If you go: Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial
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THE BEST WAY TO PORT CHICAGO
Visitors to Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial ([925] 228-8860, https://www.nps.gov/poch) usually begin by parking at the entrance to the Army’s Military Ocean Terminal Concord on Port Chicago Highway in Concord. The site is about 45 minutes from Oakland International Airport, an hour from San Francisco International Airport.
Tours are typically offered by request at 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays. Rangers require that visitors make reservations (which are free) two weeks in advance and supply identification information so the Army can run background checks. Visitors must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. More details are available through the memorial’s website, https://www.nps.gov/poch.
WHAT YOU’LL SEE
The small Port Chicago site includes inscribed markers at water’s edge, remnants of pier pilings, a few bomb casings, a few pieces of twisted metal that date to the 1944 blast, and one of the earth-mound revetments used when troops unloaded munitions from railroad cars. Tours are led by a ranger driving a shuttle bus and usually last about 90 minutes. Also nearby is John Muir National Historic Site (the former home of the Sierra Club co-founder), about five miles away at 4202 Alhambra Ave. in Martinez.
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