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Gold was discovered in the area that became Columbia on March 27, 1850, by John Walker, who was a member of Thadeus and George Hildreth's party. This discovery was one of the richest finds of the California Gold Rush. The surface-level deposits were amenable to placer mining, but lacked water needed for such operations. Over the next several years, a network of water supply aqueducts was built (at a cost of over $1 million) to the area to support mining operations. By 1852, sufficient water was arriving to support the development of a mining boom town, and large-scale mining operations began in 1856. The ditch was officially completed in 1858. The town was incorporated in 1854, and its population fluctuated in the 1850s between 2,000 and 5,000 people. The town was repeatedly struck by fire, and much of the construction after an 1857 fire was in brick. (Wikipedia)
Sutter's Fort was built by a German immigrant, John Sutter, in 1839 near present downtown Sacramento. This distillery was a successful element of his business, which also included fur trading and agricultural products. He lost everything when gold was discovered at his sawmill in 1848, starting the California gold rush.
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial and cultural center in the northern region of the U.S. state of California. The city proper is the 17th most populous in the United States, and the fourth most populous in California, with 815,201 residents as of 2021. It covers a land area of 46.9 square miles, at the end of the San Francisco Peninsula, making it the second most densely populated large U.S. city, and the fifth most densely populated U.S. county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs. Among the 331 U.S. cities proper with more than 100,000 residents, San Francisco was ranked first by per capita income (at $133,856) and fifth by aggregate income as of 2019. Colloquial nicknames for San Francisco include SF, The City, and Frisco.
San Francisco and the surrounding San Francisco Bay Area are a global center of economic activity and wealth, spurred by its leading universities, high-tech, healthcare, FIRE, and professional services sectors. As of 2018, the metropolitan area, with 6.7 million residents, ranked 6th by GDP ($884 billion) and first by GDP per capita ($131,538) across the OECD group of countries, ahead of global cities like London, Singapore, or Hong Kong. San Francisco anchors the 12th most populous metropolitan statistical area in the United States with 4.7 million residents, and the fourth-largest by economic output, with a GDP of $592 billion in 2019. The wider San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area is the fifth most populous, with 9.6 million residents, and the third-largest by economic output, with a GDP of $1.09 trillion in 2019. Of the 105 primary statistical areas in the U.S. with over 500,000 residents, this CSA had the highest GDP per capita in 2019, at $112,910. In the same year, San Francisco proper had a GDP of $200.5 billion, and a GDP per capita of $228,118. San Francisco was ranked 5th in the world and second in the United States on the Global Financial Centres Index as of September 2021. As of June 2022, the Bay Area was home to four of the world's fifteen largest companies by market capitalization, and the city proper is headquarters to companies such as Wells Fargo, Salesforce, Uber, First Republic Bank, Airbnb, Twitter, Block, Levi's, Gap Inc., Dropbox, PG&E, Lyft and Cruise.
San Francisco was founded on June 29, 1776, when colonists from Spain established the Presidio of San Francisco at the Golden Gate and 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 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, 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. Politically, the city has voted strongly along left Democratic Party lines for decades; in 2020 the city voted 85% to 13% in favor of President Joe Biden over Donald Trump.
A popular tourist destination, San Francisco 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, Alcatraz, and Chinatown and Mission districts. The city, and surrounding Bay Area, is a global center of the arts and sciences[45][46] and is home to a number of educational and cultural institutions, such as the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), the University of San Francisco (USF), San Francisco State University (SFSU), the de Young Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the SFJAZZ Center, the San Francisco Symphony and the California Academy of Sciences.
This gold country covered bridge was built in 1862 to connect California’s Sacramento Valley to Nevada and the Comstock Lode via Henness Pass Rd. It is the longest timber single span covered bridge in the world. This bridge is located on the Yuba River in South Yuba River State Park. Story boards tell that the original huge timbers came from Plum Valley near Camptonville further up the Yuba River. This is California gold country history at its finest. Several miles upstream is Rice’s Crossing a low water ford where pioneers could cross the Yuba River with their wagons and livestock during the summer months which before the bridge was the only wagon route across the river.
The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, known locally as the Bay Bridge, is a complex of bridges spanning San Francisco Bay in California. As part of Interstate 80 and the direct road between San Francisco and Oakland, it carries about 260,000 vehicles a day on its two decks. It has one of the longest spans in the United States.
The toll bridge was conceived as early as the California Gold Rush days, but construction did not begin until 1933. Designed by Charles H. Purcell, and built by American Bridge Company, it opened on Thursday, November 12, 1936, six months before the Golden Gate Bridge. It originally carried automobile traffic on its upper deck, with trucks, cars, buses and commuter trains on the lower, but after the Key System abandoned rail service, the lower deck was converted to all-road traffic as well. In 1986, the bridge was unofficially dedicated to James Rolph.
The bridge has two sections of roughly equal length; the older western section, officially known as the Willie L. Brown Jr. Bridge (after former San Francisco Mayor and California State Assembly Speaker Willie L. Brown Jr.), connects downtown San Francisco to Yerba Buena Island, and the newer unnamed eastern section connects the island to Oakland. The western section is a double suspension bridge with two decks, westbound traffic being carried on the upper deck while eastbound is carried on the lower one. The largest span of the original eastern section was a cantilever bridge. During the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, a portion of the eastern section's upper deck collapsed onto the lower deck and the bridge was closed for a month. Reconstruction of the eastern section of the bridge as a causeway connected to a self-anchored suspension bridge began in 2002; the new eastern section opened September 2, 2013, at a reported cost of over $6.5 billion; the original estimate of $250 million was for a seismic retrofit of the existing span. Unlike the western section and the original eastern section of the bridge, the new eastern section is a single deck carrying all eastbound and westbound lanes, making it the world's widest bridge, according to Guinness World Records, as of 2014. Demolition of the old east span was completed on September 8, 2018.
The bridge consists of two crossings, east and west of Yerba Buena Island, a natural mid-bay outcropping inside San Francisco city limits. The western crossing between Yerba Buena and downtown San Francisco has two complete suspension spans connected at a center anchorage. Rincon Hill is the western anchorage and touch-down for the San Francisco landing of the bridge connected by three shorter truss spans. The eastern crossing, between Yerba Buena Island and Oakland, was a cantilever bridge with a double-tower span, five medium truss spans, and a 14-section truss causeway. Due to earthquake concerns, the eastern crossing was replaced by a new crossing that opened on Labor Day 2013. On Yerba Buena Island, the double-decked crossing is a 321-foot concrete viaduct east of the west span's cable anchorage, the 540-foot Yerba Buena Tunnel through the island's rocky central hill, another 790.8-foot concrete viaduct, and a longer curved high-level steel truss viaduct that spans the final 1,169.7 feet to the cantilever bridge.
The toll plaza on the Oakland side (since 1969 for westbound traffic only) has eighteen toll lanes, with all charges now made either through the FasTrak electronic toll collection system or through invoices mailed through the USPS, based on the license plate of the car per Department of Motor Vehicle records. Metering signals are about 1,000 feet west of the toll plaza. Two full-time bus-only lanes bypass the toll booths and metering lights around the right (north) side of the toll plaza; other high occupancy vehicles can use these lanes during weekday morning and afternoon commute periods. The two far-left toll lanes are high-occupancy vehicle lanes during weekday commute periods. Radio and television traffic reports will often refer to congestion at the toll plaza, metering lights, or a parking lot in the median of the road for bridge employees; the parking lot is about 1,900 feet long, stretching from about 800 feet east of the toll plaza to about 100 feet west of the metering lights.
During the morning commute hours, traffic congestion on the westbound approach from Oakland stretches back through the MacArthur Maze interchange at the east end of the bridge onto the three feeder highways, Interstate 580, Interstate 880, and I-80 toward Richmond. Since the number of lanes on the eastbound approach from San Francisco is structurally restricted, eastbound backups are also frequent during evening commute hours.
The western section of the Bay Bridge is currently restricted to motorized freeway traffic. Pedestrians, bicycles, and other non-freeway vehicles are not allowed to cross this section. A project to add bicycle/pedestrian lanes to the western section has been proposed but is not finalized. A Caltrans bicycle shuttle operates between Oakland and San Francisco during peak commute hours for $1.00 each way.
Freeway ramps next to the tunnel provide access to Yerba Buena Island and Treasure Island. Because the toll plaza is on the Oakland side, the western span is a de facto non-tolled bridge; traffic between the island and the main part of San Francisco can freely cross back and forth. Those who only travel from Oakland to Yerba Buena Island, and not the entire length to the main part of San Francisco, must pay the full toll.
San Francisco, at the entrance to the bay, was perfectly placed to prosper during the California Gold Rush. Almost all goods not produced locally arrived by ship. But after the first transcontinental railroad was completed in May 1869, San Francisco was on the wrong side of the Bay, separated from the new rail link. The fear of many San Franciscans was that the city would lose its position as the regional center of trade. The concept of a bridge spanning the San Francisco Bay had been considered since the Gold Rush days. Several newspaper articles during the early 1870s discussed the idea. In early 1872, a "Bay Bridge Committee" was hard at work on plans to construct a railroad bridge. The April 1872 issue of the San Francisco Real Estate Circular contained an item about the committee:
The Bay Bridge Committee lately submitted its report to the Board of Supervisors, in which compromise with the Central Pacific was recommended; also the bridging of the bay at Ravenswood and the granting of railroad facilities at Mission Bay and on the water front. Wm. C. Ralston, ex-Mayor Selby and James Otis were on this committee. A daily newspaper attempts to account for the advice of these gentlemen to the city by hinting that they were afraid of the railroad company, and therefore made their recommendations to suit its interests.
The self-proclaimed Emperor Norton saw fit to decree three times in 1872 that a suspension bridge be constructed to connect Oakland with San Francisco. In the third of these decrees, in September 1872, Norton, frustrated that nothing had happened, proclaimed:
WHEREAS, we issued our decree ordering the citizens of San Francisco and Oakland to appropriate funds for the survey of a suspension bridge from Oakland Point via Goat Island; also for a tunnel; and to ascertain which is the best project; and whereas the said citizens have hitherto neglected to notice our said decree; and whereas we are determined our authority shall be fully respected; now, therefore, we do hereby command the arrest by the army of both the Boards of City Fathers if they persist in neglecting our decrees. Given under our royal hand and seal at San Francisco, this 17th day of September, 1872.
Unlike most of Emperor Norton's eccentric ideas, his decree to build a bridge had wide public and political appeal. Yet the task was too much of an engineering and economic challenge, since the bay was too wide and too deep there. In 1921, over forty years after Norton's death, a tube was considered, but it became clear that one would be inadequate for vehicular traffic. Support for a trans-bay crossing finally grew in the 1920s with the increasing popularity and availability of the automobile.
In the history of the American frontier, pioneers built overland trails throughout the 19th century, especially between 1840 and 1847 as an alternative to sea and railroad transport. These immigrants began to settle much of North America west of the Great Plains as part of the mass overland migrations of the mid-19th century. Settlers emigrating from the eastern United States did so with various motives, among them religious persecution and economic incentives, to move from their homes to destinations further west via routes such as the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails. After the end of the Mexican–American War in 1849, vast new American conquests again encouraged mass immigration. Legislation like the Donation Land Claim Act and significant events like the California Gold Rush further encouraged settlers to travel overland to the west.
California Gold stands out as a premier yellow Bougainvillea type, characterized by its prolific flowering, robust nature, and evergreen qualities. It showcases bunches of vibrant golden yellow papery bracts enveloping small creamy-white flowers.
On the Road. ... Barstow Station MacDonnald's
Barstow - California - Usa.
Video "... On the Road": youtu.be/BIohfLij5mU
Video "CALIFORNIA Gold Rush MARIPOSA": www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTNU9_XjL50&t=27s
Video "YOSEMITE National Park": youtu.be/o9kjE305sFg
Video "Grand Canyon National Park II" : youtu.be/rFrhf3RVYek
*****
Point of Rocks, Ft. Davis, TX. Point of Rocks or Bald Rock was the location of a spring, along the San Antonio - El Paso Road, the first military road through West Texas from San Antonio to El Paso. The road was established in 1849 just as the California Gold Rush began, several parties of 49ers accompanied or followed the Army expedition that established the route. Later used by travelers along the route and was a stop used by stagecoach companies on that route, including the San Antonio-El Paso Mail, San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line and was a watering place available to the Butterfield Overland Mail Company coaches a little over midway on their run between Fort Davis and Barrel Springs. P9180273 print2
Living in the desert has pros and cons, it lovely in winter and hotter than well for 6 months too but year-round we get amazing sunsets thanks to the combination of high mountains and low dry desert air. Many supreme cinematic wonders.
PS: Ask Alexa, Siri and/or Spotify to play music
by John William Hammond (use all 3 names)
YOU Will Enjoy!
On the Road. ... Barstow Station MacDonnald's
Barstow - California - Usa.
Video "... On the Road": youtu.be/BIohfLij5mU
Video "CALIFORNIA Gold Rush MARIPOSA": www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTNU9_XjL50&t=27s
Video "YOSEMITE National Park": youtu.be/o9kjE305sFg
Video "Grand Canyon National Park II" : youtu.be/rFrhf3RVYek
*****
1879 - The California gold rush is long gone. The long depression is coming to an end, and there are rumours of gold in the nearby hills. The fellas at Dirt Ridge are feelin' lucky...
[ I still prefer the sepia one but really like this one too and wanted to share it :) ]
The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, known locally as the Bay Bridge, has one of the States. The toll bridge was conceived as early as the California Gold Rush days, but construction did not begin until 1933. Designed by Charles H. Purcell and built by American Bridge Company, it opened on November 12, 1936, six months before the Golden Gate Bridge. It originally carried automobile traffic on its upper deck, with trucks, cars, buses and commuter trains on the lower; after the Key System abandoned rail service on April 20, 1958, the lower deck was converted to all-road traffic. On October 12, 1963, traffic was reconfigured to one way traffic on each deck, westbound on the upper deck, and eastbound on the lower deck, with trucks and buses allowed on the upper deck.
The bridge has two sections of roughly equal length; the older western section, officially known as the Willie L. Brown Jr. Bridge connects San Francisco to Yerba Buena Island, and the newer unnamed eastern section connects the island to Oakland. The largest span of the original eastern section was a cantilever bridge. During the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, a portion of the eastern section's upper deck collapsed onto the lower deck and the bridge was closed for a month. Reconstruction of the eastern section of the bridge as a causeway connected to a self-anchored suspension bridge began in 2002; the new eastern section opened September 2, 2013. Unlike the western section and the original eastern section, the new eastern section is a single deck carrying all eastbound and westbound lanes, making it the world's widest bridge. Demolition of the old eastern span was completed on September 8, 2018.
Fort Point National Historic Site > Fort Point Museum
Fort Point has stood guard at the narrows of the Golden Gate for over 150 years.
The Fort has been called "the pride of the Pacific," "the Gibraltar of the West Coast," and "one of the most perfect models of masonry in America." When construction began during the height of the California Gold Rush, Fort Point was planned as the most formidable deterrence America could offer to a naval attack on California. Although its guns never fired a shot in anger, the "Fort at Fort Point" as it was originally named has witnessed Civil War, obsolescence, earthquake, bridge construction, reuse for World War II, and preservation as a National Historic Site.
Built for the Civil War
Fort Point was built between 1853 and 1861 by the U.S. Army Engineers as part of a defense system of forts planned for the protection of San Francisco Bay. Designed at the height of the Gold Rush, the Fort and its companion fortifications would protect the Bay's important commercial and military installations against foreign attack. The Fort was built in the Army's traditional "Third System" style of military architecture (a standard adopted in the 1820s), and would be the only fortification of this impressive design constructed west of the Mississippi River. This fact bears testimony to the importance the military gave San Francisco and the gold fields during the 1850s.
Although Fort Point never saw battle, the building has tremendous significance due to its military history, architecture, and association with maritime history. To learn more about Fort Point before, during and after the Civil War, please visit Fort Point, 1846-1876.
Army's use of Fort Point during the 20th Century
In the years after the Civil War, Fort Point became underutilized and was used intermittently as an army barracks. The pre-Civil War cannons, so valuable when they were originally installed, became obsolete and were eventually removed. During World War I, the Army remodeled Fort Point for use as a detention barracks, though the building was never ultimately used for that purpose. During the 1920s, the property was used by the Presidio for housing unmarried officers and different military trade schools. During World War II, Fort Point was once again used for military purposes. Soldiers stationed at Fort Point dutifully guarded the entrance of the Golden Gate from submarine attack.
The Sierra Nevada is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily in Nevada. The Sierra Nevada is part of the American Cordillera, an almost continuous chain of mountain ranges that forms the western "backbone" of the Americas.
The Sierra runs 400 miles north-south and its width ranges from 50 miles to 80 miles across east–west. Notable features include General Sherman, the largest tree in the world by volume; Lake Tahoe, the largest alpine lake in North America; Mount Whitney at 14,505 ft, the highest point in the contiguous United States; and Yosemite Valley sculpted by glaciers from one-hundred-million-year-old granite, containing high waterfalls. The Sierra is home to three national parks, twenty wilderness areas, and two national monuments. These areas include Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon National Parks; and Devils Postpile National Monument.
More than one hundred million years ago during the Nevadan orogeny, granite formed deep underground. The range started to uplift less than five million years ago, and erosion by glaciers exposed the granite and formed the light-colored mountains and cliffs that make up the range. The uplift caused a wide range of elevations and climates in the Sierra Nevada, which are reflected by the presence of five life zones (areas with similar plant and animal communities). Uplift continues due to faulting caused by tectonic forces, creating spectacular fault block escarpments along the eastern edge of the southern Sierra.
The Sierra Nevada has played an important role in the history of California and the United States. The California Gold Rush occurred in the western foothills from 1848 through 1855. Due to its inaccessibility, the range was not fully explored until 1912.
Bodie State Historic Park - The Wild West
Visiting Bodie is the most authentic way to see the real-life setting of the California gold rush. From 1877 to 1888, Bodie was a bustling town with more than 10,000 residents and produced more than $35 million in gold and silver. Today, with the gold mining days of California a distinct memory, there are 170 wooden buildings to photograph and explore. Peek in the windows of the church, schoolhouse, barbershop and saloon, where bottles, desks and other relics remain.
This was a smelting site for a mine near the town of Keeler. This is off of Highway 136 that leads to Death Valley from Lone Pine. We were thinking of going to the Cerro Gordo Ghost Town, but the road conditions looked like it would be a slow drive and we didn't have enough time for the side trip. Instead, we went to this processing site and looked around.
I picked up some of the more interesting slag from the site and I'm going to share it with my kids at school where I teach. I'm going to see if they can guess what it is before I show them this picture and talk about the mining. We study about communities and how they grow in my grade level. We've talked about the California Gold Rush and this will give us another type of mining to talk about. They probably smelted zinc at this site from what I read online.
Columbia State Historic Park > California Gold Rush Town > 1850's
Browns Coffee House and Sweets Saloon
Brown’s Coffee House and Sweets Saloon is conveniently located in the heart of Columbia State Historic Park on Main Street. We offer a full espresso bar, sandwiches, baked goods, ice cream, assorted candy, homemade preserves, honey, tea, and many more wonderfully sweet and flavorful goodies.
Get the large view!
The State of California is the most populous state of the United States of America. Located on the Pacific coast of North America, it is bordered by Oregon, Nevada and Arizona in the United States, and Baja California in Mexico. The state's four largest cities are Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose and San Francisco. California is known for its diverse climate and ethnically diverse population. The state has 58 counties.
Inhabited by indigenous people for millennia, Alta California was first colonized by the Spanish Empire in 1769, and after Mexican independence in 1821, continued as part of Mexico. Following one brief week as the independent California Republic in 1846, and the conclusion of the Mexican-American war in 1848, California was annexed by the United States and was admitted to the Union as the thirty-first state on September 9, 1850.
California's diverse geography ranges from the sandy beaches of the Pacific coast to the rugged, snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains in the east. The central portion of the state is dominated by the Central Valley, one of the most vital agricultural areas in the country. The Sierra Nevada contains Yosemite Valley, famous for its glacially-carved domes, and Sequoia National Park, home to the largest living organisms on Earth, the giant sequoia trees, and the highest point in the contiguous United States, Mount Whitney. The tallest living things on Earth, the ancient redwood trees, dot the coastline, mainly north of San Francisco. California is also home to the second lowest and hottest place in the Western Hemisphere, Death Valley. Bristlecone pines located in the White Mountains are the oldest known trees in the world; one has an age of 4,700 years.
The California Gold Rush, beginning in 1848, dramatically changed California with an influx of population and an economic boom, and San Francisco became a financial and cultural center. The early part of the 20th century was marked by Los Angeles becoming the center of the entertainment industry, in addition to the growth of a large tourism sector in the state. The Central Valley is home to California's important agricultural industry, the largest of any state. Other important industries have included the aerospace and oil industries. In recent decades, California has become a global leader in computers and information technology. If California were a country, its economy would rank among the ten largest in the world, and it would be the 35th largest country by population (behind Kenya).
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The town of Hornitos was founded by Mexicans who were run out of neighboring town of Quartzburg for the crime of being Mexicans. Hornitos, Spanish for Little Ovens, was named for the above ground oven-shaped Mexican graves found there. In the California Gold Rush heyday, Hornitos was a wide-open camp whose streets were lined with dancing halls, bars, and gambling dens ready to take the gold miners money who worked in the gold area around Hornitos.
Lots of Cornish miners were coaxed to California Gold Country as the mining was industrialized. Unfortunately, it probably wasn't any safer here than England.
IMG_7929r Collins Co., Collinsville, CT. Connecticut 19th century ax factory.
The Collins & Company factory opened in 1826 with the purchase of an old gristmill and a few acres of land along the Farmington River in Canton. The company started small with eight men, each making eight axes per day. ... The emerging factory town became known as Collinsville.
The Collins Company Axe Factory, was a manufacturer of edge tools, such as axes, machetes, picks and knives. Collins machetes were the brand of choice in South America. Collins tools were used almost exclusively for the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, and axes and picks made their way across the country to be used in the California Gold Rush. Admiral Peary carried Collins tools to the North Pole.
Typical of New England mills, the Collins Company axe factory was sited on a river (the Farmington), and their production was powered by utilizing the water's strength to turn turbines and power machines. The numerous old buildings ramble along the riverbanks intertwined by an intricate maze of sluices that run throughout the site. The company closed its doors in 1966, but the factory buildings stayed standing and are now rented out to local businesses
Started in 1909. Torn down and rebuilt 3 times. Ceased operation in 1938.
There used to be a tramway from here to Masonic. This mine is supposedly haunted although we saw and felt no such activity. Dang.
Originally a California gold rush era (mid 19th century) mining town, Whiskeytown is now at the bottom of a reservoir capable of holding about 300 million cubic meters of water. The little cemetery, however, was up in the hills and spared from inundation. But after 55 years, it was devastated in a massive wildfire. Many of its quirky homemade graves and copious decorations were reduced to ash. I visited six years after the fire and its effects are still apparent.
Gravestone in the old Boot Hill cemetery in Ophir, California. Ophir was an old mining area during the California gold rush of 1849 near Auburn. This is a gravestone of a child named Rosa Kittler who died July 18, 1861 at the age of 4 years and 2 months.
The cathedral's ancestral parish, Grace Church, was founded in 1849 during the California Gold Rush. The cathedral is the daughter of the historic Grace Church. The first little chapel was built in the gold rush year of 1849 and the imposing third church, for a time called Grace "cathedral", was destroyed in the fire following the 1906 earthquake. The family of a railroad baron and banker, William Henry Crocker, gave their ruined Nob Hill property for a diocesan cathedral,[which took its name and founding congregation from the nearby parish.
Grace Cathedral is an Episcopal cathedral on Nob Hill, San Francisco, California. It is the cathedral church of the Episcopal Diocese of California.
The cathedral is famed for its mosaics by Jan Henryk De Rosen,[5] a replica of Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise, two labyrinths, varied stained glass windows, Keith Haring AIDS Chapel altarpiece, and medieval and contemporary furnishings, as well as its forty-four bell carillon, three organs, and choirs.
The cathedral has one of only a handful of remaining Episcopal men and boys cathedral choirs, the Grace Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys; the 24 boys of the choir attend the Cathedral School for Boys, while the 12 men are a professional ensemble. There is also a mixed-voice adult choir. The director of music and choirmaster is Ben Bachmann.
A church speaks to the history of the California gold rush. Eastern European immigrants were a strong presence, and this church served those in Angles Camp, famous for Mark Twain and his "Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. This image made 15 years ago when the church building was 100 years old.
From Wikipedia:
The Panama Canal Railway (Spanish: Ferrocarril de Panamá) is a railway line linking the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean in Central America. The route stretches 47.6 miles (76.6 km) across the Isthmus of Panama from Colón (Atlantic) to Balboa (Pacific, near Panama City). Because of the difficult physical conditions of the route and state of technology, the construction was renowned as an international engineering achievement, one that cost US$8 million and the lives of an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 workers.
The line was built by the United States and the principal incentive was the vast increase in passenger and freight traffic from eastern USA to California following the 1849 California Gold Rush. The United States Congress had provided subsidies to companies to operate mail and passenger steamships on the coasts, and supported some funds for construction of the railroad, which began in 1850; the first revenue train ran over the full length on January 28, 1855. Referred to as an inter-oceanic railroad when it opened, it was later also described by some as representing a "transcontinental" railroad, despite transversing only the narrow isthmus connecting the North and South American continents. For a time the Panama Railroad also owned and operated ocean-going ships that provided mail and passenger service to a few major US East Coast and West Coast cities, respectively. The infrastructure of this railroad was of vital importance to the construction of the Panama Canal over a parallel route half a century later.
Basques have been in the Americas for centuries--possibly even before the arrival of Columbus. Most of the current Basque communities of the American West, however, trace their origins to the more recent past. The Basque sheepherding story of the American West goes to the California Gold Rush that brought a sustained number of Basques to the American West. Most "49ers" did not find their gold and had to turn to an alternative plan, and thus some Basques went into ranching. By the 1870s Basque sheep outfits had expanded throughout the high desert country of the American West.
Anyone who has driven the high desert ranges of the West has pondered how someone could possibly live there. It's possible, but the life was very demanding, compounded by the reality that sheepherding as an occupation was not favorably looked upon. Basques took the job because it offered them economic opportunity. These hundreds of herders tended bands of sheep for months on end in a harsh, desolate environment. They were usually all alone. It was not an easy existence, but thanks to their perseverance their descendants were able to enjoy a better life here in America.
texture by skeletalmess
Golden Gate National Parks chronicle two hundred years of history, from the Native American culture, the Spanish Empire frontier and the Mexican Republic, to maritime history, the California Gold Rush, the evolution of American coastal fortifications, and the growth of urban San Francisco.
Apsens in fall splendor. The afternoon sun added a nice golden glow looking up from the forest floor.
Bodie is a California gold mining ghost town. Only about 5% of the town, that once was so prosperous, remains. It is one of few places that survived untouched. This old Methodist Church was erected in 1882. It is the only church that still remains in Bodie. Now this place is a state historic park and a National Historic Landmark.
I'm back!
This video shows the trap door and hidden door in action.
This model was inspired by an activity in the mid-1800s known as Shanghaiing. Due to the California gold rush craze, there was a significant lack of men to operate the numerous schooners along the Barbary coast. Captains began hiring men to "find" crews. These individuals would kidnap often drunk victims and sell them to the captains. This became a rather lucrative business and often business owners were involved, or at least paid to keep quiet. This model represents a circa 1860 saloon with a trap door and hidden door in the wall.
Victorian Fence at the Sacramento Historic City Cemetery
The Sacramento Historic City Cemetery came into existence during the California Gold Rush era of 1848. Many historic figures of that era are buried there - it's "the resting place of many of California's pioneers" - people we learned about in history in school. If you're interested in learning more about it check it out at this link: www.historicoldcitycemetery.org/