History

Park History

In 1921, the southern tip of Brannan Island, where the modern Brannan Island State Recreation Area is located, was an area of marshland approximately 335 acres in size. The property was one of a number of holdings owned by a man named Peter Cook, before being acquired by the Sacramento-San Joaquin Drainage District of the State Reclamation Board for use by the United States Army Corps of Engineers.

Between 1926 and 1929, the area that would become BISRA was used as a dumping site for the sand and silt raised from the riverbed during the dredging and widening of the Sacramento River channel. The dredging operation filled the area with spoils, leading to an increase in the height of the area to between twenty to forty feet above the water level. After the operations were over, the land mostly sat idle, except for the occasional sale of sand by the State to private contractors.

In 1950, the Rio Vista Chamber of Commerce began an initiative to nominate the area to become a State Park. Four years later, a transfer of the property's title to the California Division of Beaches and Parks set the stage for the creation of the park. During the 1950s, the Division of Beaches and Parks granted permission to Travis Air Force Base to establish a boat harbor on Seven Mile Slough for Air Force Personnel. The park would finally open in 1965, expanding access to the bountiful natural and cultural resources of the Delta to more Californians.

Over the years improvements and additions to park facilities have made Brannan Island State Recreation Area an important recreational facility strategically located between the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers.

Samuel Brannan

Brannan Island was named after Samuel Brannan who led a group of Mormons to California in 1846. In 1846, Brannan rented a ship's long-boat named the Gusanita and sailed across San Francisco Bay and enter the San Joaquin River. He was looking for suitable land on which to establish a community farm. The site of New Hope was chosen and thus the first Mormon farm in the San Joaquin Valley was started.

In May, 1848, Brannan spread the news of gold discoveries elsewhere along the American River. The result was a business boom in California. By February, 1848, Brannan owned a store on the Sacramento waterfront. In just a few months he had made over $100,000. By the end of 1849, Brannan owned one-fourth of all the land in Sacramento and would have eventually owned one-fifth of San Francisco. In 1859 Brannan purchased a tract of land surrounding a hot spring at the foot of Mt. St. Helena, with the intention of creating a summer resort. At a promotional dinner Brannan toasted his proposed resort as the "Saratoga of California" but unfortunately it came out as the "Calistoga of Sarafornia" and the name Calistoga stuck.

Brannan set out to interest people in the resort by financing a branch of the railroad to Calistoga Hot Springs. He also grew grapes and was successful in the wine making business. Although he amassed a fortune during his lifetime, Samuel Brannan died in poverty on May 14, 1889. He contributed his name to a street in San Francisco and the island and this park in the Delta.