SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The federal government has apparently ended a 433-year-old historical controversy by determining that English sea captain and explorer Sir Francis Drake came ashore in what is now a county in the San Francisco Bay area when he claimed California for England.
For years, some historians and other scholars said Drake landed on the Point Reyes Peninsula, north of San Francisco.
But others pointed to what they considered evidence that Drake landed in locations ranging from San Francisco Bay to Alaska, Oregon, British Columbia or other sites along the California coast.
The San Francisco Chronicle (http://bit.ly/RazWi2 ) reports that Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar apparently ended the controversy this week when he designated the Drake site in Marin County as one of 27 spots nationwide as national historic or natural landmarks.
