Eggs are n’t a dime a 12 , but they are n’t exactly in scant provision , either . It ’s unmanageable to imagine crusade over an egg , proper ? This is exactly what materialize in the Great Farallones Egg War of 1863 , a time when hoi polloi went to , ahem , gravid " eggstremes " to fix orchis .
They were n’t struggle over ordinary poulet testicle , though . We ’re speak about the eggs of thecommon murre(Uria aalge ) a penguin - like bird that nest on rocky cliff and pass its wintertime at sea . During its breeding time of year , which runs May to July , the skirt lay patched , pointy eggs about doubly as bighearted as a chicken egg . The blotchy pattern make it easier for birds to identify their eggs among the 1000 that dot the rocks , while the pointed designing ensures the eggs will spin in a round if it twine out of the nest , rather than falling into the sea .
And it just so happens that 150 geezerhood ago , the common murres ' favourite ball - pose rod in the broken 48 was just off the slide of San Francisco . The Farallones Islands are a series of little outcropping of jagged granite upshoots about 27 miles ( 43.5 kilometers ) from San Francisco ’s coastline . The bird land by the thousands on the islands , nesting backstage - to - wing and dotting the landscape with bollock after egg .
By the timethe California Gold Rushoverburdened then - tiny San Francisco with a largely unsupervised milieu of athirst miners and equally profit - hungry businesses , the expanse ’s vernacular murres numbered into the tens of G — perhaps into the one thousand thousand . And their testis were ripe for the pick .
Six men decide to profit from the birds ' efforts . In 1851 , they sailed to the islands and gave themselves ownership , complete with troupe shares . But it was n’t easy to assemble the ball . They had to climb steep cliffs sleek with sea spray while being swarmed by murre and many other seabirds that call the islands home , but evened the odds by stomping onday - old eggsto insure only the impertinent were tuck . Still , they persevered and the Egg Company began making a sizable earnings selling the freely pull together plebeian murre eggs to San Francisco bakers .
" Common murre nut were an incredibly abundant resource at a time when San Francisco was overwhelmed by people flooding in , " says Gerry McChesney , manager of the Farallon National Wildlife Refuge and its common murre program . " San Francisco not only lack the infrastructure it needed , but there were no wimp farms to supply such a great penury . "
By the other 1860s , the Egg Company had some serious competition . Its time lag on the islands was tentative at best . Four year to begin with , U.S. president James Buchanan solidified the Union regime ’s own call to the farming for a beacon light . And then on a summertime day in 1863 , 27 armed challengerssailed toward the island . When their three boats attempted to land , the Egg Company gaffer warned them off , but the interlopers declared they stand for to land " in venom of hell . "
What come next ? The Egg Company owner open firing . And when the challengers fuel back , one of the Egg Co. men was kill after being fool through the abdomen and heart . The Egg Co. men then fired on and wounded five of the hands in boat , who after 20 minutes of war , sail back to home base . One of the injure human race , shot near his throat , died a few days later .
The post - Gold Rush tenseness , although not as dramatic , continued for age until commercial egging was censor in 1896 after the California Academy of Scientists successfully lobby for its close . In the late 1960s , the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service beganmanaging the islandsand protecting common murre breeding areas . Even so , the consequences of commercial egging still reverberate today .
" It had a tenacious - condition , devastating encroachment on the murre population , " McChesney says . " It ’s still find . "
There are now about 300,000 common murre that travel to the islands for nesting season , McChesney adds , still few than it had before the Gold Rush more than a one C and a half ago .
" It is something I never get trite of watch , " he says of the bird groups . " The island themselves are beautiful , furrowed and otherworldly . But to be out there during the peak of the breeding time of year ? It ’s a spectacle to behold . "
