San Simeon Pier by Diana Sainz
by Diana Raquel Sainz
Title
San Simeon Pier by Diana Sainz
Artist
Diana Raquel Sainz
Medium
Photograph - Photography - Digital Photography
Description
FEATURED IMAGE: 1-2-3-4-5 ~ FAA ~ 04/11/2014
FEATURED IMAGE: Beach Scenes ~ FAA ~ 04/05/2014
FEATURED IMAGE: Out West ~ FAA ~ 03/15/2014
FEATURED IMAGE: Coastal Scenes~ FAA ~ 03/15/2014
FEATURED IMAGE: Beauty ~ FAA ~ 03/14/2014
SAN SIMEON PIER
.......................
Nestled in the small cove protected by San Simeon Point, and somewhat out of sight of the cars passing nearby on Highway 1, this pier is located in the William R. Hearst Memorial State Beach. The beach park is a popular spot to stop and relax and contains picnic tables, barbecue pits, a eucalyptus forest and the small beach. There is also a bait and tackle shop and sport fishing boats operate from the end of the pier (some years). Of course the thing which brings most people to San Simeon is the nearby Hearst Castle, the most visited state park in California and a place everyone should visit at least once (or even more often since four separate tours are available).
..........................
HISTORY NOTE:
The name San Simeon honors Saint Simon and was first recorded as the name of a rancho of Mission San Miguel in 1819. In 1852 a whaling village was established out on San Simeon Point and a wharf was built up next to the wall of the rocks. Unfortunately, that wharf was unusable during rough seas. Later, when the whaling had pretty much died out, the village was moved down to the present site and, in 1864, a wharf was built. When that wharf was destroyed by storms, Senator George Hearst (who had bought the site) decided to build a new wharf. He did so in 1878, and built a wharf which extended out 1,000 feet into the Pacific to an area where the depth of water was 20 feet at low tide. The wharf was 20 feet wide for most of its length but widened to 50 feet at the end and rails were laid out to the wharf to enable freight to be hauled up to the new warehouse on the shore. In 1957 the current pier was constructed as a pleasure pier by San Luis Obispo County and then, in 1969 after storm damage, the county and state funded repairs and an extension of 300 feet. It is currently managed by the state.
.........................................
San Simeon is a town and census-designated place on the Pacific coast of San Luis Obispo County, California. Its position along State Route 1 is approximately halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, each of those cities being roughly 230 miles (370 km) away. A key feature of the area is Hearst Castle, a hilltop mansion built by William Randolph Hearst in the early 20th century that is now a tourist attraction. The area is also home to a large northern elephant seal rookery.
.................................
HISTORY
Prehistorically the local area was inhabited by the Chumash people, who settled the coastal San Luis Obispo area approximately 10,000 to 11,000 BC, including a large village south of San Simeon at Morro Creek.
...........................
San Simeon was founded as an asistencia ("sub-mission") to the Mission San Miguel Arc�ngel, located to the east across the Santa Lucia Range. It is on the Rancho Piedra Blanca Mexican land grant given in 1840 to Jos� de Jes�s Pico. In 1865, Pico sold part of the rancho to George Hearst, the father of William Randolph Hearst.
.........................................
The first white persons to settle in the immediate area near the bay of San Simeon were Portuguese shore whalers under the command of Captain Joseph Clark. They had previously been whaling at Portuguese Bend, but came to San Simeon Point in 1864 to homestead land that had been declared to be public. Captain Clark built a small wharf after arriving to tie up his dead whales, but the date of its construction remains unknown.
...........................................
In 1869, Captain Clark partnered with George Hearst to build a wharf out on the end of the point so sailing ships could tie up and load and unload goods. A small community was growing on the small peninsula near the 1869 wharf, but the wave action near the wharf was too severe for ships to tie up there and the wharf was abandoned. In 1878, Hearst built another wharf far inside the bay and the small community that had been developing near the old wharf now moved to be nearer the new wharf. A general store, Sebastian's Store, originally located near the old wharf, was put on skids and dragged by oxen to its present location near the new wharf. Shore whaling continued on the point until the mid-1890s. It ceased for a short time, started up again in 1897, and continued to about 1908 when it ceased for good.
.......................................
In 1953, the Hearst Corporation donated the William Randolph Hearst Memorial Beach, including the old Hearst Pier, to San Luis Obispo County. It is currently part of Hearst San Simeon State Park.
Uploaded
January 5th, 2014
Statistics
Viewed 1,556 Times - Last Visitor from Cambridge, MA on 04/23/2024 at 3:39 AM
Embed
Share
Sales Sheet
Comments
There are no comments for San Simeon Pier by Diana Sainz. Click here to post the first comment.