View allAll Photos Tagged CALIFORNIA_GOLD
The earliest archaeological evidence of inhabitation of the territory of the city of San Francisco dates to 3000 BC.[11] People of the Ohlone language group occupied Northern California from at least the 6th century.[12] Though their territory had been claimed by Spain since the early 16th century, they would have relatively little contact with Europeans until 1769, when, as part of an effort to colonize Alta California, an exploration party led by Don Gaspar de Portola learned of the existence of San Francisco Bay.[13]
Seven years later, in 1776, an expedition led by Juan Bautista de Anza selected the site for the Presidio of San Francisco, which Jose Joaquin Moraga would soon establish. Later the same year, the Franciscan missionary Francisco Palóu founded the Mission San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores).[14] The Yelamu tribal group of the Ohlone, who had had several villages in the area, were among those brought to live and work at the mission and be converted into the Catholic faith.
Upon independence from Spain in 1821, the area became part of Mexico. Under Mexican rule, the mission system gradually ended and its lands began to be privatized. In 1835, Englishman William Richardson erected the first independent homestead,[15] near a boat anchorage around what is today Portsmouth Square. Together with Alcalde Francisco de Haro, he laid out a street plan for the expanded settlement, and the town, named Yerba Buena, began to attract American settlers. Commodore John D. Sloat claimed California for the United States on July 7, 1846, during the Mexican-American War, and Captain John B. Montgomery arrived to claim Yerba Buena two days later. Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco the next year,[16] and Mexico officially ceded the territory to the United States at the end of the war. Despite its attractive location as a port and naval base, San Francisco was still a small settlement with inhospitable geography.[17]
he California Gold Rush brought a flood of treasure seekers. With their sourdough bread in tow,[18] prospectors accumulated in San Francisco over rival Benicia,[19] raising the population from 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 by December 1849.[20] The promise of fabulous riches was so strong that crews on arriving vessels deserted and rushed off to the gold fields, leaving behind a forest of masts in San Francisco harbor.[21] California was quickly granted statehood, and the U.S. military built Fort Point at the Golden Gate and a fort on Alcatraz Island to secure the San Francisco Bay. Silver discoveries, including the Comstock Lode in 1859, further drove rapid population growth.[22] With hordes of fortune seekers streaming through the city, lawlessness was common, and the Barbary Coast section of town gained notoriety as a haven for criminals, prostitution, and gambling.[23]
Many San Francisco entrepreneurs sought to capitalize on the wealth generated by the Gold Rush. Among the winners were the banking industry which saw the founding of Wells Fargo in 1852 and the Bank of California in 1864. The development of the Port of San Francisco established the city as a center of trade. Catering to the needs and tastes of the growing population, Levi Strauss opened a dry goods business and Domingo Ghirardelli began manufacturing chocolate. Immigrant laborers made the city a polyglot culture, with Chinese railroad workers creating the city's Chinatown quarter. The first cable cars carried San Franciscans up Clay Street in 1873. The city's sea of Victorian houses began to take shape, and civic leaders campaigned for a spacious public park, resulting in plans for Golden Gate Park. San Franciscans built schools, churches, theaters, and all the hallmarks of civic life. The Presidio developed into the most important American military installation on the Pacific coast.[24] By the turn of the century, San Francisco was a major city known for its flamboyant style, stately hotels, ostentatious mansions on Nob Hill, and a thriving arts scene.[25]
San Francisco is the leading financial and cultural center of Northern California and the San Francisco Bay Area.
The only consolidated city-county in California, San Francisco encompasses a land area of about 46.9 square miles (121 km2) on the northern end of the San Francisco Peninsula, giving it a density of about 17,620 people per square mile (6,803 people per km2). It is the most densely settled large city (population greater than 200,000) in the state of California and the second-most densely populated major city in the United States after New York. San Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California, after Los Angeles, San Diego and San Jose, and the 14th most populous city in the United States—with a Census-estimated 2012 population of 825,863. The city is also the financial and cultural hub of the larger San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland metropolitan area, with a population of 8.4 million.
San Francisco (Spanish for "Saint Francis") was founded on June 29, 1776, when colonists from Spain established a fort at the Golden Gate and a mission named for St. Francis of Assisi a few miles away. The California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time. Due to the growth of its population, San Francisco became a consolidated city-county in 1856. After three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. During World War II, San Francisco was the port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater. After the war, the confluence of returning servicemen, massive immigration, liberalizing attitudes, and other factors led to the Summer of Love and the gay rights movement, cementing San Francisco as a center of liberal activism in the United States.
Today, San Francisco is ranked 44th of the top tourist destinations in the world, and was the sixth most visited one in the United States in 2011. The city is renowned for its cool summers, fog, steep rolling hills, eclectic mix of architecture, and landmarks including the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, the former prison on Alcatraz Island, and its Chinatown district. It is also a primary banking and finance center.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_francisco
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...
I harken back to my past life as Chief Mine Geologist and Exploration Manager for Gold Fields Mining at the Mesquite Gold Mine in Southeasternmost California. I worked for Gold fields Mining Corporation for 15 years with 10 of those years at the Mesquite Mine.
V701 | California Gold
Email us for more details
sales@velocitymotoring.com
sales@velocitymotoring.com
The Yuba Goldfields is a valley of 10,000 acres (40 km2) on both sides of the Yuba River in Yuba County, California, located northeast of Marysville. The goldfields are noted for their otherworldly appearance, filled with oddly shaped gravel mountains, ravines, streams and turquoise-colored pools of water. From the air, the goldfields are said to resemble intestines.
They were created during the California Gold Rush. The first Yuba-area miners panned for gold in stream beds in the valley but within a decade large-scale industrial processes replaced solitary prospectors. Mining companies moved from the valley floor into the Sierra Nevada foothills, where miners blasted gravel hillsides with high-pressure jets of water—a process called hydraulic mining.
One hundred and fifty years of gold mining and also gravel mining have given the Goldfields the unique and completely unnatural landscape that exists today.
Downieville is a census-designated place in and the county seat of Sierra County, California, United States. Downieville is on the North Fork of the Yuba River, at an elevation of 2,966 feet (904 m). The 2010 United States census reported Downieville's population was 282.
Downieville was founded in late 1849 during the California Gold Rush, in the Northern Mines area. It was first known as "The Forks" for its geographical location at the confluence of the Downie River and North Fork of the Yuba River.
It was soon renamed after Major William Downie (1820-1893), the town's founder. Downie was a Scotsman who had led an expedition of nine miners, seven of them African American men, up the North Fork of the Yuba River in the Autumn of 1849. At the present site of the town they struck rich gold, built a log cabin, and settled in to wait out the winter. He became the town's first mayor. Major Downie's travels are documented in his 1893 autobiography, "Hunting for Gold." By latter 1850 Downieville already had 15 hotels, 4 bakeries, 4 butcher shops, and numerous saloons.
In 1853 Downieville was vying to become the new state capital of California, along with fifteen other California communities to replace Vallejo. However, the capital was moved to Benicia for a year, and then in 1854 to Sacramento, its location ever since.
The Northern Mines area of the gold rush had a number of mining camps with colorful names, such as Brandy City (originally known as Strychnine City), Whiskey Diggins, Poverty Hill, Poker Flat, and Camptonville. Many of these camps disappeared after the gold rush, or are ghost towns. Downieville had reached a peak population of over 5,000 people in 1851, but by 1865 had significantly declined. It survived due to its status as the county seat of government in Sierra County, and from its geographic location between Sacramento Valley and Tahoe region/Nevada destinations.
Downieville is surrounded by the Yuba River District of the Tahoe National Forest. Popular outdoor recreation activities include fishing, mountain biking, back country "jeeping" and motorcycling, kayaking, hiking and nature walks, gold panning, and sites of the California Gold Rush. Fishing includes planted rainbow trout and German brown trout in the North Fork of the Yuba River.
The town is a popular destination and central hub for mountain biking trails and events.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downieville,_California
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...
Lovely Yellow 458 Spider on Italian plates, driven by Team California Gold, a couple of friends from California, doing the Gumball run. This 458 was registered to the province of Bologna. The car was also delivered by a prestige car dealership in the municipality of Pegola, 20km north of the city of Bologna.
Manchester, United Kingdom
Dr. Carlos Lopez discusses Chileans in the California Gold Rush for the One Book One Community program at East Palo Alto Library on October 24, 2007 at 7 pm.
Hornitos Road, Merced Falls, Mariposa County, CA, 5/18/2010
Linhof Master Technika 2000 camera, 210mm Rodenstock Sironar-N f/5.6 lens, Fujicolor Pro 160S film, 2 exposures, 142 megapixels
Whenever I follow my electronic navigator's most direct route from my home to Yosemite National Park, I drive past the abandoned town of Merced Falls and then south along Hornitos Road. The route goes through rolling grassland countryside here at the edge of California Gold Country. This particular old oak tree and distant vista beyond had caught my eye on earlier trips, but the weather and lighting were never ideal; usually there were absolutely no clouds. On this beautiful May afternoon I found my favorite kind of sky: deep blue with white puffy cumulus clouds out to the horizon. Such a sky completes the scene, adding interest and depth to the landscape. This is the view looking east northeast from the road at an elevation of 460 feet above sea level, with Merced County and Table Top Mountain behind us and Mariposa County and distant Cemetery Hill before us. At the horizon are the western flank of the Sierra Nevada and Yosemite National Park. Before European settlement of North America, the oak savanna ecosystem was part of a fire ecology. Fires started by lightning and Native Americans ensured that the savanna areas did not become forests; only trees with a high tolerance for fire - especially certain oak species - were able to survive. Today, grasslands in California are among the most endangered ecosystems in the United States. The Gold Country is famed for the mineral deposits and gold mines that attracted waves of immigrants during the 1849 California Gold Rush. The region lies here on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, reaching down to the Sacramento Valley.
San Francisco is the leading financial and cultural center of Northern California and the San Francisco Bay Area.
The only consolidated city-county in California, San Francisco encompasses a land area of about 46.9 square miles (121 km2) on the northern end of the San Francisco Peninsula, giving it a density of about 17,620 people per square mile (6,803 people per km2). It is the most densely settled large city (population greater than 200,000) in the state of California and the second-most densely populated major city in the United States after New York. San Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California, after Los Angeles, San Diego and San Jose, and the 14th most populous city in the United States—with a Census-estimated 2012 population of 825,863. The city is also the financial and cultural hub of the larger San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland metropolitan area, with a population of 8.4 million.
San Francisco (Spanish for "Saint Francis") was founded on June 29, 1776, when colonists from Spain established a fort at the Golden Gate and a mission named for St. Francis of Assisi a few miles away. The California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time. Due to the growth of its population, San Francisco became a consolidated city-county in 1856. After three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. During World War II, San Francisco was the port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater. After the war, the confluence of returning servicemen, massive immigration, liberalizing attitudes, and other factors led to the Summer of Love and the gay rights movement, cementing San Francisco as a center of liberal activism in the United States.
Today, San Francisco is ranked 44th of the top tourist destinations in the world, and was the sixth most visited one in the United States in 2011. The city is renowned for its cool summers, fog, steep rolling hills, eclectic mix of architecture, and landmarks including the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, the former prison on Alcatraz Island, and its Chinatown district. It is also a primary banking and finance center.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_francisco
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...
The discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill set off the California gold rush of 1849. In this scene prospectors dig for gold with picks and shovels and pan for the precious metal. In the center three well-dressed men, possibly Sutter and two friends, carefully examine the contents of a prospector's pan. This was the last scene designed by Brumidi and painted by Costaggini.
This official Architect of the Capitol photograph is being made available for educational, scholarly, news or personal purposes (not advertising or any other commercial use). When any of these images is used the photographic credit line should read “Architect of the Capitol.” These images may not be used in any way that would imply endorsement by the Architect of the Capitol or the United States Congress of a product, service or point of view. For more information visit www.aoc.gov.
2022 Joseph Raphael De Lamar was a Dutch born merchant seaman who made a fortune in mining and metallurgy during the California Gold Rush - this residence built as his entré into New York society - but soon after it was built De Lamar and his wife divorced - 1910 census taker found De Lamar in residence with his daughter Alice by then 15 and nine servants - De Lamar died eight years later in 1918 at the age of 75 with an obituary in The Boston Daily Globe describing him as a - man of mystery - and an accomplished organist who left an estate worth $29 million to his daughter - 07/11/2022
That quote from the California gold rush keeps running through my mind as I see all the beech and oak leaves still hanging on in the woods.
Below is one of our huge scarlet oaks that fell during the ice storm last year. The roots reaching out were so interesting to me contrasting against the snow.
And I'm just throwing in the red bellied woodpecker shot, as well, while he enjoys the same tree as the pileated that left.
Yes, I have a hodge podge of uploads this morning. Now I'm off to work.
Vicksburg, Mississippi est. 1825, pop. (2013) 23,542 • MS Delta
• General Lloyd Tilghman (1816-1863) • born in Clairborne, Maryland at Rich Neck Manor, a 250 acre plantation • great-great-grandson of Matthew Tilghman, a leader of the the American Revolution & delegate to the Continental Congress, 1774-1776
• in 1836, cadet Lloyd Tilghman graduated near the bottom of his West Point class • served in the Mexican War • became a a civil engineer •
• lived in Panama, 2 yrs., as principal assistant engineer, Panama Division, Isthmus Railroad • the completed Panama Railroad linked the Caribbean port of Colon to Panama (City) on the Pacific side of the isthmus • like the canal that would follow, the railroad provided a means for a faster, safer inter-oceanic route to Califorina • played a significant role in both U.S. expansion westward & the California Gold Rush —Confederate General Lloyd Tilghman: A Biography, James W. Raab
• on return to U.S., took up residence in Paducah, Kentucky • worked on several other railroads • after the outbreak of the American Civil War, commissioned colonel of the 3rd Kentucky Infantry, 5 July, 1861 • promoted to brigadier general, Confederate States Army, 18 October
• surrendered Fort Henry to Admiral Andrew H. Foote, 2 Feb, 1862, which was regarded by his superiors as a disgrace • in his battle report, Tilghman stated that Fort Henry had been built in a "wretched military position. ... The history of military engineering records no parallel to this case.” • Grant reported to Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck: "Fort Henry is ours. ... I shall take and destroy Fort Donelson on the 8th and return to Fort Henry." • Halleck wired Washington, D.C.: "Fort Henry is ours. The flag is reestablished on the soil of Tennessee. It will never be removed."
• Gen. Tilghman was imprisioned as a POW at Fort Warren, Boston • upon release in a prisoner exchange, was placed in charge of exchanged prisoners at Jackson • organized & equipped them for battle & led them to victory against Union forces at Coffeyville, MS, 5 Dec., 1862 • fought in the Vicksburg Campaign until killed by an exploding shell, 26 May, 1863, Battle of Champion Hill
"As soon as the enemy discovered that we were leaving the field he rallied and moved forward in heavy force. General Tilghman had been instructed to hold a point on the Edwards Depot and Raymond road at all hazards. Always ready to obey orders, he soon met the enemy, 6,000 to 8,000 strong, with a fine artillery; him, being advantageously posted, he not only held him in check but repulsed him on several occasions, and thus kept open the only line of retreat left to the army. The bold stand of this brigade, less than 1,500 effective men, under the lamented hero, saved a large portion of the army. It is befitting that I should speak of that death of gallant and accomplished Lloyd Tilghman. Quick and bold in the execution of his plans, he fell in the midst of his brigade that loved him well, after repelling a powerful enemy in deadly fight, struck by a cannon shot: A brigade wept over the dying hero, alike beautiful as it was touching." —division commander, Gen. W. W. Loring
"At 5:20 o'clock Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman who up to that time had commanded the brigade with marked ability, fell, killed by a shot from one of the enemy's guns. I cannot here refrain from paying a slight tribute to the memory of my late commander. As a man, a soldier, and a general, he had few if any superiors. Always at his post he devoted himself day and night to the interests of his command. Upon the battlefield he was cool and collected and observant. He commanded the entire respect and confidence of every officer and soldier under him, and the only censure ever cast upon him was that he always exposed himself too recklessly. At the time he was struck down he was standing in the rear of a battery directing a charge in the elevation of one of the guns. The tears shed by his men on the occasion and the grief felt by his entire brigade are the proudest tribute that can be given the gallant dead." —report of Col. A. F. Reynolds, who succeeded Tilghman —Confederate Veteran, September, 1910
• monument cost: donated by sons, Frederick B. & Sidell Tilghman
• sculpted, 1926, by Virginia sculptor F. Wm. Sievers (1872-1966), among the most prominent “lost cause” artists • born, Ft. Wayne, IN • was a picture framer in Richmond • evening courses at the Virginia Mechanics Institute • saved up enough to study at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Rome & Académie Julian, Paris, 1902 • 1st commission: Confederate Memorial at Elmira, New York, 1906 .
• Vicksburg National Military Park preserves the site of the American Civil War Battle of Vicksburg (1863) • the 47-day Union siege ended in the Confederate surrender of the city • victory here & at Port Hudson, LA, gave the Union control of the Mississippi River • park includes 1,325 historic monuments & markers, 20 miles (32 km) of Civil War era trenches & earthworks, 144 cannons & the USS Cairo, a restored gunboat... read on
• originally established in 1899 • 5th national military park under the control of the U.S. War Department • ownership transferred to the U.S. Department of the Interior & the National Park Service, 1933 • 8th oldest National Park • Facebook
• Vicksburg's State Memorials • the military leaders of the Battle of Vicksburg [photos]
• National Register # 66000100, 1966
Golden Poppy, official California State Flower, March 12, 2008, Pasadena, California. Taken in my garden.
View Golden Poppies set... www.flickr.com/photos/webnet/sets/72157623612309749/
California Indians cherished the poppy as both a source of food and for oil extracted from the plant. Its botanical name, Eschsholtzia californica, was given by Adelbert Von Chamisso, a naturalist and member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, who dropped anchor in San Francisco in 1816 in a bay surrounded by hills of the golden flowers. Also sometimes known as the Flame Flower, La Amapola, and Copa de Oro (Cup of Gold), the poppy grows wild throughout California. It became the state flower in 1903. Every year April 6 is California Poppy Day, and Governor Wilson proclaimed May 13-18, 1996, Poppy Week.
Scientific name: Eschscholzia californica
Source: www.shgresources.com/ca/symbols/flower/
archived: C95--3-09-08_6150
The Californian Gold Rush of 1849 saw a proliferation in the use of steam power for the extraction of mineral wealth.
Visit www.empireofsteam.blogspot.com for the full story behind this and many other constructions of the Steampunk Age.
San Francisco, California April/2018
San Francisco is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Northern California. It covers an area of about 46.89 square miles (121.4 km2), mostly at the north end of the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area. San Francisco is the fourth-most populous city in California and the 13th-most populous in the United States, with a 2017 census-estimated population of 884,363. The consolidated city-county is also the fifth most densely populated U.S. county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs. As of 2016, it was the 7th highest-income county in the United States, with a per capita personal income of $110,418.
San Francisco was founded on June 29, 1776, when colonists from Spain established Presidio of San Francisco at the Golden Gate and Mission San Francisco de Asís a few miles away, all named for St. Francis of Assisi.[1] The California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time. San Francisco became a consolidated city-county in 1856. After three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II, San Francisco was a major port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater. It then became the birthplace of the United Nations in 1945. After the war, the confluence of returning servicemen, significant immigration, liberalizing attitudes, along with the rise of the "hippie" counterculture, the Sexual Revolution, the Peace Movement growing from opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, and other factors led to the Summer of Loveand the gay rights movement, cementing San Francisco as a center of liberal activism in the United States. Politically, the city votes strongly along liberal Democratic Party lines.
A popular tourist destination San Francisco is known for its cool summers, fog, steep rolling hills, eclectic mix of architecture and landmarks, including the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, the former Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, Fisherman's Wharf, and its Chinatown district. San Francisco is also the headquarters of five major banking institutions
As of 2017, San Francisco is ranked high on world liveability rankings
Source: Wikipedia
São Francisco (em inglês: San Francisco) é a quarta cidade mais populosa do estado da Califórnia e a 13ª mais populosa dos Estados Unidos, com uma população de 805 235 habitantes, segundo o censo nacional de 2010. É a cidade mais densamente povoada da Califórnia e a segunda cidade grande (com uma população superior a 200 000) mais densamente povoada dos Estados Unidos.
Em 1776, os espanhóis estabeleceram uma fortaleza no Golden Gate e uma missão chamada de Francisco de Assis no local. A Corrida do ouro na Califórnia, em 1848, impulsionou a cidade em um período de rápido crescimento, o aumento da população em um ano foi de 1 000 a 25 000 habitantes, e, portanto, transformando-a na maior cidade da Costa Oeste dos Estados Unidos na época. Depois de três quartos da cidade terem sido destruídos pelo terremoto e incêndio de 1906, São Francisco foi reconstruída rapidamente, recebendo a Exposição Universal Panamá-Pacífico nove anos depois. Durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial, São Francisco foi o porto de embarque para a Guerra do Pacífico]. Após a guerra, o retorno dos militares, a imigração em massa, atitudes de liberalização e outros fatores que levaram ao Verão do Amor e ao movimento pelos direitos dos homossexuais, consolidaram São Francisco como um centro de ativismo liberal nos Estados Unidos.
Hoje, São Francisco é um popular destino turístico internacional, conhecido pela sua neblina fria do verão, íngremes colinas, eclética mistura de arquitetura vitoriana e moderna e seus marcos históricos famosos, incluindo a Ponte Golden Gate, os bondes e Chinatown. A cidade é também um centro financeiro e bancário, sendo sede de mais de 30 instituições financeiras internacionais, ajudando a São Francisco a se tornar a décima oitava cidade mais rica do mundo e nona nos Estados Unidos
Fonte: Wikipedia
Located not far from our town of Chico, California, the beautifully scenic Feather River Canyon was a recent destination for an afternoon of viewing waterfalls and wildflowers. This area is rich in the history of the California Gold Rush. The Feather River and it's tributaries were the source of millions of dollars of gold extracted by the flush of gold miners that descened on this area. This partiular spot struck me for its peaceful beauty. Although dredging for gold is no longer allowed, a tree adjacent to those in the photo had an official claim notice posted for mining by other means. We did stop along the creeks and river to wade in the cool water and try our own hand at gold panning.
Gold mass with quartz from California, USA. (public display, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois, USA)
A mineral is a naturally-occurring, solid, inorganic, crystalline substance having a fairly definite chemical composition and having fairly definite physical properties. At its simplest, a mineral is a naturally-occurring solid chemical. Currently, there are over 5600 named and described minerals - about 200 of them are common and about 20 of them are very common. Mineral classification is based on anion chemistry. Major categories of minerals are: elements, sulfides, oxides, halides, carbonates, sulfates, phosphates, and silicates.
Elements are fundamental substances of matter - matter that is composed of the same types of atoms. At present, 118 elements are known. Of these, 98 occur naturally on Earth (hydrogen to californium). Most of these occur in rocks & minerals, although some occur in very small, trace amounts. Only some elements occur in their native elemental state as minerals.
To find a native element in nature, it must be relatively non-reactive and there must be some concentration process. Metallic, semimetallic (metalloid), and nonmetallic elements are known in their native state as minerals.
Gold (Au) is the most prestigious metal known, but it's not the most valuable. Gold is the only metal that has a deep, rich, metallic yellow color. Almost all other metals are silvery-colored. Gold is very rare in crustal rocks - it averages about 5 ppb (parts per billion). Where gold has been concentrated, it occurs as wires, dendritic crystals, twisted sheets, octahedral crystals, and variably-shaped nuggets. It most commonly occurs in hydrothermal quartz veins, disseminated in some contact- & hydrothermal-metamorphic rocks, and in placer deposits. Placers are concentrations of heavy minerals in stream gravels or in cracks on bedrock-floored streams. Gold has a high specific gravity (about 19), so it easily accumulates in placer deposits. Its high density allows prospectors to readily collect placer gold by panning.
In addition to its high density, gold has a high melting point (over 1000º C). Gold is also relatively soft - about 2.5 to 3 on the Mohs Hardness Scale. The use of pure gold or high-purity gold in jewelry is not desirable as it easily gets scratched. The addition of other metals to gold to increase the hardness also alters the unique color of gold. Gold jewelry made & sold in America doesn’t have the gorgeous rich color of high-purity gold.
The specimen from California shown above is a moderately large, gold-rich rock with complexly intertwined gold masses mixed with quartz.
-----------------
Photo gallery of gold:
Auburn is a city in and the county seat of Placer County, California. Its population was 13,330 during the 2010 census. Auburn is known for its California Gold Rush history, and is registered as a California Historical Landmark
"St. John the Baptist Catholic Church and its cemetery date back to the California Gold Rush. The cemetery was established in the 1850s and the church was built in 1857. The church and graveyard site are open to the public, free of charge. The old gravestones and pathways provide a picturesque and historically interesting visit.
The cemetery is approximately 200 feet wide and 375 feet long, with the church building and parking lot taking up about a third of the property."
www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMKT0G_St_John_the_Baptist_Ca...
While other photographers were shooting the rioting, I decided it was much safer to visit an abandoned mine the other night. This mine dates back to 1874 and is the biggest and most elaborate I've explored yet. Ore chutes, ladders, pipes, hoses, nice timbering, and more.
I wore a pair of tall steel-toed rubber boots to walk through the rust-colored water. In some places I had to stay on the ore cart tracks to avoid deeper muck.
As is always the case with my colorful light photos, the colored effects seen in these photos were done with colored LED lights on location and NOT via Photoshop.
Fun fact: The shape of the green California highway signs mimics the spades carried by Forty-Niners into the foothills and sold by the opportunistic merchants who made the real fortunes of the California Gold Rush.
Badwater Basin is an endorheic basin in Death Valley National Park, Death Valley, Inyo County, California, noted as the lowest point in North America and the United States, with a depth of 282 ft (86 m) below sea level. Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous 48 United States, is only 84.6 miles (136 km) to the northwest.
The site itself consists of a small spring-fed pool of "bad water" next to the road in a sink; the accumulated salts of the surrounding basin make it undrinkable, thus giving it the name. The pool does have animal and plant life, including pickleweed, aquatic insects, and the Badwater snail.
Adjacent to the pool, where water is not always present at the surface, repeated freeze–thaw and evaporation cycles gradually push the thin salt crust into hexagonal honeycomb shapes.
The pool is not the lowest point of the basin: the lowest point (which is only slightly lower) is several miles to the west and varies in position, depending on rainfall and evaporation patterns. The salt flats are hazardous to traverse (in many cases being only a thin white crust over mud), and so the sign marking the low point is at the pool instead. The basin was considered the lowest elevation in the Western Hemisphere until the discovery of Laguna del Carbón in Argentina at −344 ft (−105 m).
Death Valley National Park is an American national park that straddles the California–Nevada border, east of the Sierra Nevada. The park boundaries include Death Valley, the northern section of Panamint Valley, the southern section of Eureka Valley and most of Saline Valley. The park occupies an interface zone between the arid Great Basin and Mojave deserts, protecting the northwest corner of the Mojave Desert and its diverse environment of salt-flats, sand dunes, badlands, valleys, canyons and mountains. Death Valley is the largest national park in the contiguous United States, as well as the hottest, driest and lowest of all the national parks in the United States. It contains Badwater Basin, the second-lowest point in the Western Hemisphere and lowest in North America at 282 feet (86 m) below sea level. More than 93% of the park is a designated wilderness area. The park is home to many species of plants and animals that have adapted to this harsh desert environment including creosote bush, Joshua tree, bighorn sheep, coyote, and the endangered Death Valley pupfish, a survivor from much wetter times. UNESCO included Death Valley as the principal feature of its Mojave and Colorado Deserts Biosphere Reserve in 1984.
A series of Native American groups inhabited the area from as early as 7000 BC, most recently the Timbisha around 1000 AD who migrated between winter camps in the valleys and summer grounds in the mountains. A group of European Americans, trapped in the valley in 1849 while looking for a shortcut to the gold fields of California, gave the valley its name, even though only one of their group died there. Several short-lived boom towns sprang up during the late 19th and early 20th centuries to mine gold and silver. The only long-term profitable ore to be mined was borax, which was transported out of the valley with twenty-mule teams. The valley later became the subject of books, radio programs, television series, and movies. Tourism expanded in the 1920s when resorts were built around Stovepipe Wells and Furnace Creek. Death Valley National Monument was declared in 1933 and the park was substantially expanded and became a national park in 1994.
The natural environment of the area has been shaped largely by its geology. The valley is actually a graben with the oldest rocks being extensively metamorphosed and at least 1.7 billion years old. Ancient, warm, shallow seas deposited marine sediments until rifting opened the Pacific Ocean. Additional sedimentation occurred until a subduction zone formed off the coast. The subduction uplifted the region out of the sea and created a line of volcanoes. Later the crust started to pull apart, creating the current Basin and Range landform. Valleys filled with sediment and, during the wet times of glacial periods, with lakes, such as Lake Manly.
Death Valley is the fifth-largest American national park and the largest in the contiguous United States. It is also larger than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware combined, and nearly as large as Puerto Rico. In 2013, Death Valley National Park was designated as a dark sky park by the International Dark-Sky Association
There are two major valleys in the park, Death Valley and Panamint Valley. Both of these valleys were formed within the last few million years and both are bounded by north–south-trending mountain ranges. These and adjacent valleys follow the general trend of Basin and Range topography with one modification: there are parallel strike-slip faults that perpendicularly bound the central extent of Death Valley. The result of this shearing action is additional extension in the central part of Death Valley which causes a slight widening and more subsidence there.
Uplift of surrounding mountain ranges and subsidence of the valley floor are both occurring. The uplift on the Black Mountains is so fast that the alluvial fans (fan-shaped deposits at the mouth of canyons) there are small and steep compared to the huge alluvial fans coming off the Panamint Range. Fast uplift of a mountain range in an arid environment often does not allow its canyons enough time to cut a classic V-shape all the way down to the stream bed. Instead, a V-shape ends at a slot canyon halfway down, forming a 'wine glass canyon.' Sediment is deposited on a small and steep alluvial fan.
At 282 feet (86 m) below sea level at its lowest point, Badwater Basin on Death Valley's floor is the second-lowest depression in the Western Hemisphere (behind Laguna del Carbón in Argentina), while Mount Whitney, only 85 miles (137 km) to the west, rises to 14,505 feet (4,421 m) and is the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States. This topographic relief is the greatest elevation gradient in the contiguous United States and is the terminus point of the Great Basin's southwestern drainage.[8] Although the extreme lack of water in the Great Basin makes this distinction of little current practical use, it does mean that in wetter times the lake that once filled Death Valley (Lake Manly) was the last stop for water flowing in the region, meaning the water there was saturated in dissolved materials. Thus, the salt pans in Death Valley are among the largest in the world and are rich in minerals, such as borax and various salts and hydrates. The largest salt pan in the park extends 40 miles (64 km) from the Ashford Mill Site to the Salt Creek Hills, covering some 200 square miles (520 km2) of the valley floor. The best known playa in the park is the Racetrack, known for its moving rocks.
According to the Köppen climate classification system, Death Valley National Park has a hot desert climate (BWh). The plant hardiness zone at Badwater Basin is 9b with an average annual extreme minimum temperature of 28.0 °F (–2.2 °C).
Death Valley is the hottest and driest place in North America due to its lack of surface water and low relief. It is so frequently the hottest spot in the United States that many tabulations of the highest daily temperatures in the country omit Death Valley as a matter of course.
On the afternoon of July 10, 1913, the United States Weather Bureau recorded a high temperature of 134 °F (56.7 °C) at Greenland Ranch (now Furnace Creek) in Death Valley. This temperature stands as the highest ambient air temperature ever recorded at the surface of the Earth. (A report of a temperature of 58 °C (136.4 °F) recorded in Libya in 1922 was later determined to be inaccurate.)[18] Daily summer temperatures of 120 °F (49 °C) or greater are common, as well as below freezing nightly temperatures in the winter. July is the hottest month, with an average high of 117 °F (47 °C) and an average low of 91 °F (33 °C). December is the coldest month, with an average high of 66 °F (19 °C) and an average low of 41 °F (5 °C). The record low is 15 °F (−9.4 °C). There are an average of 197.3 days annually with highs of 90 °F (32.2 °C) or higher and 146.9 days annually with highs of 100 °F (37.8 °C) or higher. Freezing temperatures of 32 °F (0 °C) or lower occur on an average of 8.6 days annually.
Several of the larger Death Valley springs derive their water from a regional aquifer, which extends as far east as southern Nevada and Utah. Much of the water in this aquifer has been there for many thousands of years, since the Pleistocene ice ages, when the climate was cooler and wetter. Today's drier climate does not provide enough precipitation to recharge the aquifer at the rate at which water is being withdrawn.
The highest range within the park is the Panamint Range, with Telescope Peak being its highest point at 11,049 feet (3,368 m). The Death Valley region is a transitional zone in the northernmost part of the Mojave Desert and consists of five mountain ranges removed from the Pacific Ocean. Three of these are significant barriers: the Sierra Nevada, the Argus Range, and the Panamint Range. Air masses tend to lose moisture as they are forced up over mountain ranges, in what climatologists call a rainshadow effect.
The exaggerated rain shadow effect for the Death Valley area makes it North America's driest spot, receiving about 1.5 inches (38 mm) of rainfall annually at Badwater, and some years fail to register any measurable rainfall.[20] Annual average precipitation varies from 1.92 inches (49 mm) overall below sea level to over 15 inches (380 mm) in the higher mountains that surround the valley. When rain does arrive it often does so in intense storms that cause flash floods which remodel the landscape and sometimes create very shallow ephemeral lakes.
The hot, dry climate makes it difficult for soil to form. Mass wasting, the down-slope movement of loose rock, is therefore the dominant erosive force in mountainous areas, resulting in "skeletonized" ranges (mountains with very little soil on them). Sand dunes in the park, while famous, are not nearly as widespread as their fame or the dryness of the area may suggest. The Mesquite Flat dune field is the most easily accessible from the paved road just east of Stovepipe Wells in the north-central part of the valley and is primarily made of quartz sand. Another dune field is just 10 miles (16 km) to the north but is instead mostly composed of travertine sand. The highest dunes in the park, and some of the highest in North America, are located in the Eureka Valley about 50 miles (80 km) to the north of Stovepipe Wells, while the Panamint Valley dunes and the Saline Valley dunes are located west and northwest of the town, respectively. The Ibex dune field is near the seldom-visited Ibex Hill in the southernmost part of the park, just south of the Saratoga Springs marshland. All the latter four dune fields are accessible only via unpaved roads. Prevailing winds in the winter come from the north, and prevailing winds in the summer come from the south. Thus, the overall position of the dune fields remains more or less fixed.
There are rare exceptions to the dry nature of the area. In 2005, an unusually wet winter created a 'lake' in the Badwater Basin and led to the greatest wildflower season in the park's history. In October 2015, a "1000 year flood event" with over three inches of rain caused major damage in Death Valley National Park. A similar widespread storm in August 2022 damaged pavement and deposited debris on nearly every road, trapping 1,000 residents and visitors overnight.
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2 million residents across a total area of approximately 163,696 square miles (423,970 km2), it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the most populated subnational entity in North America and the 34th most populous in the world. The Greater Los Angeles area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second and fifth most populous urban regions respectively, with the former having more than 18.7 million residents and the latter having over 9.6 million. Sacramento is the state's capital, while Los Angeles is the most populous city in the state and the second most populous city in the country. San Francisco is the second most densely populated major city in the country. Los Angeles County is the country's most populous, while San Bernardino County is the largest county by area in the country. California borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, the Mexican state of Baja California to the south; and has a coastline along the Pacific Ocean to the west.
The economy of the state of California is the largest in the United States, with a $3.4 trillion gross state product (GSP) as of 2022. It is the largest sub-national economy in the world. If California were a sovereign nation, it would rank as the world's fifth-largest economy as of 2022, behind Germany and ahead of India, as well as the 37th most populous. The Greater Los Angeles area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second- and third-largest urban economies ($1.0 trillion and $0.5 trillion respectively as of 2020). The San Francisco Bay Area Combined Statistical Area had the nation's highest gross domestic product per capita ($106,757) among large primary statistical areas in 2018, and is home to five of the world's ten largest companies by market capitalization and four of the world's ten richest people.
Prior to European colonization, California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America and contained the highest Native American population density north of what is now Mexico. European exploration in the 16th and 17th centuries led to the colonization of California by the Spanish Empire. In 1804, it was included in Alta California province within the Viceroyalty of New Spain. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821, following its successful war for independence, but was ceded to the United States in 1848 after the Mexican–American War. The California Gold Rush started in 1848 and led to dramatic social and demographic changes, including large-scale immigration into California, a worldwide economic boom, and the California genocide of indigenous people. The western portion of Alta California was then organized and admitted as the 31st state on September 9, 1850, following the Compromise of 1850.
Notable contributions to popular culture, for example in entertainment and sports, have their origins in California. The state also has made noteworthy contributions in the fields of communication, information, innovation, environmentalism, economics, and politics. It is the home of Hollywood, the oldest and one of the largest film industries in the world, which has had a profound influence upon global entertainment. It is considered the origin of the hippie counterculture, beach and car culture, and the personal computer, among other innovations. The San Francisco Bay Area and the Greater Los Angeles Area are widely seen as the centers of the global technology and film industries, respectively. California's economy is very diverse: 58% of it is based on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific, and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5% of the state's economy, California's agriculture industry has the highest output of any U.S. state. California's ports and harbors handle about a third of all U.S. imports, most originating in Pacific Rim international trade.
The state's extremely diverse geography ranges from the Pacific Coast and metropolitan areas in the west to the Sierra Nevada mountains in the east, and from the redwood and Douglas fir forests in the northwest to the Mojave Desert in the southeast. The Central Valley, a major agricultural area, dominates the state's center. California is well known for its warm Mediterranean climate and monsoon seasonal weather. The large size of the state results in climates that vary from moist temperate rainforest in the north to arid desert in the interior, as well as snowy alpine in the mountains.
Settled by successive waves of arrivals during at least the last 13,000 years, California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America. Various estimates of the native population have ranged from 100,000 to 300,000. The indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct ethnic groups, inhabiting environments from mountains and deserts to islands and redwood forests. These groups were also diverse in their political organization, with bands, tribes, villages, and on the resource-rich coasts, large chiefdoms, such as the Chumash, Pomo and Salinan. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered social and economic relationships between many groups.
The first Europeans to explore the coast of California were the members of a Spanish maritime expedition led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in 1542. Cabrillo was commissioned by Antonio de Mendoza, the Viceroy of New Spain, to lead an expedition up the Pacific coast in search of trade opportunities; they entered San Diego Bay on September 28, 1542, and reached at least as far north as San Miguel Island. Privateer and explorer Francis Drake explored and claimed an undefined portion of the California coast in 1579, landing north of the future city of San Francisco. Sebastián Vizcaíno explored and mapped the coast of California in 1602 for New Spain, putting ashore in Monterey. Despite the on-the-ground explorations of California in the 16th century, Rodríguez's idea of California as an island persisted. Such depictions appeared on many European maps well into the 18th century.
The Portolá expedition of 1769-70 was a pivotal event in the Spanish colonization of California, resulting in the establishment of numerous missions, presidios, and pueblos. The military and civil contingent of the expedition was led by Gaspar de Portolá, who traveled over land from Sonora into California, while the religious component was headed by Junípero Serra, who came by sea from Baja California. In 1769, Portolá and Serra established Mission San Diego de Alcalá and the Presidio of San Diego, the first religious and military settlements founded by the Spanish in California. By the end of the expedition in 1770, they would establish the Presidio of Monterey and Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo on Monterey Bay.
After the Portolà expedition, Spanish missionaries led by Father-President Serra set out to establish 21 Spanish missions of California along El Camino Real ("The Royal Road") and along the Californian coast, 16 sites of which having been chosen during the Portolá expedition. Numerous major cities in California grew out of missions, including San Francisco (Mission San Francisco de Asís), San Diego (Mission San Diego de Alcalá), Ventura (Mission San Buenaventura), or Santa Barbara (Mission Santa Barbara), among others.
Juan Bautista de Anza led a similarly important expedition throughout California in 1775–76, which would extend deeper into the interior and north of California. The Anza expedition selected numerous sites for missions, presidios, and pueblos, which subsequently would be established by settlers. Gabriel Moraga, a member of the expedition, would also christen many of California's prominent rivers with their names in 1775–1776, such as the Sacramento River and the San Joaquin River. After the expedition, Gabriel's son, José Joaquín Moraga, would found the pueblo of San Jose in 1777, making it the first civilian-established city in California.
The Spanish founded Mission San Juan Capistrano in 1776, the third to be established of the Californian missions.
During this same period, sailors from the Russian Empire explored along the northern coast of California. In 1812, the Russian-American Company established a trading post and small fortification at Fort Ross on the North Coast. Fort Ross was primarily used to supply Russia's Alaskan colonies with food supplies. The settlement did not meet much success, failing to attract settlers or establish long term trade viability, and was abandoned by 1841.
During the War of Mexican Independence, Alta California was largely unaffected and uninvolved in the revolution, though many Californios supported independence from Spain, which many believed had neglected California and limited its development. Spain's trade monopoly on California had limited the trade prospects of Californians. Following Mexican independence, Californian ports were freely able to trade with foreign merchants. Governor Pablo Vicente de Solá presided over the transition from Spanish colonial rule to independent.
In 1821, the Mexican War of Independence gave the Mexican Empire (which included California) independence from Spain. For the next 25 years, Alta California remained a remote, sparsely populated, northwestern administrative district of the newly independent country of Mexico, which shortly after independence became a republic. The missions, which controlled most of the best land in the state, were secularized by 1834 and became the property of the Mexican government. The governor granted many square leagues of land to others with political influence. These huge ranchos or cattle ranches emerged as the dominant institutions of Mexican California. The ranchos developed under ownership by Californios (Hispanics native of California) who traded cowhides and tallow with Boston merchants. Beef did not become a commodity until the 1849 California Gold Rush.
From the 1820s, trappers and settlers from the United States and Canada began to arrive in Northern California. These new arrivals used the Siskiyou Trail, California Trail, Oregon Trail and Old Spanish Trail to cross the rugged mountains and harsh deserts in and surrounding California. The early government of the newly independent Mexico was highly unstable, and in a reflection of this, from 1831 onwards, California also experienced a series of armed disputes, both internal and with the central Mexican government. During this tumultuous political period Juan Bautista Alvarado was able to secure the governorship during 1836–1842. The military action which first brought Alvarado to power had momentarily declared California to be an independent state, and had been aided by Anglo-American residents of California, including Isaac Graham. In 1840, one hundred of those residents who did not have passports were arrested, leading to the Graham Affair, which was resolved in part with the intercession of Royal Navy officials.
One of the largest ranchers in California was John Marsh. After failing to obtain justice against squatters on his land from the Mexican courts, he determined that California should become part of the United States. Marsh conducted a letter-writing campaign espousing the California climate, the soil, and other reasons to settle there, as well as the best route to follow, which became known as "Marsh's route". His letters were read, reread, passed around, and printed in newspapers throughout the country, and started the first wagon trains rolling to California. He invited immigrants to stay on his ranch until they could get settled, and assisted in their obtaining passports.
After ushering in the period of organized emigration to California, Marsh became involved in a military battle between the much-hated Mexican general, Manuel Micheltorena and the California governor he had replaced, Juan Bautista Alvarado. The armies of each met at the Battle of Providencia near Los Angeles. Marsh had been forced against his will to join Micheltorena's army. Ignoring his superiors, during the battle, he signaled the other side for a parley. There were many settlers from the United States fighting on both sides. He convinced these men that they had no reason to be fighting each other. As a result of Marsh's actions, they abandoned the fight, Micheltorena was defeated, and California-born Pio Pico was returned to the governorship. This paved the way to California's ultimate acquisition by the United States.
In 1846, a group of American settlers in and around Sonoma rebelled against Mexican rule during the Bear Flag Revolt. Afterward, rebels raised the Bear Flag (featuring a bear, a star, a red stripe and the words "California Republic") at Sonoma. The Republic's only president was William B. Ide,[65] who played a pivotal role during the Bear Flag Revolt. This revolt by American settlers served as a prelude to the later American military invasion of California and was closely coordinated with nearby American military commanders.
The California Republic was short-lived; the same year marked the outbreak of the Mexican–American War (1846–48).
Commodore John D. Sloat of the United States Navy sailed into Monterey Bay in 1846 and began the U.S. military invasion of California, with Northern California capitulating in less than a month to the United States forces. In Southern California, Californios continued to resist American forces. Notable military engagements of the conquest include the Battle of San Pasqual and the Battle of Dominguez Rancho in Southern California, as well as the Battle of Olómpali and the Battle of Santa Clara in Northern California. After a series of defensive battles in the south, the Treaty of Cahuenga was signed by the Californios on January 13, 1847, securing a censure and establishing de facto American control in California.
Following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (February 2, 1848) that ended the war, the westernmost portion of the annexed Mexican territory of Alta California soon became the American state of California, and the remainder of the old territory was then subdivided into the new American Territories of Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Utah. The even more lightly populated and arid lower region of old Baja California remained as a part of Mexico. In 1846, the total settler population of the western part of the old Alta California had been estimated to be no more than 8,000, plus about 100,000 Native Americans, down from about 300,000 before Hispanic settlement in 1769.
In 1848, only one week before the official American annexation of the area, gold was discovered in California, this being an event which was to forever alter both the state's demographics and its finances. Soon afterward, a massive influx of immigration into the area resulted, as prospectors and miners arrived by the thousands. The population burgeoned with United States citizens, Europeans, Chinese and other immigrants during the great California Gold Rush. By the time of California's application for statehood in 1850, the settler population of California had multiplied to 100,000. By 1854, more than 300,000 settlers had come. Between 1847 and 1870, the population of San Francisco increased from 500 to 150,000.
The seat of government for California under Spanish and later Mexican rule had been located in Monterey from 1777 until 1845. Pio Pico, the last Mexican governor of Alta California, had briefly moved the capital to Los Angeles in 1845. The United States consulate had also been located in Monterey, under consul Thomas O. Larkin.
In 1849, a state Constitutional Convention was first held in Monterey. Among the first tasks of the convention was a decision on a location for the new state capital. The first full legislative sessions were held in San Jose (1850–1851). Subsequent locations included Vallejo (1852–1853), and nearby Benicia (1853–1854); these locations eventually proved to be inadequate as well. The capital has been located in Sacramento since 1854 with only a short break in 1862 when legislative sessions were held in San Francisco due to flooding in Sacramento. Once the state's Constitutional Convention had finalized its state constitution, it applied to the U.S. Congress for admission to statehood. On September 9, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850, California became a free state and September 9 a state holiday.
During the American Civil War (1861–1865), California sent gold shipments eastward to Washington in support of the Union. However, due to the existence of a large contingent of pro-South sympathizers within the state, the state was not able to muster any full military regiments to send eastwards to officially serve in the Union war effort. Still, several smaller military units within the Union army were unofficially associated with the state of California, such as the "California 100 Company", due to a majority of their members being from California.
At the time of California's admission into the Union, travel between California and the rest of the continental United States had been a time-consuming and dangerous feat. Nineteen years later, and seven years after it was greenlighted by President Lincoln, the First transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869. California was then reachable from the eastern States in a week's time.
Much of the state was extremely well suited to fruit cultivation and agriculture in general. Vast expanses of wheat, other cereal crops, vegetable crops, cotton, and nut and fruit trees were grown (including oranges in Southern California), and the foundation was laid for the state's prodigious agricultural production in the Central Valley and elsewhere.
In the nineteenth century, a large number of migrants from China traveled to the state as part of the Gold Rush or to seek work. Even though the Chinese proved indispensable in building the transcontinental railroad from California to Utah, perceived job competition with the Chinese led to anti-Chinese riots in the state, and eventually the US ended migration from China partially as a response to pressure from California with the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.
Under earlier Spanish and Mexican rule, California's original native population had precipitously declined, above all, from Eurasian diseases to which the indigenous people of California had not yet developed a natural immunity. Under its new American administration, California's harsh governmental policies towards its own indigenous people did not improve. As in other American states, many of the native inhabitants were soon forcibly removed from their lands by incoming American settlers such as miners, ranchers, and farmers. Although California had entered the American union as a free state, the "loitering or orphaned Indians" were de facto enslaved by their new Anglo-American masters under the 1853 Act for the Government and Protection of Indians. There were also massacres in which hundreds of indigenous people were killed.
Between 1850 and 1860, the California state government paid around 1.5 million dollars (some 250,000 of which was reimbursed by the federal government) to hire militias whose purpose was to protect settlers from the indigenous populations. In later decades, the native population was placed in reservations and rancherias, which were often small and isolated and without enough natural resources or funding from the government to sustain the populations living on them. As a result, the rise of California was a calamity for the native inhabitants. Several scholars and Native American activists, including Benjamin Madley and Ed Castillo, have described the actions of the California government as a genocide.
In the twentieth century, thousands of Japanese people migrated to the US and California specifically to attempt to purchase and own land in the state. However, the state in 1913 passed the Alien Land Act, excluding Asian immigrants from owning land. During World War II, Japanese Americans in California were interned in concentration camps such as at Tule Lake and Manzanar. In 2020, California officially apologized for this internment.
Migration to California accelerated during the early 20th century with the completion of major transcontinental highways like the Lincoln Highway and Route 66. In the period from 1900 to 1965, the population grew from fewer than one million to the greatest in the Union. In 1940, the Census Bureau reported California's population as 6.0% Hispanic, 2.4% Asian, and 89.5% non-Hispanic white.
To meet the population's needs, major engineering feats like the California and Los Angeles Aqueducts; the Oroville and Shasta Dams; and the Bay and Golden Gate Bridges were built across the state. The state government also adopted the California Master Plan for Higher Education in 1960 to develop a highly efficient system of public education.
Meanwhile, attracted to the mild Mediterranean climate, cheap land, and the state's wide variety of geography, filmmakers established the studio system in Hollywood in the 1920s. California manufactured 8.7 percent of total United States military armaments produced during World War II, ranking third (behind New York and Michigan) among the 48 states. California however easily ranked first in production of military ships during the war (transport, cargo, [merchant ships] such as Liberty ships, Victory ships, and warships) at drydock facilities in San Diego, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area. After World War II, California's economy greatly expanded due to strong aerospace and defense industries, whose size decreased following the end of the Cold War. Stanford University and its Dean of Engineering Frederick Terman began encouraging faculty and graduates to stay in California instead of leaving the state, and develop a high-tech region in the area now known as Silicon Valley. As a result of these efforts, California is regarded as a world center of the entertainment and music industries, of technology, engineering, and the aerospace industry, and as the United States center of agricultural production. Just before the Dot Com Bust, California had the fifth-largest economy in the world among nations.
In the mid and late twentieth century, a number of race-related incidents occurred in the state. Tensions between police and African Americans, combined with unemployment and poverty in inner cities, led to violent riots, such as the 1965 Watts riots and 1992 Rodney King riots. California was also the hub of the Black Panther Party, a group known for arming African Americans to defend against racial injustice and for organizing free breakfast programs for schoolchildren. Additionally, Mexican, Filipino, and other migrant farm workers rallied in the state around Cesar Chavez for better pay in the 1960s and 1970s.
During the 20th century, two great disasters happened in California. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and 1928 St. Francis Dam flood remain the deadliest in U.S. history.
Although air pollution problems have been reduced, health problems associated with pollution have continued. The brown haze known as "smog" has been substantially abated after the passage of federal and state restrictions on automobile exhaust.
An energy crisis in 2001 led to rolling blackouts, soaring power rates, and the importation of electricity from neighboring states. Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric Company came under heavy criticism.
Housing prices in urban areas continued to increase; a modest home which in the 1960s cost $25,000 would cost half a million dollars or more in urban areas by 2005. More people commuted longer hours to afford a home in more rural areas while earning larger salaries in the urban areas. Speculators bought houses they never intended to live in, expecting to make a huge profit in a matter of months, then rolling it over by buying more properties. Mortgage companies were compliant, as everyone assumed the prices would keep rising. The bubble burst in 2007–8 as housing prices began to crash and the boom years ended. Hundreds of billions in property values vanished and foreclosures soared as many financial institutions and investors were badly hurt.
In the twenty-first century, droughts and frequent wildfires attributed to climate change have occurred in the state. From 2011 to 2017, a persistent drought was the worst in its recorded history. The 2018 wildfire season was the state's deadliest and most destructive, most notably Camp Fire.
Although air pollution problems have been reduced, health problems associated with pollution have continued. The brown haze that is known as "smog" has been substantially abated thanks to federal and state restrictions on automobile exhaust.
One of the first confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States that occurred in California was first of which was confirmed on January 26, 2020. Meaning, all of the early confirmed cases were persons who had recently travelled to China in Asia, as testing was restricted to this group. On this January 29, 2020, as disease containment protocols were still being developed, the U.S. Department of State evacuated 195 persons from Wuhan, China aboard a chartered flight to March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County, and in this process, it may have granted and conferred to escalated within the land and the US at cosmic. On February 5, 2020, the U.S. evacuated 345 more citizens from Hubei Province to two military bases in California, Travis Air Force Base in Solano County and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, San Diego, where they were quarantined for 14 days. A state of emergency was largely declared in this state of the nation on March 4, 2020, and as of February 24, 2021, remains in effect. A mandatory statewide stay-at-home order was issued on March 19, 2020, due to increase, which was ended on January 25, 2021, allowing citizens to return to normal life. On April 6, 2021, the state announced plans to fully reopen the economy by June 15, 2021.
A Chinatown is a section of an urban area associated with a large number of Chinese within a city outside the majority-Chinese countries of China, Taiwan, and Singapore. Chinatowns are most common in East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia, North America and the United Kingdom.
In the past, overcrowded Chinatowns in urban areas were generally shunned by the non-Chinese public as ethnic ghettos, and seen as places of vice and cultural insularity where "unassimilable foreigners" congregated. Nowadays, many old and new Chinatowns are considered significant centers of commercialism and tourism. Some of them also serve, to various degrees, as centers of multiculturalism, if in a somewhat superficial manner. It is a misconception to assume that a city's 'Chinatown' constitutes the place where most of the city's people of Chinese ancestry live.
Many Chinatowns are focused on commercial tourism whereas others are actual living and working communities; some are a synthesis of both. Chinatowns also range from rundown ghettos to modern sites of recent development. In some, recent investments have revitalized run-down and blighted areas and turned them into centers of economic and social activity. In some cases, this has led to gentrification and a reduction in the specifically Chinese character of the neighborhoods.
Many Chinatowns have a long history, such as Shinchimachi, the nearly three-century old Chinatown in Nagasaki, Japan, or Yaowarat Road in Bangkok, which was founded by Chinese traders more than 200 years ago. Melbourne Chinatown, established in the Victorian gold rush in 1854, is the longest continuously running Chinatown outside of Asia (San Francisco Chinatown was built earlier during the California Gold Rush, but rebuilt after it was destroyed by earthquakes). Other Chinatowns are much newer, for example, the Chinatown in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. formed in the 1990s. Most Chinatowns grew without any organized plans, while a very few (such as the one in Las Vegas and a new area outside the city limits of Seoul, South Korea to be completed by late 2005) were developed following deliberate plans (sometimes as part of redevelopment projects to better the location). Indeed, many areas of the world promote the commercial development and redevelopment (or regeneration) of Chinatowns, such as Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
-wikipedia-
"St. John the Baptist Catholic Church and its cemetery date back to the California Gold Rush. The cemetery was established in the 1850s and the church was built in 1857. The church and graveyard site are open to the public, free of charge. The old gravestones and pathways provide a picturesque and historically interesting visit.
The cemetery is approximately 200 feet wide and 375 feet long, with the church building and parking lot taking up about a third of the property."
www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMKT0G_St_John_the_Baptist_Ca...
San Francisco is the leading financial and cultural center of Northern California and the San Francisco Bay Area.
The only consolidated city-county in California, San Francisco encompasses a land area of about 46.9 square miles (121 km2) on the northern end of the San Francisco Peninsula, giving it a density of about 17,620 people per square mile (6,803 people per km2). It is the most densely settled large city (population greater than 200,000) in the state of California and the second-most densely populated major city in the United States after New York. San Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California, after Los Angeles, San Diego and San Jose, and the 14th most populous city in the United States—with a Census-estimated 2012 population of 825,863. The city is also the financial and cultural hub of the larger San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland metropolitan area, with a population of 8.4 million.
San Francisco (Spanish for "Saint Francis") was founded on June 29, 1776, when colonists from Spain established a fort at the Golden Gate and a mission named for St. Francis of Assisi a few miles away. The California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time. Due to the growth of its population, San Francisco became a consolidated city-county in 1856. After three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. During World War II, San Francisco was the port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater. After the war, the confluence of returning servicemen, massive immigration, liberalizing attitudes, and other factors led to the Summer of Love and the gay rights movement, cementing San Francisco as a center of liberal activism in the United States.
Today, San Francisco is ranked 44th of the top tourist destinations in the world, and was the sixth most visited one in the United States in 2011. The city is renowned for its cool summers, fog, steep rolling hills, eclectic mix of architecture, and landmarks including the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, the former prison on Alcatraz Island, and its Chinatown district. It is also a primary banking and finance center.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_francisco
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...
A wall mural near the Oak of the Golden Dream.
From Wikipedia:
On March 9, 1842, Francisco Lopez, the uncle of Antonio's second wife Jacoba Feliz, took a rest under an oak tree in Placerita Canyon and had a dream that he was floating on a pool of gold. When he awoke, he pulled a few wild onions from the ground only to find flakes of gold clinging to the roots. However, he was not just lucky. Lopez had studied mineralogy at the University of Mexico and it was likely he had been systematically looking for gold. Moreover, evidence suggests that gold had previously been found in the area as many as thirty years prior, but Lopez's discovery was the first documented discovery of gold in the state. This sparked a gold rush on a much smaller scale than the more famous California Gold Rush several years later. About 2,000 people, mostly from the Mexican state of Sonora, came to Rancho San Francisco to mine the gold.
This discovery was mostly ignored by the American public. For one thing, California was not yet a U.S. state, so this was in essence a Mexican discovery. However, certain people who later played a large role in the other gold rush took note. John Sutter, who had sided with Gov. Manuel Micheltorena during his power struggle with former Gov. Alvarado, was imprisoned after the Battle of Providencia near Mission San Fernando after the insurrection had succeeded. After his release, he headed north through Placerita Canyon, and seeing the mining operation, determined to search for gold near his home, Sutter's Fort.
During the Mexican–American War, Del Valle destroyed the mine to prevent the Americans from gaining access to it. The tree where Lopez took his nap is now known as the "Oak of the Golden Dream" and is registered as California Historic Landmark #168.
Downieville is a census-designated place in and the county seat of Sierra County, California, United States. Downieville is on the North Fork of the Yuba River, at an elevation of 2,966 feet (904 m). The 2010 United States census reported Downieville's population was 282.
Downieville was founded in late 1849 during the California Gold Rush, in the Northern Mines area. It was first known as "The Forks" for its geographical location at the confluence of the Downie River and North Fork of the Yuba River.
It was soon renamed after Major William Downie (1820-1893), the town's founder. Downie was a Scotsman who had led an expedition of nine miners, seven of them African American men, up the North Fork of the Yuba River in the Autumn of 1849. At the present site of the town they struck rich gold, built a log cabin, and settled in to wait out the winter. He became the town's first mayor. Major Downie's travels are documented in his 1893 autobiography, "Hunting for Gold." By latter 1850 Downieville already had 15 hotels, 4 bakeries, 4 butcher shops, and numerous saloons.
In 1853 Downieville was vying to become the new state capital of California, along with fifteen other California communities to replace Vallejo. However, the capital was moved to Benicia for a year, and then in 1854 to Sacramento, its location ever since.
The Northern Mines area of the gold rush had a number of mining camps with colorful names, such as Brandy City (originally known as Strychnine City), Whiskey Diggins, Poverty Hill, Poker Flat, and Camptonville. Many of these camps disappeared after the gold rush, or are ghost towns. Downieville had reached a peak population of over 5,000 people in 1851, but by 1865 had significantly declined. It survived due to its status as the county seat of government in Sierra County, and from its geographic location between Sacramento Valley and Tahoe region/Nevada destinations.
Downieville is surrounded by the Yuba River District of the Tahoe National Forest. Popular outdoor recreation activities include fishing, mountain biking, back country "jeeping" and motorcycling, kayaking, hiking and nature walks, gold panning, and sites of the California Gold Rush. Fishing includes planted rainbow trout and German brown trout in the North Fork of the Yuba River.
The town is a popular destination and central hub for mountain biking trails and events.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downieville,_California
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...
Cornelius Jensen
Cornelius Boy Jensen (September 29, 1814 – December 12, 1886) was a Danish sea captain and California politician. Of the nine one-year terms that he served as county supervisor between 1856 and 1877, Jensen was the Chairman of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors four times. His Agua Mansa home, the Jensen Alvarado Ranch, is a registered California Historical Landmark (No. 943) and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Early years
Jensen was born on the North Frisian island of Sylt off the coast of Southern Schleswig (then part of Denmark, now in Germany) in either 1812 or 1814.He took his mate's exam in Denmark and thereafter made several trips around Cape Horn, arriving in California by 1844.
Biography
Jensen was captain of his own vessel for 20 years.He arrived in San Francisco in 1848. With news of the California Gold Rush, his crew jumped ship and he, too, became a "Forty-niner" in search of gold. When that no longer suited him, he went to Sacramento and opened a store, selling items to the gold miners. It was here that he met the Californio Ignacio Alvarado. At Alvarado's urging Jensen moved to Southern California, settling in Agua Mansa around 1854. At the age of 40, he married Alvarado's 16 year old sister, Mercedes Alvarado (c. 1848–1914) at Mission San Gabriel in 1853. Her parents were Francisco and Juana Maria (Avila) Alvarado.
Jensen had several careers after his early years as a sea captain. In addition to being a rancher and vintner on his Southern California properties, he owned a sawmill and a store, and served as a politician
Personal life
After the Great Flood of 1862 destroyed much of the town of Agua Mansa, Jensen and his wife built a home on hundreds of acres on what was to become the Cornelius and Mercedes Jensen Ranch, a California Historical Landmark, located at the Jensen-Alvarado Ranch Historic Park and Museum. Their brick home, the oldest non-adobe structure in the Inland Empire,was Riverside County's first kiln-fired brick building.
Of their 12 children, ten survived into adulthood. His oldest son was Jose (born 1855) who made a career as a deputy assessor, judge of elections, and member of the board of education. Henry (born 1867) was a member of the school board. Their son John, who married Emily Crowder, built a wood framed home that was subsequently moved to the Jensen-Alvarado Historic Ranch and Museum, serving as the caretaker's home.
Jensen spoke fluent German, Spanish and English. Considered the richest man in the area when he died in 1886, Jensen is buried at the Agua Mansa Cemetery near Colton, California.
Mercedes' sister, Delores, married Fenton Slaughter who also sat on the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors. Jensen's cousin, Peter Peters, who also hailed from Sylt, married Mercedes' other sister, Refugio; Peters served on the local school board and was a trustee of the Agua Mansa Pioneer Cemetery.
"St. John the Baptist Catholic Church and its cemetery date back to the California Gold Rush. The cemetery was established in the 1850s and the church was built in 1857. The church and graveyard site are open to the public, free of charge. The old gravestones and pathways provide a picturesque and historically interesting visit.
The cemetery is approximately 200 feet wide and 375 feet long, with the church building and parking lot taking up about a third of the property."
www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMKT0G_St_John_the_Baptist_Ca...
Mission San Francisco de Asís, or Mission Dolores, at 320 Dolores Street, is the oldest surviving structure in San Francisco, and the sixth religious settlement established as part of the California chain of missions. The Mission was founded as La Misión de Nuestro Padre San Francisco de Asís (The Mission of our Father Saint Francis de Assisi) on June 29, 1776 by Lieutenant José Joaquin Moraga and Father Francisco Palóu under the direction of Father Junípero Serra, both members of the de Anza Expedition, which had been charged with bringing Spanish settlers to Alta (upper) California, and evangelizing the local Indians, the Ohlone. Named for St. Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscan Order, it was more commonly known as Mission Dolores, owing to the presence of a nearby creek named Arroyo de Nuestra Señora de los Dolores (Our Lady of Sorrows Creek).
The original Mission building consisted of a log and thatch structure dedicated October 9, 1776 about a block and a half east at the intersection of Camp and Albion Streets. The present Mission church building, constructed of adobe, was dedicated in 1791. Although most of the Mission complex used for housing, agricultural and manufacturing have been altered or demolished, the facade of the chapel remains unchanged.
Since its founding, the Mission's history has paralleled that of California's. As the Mexican War of Independence (1810-1821) strained relations between the Government and the Missions, supplies became scarce and by 1842, only eight Christian Native Americans were left at Mission Dolores. The California Gold Rush brought renewed activity to the area, and in the 1850s, some of the Mission properties were sold or leased for use as bars, gambling halls and racetracks, and a Gothic, brick parish church was raised to serve the new population. The 1906 earthquake destroyed the parish church, but the original adobe mission, with its thick walls survived. The building was restored in 1917 by Willis Polk.
In 1918, a new parish church, now known as the Mission Dolores Basilica, was built adjacent to the original Mission church. The church was remodeled in 1926 with churrigueresque ornamentation inspired by the Panama-California Exposition. In 1952, San Francisco Archbishop John J. Mitty, announced that Pope Pius XII had elevated Mission Dolores to the status of a Minor Basilica. It was the first designation of a basilica west of the Mississippi and the fifth basilica named in the United States.
National Register #72000251 (1972)
Chain and Pendant with a Cameo of the Annunciation
Byzantine, made in Constantinople
AD 500-600
Agate, gold, and pearl
Carved from a large agate with layers of brown, white, and blue, this cameo shows the angel Gabriel appearing to the Virgin Mary. The Greek inscription is the biblical verse with his words, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you" (Luke 1:28).
Lent by James E. and Elizabeth J. Ferrell
Bodie, CA. (ghost town)
Bodie State Historic Park is a genuine California gold-mining ghost town. Visitors can walk down the deserted streets of a town that once had a population of nearly 10,000 people. The town is named for Waterman S. Body (William Bodey), who had discovered small amounts of gold in hills north of Mono Lake. In 1875, a mine cave-in revealed pay dirt, which led to purchase of the mine by the Standard Company in 1877. People flocked to Bodie and transformed it from a town of a few dozen to a boomtown.
Only a small part of the town survives, preserved in a state of "arrested decay." Interiors remain as they were left and stocked with goods. Designated as a National Historic Site and a State Historic Park in 1962, the remains of Bodie are being preserved in a state of "arrested decay". Today this once thriving mining camp is visited by tourists, howling winds and an occasional ghost.
This CDV was in the Dohme Family album. He was identified as one of the fellow students of Louis Dohme at the Maryland College of Pharmacy.
John B.H. Jefferson was born 24 December 1837 in Talbot County, Maryland, the son of John P. Jefferson (1804-1872) and Rebecca Disney (1812-1911). The family moved from Talbot to Baltimore circa 1848. In 1850, John, six sibling, and his parents were living in Baltimore, where his father was a boot and shoemaker. John graduated from the Maryland College of Pharmacy in 1860 and became an apothecary in Baltimore. He was apparently married circa 1865 to Ada or Adelae Pascal (born circa 1843), and in 1870 the couple was living in Baltimore with their four-year-old son Howard. The family was still in Baltimore for the 1880 census, but had been joined be Ada’s mother, Mary Pascal. Sometime prior to 1900, John left the pharmacy business, and became a real estate broker and later a promoter of mineral lands. He was married again, this time to Cora D. Jordan (1860-1940) on 7 June 1894. John Jefferson passed away circa 1928.
Photographer Stephen Girard Israel was born in 1826 in New York City, the son of William Israel (1782-1846) and Elizabeth Romney (1791-1879). Stephen’s initial work experience appears to have been in a pharmacy in Baltimore, where he claimed to have served author Edgar Allen Poe several times. He also states that he took part, without much success, in the 1849 California gold rush. In 1850, he was an apothecary in Southampton, New Jersey, and during 1852-1856 held a similar job in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Stephen was married in 1852 to Jane Brown (born circa 1830) and the couple had at least three children. Circa 1857, Stephen began a career in photography in Baltimore, being listed as an ambrotypist at 91 Baltimore Street. In 1858, it was noted that he had available photographs in oil, water color, India ink and plain, and ambrotypes and photographic views of scenes along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Israel remained in Baltimore until around 1870, when he shows up in a Chicago directory as a druggist at 152 Dearborn. From 1873 to at least 1875, he was a druggist at 522 Wabash Avenue; his son Richard B, Israel was a clerk at the pharmacy. Sometime prior to 1877, he returned to photography, with a studio at 221 State Street, Chicago; he was again joined by his son Richard. Stephen was married on 16 January 1884 to Elizabeth Benson (1855-1914). The last reference I found for Israel as a photographer in Chicago was 1889. He then became involved in a business called the “Maryland Granite Company of Chicago”. This business went bankrupt and no later than 1900, Stephen was back in Baltimore. Stephen Israel passed away in Baltimore on 10 February 1914. (Israel credited his long life to eating a full meal at 11:00 PM before he went to bed, and to lots of fresh air.)
San Francisco officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, financial, and cultural center in Northern California. With a population of 808,437 residents as of 2022, San Francisco is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of California. The city covers a land area of 46.9 square miles (121 square kilometers) at the end of the San Francisco Peninsula, making it the second-most densely populated large U.S. city after New York City and the fifth-most densely populated U.S. county, behind only four New York City boroughs. Among the 92 U.S. cities proper with over 250,000 residents, San Francisco was ranked first by per capita income and sixth by aggregate income as of 2022. Colloquial nicknames for San Francisco include Frisco, San Fran, The City, and SF (although Frisco and San Fran are generally not used by locals).
Prior to European settlement, the modern city proper was inhabited by the Yelamu, who spoke a language now referred to as Ramaytush Ohlone. On June 29, 1776, settlers from New Spain established the Presidio of San Francisco at the Golden Gate, and the Mission San Francisco de Asís a few miles away, both named for Francis of Assisi. The California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, transforming an unimportant hamlet into a busy port, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time; between 1870 and 1900, approximately one quarter of California's population resided in the city proper. In 1856, San Francisco became a consolidated city-county. After three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, it was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II, it was a major port of embarkation for naval service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater. In 1945, the United Nations Charter was signed in San Francisco, establishing the United Nations and in 1951, the Treaty of San Francisco re-established peaceful relations between Japan and the Allied Powers. After the war, the confluence of returning servicemen, significant immigration, liberalizing attitudes, the rise of the beatnik and hippie countercultures, the sexual revolution, the peace movement growing from opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, and other factors led to the Summer of Love and the gay rights movement, cementing San Francisco as a center of liberal activism in the United States.
San Francisco and the surrounding San Francisco Bay Area are a global center of economic activity and the arts and sciences, spurred by leading universities, high-tech, healthcare, finance, insurance, real estate, and professional services sectors. As of 2020, the metropolitan area, with 6.7 million residents, ranked 5th by GDP ($874 billion) and 2nd by GDP per capita ($131,082) across the OECD countries, ahead of global cities like Paris, London, and Singapore. San Francisco anchors the 13th most populous metropolitan statistical area in the United States with 4.6 million residents, and the fourth-largest by aggregate income and economic output, with a GDP of $729 billion in 2022. The wider San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland Combined Statistical Area is the fifth-most populous, with 9.0 million residents, and the third-largest by economic output, with a GDP of $1.32 trillion in 2022. In the same year, San Francisco proper had a GDP of $252.2 billion, and a GDP per capita of $312,000. San Francisco was ranked fifth in the world and second in the United States on the Global Financial Centres Index as of September 2023. Despite an ongoing post-COVID-19 pandemic exodus of over 30 retail businesses from the northeastern quadrant of San Francisco, including the downtown core, the city is still home to numerous companies inside and outside of technology, including Salesforce, Uber, Airbnb, X Corp., Levi's, Gap, Dropbox, and Lyft.
In 2022, San Francisco had more than 1.7 million international visitors - the fifth-most visited city from abroad in the United States after New York City, Miami, Orlando, and Los Angeles - and approximately 20 million domestic visitors for a total of 21.9 million visitors. The city is known for its steep rolling hills and eclectic mix of architecture across varied neighborhoods, as well as its cool summers, fog, and landmarks, including the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, and Alcatraz, along with the Chinatown and Mission districts. The city is home to a number of educational and cultural institutions, such as the University of California, San Francisco, the University of San Francisco, San Francisco State University, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the de Young Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Ballet, the San Francisco Opera, the SFJAZZ Center, and the California Academy of Sciences. Two major league sports teams, the San Francisco Giants and the Golden State Warriors, play their home games within San Francisco proper. San Francisco's main international airport offers flights to over 125 destinations while a light rail and bus network, in tandem with the BART and Caltrain systems, connects nearly every part of San Francisco with the wider region.
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2 million residents across a total area of approximately 163,696 square miles (423,970 km2), it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the most populated subnational entity in North America and the 34th most populous in the world. The Greater Los Angeles area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second and fifth most populous urban regions respectively, with the former having more than 18.7 million residents and the latter having over 9.6 million. Sacramento is the state's capital, while Los Angeles is the most populous city in the state and the second most populous city in the country. San Francisco is the second most densely populated major city in the country. Los Angeles County is the country's most populous, while San Bernardino County is the largest county by area in the country. California borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, the Mexican state of Baja California to the south; and has a coastline along the Pacific Ocean to the west.
The economy of the state of California is the largest in the United States, with a $3.4 trillion gross state product (GSP) as of 2022. It is the largest sub-national economy in the world. If California were a sovereign nation, it would rank as the world's fifth-largest economy as of 2022, behind Germany and ahead of India, as well as the 37th most populous. The Greater Los Angeles area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second- and third-largest urban economies ($1.0 trillion and $0.5 trillion respectively as of 2020). The San Francisco Bay Area Combined Statistical Area had the nation's highest gross domestic product per capita ($106,757) among large primary statistical areas in 2018, and is home to five of the world's ten largest companies by market capitalization and four of the world's ten richest people.
Prior to European colonization, California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America and contained the highest Native American population density north of what is now Mexico. European exploration in the 16th and 17th centuries led to the colonization of California by the Spanish Empire. In 1804, it was included in Alta California province within the Viceroyalty of New Spain. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821, following its successful war for independence, but was ceded to the United States in 1848 after the Mexican–American War. The California Gold Rush started in 1848 and led to dramatic social and demographic changes, including large-scale immigration into California, a worldwide economic boom, and the California genocide of indigenous people. The western portion of Alta California was then organized and admitted as the 31st state on September 9, 1850, following the Compromise of 1850.
Notable contributions to popular culture, for example in entertainment and sports, have their origins in California. The state also has made noteworthy contributions in the fields of communication, information, innovation, environmentalism, economics, and politics. It is the home of Hollywood, the oldest and one of the largest film industries in the world, which has had a profound influence upon global entertainment. It is considered the origin of the hippie counterculture, beach and car culture, and the personal computer, among other innovations. The San Francisco Bay Area and the Greater Los Angeles Area are widely seen as the centers of the global technology and film industries, respectively. California's economy is very diverse: 58% of it is based on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific, and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5% of the state's economy, California's agriculture industry has the highest output of any U.S. state. California's ports and harbors handle about a third of all U.S. imports, most originating in Pacific Rim international trade.
The state's extremely diverse geography ranges from the Pacific Coast and metropolitan areas in the west to the Sierra Nevada mountains in the east, and from the redwood and Douglas fir forests in the northwest to the Mojave Desert in the southeast. The Central Valley, a major agricultural area, dominates the state's center. California is well known for its warm Mediterranean climate and monsoon seasonal weather. The large size of the state results in climates that vary from moist temperate rainforest in the north to arid desert in the interior, as well as snowy alpine in the mountains.
Settled by successive waves of arrivals during at least the last 13,000 years, California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America. Various estimates of the native population have ranged from 100,000 to 300,000. The indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct ethnic groups, inhabiting environments from mountains and deserts to islands and redwood forests. These groups were also diverse in their political organization, with bands, tribes, villages, and on the resource-rich coasts, large chiefdoms, such as the Chumash, Pomo and Salinan. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered social and economic relationships between many groups.
The first Europeans to explore the coast of California were the members of a Spanish maritime expedition led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in 1542. Cabrillo was commissioned by Antonio de Mendoza, the Viceroy of New Spain, to lead an expedition up the Pacific coast in search of trade opportunities; they entered San Diego Bay on September 28, 1542, and reached at least as far north as San Miguel Island. Privateer and explorer Francis Drake explored and claimed an undefined portion of the California coast in 1579, landing north of the future city of San Francisco. Sebastián Vizcaíno explored and mapped the coast of California in 1602 for New Spain, putting ashore in Monterey. Despite the on-the-ground explorations of California in the 16th century, Rodríguez's idea of California as an island persisted. Such depictions appeared on many European maps well into the 18th century.
The Portolá expedition of 1769-70 was a pivotal event in the Spanish colonization of California, resulting in the establishment of numerous missions, presidios, and pueblos. The military and civil contingent of the expedition was led by Gaspar de Portolá, who traveled over land from Sonora into California, while the religious component was headed by Junípero Serra, who came by sea from Baja California. In 1769, Portolá and Serra established Mission San Diego de Alcalá and the Presidio of San Diego, the first religious and military settlements founded by the Spanish in California. By the end of the expedition in 1770, they would establish the Presidio of Monterey and Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo on Monterey Bay.
After the Portolà expedition, Spanish missionaries led by Father-President Serra set out to establish 21 Spanish missions of California along El Camino Real ("The Royal Road") and along the Californian coast, 16 sites of which having been chosen during the Portolá expedition. Numerous major cities in California grew out of missions, including San Francisco (Mission San Francisco de Asís), San Diego (Mission San Diego de Alcalá), Ventura (Mission San Buenaventura), or Santa Barbara (Mission Santa Barbara), among others.
Juan Bautista de Anza led a similarly important expedition throughout California in 1775–76, which would extend deeper into the interior and north of California. The Anza expedition selected numerous sites for missions, presidios, and pueblos, which subsequently would be established by settlers. Gabriel Moraga, a member of the expedition, would also christen many of California's prominent rivers with their names in 1775–1776, such as the Sacramento River and the San Joaquin River. After the expedition, Gabriel's son, José Joaquín Moraga, would found the pueblo of San Jose in 1777, making it the first civilian-established city in California.
The Spanish founded Mission San Juan Capistrano in 1776, the third to be established of the Californian missions.
During this same period, sailors from the Russian Empire explored along the northern coast of California. In 1812, the Russian-American Company established a trading post and small fortification at Fort Ross on the North Coast. Fort Ross was primarily used to supply Russia's Alaskan colonies with food supplies. The settlement did not meet much success, failing to attract settlers or establish long term trade viability, and was abandoned by 1841.
During the War of Mexican Independence, Alta California was largely unaffected and uninvolved in the revolution, though many Californios supported independence from Spain, which many believed had neglected California and limited its development. Spain's trade monopoly on California had limited the trade prospects of Californians. Following Mexican independence, Californian ports were freely able to trade with foreign merchants. Governor Pablo Vicente de Solá presided over the transition from Spanish colonial rule to independent.
In 1821, the Mexican War of Independence gave the Mexican Empire (which included California) independence from Spain. For the next 25 years, Alta California remained a remote, sparsely populated, northwestern administrative district of the newly independent country of Mexico, which shortly after independence became a republic. The missions, which controlled most of the best land in the state, were secularized by 1834 and became the property of the Mexican government. The governor granted many square leagues of land to others with political influence. These huge ranchos or cattle ranches emerged as the dominant institutions of Mexican California. The ranchos developed under ownership by Californios (Hispanics native of California) who traded cowhides and tallow with Boston merchants. Beef did not become a commodity until the 1849 California Gold Rush.
From the 1820s, trappers and settlers from the United States and Canada began to arrive in Northern California. These new arrivals used the Siskiyou Trail, California Trail, Oregon Trail and Old Spanish Trail to cross the rugged mountains and harsh deserts in and surrounding California. The early government of the newly independent Mexico was highly unstable, and in a reflection of this, from 1831 onwards, California also experienced a series of armed disputes, both internal and with the central Mexican government. During this tumultuous political period Juan Bautista Alvarado was able to secure the governorship during 1836–1842. The military action which first brought Alvarado to power had momentarily declared California to be an independent state, and had been aided by Anglo-American residents of California, including Isaac Graham. In 1840, one hundred of those residents who did not have passports were arrested, leading to the Graham Affair, which was resolved in part with the intercession of Royal Navy officials.
One of the largest ranchers in California was John Marsh. After failing to obtain justice against squatters on his land from the Mexican courts, he determined that California should become part of the United States. Marsh conducted a letter-writing campaign espousing the California climate, the soil, and other reasons to settle there, as well as the best route to follow, which became known as "Marsh's route". His letters were read, reread, passed around, and printed in newspapers throughout the country, and started the first wagon trains rolling to California. He invited immigrants to stay on his ranch until they could get settled, and assisted in their obtaining passports.
After ushering in the period of organized emigration to California, Marsh became involved in a military battle between the much-hated Mexican general, Manuel Micheltorena and the California governor he had replaced, Juan Bautista Alvarado. The armies of each met at the Battle of Providencia near Los Angeles. Marsh had been forced against his will to join Micheltorena's army. Ignoring his superiors, during the battle, he signaled the other side for a parley. There were many settlers from the United States fighting on both sides. He convinced these men that they had no reason to be fighting each other. As a result of Marsh's actions, they abandoned the fight, Micheltorena was defeated, and California-born Pio Pico was returned to the governorship. This paved the way to California's ultimate acquisition by the United States.
In 1846, a group of American settlers in and around Sonoma rebelled against Mexican rule during the Bear Flag Revolt. Afterward, rebels raised the Bear Flag (featuring a bear, a star, a red stripe and the words "California Republic") at Sonoma. The Republic's only president was William B. Ide,[65] who played a pivotal role during the Bear Flag Revolt. This revolt by American settlers served as a prelude to the later American military invasion of California and was closely coordinated with nearby American military commanders.
The California Republic was short-lived; the same year marked the outbreak of the Mexican–American War (1846–48).
Commodore John D. Sloat of the United States Navy sailed into Monterey Bay in 1846 and began the U.S. military invasion of California, with Northern California capitulating in less than a month to the United States forces. In Southern California, Californios continued to resist American forces. Notable military engagements of the conquest include the Battle of San Pasqual and the Battle of Dominguez Rancho in Southern California, as well as the Battle of Olómpali and the Battle of Santa Clara in Northern California. After a series of defensive battles in the south, the Treaty of Cahuenga was signed by the Californios on January 13, 1847, securing a censure and establishing de facto American control in California.
Following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (February 2, 1848) that ended the war, the westernmost portion of the annexed Mexican territory of Alta California soon became the American state of California, and the remainder of the old territory was then subdivided into the new American Territories of Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Utah. The even more lightly populated and arid lower region of old Baja California remained as a part of Mexico. In 1846, the total settler population of the western part of the old Alta California had been estimated to be no more than 8,000, plus about 100,000 Native Americans, down from about 300,000 before Hispanic settlement in 1769.
In 1848, only one week before the official American annexation of the area, gold was discovered in California, this being an event which was to forever alter both the state's demographics and its finances. Soon afterward, a massive influx of immigration into the area resulted, as prospectors and miners arrived by the thousands. The population burgeoned with United States citizens, Europeans, Chinese and other immigrants during the great California Gold Rush. By the time of California's application for statehood in 1850, the settler population of California had multiplied to 100,000. By 1854, more than 300,000 settlers had come. Between 1847 and 1870, the population of San Francisco increased from 500 to 150,000.
The seat of government for California under Spanish and later Mexican rule had been located in Monterey from 1777 until 1845. Pio Pico, the last Mexican governor of Alta California, had briefly moved the capital to Los Angeles in 1845. The United States consulate had also been located in Monterey, under consul Thomas O. Larkin.
In 1849, a state Constitutional Convention was first held in Monterey. Among the first tasks of the convention was a decision on a location for the new state capital. The first full legislative sessions were held in San Jose (1850–1851). Subsequent locations included Vallejo (1852–1853), and nearby Benicia (1853–1854); these locations eventually proved to be inadequate as well. The capital has been located in Sacramento since 1854 with only a short break in 1862 when legislative sessions were held in San Francisco due to flooding in Sacramento. Once the state's Constitutional Convention had finalized its state constitution, it applied to the U.S. Congress for admission to statehood. On September 9, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850, California became a free state and September 9 a state holiday.
During the American Civil War (1861–1865), California sent gold shipments eastward to Washington in support of the Union. However, due to the existence of a large contingent of pro-South sympathizers within the state, the state was not able to muster any full military regiments to send eastwards to officially serve in the Union war effort. Still, several smaller military units within the Union army were unofficially associated with the state of California, such as the "California 100 Company", due to a majority of their members being from California.
At the time of California's admission into the Union, travel between California and the rest of the continental United States had been a time-consuming and dangerous feat. Nineteen years later, and seven years after it was greenlighted by President Lincoln, the First transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869. California was then reachable from the eastern States in a week's time.
Much of the state was extremely well suited to fruit cultivation and agriculture in general. Vast expanses of wheat, other cereal crops, vegetable crops, cotton, and nut and fruit trees were grown (including oranges in Southern California), and the foundation was laid for the state's prodigious agricultural production in the Central Valley and elsewhere.
In the nineteenth century, a large number of migrants from China traveled to the state as part of the Gold Rush or to seek work. Even though the Chinese proved indispensable in building the transcontinental railroad from California to Utah, perceived job competition with the Chinese led to anti-Chinese riots in the state, and eventually the US ended migration from China partially as a response to pressure from California with the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.
Under earlier Spanish and Mexican rule, California's original native population had precipitously declined, above all, from Eurasian diseases to which the indigenous people of California had not yet developed a natural immunity. Under its new American administration, California's harsh governmental policies towards its own indigenous people did not improve. As in other American states, many of the native inhabitants were soon forcibly removed from their lands by incoming American settlers such as miners, ranchers, and farmers. Although California had entered the American union as a free state, the "loitering or orphaned Indians" were de facto enslaved by their new Anglo-American masters under the 1853 Act for the Government and Protection of Indians. There were also massacres in which hundreds of indigenous people were killed.
Between 1850 and 1860, the California state government paid around 1.5 million dollars (some 250,000 of which was reimbursed by the federal government) to hire militias whose purpose was to protect settlers from the indigenous populations. In later decades, the native population was placed in reservations and rancherias, which were often small and isolated and without enough natural resources or funding from the government to sustain the populations living on them. As a result, the rise of California was a calamity for the native inhabitants. Several scholars and Native American activists, including Benjamin Madley and Ed Castillo, have described the actions of the California government as a genocide.
In the twentieth century, thousands of Japanese people migrated to the US and California specifically to attempt to purchase and own land in the state. However, the state in 1913 passed the Alien Land Act, excluding Asian immigrants from owning land. During World War II, Japanese Americans in California were interned in concentration camps such as at Tule Lake and Manzanar. In 2020, California officially apologized for this internment.
Migration to California accelerated during the early 20th century with the completion of major transcontinental highways like the Lincoln Highway and Route 66. In the period from 1900 to 1965, the population grew from fewer than one million to the greatest in the Union. In 1940, the Census Bureau reported California's population as 6.0% Hispanic, 2.4% Asian, and 89.5% non-Hispanic white.
To meet the population's needs, major engineering feats like the California and Los Angeles Aqueducts; the Oroville and Shasta Dams; and the Bay and Golden Gate Bridges were built across the state. The state government also adopted the California Master Plan for Higher Education in 1960 to develop a highly efficient system of public education.
Meanwhile, attracted to the mild Mediterranean climate, cheap land, and the state's wide variety of geography, filmmakers established the studio system in Hollywood in the 1920s. California manufactured 8.7 percent of total United States military armaments produced during World War II, ranking third (behind New York and Michigan) among the 48 states. California however easily ranked first in production of military ships during the war (transport, cargo, [merchant ships] such as Liberty ships, Victory ships, and warships) at drydock facilities in San Diego, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area. After World War II, California's economy greatly expanded due to strong aerospace and defense industries, whose size decreased following the end of the Cold War. Stanford University and its Dean of Engineering Frederick Terman began encouraging faculty and graduates to stay in California instead of leaving the state, and develop a high-tech region in the area now known as Silicon Valley. As a result of these efforts, California is regarded as a world center of the entertainment and music industries, of technology, engineering, and the aerospace industry, and as the United States center of agricultural production. Just before the Dot Com Bust, California had the fifth-largest economy in the world among nations.
In the mid and late twentieth century, a number of race-related incidents occurred in the state. Tensions between police and African Americans, combined with unemployment and poverty in inner cities, led to violent riots, such as the 1965 Watts riots and 1992 Rodney King riots. California was also the hub of the Black Panther Party, a group known for arming African Americans to defend against racial injustice and for organizing free breakfast programs for schoolchildren. Additionally, Mexican, Filipino, and other migrant farm workers rallied in the state around Cesar Chavez for better pay in the 1960s and 1970s.
During the 20th century, two great disasters happened in California. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and 1928 St. Francis Dam flood remain the deadliest in U.S. history.
Although air pollution problems have been reduced, health problems associated with pollution have continued. The brown haze known as "smog" has been substantially abated after the passage of federal and state restrictions on automobile exhaust.
An energy crisis in 2001 led to rolling blackouts, soaring power rates, and the importation of electricity from neighboring states. Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric Company came under heavy criticism.
Housing prices in urban areas continued to increase; a modest home which in the 1960s cost $25,000 would cost half a million dollars or more in urban areas by 2005. More people commuted longer hours to afford a home in more rural areas while earning larger salaries in the urban areas. Speculators bought houses they never intended to live in, expecting to make a huge profit in a matter of months, then rolling it over by buying more properties. Mortgage companies were compliant, as everyone assumed the prices would keep rising. The bubble burst in 2007–8 as housing prices began to crash and the boom years ended. Hundreds of billions in property values vanished and foreclosures soared as many financial institutions and investors were badly hurt.
In the twenty-first century, droughts and frequent wildfires attributed to climate change have occurred in the state. From 2011 to 2017, a persistent drought was the worst in its recorded history. The 2018 wildfire season was the state's deadliest and most destructive, most notably Camp Fire.
Although air pollution problems have been reduced, health problems associated with pollution have continued. The brown haze that is known as "smog" has been substantially abated thanks to federal and state restrictions on automobile exhaust.
One of the first confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States that occurred in California was first of which was confirmed on January 26, 2020. Meaning, all of the early confirmed cases were persons who had recently travelled to China in Asia, as testing was restricted to this group. On this January 29, 2020, as disease containment protocols were still being developed, the U.S. Department of State evacuated 195 persons from Wuhan, China aboard a chartered flight to March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County, and in this process, it may have granted and conferred to escalated within the land and the US at cosmic. On February 5, 2020, the U.S. evacuated 345 more citizens from Hubei Province to two military bases in California, Travis Air Force Base in Solano County and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, San Diego, where they were quarantined for 14 days. A state of emergency was largely declared in this state of the nation on March 4, 2020, and as of February 24, 2021, remains in effect. A mandatory statewide stay-at-home order was issued on March 19, 2020, due to increase, which was ended on January 25, 2021, allowing citizens to return to normal life. On April 6, 2021, the state announced plans to fully reopen the economy by June 15, 2021.
The Californian Gold Rush of 1849 saw a proliferation in the use of steam power for the extraction of mineral wealth.
Visit www.empireofsteam.blogspot.com for the full story behind this and many other constructions of the Steampunk Age.
I was an artist resident at Ace Hotel Palm Springs this past weekend! They had me over to create signage for Converse, Levi's, Ray Ban, and the hotel.
EVERYONE was so awesome! great times.
Natural bridge developed in Upper Paleozoic sandstones in Wyoming, USA.
Rock arches are rare erosional features. Rock arches that are not formed by river or stream erosion are called "natural arches". Those that are formed by river or stream erosion are called "natural bridges". Natural bridges are rarer than natural arches. The highest concentration of natural arches on Earth is Arches National Park in eastern Utah, USA. Very small erosional openings in rocks are called windows. Larger erosional openings are arches. Examples next to inland bodies of water are called lake arches. Examples along ocean shorelines are called sea arches.
The natural bridge seen here is developed in reddish and light-colored sandstones of the Casper Formation in Wyoming. The feature formed by erosional undercutting of a bedrock meander neck.
------------------------------
From park signage:
Natural Bridge and the Oregon Trail
The Oregon Trail crosses LaPrele Creek about one mile downstream from Natural Bridge. Before the modern road was built into the gorge, Natural Bridge was difficult to access, and it was only rarely visited by emigrants of the covered wagon era. From time to time, however, a few ambitious travelers made their way through the heavy brush and down the steep walls of the canyon to see this remarkable work of nature.
While Native Americans were probably well aware of Natural Bridge, the earliest to record their visits were New Orleans newspaperman Matthew Field and Steadman Tilghman, a young doctor from Baltimore. Both were traveling companions of Scottish nobleman William Drummond Stewart. An early day tourist, Stewart had organized several hunting and exploring expeditions into the Rocky Mountains and traveled strictly for pleasure. In 1843, he was making his final trip west.
On July 12, Field wrote: "Rode off in advance of the camp with Sir William, to visit a remarkable mountain gorge - a "natural bridge" of solid rock, over a rapid torrent, the arch being regular as though shaped by art - 30 feet from base to ceiling, and 50 to the top of the bridge - wild cliffs, 300 feet perpendicular beetled us, and the noisy current swept along among huge fragments of rock at our feet. We had a dangerous descent, and forced our way through an almost impervious thicket, being compelled to take the bed of the stream in gaining a position below. We called the water "Bridge Creek" !
Doctor Tilghman: "The Natural Bridge" is perhaps one of the greatest curiosities we saw in the while of our interesting expedition. It is at the extremity of a valley formed of an immense chasm, with rocky sides - and a perpendicular height of 300 feet - through which flows a beautiful chrystal stream."
In 1846, James Frazier Reed of the ill-fated Donner Party was aware of the bridge. In his diary he wrote, "We made this day 18 miles and camped on Beaver Creek. Here is a natural bridge 1.5 miles above camp."
During the California Gold Rush, a few "Forty-niners" found time to visit Natural Bridge. In a letter dated July 4, 1849, while camped at Deer Creek, Cephas Arms of the Fayette Rovers wrote: "Where we camped last night, and we meant to spend the 4th, instead of coming eighteen miles through the dust thick enough to choke us, if we could find grass, was quite a natural curiosity in the shape of a natural bridge. It is thrown over the river where we camped. "Fourche Boise River", and is a perfect arch one hundred feet long and eighteen feet high of solid stone. On either side the perpendicular rocks rise to the height of one hundred and fifty feet. The bridge is just at the foot of the mountain through which the stream passes. The mountain is three or four hundred feet above the plain below, and the river rushes through a gorge in the mountain with perpendicular walls to the top of the hill, the whole forming one of the wildest scenes I ever beheld. The bridge has never been named until today. We have christened it Welch's Bridge in honor of one of our company from Michigan, who pronounces it only second to the far famed Virginia bridge. But I have not time to describe the half I have seen. Scenery the most beautiful and grand I ever saw."
The bridge was named after Adonijah S. Welch of Jonesville, Michigan. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Welch was later the first president of iowa State University.
On June 26, 1850, Isaac R. Starr wrote: "Up near the high cliffs there is an arch of solid stone over this river, 40 or 50 feet wide and 15 feet high. I passed up the river, rose through beneath the arch, and viewed with delight the grand works of nature."
------------------------------
From park signage:
Formation of Ayres Natural Bridge
Meandering LaPrele Creek drainage cuts into alternating layers of sandstone and sandy limestone of the Permian-Pennsylvanian Casper Formation.
LaPrele Creek erodes both the upstream and downstream sides of the outcrop.
Undercutting by the creek collapses the lower level of stone, forming the bridge. The creek then follows the shortcut, flowing under the bridge.
------------------------------
Stratigraphy: Casper Formation (also known as the Tensleep Formation), Middle Pennsylvanian to Lower Permian
Locality: Ayres Natural Bridge over LaPrele Creek, southern end Natural Bridge Road, south of Interstate 25, west of the town of Douglas, Converse County, eastern Wyoming, USA
------------------------------
See info. at:
Natural bridge developed in Upper Paleozoic sandstones in Wyoming, USA.
Rock arches are rare erosional features. Rock arches that are not formed by river or stream erosion are called "natural arches". Those that are formed by river or stream erosion are called "natural bridges". Natural bridges are rarer than natural arches. The highest concentration of natural arches on Earth is Arches National Park in eastern Utah, USA. Very small erosional openings in rocks are called windows. Larger erosional openings are arches. Examples next to inland bodies of water are called lake arches. Examples along ocean shorelines are called sea arches.
The natural bridge seen here is developed in sandstones of the Casper Formation in Wyoming. The feature formed by erosional undercutting of a bedrock meander neck.
------------------------------
From park signage:
Natural Bridge and the Oregon Trail
The Oregon Trail crosses LaPrele Creek about one mile downstream from Natural Bridge. Before the modern road was built into the gorge, Natural Bridge was difficult to access, and it was only rarely visited by emigrants of the covered wagon era. From time to time, however, a few ambitious travelers made their way through the heavy brush and down the steep walls of the canyon to see this remarkable work of nature.
While Native Americans were probably well aware of Natural Bridge, the earliest to record their visits were New Orleans newspaperman Matthew Field and Steadman Tilghman, a young doctor from Baltimore. Both were traveling companions of Scottish nobleman William Drummond Stewart. An early day tourist, Stewart had organized several hunting and exploring expeditions into the Rocky Mountains and traveled strictly for pleasure. In 1843, he was making his final trip west.
On July 12, Field wrote: "Rode off in advance of the camp with Sir William, to visit a remarkable mountain gorge - a "natural bridge" of solid rock, over a rapid torrent, the arch being regular as though shaped by art - 30 feet from base to ceiling, and 50 to the top of the bridge - wild cliffs, 300 feet perpendicular beetled us, and the noisy current swept along among huge fragments of rock at our feet. We had a dangerous descent, and forced our way through an almost impervious thicket, being compelled to take the bed of the stream in gaining a position below. We called the water "Bridge Creek" !
Doctor Tilghman: "The Natural Bridge" is perhaps one of the greatest curiosities we saw in the while of our interesting expedition. It is at the extremity of a valley formed of an immense chasm, with rocky sides - and a perpendicular height of 300 feet - through which flows a beautiful chrystal stream."
In 1846, James Frazier Reed of the ill-fated Donner Party was aware of the bridge. In his diary he wrote, "We made this day 18 miles and camped on Beaver Creek. Here is a natural bridge 1.5 miles above camp."
During the California Gold Rush, a few "Forty-niners" found time to visit Natural Bridge. In a letter dated July 4, 1849, while camped at Deer Creek, Cephas Arms of the Fayette Rovers wrote: "Where we camped last night, and we meant to spend the 4th, instead of coming eighteen miles through the dust thick enough to choke us, if we could find grass, was quite a natural curiosity in the shape of a natural bridge. It is thrown over the river where we camped. "Fourche Boise River", and is a perfect arch one hundred feet long and eighteen feet high of solid stone. On either side the perpendicular rocks rise to the height of one hundred and fifty feet. The bridge is just at the foot of the mountain through which the stream passes. The mountain is three or four hundred feet above the plain below, and the river rushes through a gorge in the mountain with perpendicular walls to the top of the hill, the whole forming one of the wildest scenes I ever beheld. The bridge has never been named until today. We have christened it Welch's Bridge in honor of one of our company from Michigan, who pronounces it only second to the far famed Virginia bridge. But I have not time to describe the half I have seen. Scenery the most beautiful and grand I ever saw."
The bridge was named after Adonijah S. Welch of Jonesville, Michigan. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Welch was later the first president of iowa State University.
On June 26, 1850, Isaac R. Starr wrote: "Up near the high cliffs there is an arch of solid stone over this river, 40 or 50 feet wide and 15 feet high. I passed up the river, rose through beneath the arch, and viewed with delight the grand works of nature."
------------------------------
From park signage:
Formation of Ayres Natural Bridge
Meandering LaPrele Creek drainage cuts into alternating layers of sandstone and sandy limestone of the Permian-Pennsylvanian Casper Formation.
LaPrele Creek erodes both the upstream and downstream sides of the outcrop.
Undercutting by the creek collapses the lower level of stone, forming the bridge. The creek then follows the shortcut, flowing under the bridge.
------------------------------
Stratigraphy: Casper Formation (also known as the Tensleep Formation), Middle Pennsylvanian to Lower Permian
Locality: Ayres Natural Bridge over LaPrele Creek, southern end Natural Bridge Road, south of Interstate 25, west of the town of Douglas, Converse County, eastern Wyoming, USA
------------------------------
See info. at:
Wide angle lens is a stunner in this place.
Bodie State Historic Park is a genuine California gold-mining ghost town. Visitors can walk down the deserted streets of a town that once had a population of nearly 10,000 people. The town is named for Waterman S. Body (William Bodey), who had discovered small amounts of gold in hills north of Mono Lake. In 1875, a mine cave-in revealed pay dirt, which led to purchase of the mine by the Standard Company in 1877. People flocked to Bodie and transformed it from a town of a few dozen to a boomtown.
Only a small part of the town survives, preserved in a state of "arrested decay." Interiors remain as they were left and stocked with goods. Designated as a National Historic Site and a State Historic Park in 1962, the remains of Bodie are being preserved in a state of "arrested decay". Today this once thriving mining camp is visited by tourists, howling winds and an occasional ghost.