Richard Henry Dana at Dana Point - San Juan Capistrano Visitor Series Part 10
Artist Rick Blake , an Orange County native and celebrated art teacher at Portola Middle School in Orange, paints beautiful California scenes with an emphasis on the historical coast. In this scene, Richard Henry Dana, the author of one of the best and most important books dealing with the history of California, "Two Years Before the Mast," lands with the crew of the brig "Pilgrim" in Dana Cove (now part of Dana Point which was later named in his honor). Dana made two visits to Dana Point in 1835 to collect cattle hides, or "California Bank Notes," and famously tossed them into the wind off the top of the cliffs, where they ebbed and swayed onto the beach below. On his second trip, he descended the cliff by rope to dislodge hides which were stuck in the cliff face, hanging dangerously over the waves crashing upon the rocks on shore, with only the seagulls soaring below him... or so he wrote (see the cover art on the above linked version of the book). T...