Park district acquires former Concord Naval Weapons Station land

More than 2,200 acres of former Concord Naval Weapons Station land in eastern Concord is now in the hands of the East Bay Regional Park District, which plans to make this land the center of a new park.

The park district board voted on July 2 to accept 2,216 acres of land from the U.S. Navy. The transfer of the park land was celebrated at a Saturday ceremony on the east side of the former Concord Naval Weapons Station land, an event at which the 75th anniversary of the Port Chicago explosion that killed 320 people — most of them African Americans — when highly explosive ammunition detonated at the north end of the naval weapons station.