CABRILLO The Guns of San Diego Historic Resource Study

This work was completed largely by Erwin Thompson, who did all of the original historical research and text under a National Park Service contract. Our sincerest thanks for providing a comprehensive source of the military history of San Diego, California.

A large number of persons and institutions have contributed to the development of this study. We thank them all for their assistance. Thanks to Joan Huff who took an imperfect manuscript and turned it into a readable document.

The Western Regional Office, National Park Service, in the persons of Tom Mulhern, Chief of Park Historic Preservation, and Gordon Chappell, Regional Historian, assisted in the author's efforts and strengthened the study. Thanks also to Elmer J. Hernandez, Denver Service Center, National Park Service, for his efficient management of the contract producing the resource study.

To Diane S. Nixon, Director, and Suzanne Duberry, Archivist, National Archives - Pacific Southwest Region, our thanks for their unstinting efforts to allow the author to make the most of the available time in studying the records of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Likewise, Archivist Rick Cox of the National Archives, Washington, D.C., guided the author through the army records pertaining to the harbor defenses of San Diego.

A special thanks to Maj. Gen. George Ruhlen, U. S. A. Ret., the third regular army officer in a row to bear that name, for the contribution of his father's collection of Fort Rosecrans photographs. The report would be poorer without them and without his father's historical accounts. Another special thanks goes to Lawrence Dinneau, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. Mr. Dinneau assisted in the quest of the original plan of the Presidio of San Diego, which has been erroneously attributed to the Bancroft Library. Also thanks to Dr. Anthony Turhollow, Los Angeles District, U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, who made available photographs of Fort Rosecrans' coastal searchlights.

A special thanks to Alvin H. Grobmeier, whose special interest in the coast defense history of San Diego, and editorial input answered many questions. Thanks to Kate Johnson. Without her work and technical effort this work would never have come to completion. Thanks to Dr. Barry Joyce who edited the early San Diego history providing us with the most correct historical information. Thanks to Dr. James Nauman who created the camera ready copy of illustrations. Thanks to George R. Schneider who photographed many of the illustrations for final publication.

The following institutions contributed to this study through their historical collections: the San Diego Historical Society; University of San Diego; the Serra Museum; San Diego Public Library; University of California at San Diego; California Historical Society at San Francisco; Bancroft Library at Berkeley; California State Library at Sacramento; National Archives, Pacific Southwest Region, at Laguna Niguel; and the National Archives at Washington, D.C. We thank the staffs for their generous support.

Howard B. Overton
1991