The Port of Hueneme in the city of Port Hueneme, California, United States, is the only deep water harbor between Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area. Located in Ventura County on the Santa Barbara Channel, the port complex not only serves international shipping businesses but is an operating facility of Naval Base Ventura County (NBVC)."Welcome to Naval Base Ventura County" U.S. Navy Accessed 27 May 2014"Naval Base Ventura County: About" U.S. Navy Accessed 27 May 2014
The original wharf was built to serve the new farmers on the Oxnard Plain and became the largest grain shipping port south of San Francisco. The modern port continues this legacy as a dominant port for agribusiness (fruit and other produce), liquids, fresh seafood and vehicles. Bulk cargo and automobiles are specialties of the port and distinguish it from much larger ports.Office of System and Freight Planning (3 July 2012) "Freight Planning Fact Sheet:Port of Hueneme/Oxnard Harbor District" Caltrans General cargo includes household goods and oversized cargo. This includes providing support services for the offshore oil industry in the Santa Barbara Channel.
The port has a direct highway connection to the nationwide freight network which raises the status of the port and gives it access to more federal funding resulting in a competitive advantage. The port owns a railroad line through Port Hueneme and south Oxnard that is operated by the Ventura County Railroad and connects nationally to the Coast Route of Union Pacific."Municipal Service Review: Oxnard Harbor District" Ventura Local Agency Formation Commission (September 19, 2007) The District does not perform cargo handling operations as the companies shipping through the port take responsibility in cooperation with the port district. The commercial port operations have five deep-water berths.Hoops, Stephanie (April 4, 2014) "Port of Hueneme flips switch on shore power system for ships" Ventura County Star
The Navy controls the ship movements. As a shared port between NBVC and the Oxnard Harbor District, the U.S. Navy has over of berthing space for various ship platforms for use by tenant commands of NBVC: Port Hueneme and transient government contract/military shipping.Commanding Officer, Naval Base Ventura County (2011) "NAVAL BASE VENTURA COUNTY ECONOMIC IMPACT AND COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT" U.S. Navy
History European immigrants began farming on the Oxnard Plain in the 1860s but the area was isolated due to the difficult overland routes. Thomas R. Bard chose Point Hueneme as the site of a wharf to take advantage of the naturally occurring depth of a submarine canyon. The extra depth meant there was less surge while the boats were loading or unloading than there would be at other locations.(February 25, 1916) "Ventura Harbor, CAL" House of Representatives 64th Congress, 1st Session, Document NO. 792 Before the construction of a in 1872, goods had been shuttled through the surf zone to reach offshore vessels.Waters, Mark E., Publisher "Port of Hueneme" World Port Source Hueneme soon became the largest grain-shipping port south of San Francisco and the wharf was extended to in 1897.Ventura County: Hueneme Los Angeles Herald 25 September 1897 Volume 26, Number 360, Page 7
Three- and four-masted wooden schooners brought lumber from the north and carried grain, lima beans and sheep to markets in San Francisco.Cultural Heritage Board. "Ventura County Landmark Map" County of Ventura Planning Division Accessed 5 April 2014 Teams of horses pulling wagons waited for the load of grain to be weighed in lines that stretched six blocks. Hoping to connect the new wharf with ore mines in Inyo County, Bard launched a campaign to build a road through the Santa Clara River Valley.Lima, Christina (February 18, 1996) "Collision Course : Scenic but Dangerous California 126 Throws Drivers a Curve" Los Angeles Times Bard also platted the townsite of Hueneme to support the activity at the port and build a family home.
In 1898, the railroad line that had connected Ventura to Los Angeles crossed the Santa Clara River at El Rio on a new bridge. The line continued due south to where the town of Oxnard was being established at the site of the American Beet Sugar Company factory being built by the Oxnard Brothers in the middle portion of the plain. Passenger and freight traffic declined as they shifted to the railroad.Chase, J. Smeaton (1913). "California Coast Trails: a Horseback Ride from Mexico to Oregon" Chapter VI. Reprinted in The Double Cone Register, the online journal of the Ventana Wilderness Alliance, Volume VIII, No. 1, Fall 2005 Traffic was drastically reduced when the coast route was finished in 1904 and became the most direct route between Los Angeles and San Francisco."CHATSWORTH PARK CUTOFF LINE OPENS TODAY" Los Angeles Herald 20 March 1904. Volume 21, Number 173, Page 2
The Harbor District was formed April 29, 1937 with an area of about . Building the port became even more important when a storm destroyed the wharf in 1938. On February 4, 1939, the groundbreaking ceremony drew hundreds of people. This endeavor was front-page news in Ventura County as the United States emerged from the Great Depression. The U.S. military took control of the entire harbor after the outbreak of World War II and significantly enlarged the deep water port. Bard's was leased by the Navy during World War II and acquired by the government in 1951. and His home, Berylwood mansion, remains within the military base and is used as a conference center.The Bard Mansion webpage. "Berylwood, Historic Home and Gardens". Friends of the Bard Mansion website. Accessed 27, September, 2013 Several other large properties adjacent to port were also acquired to establish the Advance Base Depot which began operating May 18, 1942 to provide support for the Naval Construction Force, commonly called the Seabees. Massive amounts of equipment and materiel were shipped from here to the war efforts in the Pacific. The base was renamed the Naval Construction Battalion Center in 1945 and became an operating facility of Naval Base Ventura County in 2000.
The District has regained control over and an additional of private and public land serve support functions for the port. This has come about due to the gradual realignment and reduction in the nation's defense forces. For example, were added to the port's existing in 1997 as obsolete military facilities were demolished.Green, Nick (March 26, 1997) "Navy Transfers 33 Acres to Harbor District" Los Angeles Times Commercial shipping activities have consistently expanded and taken advantage of the additional space. Both the port and military base are within the corporate limits of the city of Port Hueneme.The Port of Hueneme: About Us: History The Port of Hueneme
In 2008 the port repaired the on the south side of the entrance that protects the shoreline and marine terminals from coastal erosion. The project included construction of the Waterfront Promenade, also known as the Lighthouse Promenade. The path is wide enough to accommodate emergency or service vehicles and is lighted. The path provides paved public access along the shore by replacing a dirt path and connecting with the pathways at Hueneme Beach. The old seawall material was recycled by crushing the rock and using it as base material for the pathway.Klampe, Michelle L. (March 21, 2008) "Waterfront Promenade officially opens today" Ventura County Star
Bananas were the port's largest volume product in 2014 and were continuing to increase. Chiquita was importing making the port No. 2 in the nation for the company. The port’s goal was to be “the nation’s No. 1 port of choice for food production." The port and Ecuador’s Port Bolivar agreed to become “sister ports” in 2014 and promote the banana industry together. Forty percent of the Ecuador's banana exports go through Port Bolivar and were imported through the Port of Hueneme in 2013. The ports want to be more competitive and more attractive by sharing knowledge, policies and best practices on training, facilities development, engineering and technical services, security, supply chain logistics and environmental protection. The ports expected a mutual benefit for their customers through these cooperative arrangements in technology and policy.Lawrence, Carol (May 22, 2014) "Business development trip puts Port of Hueneme on exporters' radar" Ventura County Star
Cargo volume grew 44% between 2009 and 2018. In 2019, the annual volume of cargo was 1.6 million tons in 2019 worth an estimated $9 billion dollars. The port formed a partnership with global container shipping line, SeaLand, in 2016 for their West Coast Central America route. The new route allowed products to arrive in Ventura County sooner and provided a convenient point to import and export goods from Central and South America for local companies. A modernization project that started in 2019 included adding an electric crane and deepening the harbor to .
In 2019, the largest drug seizure at the port in decades was the result of a joint investigation by officers from Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Field Operations. In January, cocaine was found under the floorboards of two ships.
Beginning in 2021, shippers looked to the port during the global supply chain disruption. Vessels were arriving at full capacity as shippers chose carriers not headed for Los Angeles County ports and ships were also unloading all their containers here to avoid the backlog of ships at those ports farther south. While shifting to the port was not practical for ships with a substantial number of containers due to the lack of resources needed to offload, container ships that were newly chartered by suppliers were utilizing the port. A standing joint-use agreement from 2002 was also activated that allowed use of Wharf 3 onboard Naval Base Ventura County. The additional land and buildings helped stage the backlog of containers and get commodities to market which enabled the port to take on more cargo and avoid congestion. In early 2022, FedEx Logistics sent three chartered vessels from China with between 184 and 250 with electronics, car parts, and clothing. Transit time was reduced by over 20 days instead of using the Los Angeles County ports according to the company.
Funding for ports by the state of California in July 2023 provided money for the Port Action, Climate and Environment Development (PACED) projects which includes removing dilapidated buildings, wharf repairs, and deepening berths. The port will also use the funding to install zero-emission plug-in units for containers, support power and emissions control systems that make vessels emission-free, and purchase zero-emission cargo handling equipment.
Port operation
The ability to handle a diverse breadth of business is one way the port distinguishes itself from the much larger ports in Los Angeles County (Long Beach and Los Angeles) which are designed with the infrastructure to service container ships with approximately 5,000 containers.Hoops, Stephanie (September 23, 2014) "Port's cargo processing numbers remain steady" Ventura County Star The port has five deep-water berths and two cranes for handling intermodal containers and bulk cargo.Hoops, Stephanie (November 10, 2014) "Amid labor strife, Port of Hueneme safe for now"Ventura County Star Vessels arriving carry between 1,250 and 1,500 containers as larger vessels are unable to use the berthing facilities. As an official port of entry into the United States and being adjacent to the Navy Base, the facility maintains a high level of security including monitoring those entering and leaving the port complex. Hazardous cargo cannot be processed through the port.