Sunday, January 18, 2009

Two Ghost Stories

Act one: It’s winter at work, a strange time, as the house is closed, but I am still there, doing paperwork, and cleaning up, but most of the time alone.

It can also be magical… on rainy days, or early in the morning I have the farm to myself. One morning in particular it was foggy, and cold. The fog hid much, giving the things you could see much more impressive. The walnut alley was particularly spectacular… the dormant trees standing ghost like in a field of white. There was a moment in the Willows field as the fog broke, where the modern was edited out, leaving a scene from 100 years before.

Act two: There is a ghost town near by. The town of Drawbridge is located on an island at the south end of San Francisco Bay. It was and continues to be a railroad town. As the South Pacific Coast Railroad built south from Newark in 1876, it went to sea, across the salt marshes, then across Mud Creek Slough via the first of two drawbridges, onto Station Island, then across a second drawbridge over Coyote Creek. The drawbridges required a keeper, or tender, available to open them as needed as both creeks were (and still are) considered ‘navigable”. The railroad built a small station on the island, along with a house for the tender.

With access via the railroad a town grew up on the small island… and its primary industry, duck hunting. Old stories suggest the town was informally divided into two communities, at the north end were the respectable folks, many with families, most supporting themselves by market hunting, hunting large numbers of ducks for sale in San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose butcher shops and markets.

The south end of town was more oriented towards visitors, with the duck clubs and “hotels” many of which were said to have one “maid” for each small room. The amateur hunters came to town in search of more than ducks. It was away from the city and its rules…

At one time the island was said to have 90 homes… There were still 25 residents in the 1960’s, but the last left about 1977, and the property is now part of the Don Edwards National Wildlife refuge. and the area closed. For a time they occasionally offered tours, but haven’t for some years. Today the place is home to ducks and other waterfowl, and the only human visitors are the from the wildlife service, from Cargill Salt (who still maintains the levees in the area), and an occasional railroad worker.

Though a friend I was invited visit the place with one of the Cargill employees responsible for the area. The three of us rode our in a company pickup, driving around the land fill at the edge of the bay, though the salt ponds, stopping along the way to watch the Cargill dredge reinforce a levee. Wood hulled, with a wooden boom, run by cables (no hydraulics) the dredge itself is in a sense a ghost, a leftover of earlier times.

Then, we parked and walked in, just a train passed…
I had been told that there were only one or two buildings left standing, so was surprised to find the remains of nearly 20. There is still a strong sense of place… You are so far away, yet so close to civilization.

Enjoy the photos.

Randy

No comments:

Post a Comment