Soulajule Reservoir, Marin County, CA

[casarodante]

I ran across an interesting Flickr set of photos, and story, regarding some old AT&T tracking station that now has about 8 Airstreams in its fenced in area.

Maybe someone else knows about this or maybe the owner is a member here?

Very entertaining.

One picture with story.

One picture of some of the Airstreams.

[Zeppelinium]

So if it's listed as office space for rent, what do the realtors have to say about it?

Zep

[JeffB]

This is Jeff, the guy who posted the photos. I haven't talked to the realtors, but have been tempted to call and find out just what is going on out there. After thinking about it a bit more, I'm wondering if perhaps the facility is being temporarily used for storage by the family who owns the land. Why they'd have a fleet of Airstreams is beyond me, but who knows. Given its remote location, it could very well be some weird religious cult.
If you look at the satellite photos, you can see that the trailers have been there for some time.

Anyway, let me know if you have any questions. If you happen to find out any more information on this place, please post a comment on my Flickr page.

Thanks!
Jeff

[Zeppelinium]

next time I paddle Tomales Bay, I'll take a peek...

coordinates
-122.7939479971221 38.14811234775186

[Airslide]

Hmmm interesting. How do I get into that place?

[Coastalview]

My father in law was a maintenance engineer for this earth station and another located close to here called Jamesburg Earth Station. I'll find out if there is current info on 3 Peaks location.
Jeff

[KerriO]

Fascinating. I used to live in Marin, now I live right across the Richmond Bridge. I love that sort of thing. I am so tempted to go check it out, but I don't think I can handle getting screamed at.

One of those Airstreams is a 5th Wheel. I wonder if it's a conversion or one of the few that were produced.

JeffB, I've got some other local places that I bet you'd love if you haven't checked them out already, over on the East Bay side:
• Port Costa — A stuck-in-time twilight zone type town with a bar (The Warehouse) with a giant stuffed Polar Bear and a seriously impressive walk-in beer cellar. Right across the street is a former Bordello that is a hotel that mostly servers Warehouse Patrons who can't drive home. There is also a curiosity shoppe (but it's rarely open). We somehow accidentally stumbled upon this place years ago, and I honestly couldn't figure out if I'd dreamed it up or if it was real until we went back.

• Albany Bulb - A little penninsula-like landfill off of the Buhcannan exit on 80 in Berkeley. Later used as a homeless encampment until, for the most part, they were kicked out (there's still plenty of obvious evidence that many people still live there). There's a concrete "castle" built by a "Mad Mark" (who used to have a web page with a manifesto that I can't find now), and a whole bunch of guerrilla art— there used to be more, but they've cracked down on that too. If you have dogs, there's a great unofficial dog beach there too. (Dogs aren't technically allowed, but that's all the beach is used for).

• Point Molate, Richmond - the last exit, heading West on 580 before the Richmond Bridge (I'm not sure if there's an eastbound exit). It borders the bay, and has a lovely view of Brothers Light Station, but other than that, there are rows and rows of abandoned military housing, and other old abandoned brick military buildings that are just so creepy (in a good way). Drive all the way to the end and you get to a private Yacht harbor (not private in the ritzy way) that's pretty interesting, too. Worth a drive if you're into this sort of thing.

Back, to the airstream topic, there's a local bread company called Grace Baking, whose headquarters are right around the corner from my house. In their parking lot, there used to be at least a dozen vintage trailers — Airstream and others — that were always parked there. I had once emailed Grace Baking asking about them, and no one ever responded. They all looked gutted or in need of repair. Just last week I drove by, and they were all gone. This thread reminded me that the might have been captured by Google, and indeed they were. If you zoom in once more, you can also get a good street view of them, but most of the Airstreams are toward the back. This is on Regatta at Marin Bay Parkway in Richmond, CA.

[JeffB]

Coastalview: That's really interesting, and I would love to learn about your father in law's experience there and his memories of the place. Any info you can get would be very much appreciated.

KerriO: Wow, thanks so much for the info on those places! Point Molate has been on our list of spots to check out for a while, but I hadn't heard of the others. I may message you privately with a few questions, if you don't mind. I really appreciate you posting these.

On the topic of the trailers at the Three Peaks facility, I should mention three things we both noticed as soon as we saw the place:

- There were a lot of trailers in there, for no apparent reason. .
- Most, but not all of them, looked identical.
- They all looked old, but appeared to be in great shape.

We were obviously not there to spot trailers, but did both notice and mention these things as we approached.
Let me clearly state that we're not Airstream experts. We do happen to love the older ones and have dreamed about how cool it would be to own one someday, but we're not intimately familiar with them. I usually look for the emblem whenever I see a see anything that looks like an Airstream, and if I don't see one I figure it's probably a knockoff of some sort. I realize I'm probably revealing my ignorance just by saying that, but at least you know where I'm coming from. I'm explaining all this because I remember briefly looking for the Airstream emblem on these trailers (as best I could), and didn't see any. My photos don't seem to show any, either... but then again, you guys are the experts.

As I mentioned on the Flickr page, there was another trailer we saw while driving in that stood out as being especially interesting. It looked like it was probably from the 30's or 40's, and had several round "porthole" windows on the side. I'd never seen anything like it. I figured Google image search would help identify it, but I can't find anything that looks like that particular trailer. Does anybody know what it could have been?

[FreshAir]

Originally Posted by KerriO

Fascinating. I used to live in Marin, now I live right across the Richmond Bridge. I love that sort of thing. I am so tempted to go check it out, but I don't think I can handle getting screamed at.

One of those Airstreams is a 5th Wheel. I wonder if it's a conversion or one of the few that were produced.

JeffB, I've got some other local places that I bet you'd love if you haven't checked them out already, over on the East Bay side:
• Port Costa — A stuck-in-time twilight zone type town with a bar (The Warehouse) with a giant stuffed Polar Bear and a seriously impressive walk-in beer cellar. Right across the street is a former Bordello that is a hotel that mostly servers Warehouse Patrons who can't drive home. There is also a curiosity shoppe (but it's rarely open). We somehow accidentally stumbled upon this place years ago, and I honestly couldn't figure out if I'd dreamed it up or if it was real until we went back.

• Albany Bulb - A little penninsula-like landfill off of the Buhcannan exit on 80 in Berkeley. Later used as a homeless encampment until, for the most part, they were kicked out (there's still plenty of obvious evidence that many people still live there). There's a concrete "castle" built by a "Mad Mark" (who used to have a web page with a manifesto that I can't find now), and a whole bunch of guerrilla art— there used to be more, but they've cracked down on that too. If you have dogs, there's a great unofficial dog beach there too. (Dogs aren't technically allowed, but that's all the beach is used for).

• Point Molate, Richmond - the last exit, heading West on 580 before the Richmond Bridge (I'm not sure if there's an eastbound exit). It borders the bay, and has a lovely view of Brothers Light Station, but other than that, there are rows and rows of abandoned military housing, and other old abandoned brick military buildings that are just so creepy (in a good way). Drive all the way to the end and you get to a private Yacht harbor (not private in the ritzy way) that's pretty interesting, too. Worth a drive if you're into this sort of thing.

Back, to the airstream topic, there's a local bread company called Grace Baking, whose headquarters are right around the corner from my house. In their parking lot, there used to be at least a dozen vintage trailers — Airstream and others — that were always parked there. I had once emailed Grace Baking asking about them, and no one ever responded. They all looked gutted or in need of repair. Just last week I drove by, and they were all gone. This thread reminded me that the might have been captured by Google, and indeed they were. If you zoom in once more, you can also get a good street view of them, but most of the Airstreams are toward the back. This is on Regatta at Marin Bay Parkway in Richmond, CA.

Albany Bulb. Is this just north of Golden Gate Field, the horserace track? If so it was an old land fill. During the '50s I lived in nearby El Cerrito (graduated from EC High '56). I would go with dad to dump our trash there. As with many areas on the Bay to create more building areas the land fills began as municipal dumps. Studies not long after determined that this practice of 'fill' was realingning the tidal currents and damaging the Bay's ecological environment. The fills were all immediately stopped.

[Airslide]

Hey JeffB,

Thanks for posting the pictures and welcome to the airforums neighbor.

Vinnie

[LuvRVing]

I use to live across the Bay from Port Costa & and could look at it from my home. I loved the place when the Warehouse was Juanita's. What a gal she was and the place was indescribable. In the late 1800's it was a port for a railroad ferry built by the Central Pacific. In 1930 a bridge was built and the small town dried up. Near by was Port Chicago, a navy base used to load munitions on ships. In 1944 there was a large explosion killing several hundred troops & civilians, pulverizing 2 ships, railroad cars, piers etc. There was an inquiry that became a racial issue due to the fact the troops used for loading the ships were Black. 1/5th of the Navy's black troops were killed & lack of safety issues were cited because Black troops were being used for the job. Very historical area.

[Coastalview]

Still gathering info on this site. AT&T sold this while in operation to Loral Skynet sometime in the late 1990's. It was in operation up until 2007. Interesting that I found this to be the location my brother in law worked until 2005 and moved to the sister location in Hawley, Pa. until 2008. From what I know, the 3 peaks earth station managed the "bird" satellite that was owned by AT&T. After being decommissioned in 2008, a cable network provider was interested in the earth station but it never materialized. The property did sell and I'm working on finding out to whom.
Years back, there was mention of a Airstream restorer in the north bay on the forums. Possibly you have discovered their of collection trailers awaiting future owners?

[JeffB]

Quite interesting. There may be something to your theory about the Airstream collector… I found that my wife got a shot of the Airstreams from a much better angle, as seen here:

Airstreams @ Three Peaks | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I've since found out that that much of that area out there *is* in fact private land, and that I most likely was trespassing. Even so, it's virtually impossible to tell where "public ends and "private" begins, as there are no signs or fences. I figures we were safe, since [A] it was on an apparently public road, [B] the place is officially vacant and up for sale, and [C] we didn't go inside the fenced area that was clearly off-limits. This was why I was so taken aback by the lady's behavior. A rational person would have been cool enough to calmly let us know that we couldn't hang around there. I can't imagine what she does when the real estate folks show up with prospective buyers. Of course, they probably call and let her know beforehand – but I don't see how this all adds up if the place is supposedly vacant and for sale.

In retrospect, I think she was freaked out that we'd found something she didn't want anyone to know about. Whether it was a stash of Airstreams or her secret meth lab, I couldn't say.

[JeffB]

By the way, I finally found photos of the "portholes" trailer I mentioned in my earlier post. Take a look here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr38/52...ol-406829@N21/

[DavidsonOverlander]

Originally Posted by JeffB

Why they'd have a fleet of Airstreams is beyond me, but who knows.

Sorry, but I don't understand why you find this unusual. It seems perfectly normal to me!