Seal Islands (California)

The Port Chicago disaster was a deadly munitions explosion of the ship SS E. A. Bryan on July 17, 1944, at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in Port Chicago, California, United States. Munitions while being loaded onto a cargo vessel bound for the Pacific Theater of Operations, detonated killing 320 sailors and civilians and injuring 390 others. Two-thirds of the dead and injured were enlisted African American sailors. A month later, the unsafe conditions prompted hundreds of servicemen to refuse to load munitions, an act known as the Port Chicago Mutiny. Fifty men‍—‌called the "Port Chicago 50"‍—‌were convicted of mutiny and sentenced to 15 years of prison and hard labor, as well as a dishonorable discharge. Forty-seven of the 50 were released in January 1946; the remaining three served additional months in prison. During and after the mutiny court-martial, questions were raised about the fairness and legality of the proceedings. Owing to public pressure, the United States Navy reconvened the courts-martial board in 1945—that board re-affirmed convictions. Widespread publicity surrounding the case turned it into a cause célèbre among Americans opposing discrimination targeting African Americans; it and other race-related Navy protests of 1944–45 led the Navy to change its practices and initiate the desegregation of its forces beginning in February 1946. In 1994, the Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial was dedicated to the lives lost in the disaster.

The Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial is a memorial dedicated in 1994 recognizing the dead of the Port Chicago disaster, and the critical role played by Port Chicago, California during World War II, in serving as the main facility for the Pacific Theater of Operations. The national memorial is located at the Concord Naval Weapons Station near Concord, California, in the United States. The 1944 Port Chicago disaster occurred at the naval magazine and resulted in the largest domestic loss of life during World War II. A total of 320 sailors and civilians were instantly killed on July 17, 1944, when the ships they were loading with ammunition and bombs exploded. The majority of the deaths were African American sailors working for the racially segregated military. The explosion and its aftermath led to the largest Naval mutiny in US history, and it and the subsequent trial became major catalysts for the United States Navy to desegregate following the war.

Roe Island is an island in Suisun Bay at the mouth of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in Solano County, California, 10 km east of Benicia. Its western tip is named Preston Point, and its eastern tip is Gillespie Point. It is shown, labeled "Preston Island", on an 1850 survey map of the San Francisco Bay area made by Cadwalader Ringgold and an 1854 map of the area by Henry Lange. It is labeled, along with Deadman Island, Joice Island, Grizzly Island, Simmons Island and Ryer Island, on a 1902 USGS map of the area.On November 22, 2010, Brian Hopper was rescued from Roe Island by the U.S. Coast Guard. He had been stranded on the island for five days (after his rubber raft sprung a leak), before using his cell phone to contact a cousin, who notified the Coast Guard.

Roe Island Lighthouse was a lighthouse on Roe Island on the east end of Suisun Bay, California.

There are several lighthouses in the U.S. state of California, including a few listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Lighthouse Friends (California)

Suisun Bay ( sə-SOON; Wintun for "where the west wind blows") is a shallow tidal estuary (a northeastern extension of the San Francisco Bay) in Northern California. It lies at the confluence of the Sacramento River and San Joaquin River, forming the entrance to the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, an inverted river delta. To the west, Suisun Bay is drained by the Carquinez Strait, which connects to San Pablo Bay, a northern extension of San Francisco Bay. Grizzly Bay forms a northern extension of Suisun Bay. Suisun Bay is between Contra Costa County to the south and Solano County to the north. The bay was named in 1811, after the Suisunes, a Patwin tribe of Wintun Indians. The Central Pacific Railroad built a train ferry that operated between Benicia and Port Costa, California, from 1879 to 1930. The ferry boats Solano and Contra Costa were removed from service when the nearby Martinez railroad bridge was completed in 1930. From 1913 until 1954 the Sacramento Northern Railway, an electrified interurban line, crossed Suisun Bay with the Ramon, a distillate-powered train ferry. On April 28, 2004, a petroleum pipeline operated by Kinder Morgan Energy Partners ruptured, initially reported as spilling 1,500 barrels (264m³) of diesel fuel in the marshes, but, this was later updated to about 2,950 barrels. Kinder Morgan pleaded guilty to operating a corroded pipeline (and cited for failing to notify authorities quickly after the spill was discovered) and paid three million dollars in penalties and restitution.

Port Chicago was a town on the southern banks of Suisun Bay, in Contra Costa County, California. It was located 6.5 miles (10 km) east-northeast of Martinez, at an elevation of 13 feet (4 m). It is best known as the site of a devastating explosion at its Naval Munitions Depot during World War II.

Clyde is a census-designated place (CDP) in Contra Costa County, California, United States. The population was 678 at the 2010 census. It is located six miles (10 kilometres) east of Martinez.

The Walnut Creek mainstem is a 12.3-mile-long (19.8-kilometer) northward-flowing stream in northern California. The Walnut Creek watershed lies in central Contra Costa County, California and drains the west side of Mount Diablo and the east side of the East Bay Hills. The Walnut Creek mainstem is now mostly a concrete or earthen flood control channel until it reaches Pacheco Creek on its way to Suisun Bay. Walnut Creek was named for the abundant native Northern California walnut trees (Juglans hindsii) which lined its banks historically. The city of Walnut Creek, California was named for the creek when its post office was established in the 1860s.

Rancho Monte del Diablo (Devil's Mount Ranch in Spanish) was a 17,921-acre (72.52 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Contra Costa County, California given in 1834 by Governor José Figueroa to Salvio Pacheco. The name "Monte del Diablo" means "thicket of the devil" in Spanish. The name was later incorrectly translated as Mount Diablo. The grant covered the area from the Walnut Creek channel east to the hills, and generally from the Mount Diablo foothills north along Lime Ridge to Avon on the Carquinez Strait of the Sacramento River, and included present day Concord and parts of Pleasant Hill. Pacheco and Clayton are outside of the Rancho Monte del Diablo grant.

The Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet colloquially known as the mothball fleet, is located on the northwest side of Suisun Bay (the northern portion of the greater San Francisco Bay estuary) in Benicia, California. The fleet is within a regulated navigation area that is about 4+1⁄2 miles (7.2 kilometers) long and 1⁄2 mile (0.80 km) wide. It begins just north of the Union Pacific Railroad Bridge and runs northeast, parallel to the shoreline. Water depths range from about 46 feet (14 meters) at Mean Lower Low Water (MLLW) at the foot of the anchorage, to about 26 feet (8 m) MLLW at the shallowest berths towards the northern end of the anchorage. As of December 2022, eight ships remain in the fleet.

Pacheco Creek is a 3.4-mile-long (5.5 km) waterway in central Contra Costa County, California, United States. It empties into Suisun Bay. It is formed by the intersection of Walnut Creek, Grayson Creek and Pine Creek. The creek has a run of chinook salmon and steelhead trout after periods of rain in the winter and fall.