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Weathered from a 75 million year old sandstone cliff in La Jolla are seven sister caves. Like many other seaside caverns, these too had been used by pirates. Only, the cargo they smuggled was human.
California’s eight year gold rush enabled the remote western territory to blossom into full fledged statehood with half a million new residents, many of whom had emigrated from Asia. After the mines closed, the Transcontinental Railroad race lured tens of thousands “Celestials” from China, so named for their diligent work ethic and controlled if not serene mode of behavior. But, then again, they were up against surly, hard-drinking, fast-fisted Irish immigrants swinging hammers for the Central Pacific Railroad.
It wasn’t long before more than 80 percent of the workforce was Asian. In 1868 alone, more than 12,000 Asian workers, predominantly men, had come across the Pacific by the boat load to tie rails. Typically, management’s preference for a well disciplined workforce didn’t deter them from paying the higher salary with room and board included to the fair skinned but ill bred Irish. The animosity paid off, however, and the teamsters became a highly efficient well orchestrated crew, laying up to ten miles of rail a day.
Rising prejudice led to the adoption of exclusionary acts that began to limit immigration from the Far East. The 1875 Page Act classified Asians as “undesirable”, but it was the Exclusion Act of ‘82 that actually served to ban laborers seeking to emigrate from China specifically. The Immigration Act that followed in 1924 posed restrictions for all Asians, including the Japanese that had continued to pour through the Golden Gate of Opportunity in lieu of the Chinese.
Although the Exclusion Act was intended to balance immigration over an anticipated ten year period, it wasn’t repealed as unconstitutional until 1943, a year—ironically--after the government began interring Japanese-Americans in War Relocation Camps. None-the-less, more than 56,000 additional Chinese people were processed through San Francisco’s Angel Island thanks to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake that destroyed all previous immigration records. These advantageous immigrants claimed familial connection to Chinese-American residents that could not then be disproved.
These bans, not surprisingly, spawned the first commercial smuggling of contraband human cargo in the U.S. Although human smuggling is still big business here in the Land of the Free, it’s the trafficking of involuntary victims that’s got 42,000 Customs Border Patrol officers armed against the now $30 billion/year business. Formed in 2003, the office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement with the ultra cool acronym of ICE and it’s 20,000 highly trained armored personnel have join forces to eradicate slavery that continues to creep across the 7,000 border miles and slink through the 327 ports of entry.
The seven caves in La Jolla provided shelter for turn of the century profiteering pirates. San Diego provided a warmer more hospitable climate for the newcomers than the hostile northern cities, both literally and figuratively. The Chinese Mission School served as a safe haven for this discriminated population teaching “Americanization classes”. The California Southern Railroad hired large numbers of Chinese workers and the National Historic Landmark Hotel del Coronado was built largely by Asians.
All but one of the caves are accessible only by water. Sunny Jim’s Cave was named by Frank Baum, author of the Wizard of Oz, because the opening resembles the silhouette of a 1920 British cereal box character and military mascot. It can be accessed for a $4 admission fee through a tunneled stairway located behind the back door of the historic La Jolla Cave and Curio Shop .
Kayak tours are offered and snorkeling gear is available for the more adventurous that wish to explore the caverns from beneath the water and are willing to dare the strong currents and lashing waves drilling at the mouths’ of the caves.
Just off shore is the Underwater Park Ecological Reserve, home to La Jolla’s one quarter mile wide Kelp Forest hugging the coastline all the way down towards Point Loma. With fronds that can grow 3 feet a day and 30 feet or more visibility, the Reserve attracts whales, seals, dolphins, garibaldi, and the harmless leopard shark, as well as scuba divers and snorkelers.
Walking tours embark from the Cave Store following La Jolla’s Coastal Walk Trail towards Seal Beach. While at this final destination, turn around and take a gander at the memorable rooftop sculpture at the Museum of Contemporary Art. With the colorful array of boats and kayaks projecting and suspended from the roof, it’s hard to miss.
For visitors unable to actually get in the water to see the elusive grottos, venture down the 145 stairs through the colorful well lit hand carved tunnel channeled out over a century ago to witness infamous Sunny Jim’s profile. Upon decent, visitors are restricted to a planked walkway that juts out over the incoming waves. Watching them, one can easily imagine the miniscule scouring occurring beneath the churning frothing surface. The dimness of the cave makes Sunny Jim’s face appear vividly in contrast to the subtropical cerulean skies outside. There he is, pointed nose and hat, facing westward, out towards sea.
Although a small cavern comparatively, it’s got all the features of other caves. Beneath the stairwell, another cavern is forming. With my camera’s Auto Assist Beam, I could see into the nooks where there wasn’t lighting, where the cave wasn’t being eroded by grinding waves, but rather forming as most caves are one slow drip after another, throughout the millennia. Best to go equipped with a strong flash light.
Closing my eyes, I listened, to the waves, to the water behind me dripping, to the pigeons nesting on the ledge of Sunny’s nose, to the scurrying in the shadows. To the rhythmic breathing of time through the multi colored stone walls. It’s easy to imagine the queued men squatting away from the light of day, arms wrapped around knees, whispering to prevent echoes, shivering in anticipation of a moonless landfall. For me it is at any rate, but then, I am known to have an active imagination.
If you’d prefer something a bit more concrete, something more visual, the San Diego Chinese Historical Museum housed in the heart of what was once the city's historic Chinatown's Stingaree Red Light District, (at Third Ave. and J. St.), is currently sponsoring an exhibit entitled “From China to Gold Mountain’s Finest” depicting these very ordeals. It will be shown through March near the baggage claim area in San Diego International Airport’s Terminal 2 in case you are passing through during the holidays.
January 23 rings in the Chinese New Year, welcoming the Year of the Dragon (water dragon more specifically, in case you care). I was born in the year of the Tiger myself, but also under the element of water.
Mix it up a bit and get on out of that box. There is more to San Diego’s Chinese American heritage than Dim Sum and Ninjas. Begin, as those early settlers did, by first visiting the caves.
Weathered from a 75 million year old sandstone cliff in La Jolla are seven sister caves. Like many other seaside caverns, these too had been used by pirates. Only, the cargo they smuggled was human.
California’s eight year gold rush enabled the remote western territory to blossom into full fledged statehood with half a million new residents, many of whom had emigrated from Asia. After the mines closed, the Transcontinental Railroad race lured tens of thousands “Celestials” from China, so named for their diligent work ethic and controlled if not serene mode of behavior. But, then again, they were up against surly, hard-drinking, fast-fisted Irish immigrants swinging hammers for the Central Pacific Railroad.
It wasn’t long before more than 80 percent of the workforce was Asian. In 1868 alone, more than 12,000 Asian workers, predominantly men, had come across the Pacific by the boat load to tie rails. Typically, management’s preference for a well disciplined workforce didn’t deter them from paying the higher salary with room and board included to the fair skinned but ill bred Irish. The animosity paid off, however, and the teamsters became a highly efficient well orchestrated crew, laying up to ten miles of rail a day.
Rising prejudice led to the adoption of exclusionary acts that began to limit immigration from the Far East. The 1875 Page Act classified Asians as “undesirable”, but it was the Exclusion Act of ‘82 that actually served to ban laborers seeking to emigrate from China specifically. The Immigration Act that followed in 1924 posed restrictions for all Asians, including the Japanese that had continued to pour through the Golden Gate of Opportunity in lieu of the Chinese.
Although the Exclusion Act was intended to balance immigration over an anticipated ten year period, it wasn’t repealed as unconstitutional until 1943, a year—ironically--after the government began interring Japanese-Americans in War Relocation Camps. None-the-less, more than 56,000 additional Chinese people were processed through San Francisco’s Angel Island thanks to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake that destroyed all previous immigration records. These advantageous immigrants claimed familial connection to Chinese-American residents that could not then be disproved.
These bans, not surprisingly, spawned the first commercial smuggling of contraband human cargo in the U.S. Although human smuggling is still big business here in the Land of the Free, it’s the trafficking of involuntary victims that’s got 42,000 Customs Border Patrol officers armed against the now $30 billion/year business. Formed in 2003, the office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement with the ultra cool acronym of ICE and it’s 20,000 highly trained armored personnel have join forces to eradicate slavery that continues to creep across the 7,000 border miles and slink through the 327 ports of entry.
The seven caves in La Jolla provided shelter for turn of the century profiteering pirates. San Diego provided a warmer more hospitable climate for the newcomers than the hostile northern cities, both literally and figuratively. The Chinese Mission School served as a safe haven for this discriminated population teaching “Americanization classes”. The California Southern Railroad hired large numbers of Chinese workers and the National Historic Landmark Hotel del Coronado was built largely by Asians.
All but one of the caves are accessible only by water. Sunny Jim’s Cave was named by Frank Baum, author of the Wizard of Oz, because the opening resembles the silhouette of a 1920 British cereal box character and military mascot. It can be accessed for a $4 admission fee through a tunneled stairway located behind the back door of the historic La Jolla Cave and Curio Shop .
Kayak tours are offered and snorkeling gear is available for the more adventurous that wish to explore the caverns from beneath the water and are willing to dare the strong currents and lashing waves drilling at the mouths’ of the caves.
Just off shore is the Underwater Park Ecological Reserve, home to La Jolla’s one quarter mile wide Kelp Forest hugging the coastline all the way down towards Point Loma. With fronds that can grow 3 feet a day and 30 feet or more visibility, the Reserve attracts whales, seals, dolphins, garibaldi, and the harmless leopard shark, as well as scuba divers and snorkelers.
Walking tours embark from the Cave Store following La Jolla’s Coastal Walk Trail towards Seal Beach. While at this final destination, turn around and take a gander at the memorable rooftop sculpture at the Museum of Contemporary Art. With the colorful array of boats and kayaks projecting and suspended from the roof, it’s hard to miss.
For visitors unable to actually get in the water to see the elusive grottos, venture down the 145 stairs through the colorful well lit hand carved tunnel channeled out over a century ago to witness infamous Sunny Jim’s profile. Upon decent, visitors are restricted to a planked walkway that juts out over the incoming waves. Watching them, one can easily imagine the miniscule scouring occurring beneath the churning frothing surface. The dimness of the cave makes Sunny Jim’s face appear vividly in contrast to the subtropical cerulean skies outside. There he is, pointed nose and hat, facing westward, out towards sea.
Although a small cavern comparatively, it’s got all the features of other caves. Beneath the stairwell, another cavern is forming. With my camera’s Auto Assist Beam, I could see into the nooks where there wasn’t lighting, where the cave wasn’t being eroded by grinding waves, but rather forming as most caves are one slow drip after another, throughout the millennia. Best to go equipped with a strong flash light.
Closing my eyes, I listened, to the waves, to the water behind me dripping, to the pigeons nesting on the ledge of Sunny’s nose, to the scurrying in the shadows. To the rhythmic breathing of time through the multi colored stone walls. It’s easy to imagine the queued men squatting away from the light of day, arms wrapped around knees, whispering to prevent echoes, shivering in anticipation of a moonless landfall. For me it is at any rate, but then, I am known to have an active imagination.
If you’d prefer something a bit more concrete, something more visual, the San Diego Chinese Historical Museum housed in the heart of what was once the city's historic Chinatown's Stingaree Red Light District, (at Third Ave. and J. St.), is currently sponsoring an exhibit entitled “From China to Gold Mountain’s Finest” depicting these very ordeals. It will be shown through March near the baggage claim area in San Diego International Airport’s Terminal 2 in case you are passing through during the holidays.
January 23 rings in the Chinese New Year, welcoming the Year of the Dragon (water dragon more specifically, in case you care). I was born in the year of the Tiger myself, but also under the element of water.
Mix it up a bit and get on out of that box. There is more to San Diego’s Chinese American heritage than Dim Sum and Ninjas. Begin, as those early settlers did, by first visiting the caves.