Mare Island Naval Shipyard history, going back 170 years to Sept. 16, 1854, when Capt. David Farragut arrived to build the Navy’s first West Coast base, will be featured at the upcoming Sept.
14-15 Founders Day festival. The annual event, hosted by the Mare Island Historic Park Foundation, features tours of the former Navy shipyard, live music, food and drinks, a fund-raising auction and other activities. “We’re celebrating the founding of this incredible shipyard that has made such an indelible mark not only on U.
S. history but on world history,” says Kent Fortner, foundation president. World War II was by far Mare Island’s most significant period, with its civilian workforce soaring to about 46,000 employees.
People from all over the U.S. and from every ethnicity came for jobs, tripling the population of Vallejo, just across the Napa River.
On Saturday, Sept. 14, there’s an exclusive two-hour “Behind the Fences” tour via luxury bus that starts at 1:45 p.m.
at the Savage & Cooke distillery, located in the heart of Mare Island’s old industrial zone. The tour starts with a cocktail at the distillery and ends with a glass of champagne at the shipyard’s Alden Park. The $75-per-person tour includes a rare opportunity to walk – on uneven ground in some spots — into historic Mare Island buildings normally off limits to the public.
They include the shipyard’s “haunted” Armory Building 77, where workers reported strange noises and ghostly figures for dec.