Martinez

John Muir National Historic Site

Day 3 of the 2018 sightseeing season was my 3rd day exploring the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. On each consecutive sightseeing day, I went further into the East Bay area. This time, it was to the small city of Martinez. I had left the San Francisco Bay behind by this point. Nevertheless, Martinez is a waterfront city. That’s because it’s located along the Carquinez Strait. The Carquinez Strait connects the waters that flow from the Central Valley to San Francisco Bay.

Because Martinez is such a small city, I’d long been surprised that it’s the county seat of Contra Costa County, the 9th largest county in California. It turns out that the Gold Rush plays an important part of Martinez’s history, like it does with so much of the region’s history. Because of its location along Carquinez Strait, Martinez was a way station during the Gold Rush between Sacramento and San Francisco. It was the southern terminal of the only ferry station across the Carquinez Strait.

In 1853, Dr. John Strentzel, a wealthy Polish immigrant, moved to the area. In addition to being a physician, he was a knowledgeable horticulturist. Dr. Strentzel bought 20 acres of land and became a pioneer in the California fruit-growing industry. In 1880, Dt. Strentzel’s daughter Louisa married Scottish immigrant John Muir–a wanderer, an explorer, and America’s original conservationist. The son-in-law settled down, to a degree, and joined the father-in-law in the horticulture business.

To get to John Muir National Historic Site, first I took BART out to the East Bay community Contra Costa Centre. Then I took a bus north, almost to Carquinez Strait. At the Martinez train station, the bus looped around to the south. I was surprised to see a lot of beautiful historic buildings, reflecting the history of Martinez I knew so little about. From there, it was through the city to the rural outskirts, to where Dr. Strentzel first grew his orchards and vineyards.

Muir/Strentzel House

Dr. John Strentzel built his mansion in 1882. When he died in 1890, his son-in-law, John Muir moved in. He lived there till he died in 1914.

The Strentzel/Muir House sits on a knoll overlooking the historic orchids. It’s a 17-room Italianate-style Victorian.

A 2nd-floor bedroom that John Muir converted into a study.

Horticultural Landscape

John Muir National Historic Site sits on 336 acres of what was the Strentzel-Muir fruit ranch. It grew a lot from the original 20 acres that Dr. Strentzel bought in 1853.

Some of the still active orchards at John Muir National Historic Site.

John Muir planted this giant sequoia as a sapling around 1885. Behind it stands the carriage house, constructed around 1891.

Inside the carriage house, a horse-drawn buggy, typical of John Muir’s time. John Muir never had an automobile and preferred to walk whenever possible.

A touch of the Great Plains in Martinez.

Martinez Adobe

Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail

Martinez is named after Ygnacio Martínez, a prominent settler of the region from Mexico City. One of his sons built the Martinez Adobe around 1849. The adobe changed hands a number of times until Dr. Strentzel bought it and made it his family home in 1874. He converted what had been a ranch into a fruit farm.

Dr. Strentzel lived in the Martinez Adobe until he built his mansion across the orchards in 1882.

Juan Bautista de Anza was an 18th-century military from what is now Sonora, Mexico, then under the control of Spain. In 1775 and 1776, he led an expedition of 240 men, women, and children to establish a mission and presidio on San Francisco Bay. In 1776, the expedition established the Presidio of San Francisco and Mission San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores), thereby creating what became the city of San Francisco.

The Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail is a 1,200 mile reaching the San Francisco Bay Area from Nogales, Arizona. Another 600 miles of trail passes through Sonora, Mexico. The trail commemorates the expedition and has many historic sites along the way. The Martinez Adobe now is the primary exhibit site for the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail.

A map of the Anza Expedition, from down the Mexican coast all the way to San Francisco.

An exhibit on Californian descendants of members of the expedition.

Mount Wanda

Murals depicting Martinez waterfront scenes on an underpass under John Muir Parkway.

From the Strentzel/Muir House, I walked down the road to Mount Wanda, which makes up 326 acres of John Muir National Historic site. Mount Wanda is named after John and Louisa’s oldest daughter.

In 1897, for $10 in gold, John and Louisa allowed the San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley Railroad to pass through their property along Mount Wanda. The Muirs used the rail line to ship their fruit. (Because of the way things always worked around here, the western terminus of the railroad not actually San Francisco but…Richmond! As always, a ferry would complete the journey to the big city.)

I make new friends wherever I go! This time, along a trail on Mount Wanda.

Looking across an East Bay mountain view.

Up close with the (non-native) yellow grass that epitomizes Northern California to me.

This view couldn’t be more Northern California to me.

I’m always somewhat mystified by the navigable waterways that reach the interior of California beyond San Francisco Bay.

Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial

During World War II, Navy ships were loaded with weapons at Port Chicago Naval Magazine–located about 6 1/2 miles from Martinez–before they headed out to fight the Japanese in the Pacific Theater. All of the enlisted men responsible for loading the weapons were black men who had not received proper training and had been trained for other duties. All of their commanding officers were white. The work was very dangerous, and working conditions were notoriously unsafe. Basic safety protocols were disregarded by the officers in favor of speed. On July 17, 1944, the disaster waiting to happen happened. A significant accidental weapons explosion occurred. 320 people were killed. The majority of them were black enlisted sailors.

When unsafe conditions continued after the disaster, hundreds of black enlisted men refused to work. 50 of them were convicted of mutiny. News of the disaster and the mutiny highlighted discrimination in the military, leading to the desegregation of the Navy. Activists still fight for the exoneration of the Port Chicago 50.

Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial was dedicated in 1994, 50 years after the disaster. What was then Port Chicago Naval Magazine is still a military base. Visits to the memorial leave from John Muir National Historic Site. Unfortunately, military goings-on at the base the day I visited Martinez meant that visits to the memorial were canceled for the day. Hmmm, maybe I should make another attempt to go. Here is a video you can watch about the disaster, the mutiny, and the memorial:

[Factual information is primarily gathered from Wikipedia, so you know it must be true.]