Current View of Ayala Cove from Mount Livermore, with
Tiburon in the distance
The Spanish Era...
| In August 1775, Lt. Juan Manuel de Ayala brought his ship, the San Carlos, into
San Francisco Bay, and anchored in what is now Ayala Cove. His mission was to develop an
accurate description of the bay that future Spanish ship captains could rely on. Ayala's
pilot, Don Jose de Canizares, explored the bay in the ship's launch, and did the necessary
map work - the first map ever made of the magnificent and now world-famous harbor. The San
Carlos remained at anchor beside the little island that Ayala christened Isla de Los
Angeles (Spanish for Island of the Angels), following a practice then common among
Catholic explorers of naming sites for the religious feast days nearest to the time of
discovery. In the early years of the nineteenth century, the island was
probably uninhabited. The Indians had all been drawn into Mission San Francisco de Asis
(Mission Dolores in San Francisco), or driven out of the region. After 1808, though,
Russian sea otter hunting expeditions visited the island, establishing a storehouse there.
In 1814, the British 26-gun sloop-of-war, the H.M.S. Racoon, was damaged off the coast of
Oregon, but managed to stay afloat long enough to reach San Francisco Bay. From March 13
to 19 of that year, the ship was repaired on the beach at Ayala Cove. Today, the
deep-water channel between Tiburon and Angel Island is named Raccoon Strait, in honor of
the old British sailing ship.
In 1837, Antonio Maria Osio asked the governor of California to give Angel Island
to him for use as a cattle ranch. In his capacity as military commandant of Alta
California, General Vallejo endorsed the petition with the prevision that some of the
island be retained for harbor defense. Osio's grant was approved by the governor in 1839,
and thereafter he kept cattle - up to 500 of them - on the island. He had several houses
built for use by his herders and other attendants, although he himself never lived on the
island. |
U.S. Development of the Island...
| After 1846 and the war between Mexico and the United States, Osio's title was
disputed by various people, and a number of squatters took up residence on the island. In
the early 1850s a quarry was developed on the island's east shore, and high-quality
sandstone was carved out of the cliffs above Quarry Point for use at Mare Island, and
elsewhere. San Francisco's original Bank of California, for example, was made of stone
from the quarry on Angel Island. The quarry continued in operation until the 1920s,
finally reducing the cliff to the present-day site of the parade ground at Fort McDowell. |
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