Greenspace Creekside Reserve

Greenspace Creekside Reserve. Welcome!. , Greenspace - The Cambria Land Trust , Greenspace acquired this 1.6-acre property in 1999 to safeguard its natural character and make its beauty available to Cambrians and visitors. The land was zoned Commercial, and was being considered for a parking lot., In previous decades the property was home to members of the Warren family, and before that it was used by local Chinese as a fraternal, social, and religious center., Earlier, Chumash and Salinan peoples lived in this region. While Greenspace's focus is on the natural environment, we recognize the need to conserve places like this historical Chinese center, and elsewhere in Cambria, a Native American village site. , This is one of just five 19th century Chinese temples left in California., Along with a changing array of cabins, laundries, bunkhouses, and an opium den, it served the community of Chinese workers who lived and worked around Cambria for several decades at the turn of the 20th century., Some Chinese residents of Cambria farmed sea lettuce (seaweed) and harvested abalone, then dried them for shipment to San Francisco and on to China., Some worked and lived near the quicksilver (mercury) mines to the east, and others had jobs in town as domestic helpers, laundrymen, and the like., Cambria, from the official Diary of the Portola Expedition, 1769-70 , In 1602, Spanish explorers sailing up North America's western coast discovered and named Monterey Bay., Led by Don Gaspar de Portola 167 years later, the 1769-70 Portola Expedition aimed to establish a land route to Monterey Bay from present-day Mexico., Father Juan Crespi's daily journal, translated from Spanish and visualized here, details the all-male expedition party "comprising 25 leather-jacket soldiers, 42 Baja California Christian Indians, and three muleteers" camping overnight near the future site of Coast Union High School and engaging with the native inhabitants.