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Posted: 1/1/0001
Franklin Point is located in the A o Nuevo State Reserve, San Mateo County, California. It is named after the clipper ship the Sir John Franklin.
The ship was bound for San Francisco and in heavy fog struck rocks off of the point on January 17, 1865. The ship was destroyed, killing the Captain and eleven men. The bodies of only six of the victims were recovered, four seamen and two officers. The seaman were buried on the point; the officers in San Francisco. The Franklin Point site is designated a cemetery on the 1955, U.S.G.S. Franklin Point, 7.5 quadrangle. A monument, now missing, to the memory of Edward J. Church (a sixteen-year-old crewman of the Franklin) and the other seamen lost on the Franklin was placed on the point. Prior to the wreck of the Franklin, the clipper ship Carrier Pigeon ran aground west of the Point (without fatalities) on June 6, 1853. Following the wreck of the Sir John Franklin, the Coya went aground near Ano Nuevo Island on November 24, 1866, killing twenty seven individuals, including the Captain s wife and child. Thirteen of the bodies were recovered and buried on Franklin point. On November 21,1868, the Hellespont, ran aground killing eleven men. The Columbia became stranded on the rocks in 1897 (Alta California, January 19, 1865:1; Le Boeuf and Kaza 1981:37-39; Morrall 1978:54-57).
In 1980, dune erosion exposed human remains that were collected by a park visitor and turned into to the ranger office at the reserve. In 1982, a project to excavate the exposed burials was authorized by the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR). A contract was awarded to the Department of Anthropology, San Jose State University to remove the human remains. Four burials were encountered and archeologically removed (Leventhal and Jermain 1987). In 1993, DPR awarded a contract to Sonoma State University (Meyer 1993) to conduct a sub-surface survey to determine the locations of additional burials. In 1997, further dune erosion exposed additional human rem