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photo by Donald Kinney
When the California State Park system took over China Camp Village they also bought up seven mile swath of tidal-lands beyond the village.
My attempt at "selective-focus" didn't go over very well in yesterday's poll, but that fuzzy verdant green color is Pickleweed -- a plant that has found a unique way -- a membrane barrier and a place to store excess salt within the plant -- to deal with the saline conditions of San Pablo Bay. More about Pickleweed perhaps another day.
click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney
Through the pilings you will notice the Grace Quan, an authentically reproduced Chinese junk. The Grace Quan was built here at China Camp a dozen or so years ago by volunteers of San Francisco's Pier41 Maritime Museum. She was named after Frank's mother, who I mentioned in yesterday's post.
click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney
If I ever get a chance to actually have a conversation with Frank Quan, other than just exchanging pleasantries, one of the questions I'd like to ask him is about the installation of the boiler in the shrimp drying operation. Prior to the boiler, which provided dry heat to dehydrate the shrimp, the catch had to be spread out on the steep hillside behind the village. The birds got their share, I'm sure.
click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney
This rusting piece of equipment is part of a motorized winch that was used to haul boats out of the bay. The last boat it winched up out of the bay was Frank's old boat, the Seabreeze. It's still sitting there.
I've found a photo of the SeaBreeze and Frank Quan in someone's Flickr pages -- CLICK to see a photo by Kevin Collins taken August 20, 2006.
The future for China Camp will be impacted by it's impending closure -- it's one of many California State Parks that may soon close due to budget problems. I doubt if they would close the road that runs through the park, so I will still be able to visit, but the village and other facilities will probably off limits.
CLICK for what I call my BIG site.
2 comments:
Great shots of China Camp again. I think you're really going to miss that park.
You got a 'wow' out of me today on the voting, and you know how hard that is to pull a wow out of me. well done Don, however you did that. I feel the selective State Park closure coming up this Septemeber is going to create trespassers out of some of us. Enjoy the 4th however you do.
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