TEPCO Beach

If you used to read this blog, please forgive my nearly seven-year absence. I left NYC, (I did the bulk of my exploring on the east coast) moved home to California, and had a kid in 2020. Exploring abandoned places was sidelined, but I’ve managed to get out there a little in the past few years and I’d like to start posting again. I still have a backlog of dozens of places I haven’t posted, but, well, none of it really matters so here’s a quick little place I went to in 2021, with my partner and kid in tow. 

TEPCO beach on Point Isabel in Richmond, California is the west coast’s equivalent of Bottle Beach in Brooklyn, although it pales in comparison to Bottle Beach in many ways. To access Bottle Beach, you must navigate a labyrinth of often overgrown pathways; to access TEPCO, you just park behind a Costco. Bottle beach is filled with all kinds of trash from the turn of the century; TEPCO has only broken dinnerware. 

TEPCO is not actually the name of the beach, it’s the name of the ceramics factory that used the beach as a dumping ground for its broken or chipped plates, bowls, cups, etc. The factory (The Technical Porcelain and Chinaware Company) operated from 1930 to 1968 when it closed after a kiln fire. Located in nearby El Cerrito, it was once the largest employer in that town. 

Side note: in 2005, artist Casey O’Connor threw thousands of porcelain buddha heads into the American River in Colfax, a two-hour drive from Point Isabell. For a few years, it was common to hear about people finding some of the heads at TEPCO beach.

While TEPCO dinnerware itself isn’t intrinsically worth much, a lot of people do collect it.

There isn’t all that much to explore at TEPCO beach, but it’s fun to poke around and try to find pieces that still say TEPCO on the bottom, and on a clear day you can see the Golden Gate Bridge.

r_leontiev on flickr has an amazing gallery of old TEPCO photos.

Disclaimer: If any information is incorrect, if you have more info, or if you’d just like to tell me something, feel free to contact me.

To support my work and see new comics, go here. To buy books, original artwork, merch, and more, visit my website store. Follow me on instagram.