Benicia State Recreation Area

Benicia State Recreation Area is a state park unit of California, USA, protecting tidal wetland. It is located in Solano County 2mi west of downtown Benicia. The park covers 447acre of marsh, grassy hillsides and rocky beaches along the narrowest portion of the Carquinez Strait. Southampton Creek and the tidal marsh front Southampton Bay, where the combined waters of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers approach San Pablo Bay.HistoryDon José de Cañizares — diarist on the 1769 overland Portola expedition and who sailed with Don Juan Manuel de Ayala on the San Carlos, the first ship to enter San Francisco Bay on August 5, 1775 — named the cove north and west of Benicia Puerto de las Asunta (Assumption Harbor in Spanish) because he discovered it on that feast day in 1775. The cove is noted as "J" on Cañizares' famous 1781 Map of San Francisco Bay. The present name, Southampton Bay, is for the Navy frigate Southampton, which Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones sailed, along with a small fleet, to the cove in 1849.