Mare Island
Geography | |
---|---|
Location | Northern California |
Coordinates | 38°05′43″N 122°16′41″W / 38.095254°N 122.278004°W |
Adjacent to | San Francisco Bay |
Administration | |
State | California |
County | Solano |
City | Vallejo |
Mare Island (Spanish: Isla de la Yegua) is a peninsula in the United States in the city of Vallejo, California, about 23 miles (37 km) northeast of San Francisco. The Napa River forms its eastern side as it enters the Carquinez Strait juncture with the east side of San Pablo Bay. Mare Island is a peninsula, as no full body of water separates this or several other named "islands" from the mainland. Instead, a series of small sloughs cause seasonal water-flows among the so-called islands. Mare Island is the largest of these at about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) long and a mile wide.
History
In 1775, Spanish explorer Perez Ayala was the first European to land on what would become Mare Island – he named it Isla de la Plana. This area was part of
Shipyard
On November 6, 1850, two months after California was admitted to statehood, President Fillmore reserved Mare Island for government use.
On January 15, 1852, Secretary of the Navy William Alexander Graham ordered a Naval Commission to select a site for a Naval Yard on the Pacific Coast. Commodore D. Sloat along with Commodore C. Ringgold, Simon F. Blunt and William P.S. Sanger (former overseer of construction of Drydock Number One, Norfolk Naval Shipyard) were appointed to the commission. On July 13, 1852, Sloat recommended the island[3] across the Napa River from the settlement of Vallejo, as it was "free from ocean gales and from floods and freshets." The Navy Department acted favorably on Commodore Sloat's recommendations and Mare Island was purchased for use as a naval shipyard in July 1853 at a cost of $83,410. On September 16, 1854, Mare Island became the first permanent U.S. naval installation on the west coast, with Commodore David Farragut, as Mare Island's first commander.
For over a century, Mare Island hosted the Navy's
Before World War II, Mare Island had been in a continual state of up-building. By 1941, new projects included improvements to the central power plant, a new pattern storage building, a large foundry, machine shop, magazine building, paint shop, new administration building, and a huge storehouse. The yard was expected to be able to repair and paint six to eight large naval vessels at a time. Several finger piers had recently[when?] been built, as well as a new shipbuilding wharf, adding one 500-foot (150 m) and a 750-foot (230 m) berth. It employed 5593 workers at the beginning of 1939, and rapidly increased to 18,500 by May 1941, with a monthly payroll of $3.5 million. In 1941, the drafting department had expanded to three buildings accommodating over 400 naval architects, engineers and draftsmen. The hospital had 584 beds.[5] During World War II, the shipyard employed up to 50,000 workers.[6]
In 1969, the Navy transferred its (Vietnam War)
The USS Guitarro, a Sturgeon-class submarine, SSN-665, was constructed at Mare Island between December 9, 1964, and July 27, 1968. On May 15, 1969, while still under construction and tied to the pier, the Guitarro was flooded and sank when construction crews mismanaged testing procedures. It took three days to raise her and many months to salvage her.
During the latter years of Mare Island's military use,
Restoration and reuse
In 1993 Congress approved the findings of the Base Realignment and Closure report, leading to the closure of Mare Island Naval Shipyard.[7] The shipyard had long been the economic engine of the city of Vallejo, employing 10,000 workers after reductions in 1988. When Congress ordered the base closure, the shipyard employed 5,800 workers.[citation needed]
The vision of rebuilding Mare Island as a vital place where people lived and worked was a key goal in the base conversion planning process undertaken by the city of Vallejo in the early 1990s. After the base was recommended for closure in 1993, the City undertook an extensive community-based reuse planning process, which resulted in a Final Reuse Plan that was approved by the Vallejo City Council in 1994. The Final Reuse Plan laid out the general vision for the Island's redevelopment. The Reuse Plan was the basis for the Mare Island Specific Plan, which was approved in 1999 and amended in 2005 and 2007. The Mare Island Specific Plan designated land uses and established development standards for identified reuse areas and provided an implementation program to guide all subsequent planning activities.[8]
Preservation of many of Mare Island's 661 structures and other cultural resources was an additional factor in the planning process. As the oldest shipyard and naval facility on the West Coast, the shipyard earned a
Finally, as with any restoration of an industrial,
In 1998, Vallejo contracted with Lennar Mare Island LLC (LMI) to develop 650 acres (263 ha) of the eastern portion of Mare Island into a multi-use community. LMI contracted the Sausalito-based SWA Group to provide a Master Development Plan for Vallejo, additional historical research and landscape architectural services.
The Specific Plan included a variety of land uses, including a university district, an industrial zone, historic core, and residential neighborhoods. In addition, 78% of the island was set aside for wildlife habitat and wetlands, parkland and open space, and dredge ponds.[9] In 2007, LMI finished construction on the residential neighborhoods. Farragut Village, with 277 homes, was the first completed neighborhood. Additional neighborhoods include Coral Sea and Kirkland Isle II. Mare Island's Specific Plan calls for a total of 1,400 homes and condos, plus 7,000,000 square feet (650,000 m2) of commercial, retail, entertainment, and industrial space.[10]
Mare Island's residents petitioned LMI and the City of Vallejo to eliminate the dredge ponds, whose role had been to collect silt, drainage, and storm water from the Napa River and the Bay, and instead restore that acreage to wetlands. The city and the developer agreed, and in January 2006, the land use plan was amended to add the Mare Island Shoreline Heritage Preserve. An advisory board was appointed by the city to restore the 215-acre (0.87 km2) site into publicly accessible parkland.[11]
In 2009, Alstom moved its train maintenance facility from Oakland to Mare Island.[12]
Location in films and television
- In 1917 Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and then heavyweight boxing contender, Jack Dempsey make a silent film with soldiers based on Mare Island, including a staged fight between Chaplin and Dempsey as Fairbanks plays double duty as both a military bandleader and the fight referee. – (Source- 1964 Chaplin documentary film "The Funniest Man in the World.")
- In the 1943 war film Destination Tokyo starring Cary Grant, Mare Island cranes and the dockside are prominent in the beginning along with shots of the Vallejo coast line.
- In the 1953 film Submarine Command starring William Holden, a major portion is filmed on Mare Island with some shots of Vallejo.
- The cast and crew of the 2012 Paul Thomas Anderson film The Master shot on Mare Island for a month. The final product included scenes of a hospital and an admirals mansion.[13]
- In the 1997 action film Metro starring Eddie Murphy, Scott Roper (Murphy) is instructed by Korda (Michael Wincott) to bring $10 million in stolen jewelry to Mare Island in order to save his girlfriend.
- Battlebots's sixth season was shot on at the Mare Island Sports Center from May 21–23, 2015.[14]
- St. Vincent (musician) recorded her 2011 music video for "Cruel" around Mare Island.
- An old warehouse building, known as Building 1310, is frequently used as interior stages for several projects. From 2016 to 2019, the location was used for the .
Transportation
Mare Island is accessed by
Mare Island is the location of Touro University California, the US Forest Service Pacific Southwest Regional Office,[16] and the administrative offices of the Vallejo City Unified School District.[17]
Climate
This region experiences warm (but not hot) and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above 71.6 °F. According to the
See also
- 1898 Mare Island earthquake
- Mare Island Light
- Mare Island Naval Shipyard
- Mare Island Naval Shipyard Airfield
- Mare Island San Pablo Bay Trail
- Mare Island Strait
References
- ^ Ringgold, Cadwalader; Stuart, Fred D.; Everett, Chas.; Harrison (1850). "General Chart embracing Surveys of the Farallones Entrance to the Bay of San Francisco, Bays of San Francisco and San Pablo, Straits of Carquines and Suisun Bay, and the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, to the Cities of Sacramento and San Joaquin, California". David Rumsey Map Collection. San Francisco Common Council. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
- ^ Lange, Henry (1854). "Bai San Francisco und Vereinigung des Sacramento mit dem San Joaquin". David Rumsey Map Collection. George Westermann. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
- ^ "Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine". A. Roman & Company. 28 October 2017. Retrieved 28 October 2017 – via Google Books.
- ^ Lott, A Long Line of Ships, pp. 117–206
- ^ Lott, A Long Line of Ships, pp. 209–37
- ^ Kern, James & Vallejo and Naval Historical Museum Images of America: Vallejo. Arcadia Publishing, 2004.
- ^ "City of Vallejo: Mare Island FAQs". City of Vallejo. 2012. Archived from the original on June 9, 2012. Retrieved July 5, 2012.
- ^ City of Vallejo (2007). "Mare Island Specific Plan". Retrieved December 5, 2013.
- ^ "Mare Island Regional Taskforce Report Proposal Narrative" (PDF). 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 11, 2013. Retrieved July 5, 2012.
- ^ "Lennar: Mare Island History". 2012. Lennar Mare Island. Retrieved July 5, 2012.
- ^ Chris G. Denina (2006). "New Vision Sought for Mare Island". Vallejo Times Herald. Retrieved July 5, 2012.
- ^ Raskin-Zrihen, Rachel (25 October 2017). "Mare Island's Alstom snags game-changing contract, promises growth". The Times-Herald. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
- ^ Cieply, Michael (April 18, 2012). "Filmmaker's Newest Work Is About ... Something". NYTimes.com. The New York Times Company. Retrieved April 18, 2012.
- ^ Saincome, Matt (May 13, 2015). "Robots Set to Collide at BattleBots 2015 Championship". SFWeekly.com. SF Weekly. Retrieved June 3, 2015.
- ^ York, Jessica (14 February 2011). "Mare Island gets new rail service provider – The Mercury News". Mercury News. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
- ^ "Pacific Southwest Region". United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service. Retrieved July 5, 2012.
- ^ "Home". Vallejo City Unified School District. Retrieved July 5, 2012.
- ^ "Mare Island, California Köppen Climate Classification (Weatherbase)". Weatherbase. Retrieved 28 October 2017.
Further reading
- Holzer, T.L. et al. (2002). Comments on potential geologic and seismic hazards affecting Mare Island, Solano County, California [U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 02-425]. Menlo Park, CA: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey
- Blackman, Raymond V.B. Jane's Fighting Ships 1970–71. London: Jane's Yearbooks
- Lott, Arnold S., Lt. Comdr., U.S.N. A Long Line of Ships: Mare Island's Century of Naval Activity in California. Annapolis: United States Naval Institute, 1954
- Silverstone, Paul H., U.S. Warships of World War II. New York: Doubleday & Company, 1968
- Steffes, James, ENC Retired: Swift Boat Down- The Real Story of the Sinking of PCF-19. (2006) ISBN 1-59926-612-1
- Tillman, Barrett Clash of the Carriers. New York: New American Library, 2005. ISBN 978-0-451-21956-5
- 1941 Society of Naval Architects Bulletin, Harold W. Linnehan