First and Last Chance 

Heinhold's postcard"In the winter, some of us (university students) occasionally went to the Oakland-Alameda estuary to climb over and romance about the old Alaska packers fleet of clipper ships that fished for salmon in Alaskan waters during the summer and docked on the Alameda side during the winter months. Across the estuary from where they were moored was a little saloon name The First and Last Chance. It was a hangout for sailors, and Jack London frequented it. We would go there, buy a glass of beer, and listen to him and the other talk about their experiences, real and imagined, in the frozen North and in the South Seas. It whetted our imagination and made Jack London’s book the more exciting."

From Chief Justice Earl R. Warren,
The Memoirs of Chief Justice Earl R. Warren
 

Oakland Museum of California Logo  "Walk Along the Water"
  © Oakland Museum of California, used with permission.

Explore this Topic:

History of the First and Last Chance Saloon - Heinhold's First and Last Chance

back to history map