colorful ‘huipile ‘. This building once housed the Norwegian Athletic Hall and the notorious Dovre Club, an Irish bar. Along Valencia, we found a whole host of fascinating places to pause: Dave Egger’s writers school at 826 Valencia, Borderland’s Sci-fi Bookshop, La Rondalla legendary night spot for mariachi music and so-so food, Modern X-21 where film studios come to find props for sets, Encantada Gallery for the best in Mexican folkloric art, Dog Eared Books for second hand reads, and Botanica Yoruba for practitioners of West African Santeria. Over 5 million devotees practice Santeria in this country. In order to do so, they had to take their fight for the right to practice their religion in the USA all the way to the Supreme Court due to their live animal sacrifices (chickens) to continue this practice. Across the street is Dosa, an Indian restaurant so wonderful that even the pickiest food snob, Michael Bauer, recommends it, also on the top 100 list.
Turning left on 21st St., we passed Bartlett St., named for the first American alcalde (mayor). At the corner of Mission, we saw the musician’s mural that includes the Armenian florists who used to have their shop in that spot!! Turning right off of 21st St. onto Shotwell, we found a beautiful, tree-lined side street of Italianate Victorians and the Polish Hall at the corner of 22nd St. At this intersection, a circle of bricks embedded in the street denotes a cistern below ground. (You can see similar circular brick patterns in many places around SF, these cisterns put into place after the ’06 quake as an extra water source to douse fires.)
At 23rd St. and Shotwell, we passed Cesar Chavez School with its mural of sign language in Spanish! Continuing on 23rd to Mission, Jean mentioned that the Bank of America also has a mural painted inside the building. Pulling to the bus stop at 24th and Mission where the “3rd world express” bus stops (AKA 14 Mission bus), we disembarked for lunch. We were treated to tasty tacos with rice and beans at San Jose Taqueria at 24th St. and Mission. We also sampled the wonderful “aguas” of Mexico including horchata (a rice beverage), tamarindo, strawberry or melon choices.
After lunch, we continued on to La Cocina on Folsom & 25th, a little known non-profit “incubator” for low-income women to establish their own economic stability. They provide a safe environment where female entrepreneurs have the opportunity to grow their business before launching, in some cases, “Grandma’s famous recipe” to the public. They receive funding from the mayor’s office of commercial development, from independent private sources as well as 25% self-generated income. With over 300 people involved, it is a very successful organization. Their volunteer mentor program brings professionals in to share their experience in marketing, packaging, labeling, food safety, and finances. Some of their food products are carried in high-end grocery stores like Whole Foods and Rainbow Grocery! Hats off to La Cocina. Perhaps they can cater our holiday party this year!! (2948 Folsom St., telephone: (415) 824-2729, email: valeria@www.sftgg.orglacocinasf.org.
Just north of Garfield Park containing one of SF’s indoor swimming pools and a well used soccer field, we discovered tiny Balmy Alley, an inspirational mural walk ranging from dancing burritos and tacos to Frida Khalo, Ricki and Lucy, Carmen Miranda and many political figures. Jean explained that the Mission district’s obsession with the murals provides a visual voice for political statements, the celebration of women, traditional indigenous cultures, history, and some of the whimsical ones simply prevent graffiti.
Strolling along charming lower 24th St. (aka SF’s own ‘Avenue of the Americas), we found colorful vegetable markets, Latino bakeries, a Mexicatessen where hand made tortillas are still made, home cooked Latin delicacies like tamales and sopes, as well as the oldest Latin music store in SF, Discolandia. We went into the workshop of Precita Eyes, another non-profit organization that organizes artists to paint murals on public spaces. San Francisco is blessed with outstanding mural art peppering the entire Mission district. Buy a copy of Precita Eyes city listing of murals and enjoy each one at your leisure while donating to a great cause.
Who would guess that among all of the churches of so many varied denominations we would find a Buddhist Temple on 22nd St. housed in an old Victorian Gothic Presbyterian church and boasting the largest statue of Buddha in the country? Well, the monks made us very welcome and invited us to come on Sunday mornings from 10am-12pm to learn to meditate. What a fascinating, unexpected stop that was.
Leaving the temple, Jean had a special surprise for us! We turned back onto Mission St. where we cruised the “Miracle Mile” former theater district. In the good old days, you could watch a movie at the New Mission Theater, marquee designed by Timothy Pfleuger (City College, etc), for 50 cents. Today you can watch rock bands across the street at 12 Galaxies, eat, drink and be merry at Foreign Cinema while you watch a movie. Check out the Sky Terrace roof-top open-air bar atop Medjools (which also has two floors called Elements hostel), go to Brunos for live music, eat Carribean style at La Charanga or Cha Cha Cha, try African cuisine at Bissap Baobab, get a manicure and a martini at the Beauty Bar, or shop at Thrift Town, once Redleck’s 17 Reasons (to buy furniture there–naturally on 17th!).
Just when we thought it was over, we made one last stop. On behalf of the Mission Merchants Association, Ramblas provided a tasty reception (Valencia St. between 16th and 17th) and the second oldest saloon in SF, Elixir on 16th & Guerrero, donated refreshing sangria with lots of fruit. What a wonderful way to wind up the day. We learned and saw so much that I have 14 pages of notes! I’d suggest you get on BART and boogie on over to the Mission, San Francisco’s oldest neighborhood and the heart & ‘sol’ of SF, to explore. There’s more than you think to discover. Plan to make a day of it! And the great thing…it’s all flat.
Submitted by Patricia Hunting

War and Peace, East Bay Stories
November 14, 2007
Signing up for a program with the epic title “War and Peace, East Bay Stories” takes a stout heart and, indeed, there were 32 of us who felt we had the right stuff to endure such a demanding mission. Organized by veteran pros Mary Johnson and Jay Archibald, the tour proceeded with the able assistance of Emilio driving a Destination Systems minibus.
Our first assignment was ROSIE THE RIVETER WORLD WAR II HOME FRONT NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK in Richmond. One of America’s newest National Parks, it was established in 2000. In April 2004, SFTGG members had an opportunity to visit it as part of a program entitled “The Second Gold Rush.” (The program also included a visit to the Richmond Museum, SS Red Oak Victory and the Oakland Museum’s exhibit entitled ”Henry J. Kaiser: Think Big!” A description of that program written by Ulla Kaprielian can be found on SFTGG’s website under 2004 Programs.)
ROSIE THE RIVETER is not a conventional National Park in that the National Park Service does not actually own any land or buildings. As a “partnership park” it depends on the collaboration of government agencies and private property owners. The “partners” comprise federal, state and city government and the Richmond Museum of History. Needless to say, funding is problematic.
The different historic properties within the park boundaries include part of the former Kaiser Shipyards, the Ford Assembly Building, SS Red Oak Victory, Atchison Village Defense Housing Project, Maritime Child Development Center and Kaiser Richmond Field Hospital. There is no visitor center and no museum, at least not yet. While the child development center is still in operation (albeit under a different name), the hospital closed in 1995. Atchison Village still exists, one of the few of its type not destroyed after the war. Shipyard #3, the only one of Kaiser’s four shipyards still in existence, and the Ford assembly plant are awaiting restoration, as does the Victory ship. However, visible progress has been made in that SS Red Oak Victory now is berthed at Shipyard #3, having been moved from Ferry Point near Brickyard Cove where we toured the big ship three years ago.
The 1931 Ford Assembly Plant switched to assembling jeeps and other military vehicles during the WWII ban on the production of civilian automobiles. Designed by noted industrial architect Albert Kahn (1869-1942), (no relation of famous contemporary architect Louis I. Kahn), it is part of Albert’s large legacy as Ford’s in-house architect. The plant has been designated as the future site of the ROSIE visitor center.
The focal point of the park is the Rosie The Riveter Memorial at Marina Bay, where we met up with Park Ranger Elizabeth Tucker (no relation to Preston of Tucker Automobile fame). The Memorial consists of abstract forms reminiscent of prefabricated parts laid out on a 441-foot long strip representing the keel plate of a Liberty ship.
Actually we had experienced a little difficulty in finding the right spot – despite a new sign on I-580, sign posting still leaves something to be desired. Ranger Tucker distributed copies of the official park brochure, a map of the Richmond Marina Bay Trail and the Fall 2007 issue of COMMON GROUND, a NPS publication dedicated to topics of historic preservation, with the picture of a well-groomed bona fide “Rosie” on its cover.
The collective term of endearment for women working in the WWII manufacturing plants goes back to a real woman, Rose Will Monroe, who worked as a riveter at the Willow Run Aircraft Factory in Ypsilanti, Michigan (also designed by Albert Kahn, the same plant where later Corvairs were built), building B-29 and B-24 bombers. Rose’s name became widely known through the song “Rosie the Riveter” (Ranger Tucker played for us a version performed by the Four Vagabonds) and was made immortal by a Norman Rockwell painting that was featured on the cover of the May 29, 1943 edition of The Saturday Evening Post. The Rockwell Rosie is clad in overalls and penny loafers, one foot firmly crushing a copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf. While one of her muscular arms holds on to a lunch box balanced on her lap together with a riveting machine, the other one lifts a guy-sized sandwich. Against a backdrop of the American flag a faint halo floats above the pushed-back visor on Rosie’s head. In 2002 the painting sold for close to $5 million, evidence that its status as a cultural icon has not faded.
Somewhat ironically, none of the 24,500 women on Kaiser’s Richmond payroll ever did any riveting. Shipbuilding had been simplified to speed up the process and welding techniques had been adapted for less-skilled workers. Even though riveting had been replaced by welding, Wendy The Welder never caught the popular imagination like Rosie had done.
Similarly, despite the production of many other, more sophisticated instruments of war at the Richmond complex, nothing caught the public attention like the sheer number of ships built – within four years, the four shipyards with their combined 27 shipways produced 747 ships. Of these, 519 were Liberty ships, one of them launched in the record time of four days, 15 hours and 26 minutes. The launching at Kaiser Shipyard #2 of the SS Robert E. Peary, named in honor of the American explorer considered to be the first person to reach the geographic North Pole, had been a publicity stunt, as was its completion and delivery within less than an additional three days. German propaganda simply dismissed the whole thing as a hoax. Sadly, Kaiser Shipyard #3, the only one remaining of the four, did not produce Liberties, but C4 troop transport ships instead. Marinship in Sausalito is sometimes mistaken as the source of large numbers of Liberties, but only fifteen of them were built there. (Bechtel’s Marinship can claim a place in WWII history by constructing much needed tankers, a more complex and time-consuming task.)
As Ranger Tucker explained, this National Historical Park is primarily dedicated to the role of women in the WWII work force in what is called the civilian home front. With an increasing number of [white] men at the battlefront, a labor shortage became predictable. Before the call could go out for women and minorities to do their share, the President had to sign Executive Order 8802, known as the Fair Employment Act. While the order prohibited racial discrimination within the defense industry, it did not cause overnight changes in the actual hiring practices. Two real “Rosies” recall, in an interview published in COMMON GROUND, only after the pool of white men was exhausted, white single women were hired followed by white married women followed by minorities. As pictures and quotes on the Rosie Memorial indicate, minorities did not just mean black, but also Asian, men and women (at least to the extent that the latter had been spared relocation through internment).
As we had learned on our 2004 program, the migration of able-bodied men and women (particularly those of color) from the South and the Midwest looking for employment at the Pacific Coast exceeded the Gold Rush several fold. For example, Richmond’s population grew nearly overnight from 24,000 to 100,000. This entire work force was expected to return “home” once the war was over and its services were no longer needed. The white women mostly obliged, returning to “kinder, kirche, küche.” Matters were not quite so simple for the minorities. Now, more than 60 years later, cities like Richmond still suffer from large pockets of poverty and unemployment stemming from post-WWII joblessness.
On the positive side, large-scale employment of women during WWII (estimated to have been 6 million nationwide) wrought significant long-term social changes. Nowadays the need for day care centers to assist working mothers is rarely questioned. In addition, the Kaiser Permanente Health Plan was one of the first voluntary pre-paid medical plans in the country and is a direct precursor to what is now defined by federal law as an HMO.
On July 1, 1944, the 519th and last Liberty ship was launched from Richmond’s Yard # 2. Earlier in the year the yard had begun conversion to the production of Victory ships. At 11 knots, Liberties with their steam engines were too slow. Something faster was needed to outrun the U-boats. The Victory ships achieving 15 knots with their turbine engines were the answer. Of all the 534 Victories eventually built nationwide, SS Quinault Victory must have had the shortest run. Leaving the yard in Richmond, it sailed through San Pablo Bay and the Carquinez Strait into Suisun Bay where it docked at the single pier of the Naval Ammunition Depot at Port Chicago. Less than five hours later, all that remained were its stern upside down in the water and 60 feet of keel with propeller attached, both hundreds of feet from their origin.
The location of that horrendous disaster, nowadays marked by the PORT CHICAGO NAVAL MAGAZINE NATIONAL HISTORIC PARK, was our next stop. The Memorial is located on an active military base and can only be visited by advance reservations. This involved sending in photocopies of our driver licenses well ahead of time and then individually signing in at the gate. Ranger Tad Shay escorted us pointing out the various spots of interest. In the tranquility of a bright fall day surrounded by water and marshland, it was hard to imagine the frenetic pace of wartime activities.
Now known as the Concord Naval Weapons Station, it comprises 12,800 acres, 5,000 of which are separated from the waterfront by the Highway 4 corridor. Most of the land will be sold to the City of Concord. Only the tidal land (about 7,000 acres) will stay military. As a remote, inconspicuous deepwater harbor, Port Chicago was highly valued by the U. S. Navy for the shipment of munitions to the war zone in the Pacific. There are 200 miles of railroad tracks crisscrossing the facility and countless earthen revetments, embankments (not bunkers) constructed to protect railroad cars and their cargo while waiting to be unloaded.
The Navy had difficulties finding trained cargo handlers and wound up using Navy personnel. The officers and men assigned to the task had no experience and little training in loading munitions and there were no rules or guidelines for handling such immense quantities of explosives. Word went out that the ordnances were not active. The enlisted men assigned to this work were African-American sailors who had volunteered to fight for their country but, like most black troops, were not allowed to serve in combat. The officers were white. Given the lack of training, the fast pace of the work and the huge volume of munitions, Port Chicago quickly became a disaster waiting to happen. On Monday, July 17, 1944 at 10:18 PM it did.
The Liberty ship SS E.A.Bryan, tied up on the other side of the pier, had about 4,600 tons of explosives on board whereas SS Quinault Victory was practically empty, its crew still getting it ready for loading. There were also over 400 tons of munitions being unloaded from 16 boxcars on the pier. Nobody knows what exactly went wrong, but the explosion blew out windows on the upper floors of the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco and registered as a 3.5 earthquake as far away as Nevada. All 320 men on duty around the pier were dead, 202 of them black. Additionally, 390 Navy personnel and civilians were injured. It was the worst WWII disaster on the home front.
No cause for the explosion was ever determined. It was officially deemed an accident, even though conspiracy buffs like to speculate to this day that it was a nuclear explosion. Knowing, for example, that the components of the first atom bomb dropped on Japan were shipped from the Bay Area excites the imagination of the “white flash” crowd.
If the conditions leading up to the explosion were a sad reflection of the then prevailing racial prejudice, what followed was worse. While white officers were granted a leave of absence, the black survivors were ordered to load munitions on Mare Island a mere three weeks after the disaster. Hundreds refused admitting they were afraid that nothing had changed. Ultimately, fifty men were court-martialed and found guilty as ringleaders of the “mutiny.” Even the intercession of Thurgood Marshall as chief counsel for the NAACP was unsuccessful. On appeal the original verdict was upheld. However, after the end of the war, the Navy began to desegregate and in January 1946 granted clemency to the Port Chicago men. Finally, in 1999 President Clinton officially pardoned Fredrick Meeks of any charges of mutiny. Convinced that they had done nothing wrong in the first place, the other two surviving convicted mutineers refused the presidential pardon.
Throughout the war, the residents of Port Chicago had been encouraged to move elsewhere, but despite the considerable damage from the explosion, the last people didn’t leave until 1965 when the Navy bought them out. Just outside the boundaries of the military land, we passed the unincorporated town of Clyde. Looking from a distance like many another leafy little suburb (population about 700), we had no idea of its illustrious beginnings. Built in 1917 as a company town for the Pacific Coast Shipbuilding Company, it is the creation of Bernhard Maybeck and George Applegarth as Supervising and Acting Architects, respectively.
This, at last, brought us to the “peace” part of the day – the JOHN MUIR NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE in Martinez where the great man spent the second (married) half of his life. While not as adventurous as in his younger years, this was the time when he did most of his writing. Often referred to as “Father of our National Parks,” John Muir’s name and image are now familiar to anybody who has ever looked at a California quarter. As one of 27 men founding the Sierra Club, he was the group’s unanimous choice as president, an office in which he served until his death.
After a tasty box lunch at the picnic tables near the visitor center, we watched a video reenactment of Muir’s life and then toured the Victorian mansion. The somewhat surprising connection between the earlier portions of the program and this conclusion was Ranger Tad Shay –¬ being a John Muir expert is his day job.
Submitted by Renate A. Coombs