McNear established a dairy farm and gradually increased his holdings in the area to 2,440 acres and more than five miles of waterfront on San Pablo Bay.

Chinese immigrants worked at the McNear ranch and supplemented their income by fishing for shrimp along the shores of San Pablo Bay.

In the 1880s, McNear and his son established a fashionable resort on the shore that included a hotel, gardens, and a dance hall.

His plans for adding a shipping terminal and railroad at the site were thwarted by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

China Camp State Park, adjacent to McNear Beach on the east, is a unit of the San Francisco Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve.