Ballast Point Whaling Station Site

Shore whaling did not need ships. Crews of about fifteen lived on the point, watched for spouts from the bluff, and rowed out to meet gray whales funneling past the harbor mouth toward Baja. The bomb lance, new in the 1850s, did the killing; the try-pots on the beach did the rest. Five whales in the first season yielded 150 barrels of oil worth roughly two thousand dollars. A good year took fifteen. Stations from Oregon to Baja worked the same migration, and the population did not survive it.

What the plaque says

Ballast Point Whaling Station Site Late in 1857, the three Johnson brothers and the twin Packard brothers came to this site to survey possibilities for a station to “try out” or extract whale oil. Their operations began the next year. In 1869 the U.S. Government acquired the property for Fort Rosecrans and in 1873 whaling operations at Ballast Point ended. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 50 Originally registered December 6, 1932. Plaque placed by the State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with the U.S. Department of the Navy, Fort Guijarros Museum Foundation, and Squibob Chapter, E Clampus Vitus, March 22, 1987.

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Site of Fort Guijarros — steps away
• Cabrillo Landing Site — steps away
• Fort Rosecrans — steps away
• Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery — 0.6 mi