Cows and the Cow Palace

When California became a state, the situation of ownership and industry changed dramatically. All except the cattle industry. People still needed food to live on and hides to make their boots. However, the “hand-shake” society and trustworthy people was changed to the opportunists of the world and the Spanish soon lost their land to businessmen like Miller and Lux. The cattle industry, now in the hands of businessmen, prospered beyond expectation and markets expanded when railroads shaped the land.

These cattle would now be rounded up and gotten to the market in San Francisco by boats and cattle drives up El Camino Real. South City became the destination where many meat packers built and processed cattle for market. San Franciscans demanded fresh meat and many meat shops opened and processed the meat to meet the demand. Unfortunately, the odor that this produced became unbearable. Soon the city demanded these small butchers move south of the town to process the meat and a conglomeration of area became named “Butcher town.”

The culture of cattle continued, although it was not as big and important as it was for many years. Over the years, the rodeo persisted in annual gatherings of county fairs and local celebrations and livestock was big business, but on the Peninsula in the 1930s there was no appropriate building in which to adequately display the showcase of the industry, The Grand National Livestock Exposition Horse Show. The idea for a grand display building originated during the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition where an exhibition on livestock was a major draw. The Visitation Valley site was chosen in the early ’30s in preference over the residential character of the original Marina site and, after matching the $25,000 funds from the state, the cornerstone for the Cow Palace was laid Aug. 18, 1935.

“While people are going starving, the county is going to build a ‘palace’ for cows. How foolish!” so went the thoughts of many during the Great Depression of the ’30s. This translated into the name that #1A District Agriculture Association came up with while it raised the funds for the “Cow Palace.” The purpose of the mammoth building to be built on 25 acres in Visitation Valley was to simulate the growth of the California cattle industry.

By the time it opened in 1941, seating for 12,000 spectators had been built, as well as two horse barns that boasted 100,000 square feet of working area. A race track had been planned, but was never built. However, the Cow Palace was the biggest exposition building in the West, and only Madison Square Garden in New York was equal to it. The first event to be held in the new arena was the Western-Classic Holstein Show in April 1941. In November of that year, the first Grand National Rodeo, featuring a tribute to Will Rogers, was held. After Pearl Harbor, the federal government rented the structure for $1 a year and, for the next five years, troops embarked for the war zone from here. It was also used by the Ordnance Department and as a massive repair garage.

The state of California held title to the structure, and it was not until 1949 that the state Legislature opened the facility to public use. Prize fights, wrestling matches, top entertainers like Liberace, Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and Prince have since put on shows there. It is more a family entertainment center now with truck pulls and the Sports and Boat Show launched in 1957. Dwight Eisenhower was nominated for president at the Republican Convention in 1956, as well as Berry Goldwater in 1964.

Sadly, the cattle industry has moved out of the big cities and the Cow Palace had to change ways of its use. The 13,000 seats it has is too few to attract major basketball or hockey teams, but it is ideal for smaller events.

Rediscovering the Peninsula by Darold Fredricks appears in the Monday edition of the Daily Journal.