![]() ![]() It’s easy to imagine the queued men squatting away from the light of day, arms wrapped around knees, whispering to prevent echoes, shivering in anticipation of a moonless landfall.įor me it is, at any rate – but then again, I’m known to have an active imagination. To the rhythmic breathing of time through the multicolored stone walls. To the waves, to the water behind me dripping, to the pigeons nesting on the ledge of Sunny’s nose, to the scurrying in the shadows. A strong flashlight will reveal stalagmites dripping into a small pool to the right of the base of the stairwell.Ĭlosing my eyes, I listened. There he is, pointed nose and hat, facing westward, out towards sea. The dimness of the cave makes Sunny Jim’s face appear in vivid contrast to the subtropical cerulean skies outside. ![]() ![]() Upon descent, visitors are restricted to a planked walkway that juts out over the incoming waves. Sunny Jim was named by Frank Baum, author of the Wizard of Oz, because the opening resembles the silhouette of a 1920s British cereal box character and military mascot. The algae-cloaked 145 stairs lead through a colorful, well-lit, hand-carved tunnel located behind the back door of the historic La Jolla Cave Store (formerly called the La Jolla Cave and Curio Shop). Sunny Jim Cave can be accessed for a $4 admission fee. Only one of the caves is accessible by land. The California Southern Railroad hired large numbers of Chinese workers and the National Historic Landmark Hotel del Coronado was built largely by Asians. But with this one, you’ll be able to explore free of any worries. The cave itself is such a one-of-a-kind landmark in San Diego because it’s not often that you’re able to know you’re safe inside a cave on a beach. Teaching “Americanization classes,” the Chinese Mission School served as a safe haven for this discriminated population. The Cave Store is the place to start an exciting foray into a fantastic beach cave in Southern California. San Diego offered a warmer, more hospitable climate for the newcomers than the hostile northern cities, both literally and figuratively. The seven caves in La Jolla provided shelter for turn-of-the-century profiteering pirates. These bans, not surprisingly, spawned the first commercial smuggling of contraband human cargo in the U.S. Rising prejudice led to the adoption of exclusionary acts that began to limit immigration from the Far East. In 1868 alone, more than 12,000 Asian workers, predominantly men, had come across the Pacific by the boatload to tie rails. Another way is to kayak here from La Jolla Shores Beach. It wasn’t long before more than 80 percent of the workforce was Asian. The Cave Store in La Jolla is the easiest way to visit Sunny Jim Cave, the largest sea cave in town. ![]()
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