DAWN AND THE DONS
marble shaft, unveiled with due ceremony in 1907 marks the spot where stood this celebrated tree.
On the Pacific Coast the historic Vizcaino an infant Spanish colony that grew into a great American commonwealth. Surviving three centuries of time, and rescued from the sea, where it had been cast by thoughtless hands, this silent actor in a mighty drama now stretches forth its leafless branches in the shadow of the old parish church at Monterey.
The story of the “Charter Oak” is one of the oft told tales of Colonial America and is known to every school boy in the land. The story of the Vizcaino Oak is not so well known.
Eighty-five years before the disappearance of Connecticut’s Royal Charter, Sebastian Vizcaino made his famous voyage that resulted in the discovery of the Harbor of Monterey. As a part of the landing ceremony, Father Ascension said mass under a large oak tree that stood near the beach where they landed, and under the same tree Vizcaino, with due ceremony, unfurled the Spanish flag.
This tree was of unusual size, of striking appearance and easily identified. Father Ascension kept a rather full diary during this history making voyage, and in it he described this oak in detail, noting also its location. This diary came into the possession of Father Serra, and when Portola, after his first and fruitless expedition, returned to San Diego with the belief growing in his mind that there was no such harbor as Vizcaino had described,
