Why is New Brighton State Beach not called China Beach?
 This is the only surviving photograph of the Chinese fishing camp located from the early 1850s to the 1880s at the base of the bluff on present-day New Brighton State Beach. Photo credit: UCSC Special Collections |
The
Chinese Fishermen in the Monterey Bay Region
By now you are probably familiar with the contributions that immigrants
from China made during California's Gold Rush and the construction of
the Trans-Continental railroad, but you may not know about their pioneering
efforts in California's fishing industry.
Coming from a country whose fishing resources had been heavily used
for thousands of years, the Chinese quickly recognized the enormous
potential for fishing on California's long, relatively untouched coastline.
Beginning in the 1850s, they established fishing camps on coves and
beaches and began harvesting the water's bounty. Most of the fish they
caught were dried and shipped to markets along the coast and across
the Pacific, while Chinese fish peddlers sold their product fresh in
local towns. During the 1850s and 1860s, the Chinese had the fishing
business pretty much to themselves, but beginning in the 1870s,as non-Chinese
fishermen entered the region, they were forced to less-desirable out
of the way locations.
 The largest fishing village in the Monterey Bay Region was this one located at Point Alones in Pacific Grove, California. The initial focus of these fishermen was abalone, but they later shifted to drying rockfish and finally in the 1890s, squid. The village survived for so long because it was located mid-way between Pacific Grove and Monterey in a relatively isolated cove. The village existed from 1854 to 1907. |
The
cove just east of present-day Capitola's Depot Hill was a perfect location
for the Chinese to develop and maintain their fishing operation. Tucked
in at the base of the bluff, the Chinese village was not only out of
sight, but also away from competition with other fishermen. The Chinese
fishermen obtained their fresh water from springs that came out of the
bluff, and they were able to exist in that legal limbo between high
tide and the beginning of private property. There may have been a formal
arrangement between the adjacent landowner and the Chinese, but we have
yet to find a lease or agreement.
One contemporary eyewitness who left us a description of the village
was Santa Cruz newspaper reporter Ernest Otto. The houses were about
six feet above ground and the bluffs were picturesque with its growth,
especially when the evening yellow primroses were in bloom. The boats
were usually beached in front of the village and gave it a real touch
of China as they were pointed at each end with a graceful curve.
The boats with the "graceful curve" that the Chinese used
all around Monterey Bay were the traditional Chinese sampans. Made locally
by the Chinese using traditional boat building techniques, the boats
often attracted the attention of non-Chinese because of their unusually
arched shape. One Monterey newspaper described the boats as "odd-shaped
and lumber some-looking [boats] that float over the billows, when lightly
loaded, with both ends in the air." The boats were as seaworthy
as thousands of years of development in China could make them, however,
and the locals soon came to respect sampans as being eminently practical
on Monterey Bay.
 Sampans pulled up on the beach at the Point Alones village,Monterey. Photo Credit: Pat Hathaway Collection, Monterey. |
The fishing technique used by the Chinese in the bay waters adjacent to their village was different than that used on the rocky shore off Monterey. At Monterey the Chinese used hook and line fishing primarily because the bottom was too rocky to allow the dragging of a seine. At China Beach, however, they used nets with one end attached to a pole stuck in the beach, and then using the sampan, they would swing the other end out beyond the surf line and bring it back farther up the beach creating a U-shape. The bottom of the net was weighted, while the top had floats attached to it, creating a wall of net from which the encircled fish could not escape. Then, using a windlass to assist in pulling in the fish-filled net, the Chinese dragged their prey up onto the beach. Most of the fish were split, salted and dried in the sun.
|
|
 Dried fish destined for the Chinese markets in California and across the Pacific. Note the hat for size reference, and note the size of the mesh of the net. Photo Credit: National Archives, Washington,D.C. |
 The anti-Chinese image from the top of a Santa Cruz County ballot, 1879. The anti-Chinese movement was extremely strong in Santa Cruz County in the 1870s and 1880s. Credit: Santa Cruz City Museum |
The
End of the Village
The village at China Beach seems to have lasted into the mid-1880s.
But the Chinese fishermen were never secure or comfortable enough at
this location to bring their wives and family members. In contrast,
for example, the village over in Monterey was secure enough, and many
Chinese children were born there, giving continuity to that story. Even
today, there are descendants of the Monterey Chinese fishing village
living in the neighborhoods above the old village site.
At China Beach, however, there is no such continuity. The pressures
of the virulent anti-Chinese movement in Santa Cruz County, the effects
of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and the legislation directed at
the Chinese fishing techniques along the Santa Cruz County coast eventually
spelled the end of the village. We don't know when they finally left,
but by 1900, the waves and tides had done their work and the village
was no more.
Later Fishermen at China Beach
The broad sand beach and smooth ocean bottom offshore continued to be
attractive to fishermen in the twentieth century. Using techniques similar
to those pioneered by the Chinese before them, a number of small-scale
commercial fishermen continued to fish from the shore.
 Fishermen pulling boat on rollers up China Beach,1913. This remarkable photograph was taken looking west, with present-day Park Avenue in the distance on the left, and New Brighton State Beach on the right. The box used to ship the fish is on the beach just to the right of the horse. The fish were probably shipped by train from the local railroad stop nearby. Credit: Sutton Family Collection. |
 This photograph shows the same angle as the one the left 90 years later. Note that the bluff on the right is now covered with vegetation. The trees in the distance are the same as or descendants of those showing in the earlier photograph. Most are eucalyptus. Note that the beach is much narrower now. |
The development of local tourism and the
coming of the name New Brighton.
Meanwhile, beginning in the late 1870s, China Beach was flanked by two
resort developments. On the west was Camp Capitola, a vigorous and sizable
planned development owned by Frederick A. Hihn. The completion of a
rail link to Capitola with the coming of the Santa Cruz Railroad in
1876 began a small real estate boom just around the bluff from China
Beach.
 One of the earliest photographs taken of Camp Capitola, present day Depot Hill is the distance. Photo Credit: Matthews Collection. |
 Edward Heyn, his sister Maryl, and their dog Pup at New Brighton Resort, 1927. Edward and Maryl's grandfather, Frank Thrane, leased the campground from the Fallon estate in 1926. Thrane continued to operate the campground into the 1930s. Photo Credit: Heyn Family Collection. |
A smaller resort development began in 1877 on property owned by Thomas
Fallon just east of China Beach. Fallon, an Irish immigrant and ex-mayor
of San Jose (1859-1863), named his campground Camp San Jose to attract
tourists from his hometown. The name did not attract the number and
quality of tourists (they were often called "San Jose hoodlums"
in the local press) that Fallon had hoped for, so in 1882 he changed
the name of the camp ground to New Brighton. The New Brighton campground
never enjoyed the success of that of nearby Capitola, however, and when
Fallon died in 1885, the ownership shifted to his descendants who periodically
leased the property to campground managers. The name New Brighton remained,
however, both on the road that served the campground and the railroad
stop above.
China Beach is renamed New Brighton.
In 1933 the state of California purchased the property where China Beach
had been located and the land immediately north of it for a state park.
The property remained without a name for several years, but finally
the Director of State Parks decided to name the site New Brighton. John
Sinclair, one of Thomas Fallon's descendants, objected vigorously to
the state "taking" the name, but his protest was not successful,
and the park officially was named New Brighton State Beach.
As years passed the name China Beach receded further and further out
of local memory. The waves of time erased the name. Only now and then,
after a winter's storm, did Chinese pottery pieces emerge from the sand
to remind of the Chinese fishermen who had lived and worked there.
E Clampus Vitus Revives the Name
In 1984, the story of China Beach caught the attention of the historical
(and often hysterical!) organization known as E Clampus Vitus. They
purchased a plaque (with wording written by the History Dude) and installed
it in one of those only-the-Clampers-do-things-this-way events on October
20, 1984. This was the first permanent commemorative marker honoring
the Chinese to be erected in the Monterey Bay Region.
 The Clampers with their distinctive red banners dedicating the plaque at China Beach, October 20, 1984. |
 The plaque at China Beach dedicated October 20, 1984 |
The Future - Pacific Currents Visitor
Center
Change is coming to New Brighton State Beach. The State Park will be
completely renovated during the summer, and part of that renovation
will include a new visitor center and interpretive plan for the park.
Through a unique collaboration between the California Department of
Parks and Recreation, the Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks, and a team
of historians and fund raisers, we now have an opportunity to bring
the voices of the Chinese to the fore once again. And, many of their
contemporaries as well. We intend to use the history of the Chinese
fishing colony at that location as a window for telling the wider story
of the movement of people, creatures and plants across the Pacific and
along its eastern shores.
When the team stands on the New Brighton bluffs looking south and west,
we can hear the voices of the Chinese fishermen as they haul up their
sampans onto the beach below us. We can hear the creak of the Spanish
galleons that sailed past after having left Manila months before; we
hear the shouts of the Italian fishermen pulling up their nets just
off-shore; we hear the laughter of tourists who came here in the 1880s
and danced the night away in the hotel that stood nearby; we hear the
cries of the sooty shearwaters who arrive like clockwork each June,
having flown across the ocean from New Zealand.
We want future visitors to New Brighton State Beach to hear what we
hear. We want them to begin to understand not only what has gone before,
but also where they fit into this remarkable convergence of forces that
we call Pacific Currents.
Pacific Currents will
not be just another static and dull collection of old things encased
in glass. We intend to grab the visitors' attention wherever they might
be - on the trail, on the beach, in the campground - and challenge them
to hear the historic voices that fill this place. We are going to reach
through the everyday noise and clamor and urge the visitors to Stop!
Listen! Imagine this wondrous place and all that has
gone before! Even the casual beach-bather will be urged to stop, pick
up that piece of driftwood, that plastic bottle, that piece of pottery
and imagine how it came to be there. What incredible currents brought
it to this spot? What forces brought them here?
Below are some contemporary photographs of China Beach/New Brighton
State Beach with some of the interpretive themes we intend to bring
up at those locations.
 The future Pacific Currents Visitor Center. Over the next year we will be transforming this unassuming ranger residence into a modern, interactive exhibit featuring the Pacific and the movements across it. The building will be made handicapped accessible, and the exhibits designed and installed by the premier local team of Nikki Silva and Charles Prentiss. |
 The Union Pacific Railroad passing New Brighton Road, 2003. Three days each week the Union Pacific runs a freight train from Watsonville Junction to Davenport passing through New Brighton State Beach on the way. Cars filled with coal and empty cement gondolas move westward while filled cement gondolas and empty coal cars move eastward later that same day. This railroad has been in continuous operation since May of 1876 when it was built as a narrow gauge railroad between Santa Cruz and Watsonville. The original grades were cut, ties were laid, and tracks set by Chinese railroad workers. We plan a major interpretive site above the railroad tracks where visitors will learn how to understand not only the contemporary railroad, but also the role that the railroad played in the development of the Monterey Bay Region. |
 Beach visitors, New Brighton, July 23, 1912. Members of the Sutton family, foreground, enjoying the beach. Note the little dog. Also note, in the background the very distinctive Fallon Forest adjoining the unforested property owned by Benjamin Franklin Porter. The building just visible on the bench above the beach is the old New Brighton Hotel. Today's Potbelly Beach now extends to the left from that spot along the base of the bluff, while the buildings in the center of the photograph are no longer there. Photo Credit: Sutton Family Collection. |
We intend to develop the history of folks coming to this place from
the interior of California beginning with the Ohlone Indians and continuing
through the19th century visitors who cavorted in the cooling summertime
fog.
 Look! A Naked Wave! With the Capitola wharf just behind it, a decent wave rolls in to Capitola, unridden, 1911. We plan to tell the story of ocean recreation along this stretch of coast, including the advent of surfing and other water sports. Photo Credit: Sutton Family Collection. |
 An afternoon stroll, Lover's Lane on present-day Depot Hill, Capitola, 1912. This bluff top has long ago fallen into the sea, along with the trees, but the tradition of oceanside walks and contemplation continues a century later. Note the formality of dress. Photo Credit: Sutton Family Collection. |
How you can participate in helping China
Beach return to its rightful place?
The Pacific Currents Visitors Center will need photographs, artifacts
and other memorabilia pertinent to the themes listed above. Do you have
old postcards with photographs from this location? Or, perhaps you have
photographs of family outings on the beach. Even recent family photographs
will be useful. What about picnics held at New Brighton by organizations?
We could use any kind of photographs taken at New Brighton State Beach.
Please telephone (831)588-9371 or e-mail the Team here
If you want to volunteer your time and energy to the Pacific Currents
project, please call the Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks at (831)
429-1840, or e-mail
Or if you want to help us financially, contact Melanie Stern at (831)
454-0168, or e-mail
For further information on books that provide further information on
the Chinese or Italian fishermen along this coast click Here.