Point Reyes Light - January 20, 2005
Rancher Lunny buys Johnson Oyster Company
By Peter Jamison
One of West Marin’s flagship businesses has just changed hands. Rancher Kevin Lunny, who lives on Point Reyes, this week said he has bought Johnson Oyster Company on Schooner Bay in Drakes Estero.
Tom Johnson, former owner and president of the company, confirmed the sale.
Johnson Oyster Company has been a major business since it was founded by Tom’s father Charlie almost half a century ago. The Point Reyes National Seashore bought the oyster-company site in 1965 and then leased it back to the company. Charlie Johnson died in 1992.
Tom Johnson, who has worked at the oyster farm since his youth, took control of the company in 1978. "It’s been my whole life," Johnson said. "I’ve been doing this since I was 18." Johnson, who lives in Petaluma, will continue to help out with the business, acting as a consultant.
Lunny grew up on neighboring Lunny Ranch (Historic G Ranch) and is best known in West Marin as a rancher, contractor, and operator of a quarry in Nicasio. Lunny told The Light he has been interested in shellfish growing for a long time, adding he used to cross Schooner Bay to watch the Johnson oystermen at work. "I love the industry," he said.
The transaction was completed a month ago, and the close of escrow is "imminent," Lunny said. The present staff at Johnson’s will stay on under the new ownership, and the company name will not change.
"That name is part of the history and heritage," Lunny noted.
A pioneer’s story
Johnson Oyster Company was founded in 1957, when Charlie Johnson bought his Drakes Estero farm from Coast Oyster Company of Washington state, for whom he had worked. Johnson, who had traveled frequently to Japan to buy seed for Coast Oyster, immediately introduced an unusual method of farming oysters, known as "hanging cultch," that he had learned in Japan.
Johnson’s soon gained widespread renown for the quality of its oysters, and at one time accounted for more than half of all oysters produced on the West coast of North America.
In recent years, however, oyster production has fallen off, and the company has been bedeviled by a series of demands from county government and the Park Service.
Change in growing method
Originally, the company grew oysters in clusters attached to wires, which were stuck vertically into the bottom of Drakes Estero. The oysters grew from "seeds" attached to scallop shells. The scallop shells had holes punched in the middle, and three were strung on each wire, separated by "spacers," short sections of plastic pipe.
To keep bay currents from knocking over the wires stuck in the mud, Johnson’s stuck plastic lids on the bottom of wires to hold them in position.
Unfortunately, when it was time for Johnson’s to pull up the wires and harvest the oysters, about a tenth of the coffee can lids came off the wires and remained in the mud unseen until winter storms churned up the mud. When that happened, the coffee-can lids and spacers began washing up along the coast.
A massive cleanup was carried out from 1986 to 1992, and the company changed its growing technique to hanging strings of oysters from racks. The result, Tom Johnson said, is "a sweeter, healthier and faster-growing oyster."
Loss of worker housing
Perhaps the hardest blow to the company, however, came in 1994 when new park Supt. Don Neubacher evicted most oyster workers and their families from the site. Previous Supt. John Sansing had allowed the company to gradually add worker housing without requiring special permits, and ultimately 12 mobilehomes were on the site.
However, there was not enough space for an adequate septic system to serve all 12, and the Park Service refused to let Johnson’s lease more land, forcing the company to cut the number of mobilehomes to four.
"Johnson’s is not at peak production right now, Lunny acknowledged, "and we’re going to restore historic levels of production," Lunny said while looking out at workers unloading barges filled with freshly harvested oysters.
The company uses 1,050 acres of bay bottom in Drake’s Estero. "We’re going to step up the planting," Lunny said. "In 12 to 18 months, it will be back up there."
Old buildings to go
Raising production is only one of several changes Lunny plans to make in the coming months. The top priority is replacing most of the company buildings. A cluster of rambling wooden structures along the farm’s shore have been in a state of decay for years.
For some visitors, the ancient sheds and decades-old piers are part of the place’s charm. For others, however, the buildings are merely unsightly, and Lunny added that some parents "find them unsafe - unsafe for their kids."
Lunny plans to raze these buildings during the next three months. Only one small, square storage shed will remain, and it will be transformed into a new retail center.
Lunny insists that despite the renovations, he does not plan to abandon the company’s traditional, rustic look.
"We could put in a big fancy building here, but that would change the look of the place," he said. "We don’t want to do that. Things will remain pretty much the same."
At present, shucked oysters sold by the jar are processed in Santa Rosa, but Lunny plans to return that operation to the National Seashore. At present, only cultivation and sales take place at Drakes Bay.
‘A wilderness area’
Lunny wants to work in harmony with the purpose of the National Seashore. Park Service. In its new incarnation, Johnson’s Oyster Company will focus on the "interpretive" aspect of its business - educating tourists and local visitors on the history and operations of the oyster farm.
Lunny hopes to make those operations more environmentally sound. He will replace Johnson’s two-cycle motors on his boats with four-cycle motors, which make less noise and have less emissions. He will also use larger boats so more oysters can be harvested on each trip and fewer trips will be necessary.
"We’re actually reducing impact on the estero," Lunny said. "This is basically a wilderness area."
Attractive to park visitors
"This is the best oyster on the West Coast," former Johnson’s president Tom Johnson insisted, and two customers from Livermore, Huy and Kathleen Quach, agreed. "These are great – much better than other oysters," Kathleen Quach said.
When she and her husband stopped at Johnson’s for a lunch of fresh, raw oysters sprinkled with lemon juice, the day was clear and unseasonably warm. After they departed, Johnson Oyster Company was quiet. Most of the workers had knocked off for lunch, and Lunny was left to survey the near-empty grounds of his new business with a hopeful gleam in his eye.
"People love to come here and just hang," he said, adding that Johnson’s receives more visitors during the summer. "People bring their barbecues and come with their families, and we like that. We want more of that."