California’s Bizarre Thanksgiving History

Turkey would be unfamiliar fare to the miners in San Francisco, circa 1850, who favored jackrabbit instead. (Amy Shamblen)

BY DAVID COPPIN LANEGAN

David Coppin Lanegan (@willybillybilliam, @wavesons.band) is a writer and musician. Find his SubStack Jawbone here, and his band Wavesons’ music here. 

Thanksgiving has been an official holiday in the United States since 1863 when, in the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November as the official American Thanksgiving.

The state of California, however, has recognized an official Thanksgiving since 1850. The state’s first elected governor, Peter Hardeman Burnett, proclaimed November 30th as California’s official Thanksgiving. Just weeks later, news that California had become a state reached the San Francisco Bay.

The date being November 30th is, likely, somewhat arbitrary. The placement of Thanksgiving is attributed to a smattering of historical events and holidays that take place in November, including Guy Fawkes day, Evacuation Day, and Oktoberfest.

A notable, Bay Area-specific Thanksgiving tradition is the consumption of jackrabbit as the evening’s main delicacy. This is due to gold miners, in state for the gold rush of 1849, and their access to genuine, plains-grown hare meat in their rural encampments.

Racist whacko Peter Hardeman Burnett, who brought Thanksgiving to California before the federal government made it an official holiday, could never. (Element5 Digital)

While the baptists of San Francisco celebrated this first Thanksgiving with a vast feast full of many delicacies, jointly celebrating California’s statehood, not all Bay folk were pleased with the placement of the day, with local news joint Daily Alta referring to November 23rd as “unusual.” 

Still, other groups utilized the state holiday to make merriment. Traditionally, a football game between Stanford and Berkeley is held on Thanksgiving day. This resulted in disaster on Thanksgiving day in 1900, when a large group of people, watching “The Big Game” from afar on a factory roof, caused said roof to collapse and were hurled into the glass furnaces below. This is the deadliest sports-related disaster in history, killing 23 (Scott, Sam (November 1, 2015). “The Big Game Disaster of 1900“)

With Lincoln’s official Thanksgiving proclamation in 1863, California’s November 23rd Thanksgiving was brought to an end. Fitting, though: Peter Hardeman Burnett was a horrible racist and notorious slave owner who advocated for the expelling of African Americans from Oregon (Hindery, Robin (May 20, 2011). “San Francisco school swaps out name of racist California governor”. San Jose Mercury News.)

The celebration of Thanksgiving here is not diminished nor tarnished by Burnett’s evil legacy, nor by the adoption of a nationwide celebration. You can still watch Stanford and Berkley play football in late November or early December. You can participate in the Turkey Trot race in Golden Gate Park on the day of. Maybe you can go out to eat at one of the city’s many Black-owned restaurants. Or, you can stay at home and cook up some jackrabbit.