In September 1935, the Hueneme Dock Corp., a privately owned entity headed by Richard Bard, in an effort to obtain public funds to construct a harbor at Hueneme (then an unincorporated community), deeded 247 acres of land owned by the Berylwood Investment Co. (the Bard family trust), plus 13.5 acres, formerly part of the Lighthouse Reservation, and all of the necessary rights-of-way and franchises to the City of Oxnard if it would apply for a grant from the Public Works Administration. To formalize this arrangement, it was necessary for the City of Oxnard to annex a four-mile section of land, 60 feet wide, connecting the city to the harbor location, which was legally accomplished at an election in May 1936. Of course, this was not a new concept and was earlier exercised by the City of Los Angeles, with the annexation of a much larger strip reaching all the way to Wilmington.

Later that year, however, a new enactment was instituted by the Public Works Administration requiring that a harbor district under formation apply for a federal grant.

Therefore, on April 27, 1937, an election was held forming the Oxnard Harbor District. The boundaries conformed to those of the Oxnard Union High School District, used by necessity as a legal voting entity, which, at that time, included Oxnard, Hueneme, Camarillo, Somis, Newbury Park and Thousand Oaks.

Following this action, Richard Bard proposed to the city of Oxnard that the harbor property it had previously annexed be released to the Harbor District and that it should never be part of any incorporated city. With this assurance, the citizens of Oxnard went to the polls and voted to release the property from their city limits. This transaction, unfortunately, would one day be revived to fuel a legacy of distrust and suspicion. The city of Oxnard then ceded the harbor property back to the Hueneme Dock Corp., which, in turn, deeded it to the new Oxnard Harbor District.

During the period the voters of the Harbor District were waiting to hear from the Public Works Administration, they again went to the polls and voted a bond issue in the amount of $1,750,000. However, after all of these formalities were accomplished, the federal government determined that a harbor at Hueneme was not economically feasible and denied them a grant.

At this point, all the people of the Harbor District agreed that the harbor should be built without one cent of federal money, and on Jan. 4, 1939, all of the harbor bonds were subscribed at the full amount of $1,750,000. The harbor was completed on July 4, 1949, just months before Dec. 7, 1941. Ironically, the harbor was then, unceremoniously, taken over by the federal government, which had so recently denied it funds.

- Powell Greenland, Port Hueneme