Before leaving San Rafael, our family took us to visit China Camp State Park, a favorite place of theirs for running and biking. This park captures the history of a group of Chinese Americans who supported themselves primarily by shrimp fishing in San Pablo Bay. In its heyday in the 1880s, about 500 Chinese Americans lived in the the village which had three general stores, a marine supply store and a barber shop. China Camp was one of approximately 26 such shrimp-fishing villages established along the coast by Chinese Americans, many of whom had moved from San Francisco to escape racial prejudice and persecution. Below is what remains of China Camp.

In the late 1800s, the Chinese American fishermen of China Camp would catch 3 million pounds of shrimp per year, much of which was exported to China and Hawaii. However, the economy of the village was severely harmed by the passage of laws in the early 1900s that outlawed the export of shrimp, closed the height of the shrimping season, and prohibited shrimping with bag nets which were the main method of catching shrimp. As a result, the population of China Camp greatly declined, leaving only one family — the Quans — carrying on shrimp fishing.

One of the buildings holds a museum which has a number of exhibits about this remarkable and nearly forgotten history.

A huge oven for drying the shrimp also remains.

Fortunately, in 1914 a new net, the trawl, was invented, which made it possible for the Quans to resume their commercial shrimp fishing enterprise and process 5,000 pounds of shrimp per day. The Quan family has remained since and a member of the family recently did in 20 16 at the age of 90.

It was a beautiful day for visiting the park and bay, and on our way back home we stopped at a Pub whose owner (or decorator) had a delightful sense of humor. Great day!