Old Landing

On September 10, 1870, Captain Samuel Dunnells and William Abbott brought the sternwheel steamer Vaquero into Newport Bay and landed below the bluff that is now Castaways Park. The landowners called the place Newport, a new port. The McFaddens shipped from here until, failing to win federal money for the bay's entrance, they built a wharf on the open ocean instead. The bluff went on without them: a campground, a country-club golf course, a clubhouse turned restaurant and bar, the Castaways Club, a fire, and a city park whose own bronze tells that story.

What the plaque says

Old Landing On September 10, 1870, Captain Samuel S. Dunnells and William A. Abbott opened Newport Bay to commerce when they entered it for the first time on the sternwheel steamer Vaquero. The landing was designated "Newport"-a new port-by James Irvine, Benjamin Flint, James McFadden, and Robert McFadden. The McFaddens operated a regular shipping service here during the 1870s and 1880s. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 198 Originally registered June 20, 1935. Plaque placed by the State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with the Newport Beach Historical Society and City of Newport Beach, April 16, 1986.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Puvungna — 17 mi
  The Acjachemen and Tongva place of creation: twenty-two acres of open ground on a university campus, still not in the hands of its people.
• Terminal Island and Furusato — 22 mi
  Three thousand Japanese Americans built a village here they called Furusato, and in February 1942 were given forty-eight hours to leave it.
• The Port of Los Angeles — 23 mi
  The busiest container port in the country, sitting on ground that was dredged into existence: marsh, then landfill, then Pier 400.
• Point Fermin Lighthouse — 23 mi
  The first light into San Pedro Bay, lit in 1874 by two sisters, dark since Pearl Harbor, on a bluff that is still sliding.

More markers nearby

• Balboa Pavilion — 1.0 mi
• Site of First Water-to-Water Flight — 1.1 mi
• McFadden Wharf — 1.4 mi
• Diego Sepúlveda Adobe — 4.2 mi