Yerba Buena Island
—  Neighborhood of San Francisco  —
Yerba Buena Island
Yerba Buena Island Location within San Francisco
Coordinates: 37°48′36″N 122°21′58″W / 37.809912°N 122.366002°W / 37.809912; -122.366002
Country	United States
State	California
City	San Francisco

Yerba Buena Island sits in the San Francisco Bay between San Francisco and Oakland, California. The Yerba Buena Tunnel runs through its center and connects the western and eastern spans of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. It has had several other names over the decades: Sea Bird Island, Wood Island, and Goat Island. The island is named after the town of Yerba Buena, which was named for the plant of the same name that was abundant in the area. The plant's English and Spanish common name, Yerba buena, is an alternate form of the Spanish hierba buena (literally meaning "good herb"), generally used to describe local species of the mint family.

The island is currently part of District 6 of the City and County of San Francisco. According to the United States Census Bureau, Yerba Buena Island and Treasure Island together have a land area of 2.334 km² (0.901 sq mi) with a total population of 2,500 as of the 2010 census.

Today the land southeast of the Yerba Buena Tunnel belongs to the United States Coast Guard (USCG). The USCG Sector San Francisco - Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) tower is located on the peak of the island. The USCG Sector San Francisco headquarters base is located at water-level on the southeast coast of the island. During the summer 2011, the Department of Homeland Security-USCG opened the new Interagency Operations Center (IOC) on the Sector San Francisco Base. The IOC houses the VTS and the USCG Sector San Francisco Command Center together in one building.

History[link]

Aerial photo of Treasure Island (top) and Yerba Buena Island (bottom).

The first California legislature on February 18, 1850, passed an act establishing the boundaries of San Francisco County and naming the island after the former name of the city of San Francisco, Yerba Buena, which was changed in 1847.

Officially, the island was Yerba Buena Island until 1895, when on a decision by the United States Board on Geographic Names, it was changed to Goat Island. During the gold rush, a large number of goats were pastured on the island, and the name "Goat Island" came into popular use.^[1] It was changed back to Yerba Buena Island on June 3, 1931.

The idea of a military post on Yerba Buena Island originated during the Civil War, when it was feared a raiding Confederate warship could slip past Fort Point and Alcatraz during a foggy night. However, it was not until the 1870s that Camp Yerba Buena Island was completed, including a fog signal and octagonal lighthouse called Yerba Buena Light (1875) that remain today. Just before the turn of the 19th to 20th century, the first U.S. Naval Training Station on the Pacific Coast was established on the north east side of the island. Quarters One, also known as the Nimitz House, was built about 1900 as the commandant's residence. Its Classic Revival style, fashionable for private residences in the Bay Area at the time, was unusual for naval base housing. The training station closed after World War I.

During World War II, Yerba Buena Island fell under the jurisdiction of Treasure Island Naval Station, headquarters of the 12th Naval District. Built on the shoals of Yerba Buena Island, the 403-acre (163 ha) Treasure Island was a Works Progress Administration project in the 1930s. After hosting the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, the United States Navy deemed Treasure Island an ideal location for transporting people and machines to the Pacific theater, and on April 1, 1941, established Treasure Island Naval Station which also included a portion of Yerba Buena Island. Quarters One became the residence of the Commander of the Naval Base. Several other buildings used by the Naval Station during World War II also remain on the island, including the senior officers' quarters and Buildings 83, 205 and 230.

A double-deck tunnel carries Bay Bridge traffic between the eastern and western spans, seen here westbound

In 1996, the naval base and the Presidio of San Francisco were decommissioned, and opened to public control, under stipulations. Quarters One is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Atop YBI stands an old wooden tower, built c. 1917 as a signal tower for ships in the bay. Originally the tower had no roof. In the 1940s, the tower was jacked up onto a new cement foundation and used by the US Navy as a control tower for seaplanes. Most recently the tower was used by the US Navy as an Officers' Club (a bar) for aviators — The Tower Club. The Tower Club was condemned after the October 17, 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. It has stood in ruins since then. The view from the top of the tower is one of the best in the San Francisco Bay, but unfortunately it's closed to the public. The tower's destiny is unclear; it's not a registered historical landmark, so it's subject to being destroyed as YBI is redeveloped for commercial use.^{[citation needed]}

Miscellaneous[link]

Located west of the island is Blossom Rock, a treacherous submerged rock that lay only 5 feet below the surface of the water at low tide. Blossom Rock was discovered and named in 1826 by Captain Beechey of the HMS Blossom. Beechey noted that the rock could be avoided by aligning the northern tip of Yerba Buena Island with two especially large redwood trees growing in the East Bay hills as one entered the Bay. These redwoods were located in what is now Roberts Regional Recreation Area, near the "Madrone" picnic area; the area is marked with a historical marker. The "Navigation Trees" were logged in about 1851, exacerbating the danger of Blossom Rock. The top of the rock was blown up in 1870, and another section removed by blasting in the early 1930s.

In his book Two Years Before the Mast, published in 1840, Richard Henry Dana, Jr. mentioned the island and called it "Wood Island."

See also[link]

San Francisco Bay Area portal

• Islands of San Francisco Bay
• Barnacle Bill
• Treasure Island
• Treasure Island development

References[link]

• "Quarters One, Yerba Buena Island, Naval Training Station". World War II in the San Francisco Bay Area. National Park Service. http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/wwIIbayarea/qua.htm. Retrieved 2007-03-22. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Yerba Buena Island

• Treasure Hunting on Yerba Buena Island: San Francisco's newest neighborhood to be landscaped with locally appropriate native plants.
• "Naval Training Station: San Francisco Bay, Calif., Yerba Buena Island". http://www.military.com/HomePage/UnitCreatedPage/0,11003,203269,00.html. Retrieved July 12, 2005. 

Coordinates: 37°48′36″N 122°21′58″W / 37.809912°N 122.366002°W / 37.809912; -122.366002

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Yerba buena
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Magnoliopsida
Order:	Lamiales
Family:	Lamiaceae
Genus:	Micromeria
Species:	M. douglasii
Binomial name
Micromeria douglasii (Benth.) Benth.[1]
Synonyms
Clinopodium douglasii (Benth.) Kuntze Micromeria chamissonis (Benth.) Greene Satureja chamissonis (Benth.) Briq. Satureja douglasii (Benth.) Briq.[1]

Yerba buena (Micromeria douglasii) is a rambling aromatic herb of western and northwestern North America, ranging from maritime Alaska southwards to Baja California Sur.^[2] The plant takes the form of a sprawling, mat-forming perennial, and is especially abundant close to the coast.^[3]

Name[link]

The plant's most common name, the same in English and Spanish, is an alternate form of the Spanish hierba buena (meaning "good herb"). The name was bestowed by pioneer Catholic priests of Alta California as they settled an area where the plant is native. It was so abundant there that its name was also applied to the settler's town adjacent to Mission San Francisco de Asís. In 1846, the town of Yerba Buena was seized by the United States during the Mexican-American War, and its name was changed in 1847 to San Francisco, after a nearby mission. Three years later, the name was applied to a nearby rocky island; today millions of commuters drive through the tunnel on Yerba Buena Island that connects the spans of the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge.

[edit] Other plants known as yerba buena

In general, in most Spanish speaking countries, the term "yerba buena" refers to the particular local species of mint, which varies from region to region. The term has been (and is currently) used to cover a number of aromatic true mints and mint relatives of the genera Satureja or Micromeria. All plants so named have medicinal properties, and some have culinary value as teas or seasonings, as well.

The specific plant species regarded as "yerba buena" varies from region to region, depending on what grows wild in the surrounding landscape, or which species is customarily grown in local gardens. Perhaps the most common variation of this plant (besides Clinopodium douglasii) is spearmint (Mentha spicata).

In parts of Central America yerba buena often refers to Mentha citrata, a true mint sometimes called "bergamot mint" with a strong citrus-like aroma that is used medicinally and as a cooking herb and tea. In Cuba, yerba buena generally refers to Mentha nemorosa, a popular plant also known as large apple mint, foxtail mint, hairy mint, woolly mint or, simply, Cuban mint. In Puerto Rico a close relative of traditional culinary savory, Satureja viminea, is sometimes used. In Peru the name is sometimes applied to a shrubby aromatic marigold, Tagetes minuta also known as huacatay or "black mint"; in this case, despite some similarities of flavor, the herb in question is in the Sunflower family and is quite unrelated to any of the mints or mint-relatives with which it shares a name.^[4]

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Micromeria douglasii

Wikispecies has information related to: Micromeria douglasii

1. ^ ^{a b} "Micromeria douglasii". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=833027. Retrieved 2012-02-23. 
2. ^ "PLANTS Profile for Clinopodium douglasii (yerba buena)". NRCS PLANTS database. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=CLDO2. Retrieved 2007-12-19. 
3. ^ Wood, Michael (2003-09-01). "Focus on Rarities, Yerba Buena Chapter, CNPS (Satureja douglasii)". CNPS Yerba Buena Chapter website. California Native Plant Society. http://www.cnps-yerbabuena.org/experience/focus_on_rarities.html. Retrieved 2007-12-19. "Website structure doesn't require navigation to the linked index page and then selection of the 'Yerba buena' article" 
4. ^ "Huacatay - Ingredient - CHOW". CHOW food and entertainment website. CNET Networks. http://www.chow.com/ingredients/226. Retrieved 2007-12-19. 

External links[link]

• USDA Plants database Clinopodium douglasii (Benth.) Kuntze
• Jepson Manual treatment Satureja douglasii (Benth.) Briq.