ONCE A THRIVING CENTER of Chinese shrimp fishing, China Camp in present day San Rafael is remembered for its role in the Bay Area’s maritime economy and the community that sustained it.
In the late 19th century, Point San Pedro became a seasonal fishing village populated largely by immigrants from the Kwantung province of China. By 1890, the settlement swelled to nearly 500 residents who harvested grass shrimp from the San Francisco and San Pablo bays, processing the catch onshore and shipping much of it to China.
Fishermen used redwood junks and small sampans to set large triangular bag nets in the mudflats, opening the nets to incoming tides to capture shrimp swept along by currents. After two tidal cycles, roughly 12 hours, the nets were full and crews returned to camp to boil, size and dry the catch. Workers crushed dried shrimp, winnowed the meat from heads and shells, and bagged both products for shipment.
The camp was a close-knit community. Census-like counts from the era show families, a schoolteacher, a barber, gardeners and general stores. But the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and rising anti-Chinese sentiment altered life in the fishing camps, and by 1900 the population had fallen dramatically.
Beginning in 1901, the State Fish Commission began to regulate the fishery as growing competition for the bay’s seafood resources strained the stock. The season at China Camp was closed as the commission imposed a ban during key fishing months. Then, a 1905 ban on exporting dried shrimp and a 1911 prohibition on the use of stationary bag nets further limited the community’s operations. The commission faced political pressure from competing fishermen, and the anti-Chinese sentiments in the U.S. fueled the devastating restrictions. The peak of the Chinese shrimp fishery had been reached, and these changes marked a steady decline over the succeeding decades.
The fishery saw a modest revival into the 1930s and 1940s, centered around families such as the Quans, who adapted new technologies and methods to continue shrimping at China Camp. They rented boats, ran a small restaurant and modernized processing, using fuel oil instead of wood, electricity and gas-heated drying.
Today, China Camp is a 1,500-acre state park. Its last physical remnants exist as sheds, a pier, ovens, boats and nets. The history highlights a once-important industry and a community that persisted despite legal and social obstacles. The site remains a testament to the labor, tradition and resilience of Chinese shrimp fishermen in the Bay Area.
