 Last Restoration |
Los Angeles, CA → Tracy, CA → Los Angeles, CA 946.0 mi (1,522.4 km) |
 Next Restoration |
I’m leaping for joy, everyone!
February 29th comes once every four years, and it’s an extra day for extra special accomplishments! The last time I took a Megabus to the Bay Area was to install a new historical marker at the Richmond Shipyards District, and today, I am back again for a second landmark replacement! First, though, I wanted to do a little cleanup!
See, a new plaque for Landmark #1002 also got installed in Glen Canyon Park back in 2017. Since my bus was super early, I hopped on a BART train to see the new plaque for the Site of the First Dynamite Factory in the United States! I’m so happy that more folks are taking an interest in keeping California’s history alive!
 |
Such folks include Ray Najera of the brand new California Landmarks Foundation, whose sole mission is to replace lost and damaged historical markers across the state! He reached out to me for some consulting after Richmond, and I was thrilled to point him in some right directions for his first plaque replacement, the auspiciously numbered Landmark #777: Site of San Joaquin City! When I visited here in 2015, this space, which was supposed to tell the story of this important river town that fueled the Central Valley’s grain and cattle industry, was very, very empty!
 |
Like with Richmond, Ray had gone to California Bell Company for a cost-effective aluminum plaque to better deter the thieves who had made off with the original, placed in 1962 by Henry Fisk, and then stolen in 2005. Strangely, a fellow named Jim Dorroh found a wooden plaque for this landmark in an antique shop way up in Redding and placed it here on August 7, 2017. It has filled this space for the last three years!
 |
The nice thing about coming back to this landmark with other folks around is that I learned about the old train station right next to the plaque, which had actually been moved here from its original location years before! It wasn’t clear what its original name had been, but it may have been Alturas!
 |
At around 11:30, the plaque went up on the old base, freshly painted by the local chapter of the Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus, who thought, at first, that Ray was encroaching on their turf, since they’re the authorities on historical erections! Luckily, they weren’t mad too long, and two Clampers showed up in full regalia for the unveiling at 1:00!
 |
The ceremony actually attracted quite a few people, over twenty, including members of the San Joaquin County Historical Society, E Clampus Vitus, fellow landmark hunters, and the three grandsons of Henry Fisk, named (in all seriousness) Barry, Larry, and Gary! There were some speeches, some applause, and then Fisks unveiled the brand new plaque for Landmark #777!
 |
It was a long day for a short ceremony, but wow! Another historical landmark has been restored! I’m really excited to keep working with Ray and the California Landmark Foundation to restore even more of these markers around the state and keep local history alive for future landmark hunters! Over late lunch at the world’s fanciest Sizzler, we made some tentative plans, including reaching out to the historian for the Sikh Temple Site, newly returned from India, in a last-ditch attempt to install that plaque! We’ll see if these original plans pan out, or if we need to make new ones, but that’s what makes this an adventure!
 |
On a postscript, as a storm rolled in most unwelcomely, I took the opportunity to revisit a plaque I missed on a past trip, Landmark #995: Trail of the John C. Frémont 1844 Expedition! The plaque itself was off the road in front of a winery, so now my visit to the campsite of John C. Frémont and Kit Carson during their influential 1844 explorations of California and the West, was officially complete!
 |
I’ve been pretty distracted by other adventures lately, but I want to keep the momentum going on this one! I still have all of the donations saved up from previous Marches for History, but no one has responded to my inquiries yet. Maybe by partnering with the California Landmark Foundation, we’ll be able to get through and save more history!
I’ll be plaque later!
Last Restoration |
Total Ground Covered: 946.0 mi (1,522.4 km) |
Next Restoration |