Orangevale-based Drake Navigators Guild Celebrates New Albion Site

SACRAMENTO, CA (MPG) - On October 6, 2021, the California State Parks director Armando Quintero designated Francis Drake’s 1579 California landing, Site of New Albion, as a California Historical Landmark, number 1061.  This finalized the unanimous approval given by the seven-member State Historical Resources Commission in August 2020.  Nominated by the Drake Navigators Guild, it had been presented to the Commission by historian State Historian William Burg and the State Historic Preservation Officer Julianne Polanco.  The Drake Navigators Guild, a history research organization, is headquartered in Orangevale, California, with Steve Wright as president.

The landmark, located within the boundaries of Point Reyes National Seashore at Drake’s Cove, is the landing site and encampment of Francis Drake and his crew on their journey to California in 1579. While Drake voyaged on his circumnavigating expedition aboard the Golden Hind, New Albion was the place where Drake and his crew interacted with the Coast Miwok people and made the first English territorial claim in what is now the United States.  Drake’s New Albion claim pre-dates later English claims at Roanoke (1585), Jamestown (1607), and Plymouth (1620).  

The site is recognized for many first events for California:

First English claim to what would become the United States. First interactions between native peoples and Europeans in northern California. Friendly, peaceful relations over five weeks; First use of the term Nova Albion (New England) for the USA.  This refers to the white cliffs at Drakes Bay; First use of the English language in the future United States; First Protestant church service in the future United States; First use of the Book of Common Prayer in the future United States; First European contact in northern California; First Black persons in California; Black slaves freed from Spanish enslavement by Drake along South America and Mexico; First Hispanic person in northern California; Including de Moreno who chose to stay in California and walked, over four years, back to Mexico; First Chinese and Filipino trade goods brought to California.

Wright said, “We are pleased to see California distinguish Drake’s Cove as the site of Francis Drake’s 1579 landing and New Albion claim. No Drake anchorage in the world has been as deeply researched as has this California landmark.”  The nomination, submitted by the DNG, received support from historians and archaeologists from Great Britain, Canada, California, and Oregon.  The site is also related to a National Historic Landmark, Drakes Bay Archeological and Historic District, which was awarded on October 17, 2012.

Founded in 1949, the DNG, headquartered in Orangevale CA, is non-profit history research group which brings together persons from many fields of scholarship and nations to study the early exploration of the west coast of North America. Its members and associates have included practical seamen including Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, Sir Simon Cassels, Lord Louis Mountbatten, and Captain Adolph S. Oko, Jr.  Additionally, award-winning historians Barry Gough, Edward Von der Porten, and Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison have been members.

The DNG continues to support research and education about Francis Drake’s visit to the west coast of North America. Additionally, the Guild has researched and assisted study with numerous other related maritime explorations and events.