S.S. Emidio

Del Norte County August 22, 1993

“Full speed ahead, and dump ballast!” shouts Capt. Clark Farrow on the empty tanker heading from Seattle to San Francisco early in the afternoon of December 20^, 1941. It was to no avail, Commander Nishino Kozo and his submarine were making 20 knots on the surface and the S.S. Emidio was a sitting duck, and fire from the deck gun and eventual torpedoes drove the surviving crew from the ship. An S.O.S. brings a submarine hunting PBY aircraft but the sub dives and gets away. Things were dicey on the west coast in those early days of World War II.

Today, the AMMV (American Merchant Marine Veterans)  are working to improve an already impressive landmark site and great little park. It has been said you can’t get in the Merchant Marines unless you’re in the union, and you can’t get in the union unless you’re in the Merchant Marines…in other words, it’s an inside job.

With songs about the Tuna Club, the S.S. Catalina, and Liberty Hill already in the bag, an album on maritime subjects from California state landmarks is very likely, and along with the Brother Jonathan, the S.S. Emidio are ringers for the short list. Hmmm, dad was with PBY’s during WWII and though he fought the war stationed in Minnesota and Oklahoma, a little poetic license could put him in the plane that chases the sub. 

Plaque inscription: NO. 497 S.S. EMIDIO - Nearby are portions of the hull of the General Petroleum Corporation tanker S.S. Emidio, which on December 20, 1941 became the first casualty of the Imperial Japanese Navy's submarine force action on California's Pacific Coast. The ship was attacked some 200 miles north of San Francisco and five crewmen were killed. Abandoned, the vessel drifted north and broke up on the rocks off Crescent City. The bow drifted into the harbor, where it lay near this marker until salvaged in 1950.
Location: Beach Front Park and Picnic Area, SW corner of Front and H Sts, Crescent City
Google maps: 41.75052,-124.196566

Battery Point Lighthouse

USCG photo


Del Norte County August 22, 1993

First off, it was nice to find out that of the two lighthouses here, they did NOT make a state landmark out of the one on St. George Reef….although they probably should have, since out of all the lighthouses built in the US, it was the most difficult and expensive to build, And since it lies six miles off the coast in seas that often make it impossible to get to, it would be a tough score for a landmark seeker. In what might have been the loneliest job in the world, dozens of lighthouse keepers either asked for transfer or resigned, a few went insane, and a few died during its operation from 1892 to 1975.

In 1952, storm waves broke the windows in the lantern room 150 feet above sea level. Yet the lighthouse remains and group is restoring it, and if the state lightens up on sea lion priorities, the St. George Reef Lighthouse could become one of the most unique attractions one could possibly experience. It makes Alcatraz look like the Isle of Capri.

But we’re not going to the reef, we’re going to an islet at the south end of the harbor to see the Battery Point Lighthouse. It’s called Battery Point for recovered cannon from the ship ‘America’ that burned in the harbor were placed here. At low tide the islet becomes an isthmus and access to the lighthouse is mere walk in the snad. The lighthouse and its Fresnel lens came on line in 1856. Though it was automated in the 1950’s it became a working museum with curators like Clarence (Roxey) and Peggy Coons living on site. Around midnight on March 27, 1964, Peggy was awakened to see a full moon and very high tide, “Clarence, get up, you have to see this!” This is Peggy’s account after the third wave hit:
“The water withdrew as if someone had pulled the plug. It receded a distance of three-quarters of a mile from the shore. We were looking down, as though from a high mountain, into a black abyss. It was a mystical labyrinth of caves, canyons, basins, and pits, undreamed of in the wildest of fantasies.
The basin was sucked dry...In the distance, a black wall of water was rapidly building up, evidenced by a flash of white as the edge of the boiling and seething seawater reflected the moonlight.
Then the mammoth wall of water came barreling towards us. It was a terrifying mass, stretching up from the ocean floor and looking much higher than the island. Roxey shouted, "Let's head for the tower!" - but it was too late. "Look out!" he yelled and we both ducked as the water struck, split and swirled over both sides of the island. It struck with such force and speed that we felt we were being carried along with the ocean. It took several minutes before we realized that the island hadn't moved.
When the tsunami assaulted the shore, it was like a violent explosion. A thunderous roar mingled with all the confusion. Everywhere we looked buildings, cars, lumber, and boats shifted around like crazy. The whole beachfront moved, changing before our very eyes. By this time, the fire had spread to the Texaco bulk tanks. They started exploding one after another, lighting up the sky. It was spectacular!”

With 34 tsunamis since 1934, Crescent City is considered a tsunami magnet of sorts with the recent Japan earthquake providing the last waves in a long line…fortunately coming at low tide. The worst tsunami was from the Alaska earthquake of 1964 which killed 11 and wiped out 29 city blocks. The sea floor in this area and Crescent City’s small harbor helps to amplify intensity.

So the time comes to visit the lighthouse and landmark but it’s high tide and the isthmus is an islet and there’s nothing left to do but sit on a log and sing isthmus carols.

Plaque inscription: NO. 951 BATTERY POINT LIGHTHOUSE - The Battery Point Lighthouse is one of the first lighthouses on the California coast. Rugged mountains and unbridged rivers meant coastal travel was essential for the economic survival of this region. In 1855 Congress appropriated $15,000 for the construction of the light station, which was completed in 1856 by the U.S. Lighthouse Service. Theophilis Magruder was the station's first keeper
Location: Wayne Philand was its last before automation in 1953.
USGS Quadrangle Sheet Name: SISTER ROCKS
Google maps: 41.744124,-124.203165

Brother Jonathan Cemetery

Del Norte County August 22, 1993


On the morning of July 30, 1865, the sidewheeler Brother Jonathan set out from Crescent City’s harbor with 244 people on board on their way from San Francisco for Portland, Oregon. Dignitaries, a Madame and her entourage, women and children, and a traveling circus were on board, along with freshly minted gold coin for military payroll that today is worth many millions. Facing the high winds of an approaching storm, they could not make headway and Captain DeWitt ordered the ship about, and to return to Crescent City, but the rocks of St. George Reef breached the hull and she submerged, drifted, and sank 275 feet to the ocean floor with only one lifeboat and 19 people surviving the tragedy

What went wrong? It’s hard to tell, for almost every fact regarding this ‘treasure ship’ is conflicted; it either was or wasn’t overloaded, the ship had or didn’t have structural repair issues, the crew had or hadn’t been drinking, and the seas were or weren’t too severe, In wanting to bring this story to music, what’s a historical songwriter to do?

Unbeknownst to this contributor, at the very time this landmark was visited, an expedition was underway to find the wreck of the Brother Jonathan, and after nearly 130 years of searching, Don Knight and his group called Deep Sea Research proved successful just weeks later. A second dive in 1996 brought up some gold, to which California brought suit….a case that went to the US Supreme Court which ultimately ruled unanimously in DSR’s favor. Some of the booty was auctioned off, some went to the state in settlement and some is at the museum in Crescent City, but it is estimated that 80% still lies in Davy’s locker. Though crates of gold and a large safe containing jewels and gold bars remain, the state is not issuing permits.

Capt. DeWitt


After the Brother Jonathan went down, the federal government enacted changes regarding lifeboats, and set about putting a lighthouse on St. George Reef, six miles out to sea. The lighthouse construction was finally completed in 1892.  

‘Brother Jonathan’ was originally a fictional character born of the Revolutionary War and drawn in newsprint as the character to personify the United States. Like ‘Yankee Doodle’, ‘Brother Jonathan’ was a swiping term used by British and loyalists that the revolutionaries would later embrace. Around 1815 the character of Uncle Sam began to take over and never looked back. Sam was real life, hard working, good values war vet Samuel Wilson, who was supplying meat to the army during the war of 1812. On those boxes he’d stamp ‘US’, which he’d claim to friends stood for ‘Uncle Sam’ and the rest as they say, it history.          

170 of the 225 who perished washed ashore and some have ultimately been laid to rest at this site.

NO. 541 BROTHER JONATHAN CEMETERY - This memorial is dedicated to those who lost their lives in the wreck of the Pacific Mail steamer Brother Jonathan at point St. George's Reef, July 30, 1865.
Location: Located in park at Brother Johnathan Vista Point, SE corner 9th St and

Pebble Beach Dr

, Crescent City
Google maps: 41.750792,-124.2112

Tolowa Indian Settlements

Crescent City, Del Norte County August 22, 1993

Putting the final mapping touches on this trip from Roseburg down to the group of seven Del Norte state landmarks at camp Best Western, when hunger strikes and a trip across town the Spotted Owl restaurant is called for when noticed in their parking lot is a dead ringer of dad’s blue ’51 Chevy Bel-Air. Though seen around town on earlier trips for some time, there’s now a fresh ‘For Sale’ sign in the rear quarter window. Hmmm, maybe he’ll do a deal with the Cadillac. Then the realization kicks in that this is 1993 and interstate speeds are over 70 mph and that’s about all the Chevy can wheeze and puff its way to, whereas the Caddy’s V8 is slightly above an idle. Not that either car can stop from that speed. So, common sense prevails over breakfast and the Caddy heads for the coast at Bandon, then Port Orford, the stunning views of Gold Beach, and Brookings to the California border and Del Norte County

.  

















OAC photo

Daa-naa—yash!  (‘welcome’ in Tolowa)

The mist is starting to break up here at Pebble Beach in Crescent City and the ocean view from this landmark is outstanding. There were two First Nation people living in the region when the first white person, Jedediah Smith came through in 1828, and they were the Yurok to the south around the Klamath River, and the Tolowa to the north along the Smith River basin. Both subsisted well off the sea and land and built permanent structures from redwood. There’s something like 70 inches of rain here a year, so redwood was a good choice. Those that survived the diseases brought on by white settlers in the 1850’s went on to adapt to working in the local industries of fishing and lumber. Around 1870, the Tolowa got into a movement that some other Native Americans were doing called the ‘Ghost Dance’, as a means of conjuring up relatives and spirits from the better times of the past. It was a bit like the Shakers and certainly warrants more reading at some point. At any rate, the ‘Ghost Dance’ died out after ten years or so.  

Why the plaque reads ‘Tolowa Indian Settlements’ and not the title below is anybody’s guess, but while we’re guessing, this plaque was put up in 1965 (after the the ’64 tsunami), perhaps an earlier one washed away the they went with a more concise title.
NO. 649 SITE OF OLD INDIAN VILLAGE AT PEBBLE BEACH, CRESCENT CITY - At the time of white contact the principal villages of the native Tolowa Indians of northern Del Norte County were located at Battery Point in Crescent City (Ta'atun), Pebble Beach (Meslteltun), south of Point St. George (Tatintun), and north of Point St. George (Tawiatun). The major villages were almost completely independent economic units.
Location:

1886 Pebble Beach Dr

, 500 ft S of

Pacific Ave

, Crescent City
Google maps: 41.756027,-124.220406
Great view of the ocean.  All Del Norte landmarks can be seen the same day.  Those in Crescent City are a little to far apart to walk.

Yreka Historic District

Siskiyou County August 17, 1993

Yreka spelled backwards is almost ‘bakery’, and an account in Mark Twain’s autobiography asserts that miners reading backwards a freshly painted canvas bakery sign hung out to dry thought it was a good enough name for the town then called Thompson’s Dry Diggings. Or maybe they were imbibed and trying to say the name of that other northern border town, ‘Eureka’  Most likely however the name is from the Shasta Indians meaning ‘north or white mountain’. At the town’s formation and boon era, women were virtually non existent yet today compose 62% of the population. Hmmm.

OAC photo



Back in 1880 there was still no rail line north of Redding all the way to Douglas County, Oregon, so when president Rutherford B. Hayes and his entourage were making their trip up the west coast, their version of ‘Air Force One’ turned into a stagecoach, passing through Yreka.

Yreka Chamber of Commerce photo

The chamber of commerce has a great walking tour map that’ll take you through the historic district. Time now to motor on up to Roseburg and play some music for a few weeks and map out an excursion to the landmarks of Del Norte County on the off days.

Plaque Inscription: NO.

901 WEST MINER STREET-THIRD STREET

HISTORIC DISTRICT, YREKA - Founded in March 1851 with the discovery of gold in the nearby 'flats,' Yreka quickly became the commercial and transportation hub for the surrounding communities and mining camps. Yreka's tents and shanties gave way to more substantial commercial and residential buildings seen on West Miner and Third Streets which remain as tangible evidence of the town 19th-century regional prominence.
Location: SW corner of

Miner St

and Broadway, Yreka
Google maps: 41.731695,-122.636315

Fort Jones

Siskiyou County August 17, 1993

If this endeavor to go to every California state landmark had a solidifying point where one would say they got hooked, then it was here, 800 miles from home on the loop coming from Yreka. Maybe it was the drive, the scenery, or the site, but most likely it was the fact of knowing none of this would have ever been experienced if it hadn’t been for the search for old No. 317 – Fort Jones.  

Photo – California state military museum

Fort Jones’ alumni list of Civil War commanders is amazing. You've got Phil Sheridan, George Crook, and Ulyses S. (Union), and William Wing Loring, John B. Hood, and George Pickett (Confederate). A slow starter in his military career, Grant was assigned to the Fort but didn’t show up and was AWOL. A 2^nd Lt there got $64 a month to live on with food not being part of the deal, and in a mining area like this where costs were high, that pay didn’t cover eats. So they took to hunting and farming for provisions and used the money for the main common passion of Indian, miner, and military alike…alcohol. Accounts of events at this fort read more like scripts from the old black and white TV series ‘F Troop’ then the later battles of the Modoc War to the east. 

The Callilac cooling its heels in town.

The town of Fort Jones is in Scott Valley, California, 16 miles west of Yreka (described by 2^nd Lt.George Crook as "a large ant's nest" in 1854 where "miner, merchant, gambler, and all . . . carried their lives in their own hands . . . scarcely a week passed by without one or more persons being killed" - Colonel Herbert M. Hart, USMC (retired) Executive Director, Council on America's Military Past
Town photo with Cad

This state landmark has a local plaque, not the state version and was placed in 1946.
Plaque Inscription: NO. 317 SITE OF FORT JONES - Companies A and B of the First United States Dragoons established a military post here on October 16, 1852. Named in honor of Colonel Roger Jones, brevet major general and the Adjutant General of the Army 1825-52, this fort was garrisoned by Company 3, 4th U.S. Infantry from April 23, 1853 until it was abandoned on June 23, 1858. This monument is dedicated this 14th day of July, 1946, to the officers and men who served here, among them Sergeants James Bryan and John Griffin and Private Gundor Salverson who upon their discharge became pioneer settlers of this valley.
Location: On E Side Rd, 0.5 mi SE of intersection of E Side Rd and State Hwy 3, Fort Jones
Google maps: 41.59578,-122.841965

 

Emigrant Trail Crossing

Siskiyou County August 17, 1993

Weed, California….where the northbound traveler decides which side of the Cascades they’re headed to. In this case it’s a brief trip up US 97 from Interstate 5 and the next landmark before backtracking again towards Yreka. Now one might think they may have named Weed in honor of northern California’s biggest cash crop but that’s not the case, it’s all about the timber industry. Back around 1897 Abner Weed came here and noticed this crossroads of a spot in the high country caught a lot of wind, and that’s good for dying wood, and a great opportunity if you were a sawmill guy like Abner.

OAC photo

Fourteen miles up 97 from Weed we reach our destination at the side of a long open stretch of the two lane highway where it crosses the former emigrant trail to Yreka now called

Military Pass Road

. Locals head south on this washboardy surface for access to annual Christmas tree cutting for their homes. The road is high enough to reach silver tip pines, and low enough so as not to get too much snow.

Looking at the rugged northbound route it must have been a tough go for those folks walking alongside their wagons, yet this was nothing compared to what they would encounter going from Yreka to Ashland.

Noehill photo

Plaque Inscription: NO. 517 EMIGRANT TRAIL CROSSING OF PRESENT HIGHWAY - As early as 1852 wagon trains of overland emigrants crossed six hundred feet to the north of this monument, into Shasta Valley and Yreka, the monument also marks the point where the 1857 military pass from Fort Crook emerged to join the westward emigrant road.
Marker placed by the California State Park Commission,
The Siskiyou County Historical Society,
and the County of Siskiyou
Location: State Hwy 97 (P.M. 14.5), at Military Pass Rd, 14.5 mi NE of Weed
Google maps: 41.558628,-122.209382 

Residence of General William B. Ide

Tehema County August 17, 1993

From Mrs. John Brown’s home it’s a short trip to the north end of town and this state historic park on the banks of the Sacramento River. These days, a $3 parking fee will get you full access. It may be just about the smallest state historic park around but they’ve done wonders with the place and you can get a feel for life in the 1850’s with Ide’s New England styled home, a carriage house, blacksmith shop, smokehouse, and a giant valley oak tree that has been shading just about everything since the place was built. There are animals and a period vegetable garden too, along with great programs for kids. So hitch up the suspenders on your broadfall trousers and lace up the smooth out brogan shoes and stop by. They have WiFi in case you don’t want to leave the present altogether.

As it turns out, the only president of California never actually owned the property, but as a surveyor, miner, treasurer, district attorney, deputy clerk, and judge, who’s going to check his paperwork? Along with Lassen and Fremont and others, he heads the A-listers in the Bear Flag Revolt of 1846 that formed the California Republic as an independent entity from Mexico or any other country. The funny thing is that we’ve been flying that flag all along, and it could be argued that our alliance and statehood with the USA has been nothing more than a marriage of convenience and reversion to an independent republic could be had at any time. Come to think of it, lots of folks throughout America would be happy to see us go. 

Filling up for the haul towards Oregon….dang, gas is $1.15 a gallon and the Caddy has no respect for it.

Plaque inscription: NO. 12 RESIDENCE OF GENERAL WILLIAM B. IDE - General Ide came to California with his family in 1845. Ide helped organize the revolt against the Mexican mandate requiring Americans to leave California, and was the first and only President of the California Republic, under Bear Flag Party proclamation.
Location: William B. Ide Adobe State Historic Park, 3040 Adobe Rd, 1.5 mi N of Red Bluff
Google maps: 40.195954,-122.22775

Home of Mrs. John Brown

Library of Congress photo


Tehema County August 17, 1993

With a schedule of trying to make Roseburg Oregon that day and no actual marker, this home was a drive-by with a photo shot out the car window. Today, this 864 square foot, 2 bedroom, one and a half bath, cozy, storybook old charmer is valued by Zillow at $86,000 with comps in the ‘70’s, a small price for a piece of history built by townfolk for the widow of the famed abolitionist. It last sold in late 2005.

From Jessie Faulkner, Humboldt County Historical Society:
"Mary decided to come west with her younger daughters in 1864 when her son Salmon Brown planned to take his family and join a train of 40 wagons," historian Evelyn McCormick wrote in 1992.
John Brown's name would ease the way for the group when they reached Redding. "When entering a toll road near Redding, the gate keeper is reported to have asked their names and discovered they were the John Browns," McCormick wrote. "At this disclosure, he refused their money and introduced them to others, all of whom were kind to them and looked after their needs."

The townspeople collected money to build a little cottage for them. The editor of Red Bluff's newspaper stated, 'If every man, woman, and child in California who has hummed 'John Brown's Body Lies Mouldering in the Grave' will throw in a dime, his family will have a home.' The dimes and dollars came forward. Even the governor of California helped raise funds. In January 1866, the house was finished and turned over to Mary Brown.

There is no plaque, but if it had one the inscription would read: NO. 117 HOME OF MRS. JOHN BROWN - In 1864 the widow of John Brown, the famous abolitionist of Harpers Ferry, came to Red Bluff with her children. So great was the admiration for John Brown in that area that a considerable sum of money was raised to provide his widow and children with a home. Mrs. Brown lived there until the summer of 1870, when she and her children moved to Humboldt County.
Location:

135 Main St

, Red Bluff
Google maps: 40.17261,-122.230625

First Tehama Courthouse

Tehema County August 17, 1993

Of all the state landmarks in California, this most certainly is one of them. This landmark makes one wonder a bit about the selection process, and what made this particular courthouse so special in its less than one year of operation. The selection process for a state landmark works a bit like getting a star on the Hollywood walk of fame, you need a fan club, and preferably one with influence. The Native Daughters of the Golden West and the boys from E Clampus Vitus are the groups that most often step up and handle the tedious submission process. In this case it was the Clampers.

The name ‘Tehama’ may be Arabic in origin and if so, it would mean ‘hot low-lands’ which is true. This whole area on up through Red Bluff and Redding can get just as hot as the desert in summer…which is a setback for someone coming from the Coachella Valley, since being this far north with 113 degrees, you’d expect a little relief from the August heat. In the winter it floods, or at least it used to till Shasta Dam came along to regulate things, and that’s why most older homes are on high foundations.

These newer photos from the historical marker database and waymarking.com show that with the exception of an overactive oleander trying to engulf it in 2008, the marker remains unchanged. Worth the trip? Sure, if you’re including it with other area landmarks, it’s not too far from the interstate, and it’s a relaxing drive through the residential area of the small, quiet town of Tehama.

Plaque inscription: NO. 183 FIRST TEHAMA COUNTY COURTHOUSE - Tehama County's Board of Supervisors and other county officials first met in rented rooms in the Union Hotel, later called Heider House. The county seat remained here from May 1856 to March 1857, when it was moved to Red Bluff. The Heider House was destroyed by fire in 1908. This property is part of original land grant to Robert Hasty Thomes, 1844.
Location: 75 ft E of intersection of 2nd and D Sts, Tehama
Google maps: 40.026374,-122.121062

Los Banos

Merced County August 16, 1993

While driving through Los Banos on

Pacheco Blvd.

and confused as to how to pronounce the town’s name (the Anglican ‘banis’, ‘ban’oce’, or the Spanish ‘bahn’yos’), the Caddy pulls into a fast food joint and the girl at the counter is asked; “How do you properly pronounce the name of this place? And could you say it nice and slow so’s I can understand?” She says, “Sure, it’s called D-A-A-A-I-I-R-Y…..Q-U-E-E-E-E-E-N”

Spanish ranchers began calling the creek here "El Arroyo de los Banos del Padre Arroyo.", roughly meaning the creek where pools or baths of Padre Arroyo are located. When Americans came it was shortened to Los Banos Creek and post office took the name Los Banos.

The Los Banos landmark is less than a mile east of the Canal Farm Inn. The Milliken Museum with lots of local historical goodies is right by the park. If you’re looking for a sleepy town of 35,000 or so to hang your hat, Los Banos will do just fine, at least till the Tomato Festival riles up the community when it returns this year in early October from a long hiatus.

Plaque inscription: NO. 550 LOS BANOS - Los Baños (the baths) del Padre Arroyo, visited as early as 1805 by Spanish explorers, was a favorite place for padres from San Juan Bautista Mission during their travels to the San Joaquin Valley. Its name was changed to Los Banos Creek by later American emigrants. The town of Los Banos was established at its present site in 1889, after the post office of Los Banos was built near the creek in 1874.
Location: Los Banos Park,

803 E Pacheco Blvd

, Los Banos
Google maps: 37.056718,-120.845886

Time to aim the Dagmars on the Caddy’s front bumper up I-5 for the long haul towards Red Bluff and the next set of landmarks.

Canal Farm Inn

Merced County August 16, 1993
Motoring up I-5 to Los Banos and a couple of state landmarks related to the town’s founder, Henry Miller, the ’51 Caddy’s wonderbar AM radio picks up Los Banos’ own KLBS ‘The Portuguese Radio’ serving the central valley  Not knowing the language makes one wonder about details of conversation but it seemed to be about local agriculture and livestock and call in music requests.

In the trek up I-5 Los Banos is the reward for those northbound travelers with bladders strong enough to bypass  Kettleman City and Coalinga and hold on to find some local fare. So it’s time to roll up to the Canal Farm Inn in hopes of a landmark and a meal.  

German born Henry Miller (originally Heinrich Kreiser) ‘The Cattle King’ showed up in San Francisco in 1850 at age 23 with six dollars and early on realized his opportunities didn’t lie in the gold fields but instead would be drawn from his childhood farming experiences. Within a year he owned his own butcher shop, then got into breeding, feed crops, etc,, and by 1857 had cattle options on everything north of the Tehachapi Mountains. Henry had noticed the rains were inconsistent and that told him to do two things other ranchers weren’t doing, and that was to improve irrigation and change the stock breeds to cattle that were more drought resistant. Those decisions paid off handsomely. By 1900 he, along with partner Charles Lux, were the largest meat packers and cattle ranchers in the US. Ranch foremen, and superintendants from all over the state would assemble here at the headquarters where Henry would give then their next set of detailed orders.

Though many landmarks were passed by on this northbound trip to Oregon, these were the early days of searching them out and a little cherry picking and confidence building was in order. Now in coming back to the subject of Henry Miller in 2011, it would seem he’d make a good candidate for another song for the ‘Gold Country’ project, for people like Miller and Levi Strauss, etc., supplied the skyrocketing population.

Plaque inscription: NO. 548 CANAL FARM INN - This original San Joaquin Valley ranch headquarters of California pioneer and cattle baron Henry Miller (1827-1916) was established in 1873. His farsighted planning and development in the 1870s of a vast gravity irrigation system, and the founding of Los Banos in 1889, provided the basis for this area's present stability and wealth.
Location:

1460 E Pacheco Blvd

, Los Banos
Google maps: 37.056992,-120.832261