Drake's landing recognized as a national landmark of USA heritage

San Francisco Chronicle/Carl Nolte, 10/19/12. "Point Reyes declared Drake landing site." 

Drake's landing, Point Reyes National Seashore

"The federal government has quietly ended a 433-year-old historical controversy by officially recognizing a cove on the Point Reyes Peninsula as the site where Sir Francis Drake landed in 1579 and claimed California for England.

The mystery of where England's most famous and feared sea captain landed has long intrigued maritime scholars. Many of them claimed Drake landed in a cove near Point Reyes in what is now Marin County, but others cited what they said was evidence that Drake put ashore in spots ranging from San Francisco Bay to Alaska, Oregon, British Columbia or several other sites on the California coast.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar apparently put the controversy to rest this week when he designated 27 national historic landmarks as "places that possess exceptional value and quality in illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the United States."  Read article.  Note:  photo by Lance Iversen, San Francisco Chronicle.

Related - Wikipedia, "New Albion. "New Albion, also known as Nova Albion, was the name of the region of the Pacific coast of North America explored by Sir Francis Drake and claimed by him for England in 1579." And, National Park Service, Point Reyes.

Posted by Kathy Meeh