The Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historic Park is located in Richmond, California, on the shores of San Francisco Bay. The Visitor Center has an information desk, shop and a wonderful museum. The location of this site is important because it is at the location where thousands of people were employed during WWII to build tanks and ships for use in the United States war effort.

The museum has wonderful multi-media exhibits, and explains that the City of Richmond grew from 24,000 people to more than 100,000 people in the span of just three years. This was also during the time when Japanese Americans, many from this area, were being moved to detention centers. People from all over the country were flocking to Richmond to get jobs at one of the over 50 businesses that were engaged in producing products for use in the war effort.

The entire war effort made a huge impact on life in Richmond. There were 4 times as many people, because there were jobs to support that many people, but there were no homes for these people. People lived in anything they could find to set up a home in, including tents and boxcars. Even though they were making a good salary, they were not able to find a place to live. This put pressure on all city services, and some people would go to the movies, just to find a quiet place to get some rest.

The demographics of the workforce was drastically changed during this time. Prior to the war, the workers were primarily white men. After the men went off to war, women were there to take the positions that were left. In addition, people from the Midwest and South came to the city for good, well-paying jobs. The workforce changed from primarily white men to having many women, and African Americans. Because there was so much work to do, there was no other way, and the situation resulted in a lot of progress towards the advancement of those groups.

The sheer amount of product being produced, and the rate at which it was being produced is mind-bending. Full ships, ready for sail were being welded together in the span of only 2.5 weeks.

When I set out to see the Rosie the Riveter site, I was doing so because I was visiting my son at his college, and he was busy studying. In an effort to keep myself out of the way, and since I have a goal to see as many NPS properties as possible, I set out to see the closest one, which was Rosie the Riveter. When I set out, I didn't have much of a sense of what this site would be about. I thought it would be about women and welding. I was very happily surprised to have learned as much as I did about the change in the City of Richmond due to the war, the changes to gender and race relations due to the change in workforce, and was impressed by the volume of work that was done is such a short period of time.

The NPS website for the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historic Park is at https://www.nps.gov/rori/index.htm

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