Three Times That Newspapers Used the Farallon Islands to Lampoon Emperor Norton

THE FARALLON Islands ― also and originally known as the Farallones, the Spanish word for “cliffs” — is an outcropping of rocks about 28 miles off the Pacific coast of San Francisco.

Southeast Farallon Island Light from Sugar Loaf Islands, 1867–68, by Carleton Watkins (1829–1916). Albumen silver print, 15¾” × 20½”. Source: Getty

In the early nineteenth century, New England and Russian fur traders exploited the Farallons as a seal-hunting site. And in the mid nineteenth century, the islands became a contested location for scavenging seabird eggs for the San Francisco markets.

But a lighthouse constructed there in 1855 was automated, i.e., has not been staffed, since 1972.

Since 1968, there has been an ecological and marine research station on the islands.

And, even in Emperor Norton’s day, the Farallons were understood to be basically uninhabitable — or at least extremely inhospitable.

That was part of the joke of the following editorial item that appeared in the Oakland Daily News on 19 August 1869:

Hoax decree of Emperor Norton written by an editor(s) of the Oakland Daily News and published in the News on 19 August 1869. This image of a clipping in the collection of the California State Library is from Albert Dressler, Emperor Norton: Life and Exoeriences of a Notable Character in San Francisco 1849–1880, 1927, p. 20.

Two weeks later, on September 6, the first transcontinental railroad passengers arrived at Alameda Wharf.

Two months after that, the Central Pacific Railroad moved to its expanded new terminal at Oakland Long Wharf, where the first transcontinental passengers arrived on November 8.

So, when the Oakland Daily News published its item in mid August, the location of the terminus of the transcontinental railroad and the economic consequences of this location for both Oakland and San Francisco was a scalding hot topic on both sides of the bay.

From the fact that the Oakland paper’s editors put in the mouth of Emperor Norton — already, barely 10 years into his reign, an icon of San Francisco and its interests — a call for a bridge that not only bypassed San Francisco altogether but that pursued a meandering path “from…Oakland Point, from thence to the mountain range of Saucilleto and from thence to the Farallones” — the Farallones of all places!…

It should have been obvious that this item was written and published as satire — as a hoax and a prank designed to poke at San Francisco’s anxiety over the prospect of being cut off from the new railroad by a wide and bridgeless bay.

Indeed: The call for an absurdly routed bridge is the second provision of this “decree.” The more basic tell that it’s a fake — and a detail typically overlooked in discussions of this item — is it first provision: The Oakland editors have Emperor Norton “order[ing] and direct[ing]…that Oakland shall be the coast termination of the Central Pacific Railroad.”

The Emperor would never.

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THE 1869 “bridge to nowhere” joke by the Oakland Daily News is the best-known example of a newspaper using “the Farallones” as a rhetorical device to skewer and scale down the empire of Norton I. But it’s not the only example — and not the first.

Visalia, California, is some 40 miles southeast of Fresno. On 26 January 1861, the Visalia Weekly Delta reprinted a humorous piece from the San Francisco Daily Evening Mirror which the Delta introduced as being about “one Mr. Briggs, offering at lottery one of the most valuable nursery and fruit farms in the state.”

The lottery was real. As prizes in the scheme, George G. Griggs of Maryville was offering six orchards, a vineyard, two grain fields, and three meadow ranches totaling 1,600 acres; 101,000 fruit trees; and 28,000 grape vines.

Tickets were two dollars each.

Speculating, tongue in cheek, as to who might have won first prize, the Mirror wrote of a “rumor…that Emperor Norton I is the lucky individual, and that he intends to apply it to the building of an Imperial Palace on the Farallones and the equipment of an army, to be called Norton’s Brigade.”

Here’s the full piece as printed in the Delta:

Reprint of humorous San Francisco Daily Evening Mirror item featuring Emperor Norton, Visalia Weekly Delta, 26 January 1861, p. 2. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection

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UNDER EDITOR Albert Evans, San Francisco’s Daily Alta California ran something of a cottage industry in Norton-related comic items. So, it’s little surprise that our third example comes from the Alta.

The earliest documented example of a Proclamation of Emperor Norton in which the Emperor identified, or signed, as “Protector of Mexico” was in February 1866.

But in July 1861, the Emperor had augmented his title in a different way, declaring himself “Emperor of the United States and Mexico.”

Emperor Norton rarely used this title after that. But, the Alta was one of a few newspapers that picked up on the title and used it in their own items about the Emperor,

On 4 February 1865, the Alta published the following item wishing the Emperor a happy birthday and referring to him as “His Imperial Majesty Norton I, Emperor of United States and Mexico”:

Item noting Emperor Norton’s 47th birthday, Daily Alta California, 4 February 1865, p. 1. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection

Four months later, on 11 June 1865, the Alta noted that Emperor Norton had dropped “Mexico” from his title. As the Emperor did not make a point of using “Mexico” until 1866, one is left to conclude that the Alta’s manufactured report is a set-up for the quip that follows: that Emperor Norton now is “merely writing himself ‘Norton I, Emp. U.S. & F.I.’ (Anglice, Norton the First, Emperor of the United States and the Farallone Islands.) We think his example will be followed at no distant day by other crowned heads. “

Comic item on Emperor Norton’s title, Daily Alta California, 11 June 1865, p. 1. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection

No doubt, had Emperor Norton ever taken to the idea of establishing himself on the Farallon Islands, it would have proven impossible to build an imperial palace to his specifications — even if money was no object.

But, the Farallons have been part of San Francisco since the city’s incorporation in 1850 — and Emperor Norton would have considered the islands to be part of his Empire.

It seems worth finding a way to plant a flag there for the Emperor — to mark the westernmost entrance to his Empire’s seat.

Perhaps next to the lighthouse?