Ports & Harbours of the Pacific coast of North and Central America

History

The bay was originally named "Port Townshend" by Captain George Vancouver in 1792, for his friend the Marquis of Townshend. It was immediately recognized as a good safe harbor, although strong south winds and poor holding ground often make small-craft anchorage problematic off the town's waterfront.

The official founding of the American city of the same name took place on April 24, 1851. Indian tribes located in what is now Jefferson County in the mid-19th century included the Chimakum (or Chemakum), Hoh (a group of the Quileute), Klallam (or Clallam), Quinault, and Twana (the Kilcid band — Anglicized as "Quilcene").

Port Townsend is called the "City of Dreams" because of the early speculation that the city would be the largest harbor on the west coast of the United States.

Geography

Port Townsend is located on the Quimper Peninsula which extends out of the extreme northeastern end of the Olympic Peninsula, on the north end of a large, semi-protected bay. Port Townsend is adjacent to the Admiralty Inlet and a trio of state parks built on retired artillery installations (Fort Worden, Fort Casey, and Fort Flagler). The city and its surroundings are well-treed, with large Douglas fir dominant over many other tree species in the remaining wooded areas.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 9.46 square miles (24.50 km2), of which 6.98 square miles (18.08 km2) are land and 2.48 square miles (6.42 km2), or 26.22%, are water.

Economy

The largest private employer is the Port Townsend Paper Mill. The largest employer overall (private and public) is Jefferson Healthcare, which operates Jefferson Healthcare Hospital. Major industries include maritime trades, manufacturing, tourism, and timber.

History

This area was long occupied by succeeding cultures of indigenous peoples. In 1791, the harbor was entered by Spanish explorer Francisco de Eliza, who named it Puerto de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles (Port of Our Lady of the Angels), claiming it for Spain. He was on an expedition from southern California. This name was shortened to the current one of Port Angeles.

It was not until the 19th century that European Americans began to settle here. A small whaling, fishing and shipping village developed, which traded with Victoria, British Columbia. In 1856–57, the first settlers arrived and were followed by the Cherbourg Land Company in 1859.

Soon afterwards the site caught the attention of Victor Smith. Smith, a protege of Salmon Chase, was Collector of Customs for the Puget Sound District.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 14.530 square miles (37.63 km2), of which 10.711 square miles (27.74 km2) is land and 3.819 square miles (9.89 km2) is water.

The city is situated on the northern edge of the Olympic Peninsula along the shore of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Port Angeles features a long and narrow glacial moraine named Ediz Hook that projects northeasterly nearly three miles into the Strait. Ediz Hook creates a large, natural deep-water harbor shielded from the storms and swells that move predominantly eastward down the Strait from the Pacific Ocean. Coast Guard Air Station / Sector Field Office (SFO) Port Angeles is situated on the end of Ediz Hook.

Overview

The community is home to a few dozen individuals living in boats and 10 floating homes. Point San Pablo Harbor was originally envisioned by Captain Clark who was the brainchild behind the origins of the Richmond San Rafael Ferry. The area also features the Point San Pablo Marina, Sailing Goat Restaurant, and The San Pablo Bay Sportsmen's Club. The harbor village is located in a ravine at the northern tip of the Potrero Hills and alongside a small cove the opens to San Pablo Bay, where the marina is protected from waves, in addition to a breakwater. The harbor is also the starting point for visitors to East Brother Light Station a historic landmark.

History

Gamble Bay was named by the Wilkes Expedition in 1841. The source of the name is unclear. Wilkes often named places after historical figures, and speculation centers on Lt. Col. John M. Gamble, an illustrious figure in the War of 1812; or U.S. Navy Lt. Robert Gamble, an officer aboard the frigate USS President wounded in an exchange with HMS Belvidera. But the name may have had a more prosaic origin. Wilkes's published account of the expedition omits mention of either Gamble but does say that a lieutenant's survey party "n entering [Hood's] canal [at what would become Gamble Bay] camped near some Suquamish Indians who had received as visitors a party of fifty Clalams, by appointment to gamble for blankets: they continued their games throughout the night."

History

Robert O. Tripp (founder of the historic Woodside Store) and Mathias A. Parkhurst began the first lumber operation using the waterways of Redwood Creek to float coast redwoods from Woodside to San Francisco in 1850. These two men thus became the founders of Redwood City itself. The Port of Redwood City is considered the place of genesis for the shipbuilding industry on the Pacific West Coast. The first schooner was built here in 1851 by G.M. Burnham and appropriately named Redwood. Shipbuilding thrived here until the 1880s. The last wooden ship built in Redwood City, called the Perseverance, was launched in 1883. The shipbuilding industry experienced a revival in the 1918s with the building of the first concrete ship in America, the SS Faith.

Geology and hydrology

The Port of Redwood City is situated on the east banks of Redwood Creek approximately one kilometer upchannel from the mouth of Redwood Creek. Extensive areas of marshland and bay muds are found in the vicinity of the Port. Westpoint Slough joins Redwood Creek from the southeast about 600 meters north of the Port of Redwood City. Deepwater Slough is a U-shaped channel whose two ends join Redwood Creek both north and south of the Port, with both joins on the opposite site of Redwood Creek. Approximately one kilometer north of the Port of Redwood City, Corkscrew Slough enters Redwood Creek from the northwest. From that confluence northward the northwest bank of Redwood Creek (now at the mouth) consists of Bair Island, an expansive area of saltwater marsh and salt evaporation ponds.

History

Port Costa was founded in 1879 as a landing for the railroad ferry Solano, owned and operated by the Central Pacific Railroad. This put Port Costa on the main route of the transcontinental railroad. The Solano, later joined by the Contra Costa, carried entire trains across the Carquinez Strait from Benicia to Port Costa, from where they continued on to the Oakland Pier.

Businessman George W. McNear built the Port Costa Warehouses and Dock Company west of the new ferry terminal in 1880. The valley where Port Costa now sits, at one point called Bull Valley, was part of a ranch owned by William Piper. In 1883, McNear bought Piper's land for $100,000 and began to build up the town. Port Costa became the busiest port on the West Coast, primarily shipping wheat.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 0.16 square miles (0.41 km2), all land. Port Costa is surrounded by rolling hills grazed by cattle and is managed by East Bay Regional Park District. Carquinez Strait Regional Shoreline stretches from Crockett through Port Costa and to Martinez. Big Bull Valley Creek runs along McEwen Road into a historic reservoir just above the town, then it runs in an underground pipe culvert beneath the town to the Carquinez Strait.

At the 2000 census, the CDP had a total area of 0.68 square miles (1.8 km2), all land.

History

Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo explored this area and the adjacent Channel Islands in October 1542.

Thomas Bard learned of the submarine canyon at Point Hueneme and took advantage of the canyon depth to construct the Hueneme Wharf in 1871 here. The existing street grid of the town was formally laid out in 1888. Until the construction of the Montalvo Cutoff that brought the railroad to nearby Oxnard, the wharf was the principal means of transportation for that portion of Ventura County lying south of the Santa Clara River. Hueneme was the second-largest grain-shipping port on the Pacific Coast between 1871 and 1895.

A 650-foot-long (200 m) pier was built in 1956 as a construction trestle for a sewer outfall pipeline.

Geography

Port Hueneme is located on the southwest portion of the Oxnard Plain on the Pacific Ocean.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 4.7 square miles (12.1 km2), of which 0.23 square miles (0.6 km2) (5.35%) is covered by water.

This region experiences warm (but not hot) and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above 71.6 °F. According to the Köppen climate classification, Port Hueneme has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, Csb on climate maps.

Economy

The business district is on Channel Islands Boulevard on the north side of the city separated from the original downtown by the naval base.

Under the legalization of the sale and distribution of cannabis in California, the city developed a model program as the only city in Ventura County to initially allow multiple types of marijuana businesses, including cultivation, manufacturing, and retail sales. Commercial activities, such as growing, testing, and selling cannabis within their jurisdiction may be regulated by each city by licensing none or only some of these activities, but local governments may not prohibit adults from growing, using, or transporting marijuana for personal use.

History

Before the arrival of European settlers, the Port Orford area was inhabited by the indigenous Tututni people. The Tututni languages were a part of the Pacific Coast Athabaskan language family.

Spanish explorer Bartoleme Ferrelo mapped Cape Blanco in 1543. It remained the farthest north point on the coastal map until 1778, when British explorer Captain Cook found land farther west. Captain George Vancouver sighted land and named it Port Orford in 1792. In June 1851, Captain William Tichenor, in command of the U.S.S. Seagull, pulled into Port Orford, leaving behind nine men. Fort Orford, a U.S. Army fort, was established 14 Sep 1851 near the town and lasted until 22 Aug 1856.

Geography

Port Orford is located on U.S. Route 101 between the Pacific Ocean and the Siskiyou National Forest, 28 miles (45 km) north of Gold Beach and 27 miles (43 km) south of Bandon. At 124 degrees, 29 minutes, 53 seconds west longitude, it is the westernmost city in the contiguous United States, though in Clallam County, Washington, there are three unincorporated communities that are farther west than Port Orford: Neah Bay, La Push, and Ozette. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.61 square miles (4.17 km2), of which 1.56 square miles (4.04 km2) is land and 0.05 square miles (0.13 km2) is water.

There is a low promontory called Battle Rock on the southern coast of Port Orford.

History

In 1873 John Harford constructed the Harford pier to allow for the shipment of goods and passengers to nearby San Luis Obispo. The pier was connected to a railroad and, by the late 1870s, included a hotel for passengers waiting to embark on ships arriving at the pier. In the late 1800s, construction began on a breakwater that extended southeast from the point to provide further protection for the pier. By 1890, the Point San Luis Lighthouse was constructed on a bluff above the point.

In 1910 Union Oil began using the port to export oil extracted from the San Joaquin Valley. This new trade led to the construction of additional piers and railroads, with oil exports continuing to expand well into the 1920s.

History

Maritime use of the waters around what is now the Port of Poulsbo has a history predating European contact. The Suquamish people harvested fish and shellfish here for several millennia, and a village — ho-cheeb — was located at the head of the bay until the mid-1800s. In the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott, which made land available to newcomers, the Suquamish Tribe retained fishing and shellfish harvesting rights in its historical territory, including Liberty Bay.

In the early 1900s, the waters off Poulsbo became the base for a fishing fleet that worked in Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, as well as schooners that fished in Alaska for salmon and cod; Poulsbo was home to the Pacific Codfish Company, and fish and oyster canneries.

Operations and management

The Port of Poulsbo includes the marina and mooring area, commercial shops, and a Marine Science Center.

The port is managed by the Port of Poulsbo Commission which has 3 commissioners responsible for overseeing the work of a General Manager and other operational staff. Vacancies are filled by agreement of the two remaining commissioners, with the approval of the City of Poulsbo.

Marina Facilities

The Poulsbo Marina includes 7 main docks, which contains 254 permanent slips, 130 guest slips, floatplane dock, fuel dock, sanitation pump-out facilities, shower and restroom facilities, launch ramp and laundry facilities.

History

What is now Roche Harbor was once part of a thriving Coast Salish community known as whelaalk, or WH’LEHL-kluh, which extended from what is now Roche Harbor to Lonesome Cove opposite Speiden Island and in the mid-1800s had 10 large longhouses.

lhuh-LHEE-ng’kwulh, at the head of Open Bay on Henry Island. This was the home of sweh-TUHN, the earliest ancestor of the Lummi, Saanich, Samish and Songhees peoples.

Pe'pi'ow'elh, at what is now called English Camp at San Juan Island National Historical Park. Evidence found at Pe'pi'ow'elh suggests this site had been continuously occupied at least from about 500 AD until 1860 when British Marines demolished a 600–800-foot (180–240 m) longhouse on what became the parade ground of their garrison.