Name: Greeks in San Francisco
Brand: Greek Historical Society of the San Francisco Bay
SKU: 9781467116886
Price: 24.99 USD
Availability: InStock

Greeks in San Francisco

9781467116886

$24.99

The history of San Francisco's Greek community is linked to the history of San Francisco. The first Greeks to arrive were sailors, miners, and laborers. By the 1880s, they had formed benevolent, civic, and fraternal organizations. In 1904, the first Greek Orthodox Church west of Chicago was established, and Third Street became the heart of the Greek community. The 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed much of their new community, but undaunted, the Greeks of San Francisco rebuilt their lives to become business leaders and politicians, contributing their entrepreneurial and philanthropic spirit to the city's rich heritage.

Moss Beach

9780738580753

$24.99

Moss Beach has long been a picturesque seaside place with scenic cliffs and unusual marine gardens. The town is separated from the dense San Francisco area by Devil's Slide, a moody geographical barrier of tumbling rocks that now supports U.S. Highway One. The developers of the Ocean Shore Railroad envisioned Moss Beach as one of a string of resorts along the San Mateo County coastline. The railroad did not endure, but the automobile era brought prosperity to the secluded area, which hummed with activity during Prohibition and became a strategic and controlled location during World War II. Early settler Jurgen Wienke, who built the original Moss Beach Hotel in the 1880s, would be amazed at how this little town has evolved. Abundantly endowed with natural beauty, the Moss Beach of yesterday can still be discovered today.

Aviation in San Diego

9780738547596

$24.99

For nearly a century, San Diego has been a hub of aviation development, air power, and flying adventure. The city's ideal weather and protected bay allowed San Diego to have an aviation history unrivaled by any local community. From the pioneering days of Glenn Curtiss and naval aviation at North Island to the present cutting-edge aerospace technology, Aviation in San Diego captures it all. With many never-before-published photographs, Aviation in San Diego documents the people and events that made San Diego's aviation heritage unique. From Ryan to Consolidated, Curtiss to Lindbergh, and everything in between, Aviation in San Diego is the preeminent photographic record of flight in "America's Finest City."

Coachella

9781467132664

$24.99

Coachella was founded by Jason L. Rector in 1884 under the name of Woodspur. Rector established a wood siding for the railroad company and cleared the mesquite trees in the local area. As the town developed with the guidance and hard work of the early residents, the town elected to change its name to Conchilla in 1901. However, a clerical error would result in the town's name being registered as Coachella. The growth and development of the town would steadily continue while the agricultural industry took advantage of the year-round growing season. The unique development of the date industry in Coachella and the surrounding towns provided a strong economy for local residents. Flourishing in the unforgiving extreme heat of the Coachella Valley remains a testament to the ingenuity of the people of this desert valley.

Albany

9780738547671

$24.99

Located directly across San Francisco Bay from the famous Golden Gate, the small city of Albany has a history far larger than its size would suggest. Just one-and-a-half-miles square, the Albany area has been
the home of many diverse people and interests. The first inhabitants were the Huchiun Indians, followed by the Peralta family and their vast Rancho San Antonio. The Gold Rush brought new settlers and
dynamite manufacturers, an incompatible pairing that could not last. Albany's population swelled after the great 1906 earthquake, when many San Franciscans moved to the East Bay. By the 1920s, new homes built
by well-known developers like C. M. MacGregor attracted many more families. During World War II, Albany's population expanded yet again with the influx of shipyard workers housed at Codornices Village, now known as University Village. Albany has evolved to keep pace with modern times but also has maintained much of its small-town, familyfriendly
character, a combination that makes it one of the most soughtafter locations along the East Bay shore.

Santa Susana

9780738570495

$24.99

Santa Susana is one of three rural towns in Simi Valley that began at the turn of the 20th century. The town derives its name from the surrounding mountains, Sierra de Santa Susanna, and grew up alongside the railroad depot built by the Southern Pacific Company in 1903. The history of Santa Susana can be traced back to the Chumash Indian village of Ta'apu and a Spanish land grant, El Rancho Simi. The area was first surveyed by the Simi Valley Land and Water Company in 1887 for the sale of ranches. By the mid-1950s, Santa Susana had become a recognized agricultural center, noted for citrus and walnut production. Corriganville and Bottle Village are unique tourist destinations that originated near the Santa Susana Airport. In the surrounding mountains, quirky religious groups established communes away from the public with strange names and stories: Pisgah Grande, The Great Eleven Club, and WKFL Fountain of the World.

Sacramento's Capitol Park

9780738596884

$24.99

Construction on the California State Capitol began during the Civil War using stone, brick, and iron, showing confidence in the future. The capitol building showed that California had come a long way from the days of its transient, chaotic roots, born of the Gold Rush. Once the capitol was located in Sacramento in 1854, there was still no guarantee that the city would remain its permanent home. When it was completed in 1873, it was the largest structure of its day west of the Mississippi River. Its presence has continued to not only dominate the Sacramento landscape for a century and a half but has also come to shape the very outlook and future of Sacramento and of California itself. The state capitol and its majestic dome have become the iconic symbol of the city.

Surfing in Santa Cruz

9780738570761

$24.99

Santa Cruz is located on the northern tip of Monterey Bay on California's central coast. Surfing was first introduced to the U.S. mainland in Santa Cruz by three visiting Hawaiian princes in the late 1880s. Since those early days, the Santa Cruz surfing culture has blossomed into a thriving lifestyle. Many of the world's most highly regarded surfers hail from Santa Cruz. In fact, Santa Cruz, or "Surf City" as its known, has become a popular destination for surfing aficionados of all ages. Surfing in Santa Cruz is a concise historical overview of the diverse and colorful surfing culture inhabiting the area.

Mills of Humboldt County, 1910-1945

9781467127769

$24.99

Sequoia sempervirens, California coastal redwood, was Humboldt County's economic mainstay from the 1850s onwards. By the early 20th century, harvesting "red gold" was the major industry along California's North Coast, with Humboldt at the forefront of the industry. The first half of the 20th century saw technological changes in logging and milling. New uses for redwood included cigar boxes, "presto-logs," and core logs for plywood. The industry began reforestation practices, growing their own seedlings as early as 1907. World War I and the Great Depression impacted the industry, as did activism to preserve the redwoods. In the 1930s, the largest stand of old-growth redwoods was preserved, and the turmoil of the 1935 strike resulted in several strikers being killed in Eureka. This book explores Humboldt's early-20th-century lumber industry and day-to-day realities of life in the mills and woods in an era underrepresented in published logging history.

Old Town Temecula

9780738595900

$24.99

The original inhabitants called Temecula the place of origins, "the place of sand and sun." From the beginnings of the Native American village to the introduction of the railroad that made it into a Western town in 1882, Old Town Temecula captivates visitors and residents with its rustic charm. Cattlemen and cowboys frequented the saloons, and Hollywood's elite found liquor flowing during Prohibition in Old Town establishments where legendary stories of high times and crimes are retold today. After World War II, Old Town was at a crossroads, and residents and travelers dined in roadside cafés along historic Highway 395. In 1977, after nearly losing its Old West flair, several visionary businessmen decided to promote Old Town Temecula's historic past by recreating an 1890s Western architectural motif for Old Town. Now a tourist destination for antiquing, dining, and viewing vintage cars, Old Town has something of interest for everyone.

San Francisco Fire Department

9780738520841

$24.99

In San Francisco, history is as close as the sound of the fire engines and trucks racing by, sirens wailing. The San Francisco Fire Department took shape, as did the city, from the ashes and embers of the Great Fire of 1906. In the tumultuous seaport full of those seeking California's newly found gold, volunteer fire companies had to adapt to a teeming city full of canvas tents, wood shacks, kerosene lanterns, ocean breezes, and hilly winding streets. From a force that initially pulled hand-operated pumps and competed to be the first at a fire, traveling in horse-drawn equipment, the department has grown from a volunteer contingent of a few hundred to a company 1,800 strong and equipped to protect a city of 49 square miles, surrounded on three sides by salt water. The historic photographs of this volume document the establishment of the volunteer department on Christmas Eve 1849 and the inception of the paid force in 1866, as well as such colorful characters as Lily Hitchcock Coit, a belle who battled many a blaze with the volunteers and a portion of whose estate went to build the 210-foot Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill. Striking images, many never before published, illustrate how the fire department was affected not only by the well-known inferno of 1906 but by the six blazes that leveled the waterfront in the 1850s and a number of other fires throughout the city's history.

Newport Beach

9780738520933

$24.99

This collection of historical images documents the islands and villages of Newport, Balboa, and Corona del Mar. The seaside resorts had been a place for dory fishing, bustling wharf traffic with railroad transportation, and visitors who arrived in Pacific Electric Cars. The seaside fun-land was transformed into shipyards, a launch for sport-fishing, and a place of rest and relaxation for military personnel in World War II. These black and white images feature such events as Bal Week, a tradition since the 1930s; the first surfing contest on the Mainland in 1928; melodies and dance steps of the Rendezvous Ballroom and the Balboa Pavilion; and decades of yachting and sailing. This volume will bring back memories to local residents, as well as introduce the heritage of Newport to a new generation.

Point Sur

9780738520940

$24.99

Point Sur Lightstation was carved out of solid volcanic rock more than a century ago. When the light was turned on in 1889, no towns or roads were nearby to support the four families that lived atop the giant "moro" rock located just offshore in Big Sur, California. These vintage images tell the story of Pt. Sur Lightstation with its state-of-the-art lighthouse and fog signal system, and the lightkeepers and their families who kept it operating until 1974. The remote location and treacherous coast were constant adversaries. Today, Pt. Sur's lighthouse is automated. The vacant lightstation buildings are a ghost town that reminds us of our proud maritime heritage and the hearty souls who helped light the way.

Clovis

9780738576138

$24.99

In the late 1800s, Clovis M. Cole purchased large tracts of land in California's San Joaquin Valley with the intent to farm wheat. Marcus Pollasky, a businessman from the East with a keen eye for a profit, proposed building a railroad that would bring more people and gains to the area. The two struck a deal. Cole sold key landholdings to Pollasky, and the town was given Cole's first name. Businesses grew along Front Street, and families purchased nearby 20-acre parcels where they built homes and grew abundant crops. Living in Clovis became a way of life as dedication to family, friends, and community defined the area.

Missions of Central California

9780738596808

$24.99

After the discovery of Alta California, the Spanish Crown charged the first Franciscan friars to enter into the New World through Lower Baja, with a succession of conquistadors, explorers, and soldiers, on a trail called El Camino Real or "The Royal Road." The settlement began in 1769 at Mission San Diego de Alcalá, a new port and military presidio with buildings of mud, brushwood, and tule grass. Fr. Junípero Serra, the legendary mission presidente and founding father of nine missions, traveled along a worn path lined today by symbolic bell markers leading to many remarkable, modern cities. After 1772, settlements were spread to California's central coast region, filling with native neophytes who became the residents and builders of all mission settlements. The Spanish missions had brought dramatic changes to California's landscape and forged the underpinnings of its earliest history, founded serendipitously with the American Revolution and birth of the United States.

San Diego International Airport, Lindbergh Field

9780738589084

$24.99

Now formally known as San Diego International Airport, Lindbergh Field was named in honor of Charles Lindbergh and has been a center of aeronautic activity since its dedication in 1928. Many famous personalities and events have been associated with the airstrip, which quickly grew to include a Coast Guard Air Station, three airlines, two flying schools, and Ryan Aeronautical. In 1935, Consolidated Aircraft relocated to Lindbergh Field, transforming it into an aviation manufacturing center. Situated just three miles north of downtown San Diego, Lindbergh Field serves more than 50,000 travelers a day, making San Diego International Airport the busiest single-runway commercial airport today in the United States.

Dublin and the Tri-Valley

9781467131063

$24.99

In 1941, the Navy sought West Coast locations for bases to ship men, material, and equipment into World War II's Pacific theater. The Dublin and Livermore area offered wide-open spaces with good transportation routes to the San Francisco Bay area. Near Dublin, the Navy built Camp Parks, Camp Shoemaker, and Shoemaker Naval Hospital. Camp Parks prepared Seabees to build and maintain airfields, ports, and hospitals from Guadalcanal to Japan. Hundreds of thousands of other sailors and WAVES came to Camp Shoemaker on their way from basic training to postings on ships, bases, and stations throughout the Pacific. Shoemaker Hospital saw them again when they returned injured or ill. Farther east, the Navy built Livermore Naval Air Station to train thousands to fly.

Big Sur

9780738529134

$24.99

Big Sur is a river and a region on California's Central Coast. Extending for 75 miles along the Pacific shore, from south of Carmel to north of San Simeon, the Big Sur Coast is defined by the backdrop of the rugged Santa Lucia Mountains as they abruptly descend to meet the sea. For millennia the home of native people, Americans and Europeans began to settle Big Sur country even before California became a state. This book combines outstanding photographs from 40 collections, ranging from family albums to institutional archives.

Duarte

9780738569116

$24.99

Mexican Army veteran Andres Duarte was granted 6,595 acres along the southern foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains in 1841 by the governor of Alta California. Rancho Azusa de Duarte eventually was carved into 40-acre parcels, and arriving families from the East and Midwest built schools, installed water lines, and grew crops. By 1900, two major rail lines served the area's thriving citrus industry. Duarte's beneficial climate led to the establishment in 1913 of a tuberculosis sanitarium, which became City of Hope, the world-class cancer treatment center. Bandleader Glenn Miller settled in Duarte. The city's location along old U.S. Route 66 brought many visitors to and through town. A strongly independent civic spirit led to a momentous 1987 U. S. Supreme Court decision to disallow the expulsion of the Duarte Rotary from Rotary International for admitting three women. As for Andres Duarte, he is commemorated by a 2007 bronze equestrian statue, located across Huntington Drive from the city hall that bears his name.

Eagle Rock

9780738582160

$24.99

Eagle Rock has grown from an open farming community, populated by a few hundred souls, into a busy and diverse neighborhood of Los Angeles. The incorporation of Eagle Rock City in 1911 began the political process necessary to sustain and service this expanding community. The Eagle Rock City that was annexed by Los Angeles in 1923 was much smaller than the area included by the City of Los Angeles in the Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council in 2002. The town grew through the century by attracting the loyalty of people living in then-outlying areas. Eagle Rock: 1911-2011 continues the exploration begun in the Images of America volume Eagle Rock, detailing this expansion and the community's everyday life and interaction with the city and the world.

Jack London State Historic Park

9781467132626

$24.99

Famed novelist Jack London became America's highest-paid author in 1905, writing about adventures in the Klondike and the Russo-Japanese War and about sailing his self-designed boat halfway around the world. Yet perhaps one of London's finest legacies is his 1,400-acre ranch on the slopes of Sonoma Mountain in California. Sometimes called "Beauty Ranch" or the "Ranch of Good Intentions," the land, buildings, and house museums exemplify both early-20th-century life and London's passionate pioneering efforts in agriculture and architecture. Descendants of Eliza Shepard (London's stepsister and ranch manager) operated the ranch for decades. In 1959, Irving Shepard deeded 39 acres to California to create Jack London State Historic Park. Eventually, 1,400 acres were acquired. Today, more than 80,000 visitors annually enjoy the park, hiking, picnicking, horseback riding, and attending events and touring London's home, gravesite, and farm buildings.

Lone Pine

9780738547848

$24.99

Lone Pine's history is as dramatic and violent as the magnificent landscape in which the town is located. Long before the first white settlers arrived during the Gold Rush, small groups of Paiute-Shoshone Indians lived in the area. With the discovery of gold and silver, miners and ranchers supplying food for the mines came into violent conflict with the native inhabitants between 1860 and 1865. In the 1870s, the Cerro Gordo mines (the largest silver strike in the state) buoyed the growth
of Los Angeles. At the turn of the century, the City of Los Angeles clandestinely bought up land and water rights and initiated a period of conflict with the Owens Valley. In the 1920s, Hollywood discovered the Sierra Nevada Mountains and high deserts of the area. Over 400 films and countless commercials have been filmed in Lone Pine, featuring such stars as John Wayne, Gene Autry, Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power, Rita Hayworth, Barbara Stanwyck, and Brad Pitt.

St. George Reef Lighthouse

9781467133173

$24.99

Situated at the end of a reef six miles offshore of Crescent City, California, stands St. George Reef Lighthouse. Constructed after the wreck of the coastal steamer Brother Jonathan in 1865, the beacon warned mariners of the dreaded "Dragon Rocks" of St. George Reef for nearly a century. This book chronicles the loss of the Jonathan, decades of efforts to make the light a reality, the 10-year construction period, manning of the station by keepers of the US Lighthouse Service and Coast Guard, and the struggles and accomplishments of dedicated volunteers to restore what many lighthouse historians refer to as "America's greatest lighthouse."

Early Auburn

9781467132763

$24.99

Located at the junction of gold-rich ravines, Auburn was the site of the first gold discovery in Placer County. Though the superficial gold was quickly panned out, by 1850, the town had become an important trading center. Auburn became a center for goods, services, entertainment, and a place for miners to "winter-over." More importantly, it became a transportation hub. As the county seat, Auburn's hotels, saloons, and merchants experienced a steady stream of customers as county residents came to town to deal with legal matters. Though plagued by numerous destructive fires, the citizens of Auburn rebuilt, and the town continued to thrive. This book will introduce the reader to some of the individuals who were instrumental in shaping Auburn as it grew into the town it is today.

University of San Francisco

9781467133074

$24.99

The University of San Francisco began in 1855 as a one-room schoolhouse named St. Ignatius Academy. Its founding is interwoven with the establishment of the Jesuit Order in California, European immigration to the western United States, and the population growth of California and San Francisco as a result of the California Gold Rush. For 159 years, the University of San Francisco has enriched the lives of thousands of people. The institution has graduated students who went on to become leaders in government, education, business, journalism, sports, the sciences, and the legal and medical professions. Among its alumni, the university counts three San Francisco mayors, a US senator, four California Supreme Court justices, a California lieutenant governor, two Pulitzer Prize winners, three Olympic medalists, several professional athletes, and the former president of Peru.

The Navy at Point Mugu

9780738575322

$24.99

Point Mugu has played a major part in naval history since 1943, when a small group of US Navy Seabees and several newly organized amphibious units headed across the Oxnard Plain to establish an advance base training facility. Toward the end of World War II, the small naval air base began testing newly developed guided missiles, pilotless aircraft, and special weapons to combat kamikaze pilots. This early testing transitioned Point Mugu from a temporary base into a pioneer in the world of science and national defense. On October 1, 1946, the Naval Air Missile Test Center Point Mugu and, later, the Pacific Missile Range were established to create, research, and test weapons systems. Point Mugu continues to support many diverse military missions, including testing weapons systems, operating space satellite systems, and providing radar and communication support to the naval aviation community.

San Francisco's Ferry Building

9781467126267

$24.99

For many years, visitors traveling to San Francisco came via ferry, and the Ferry Building, one of San Francisco's most famous landmarks, stood ready to welcome them. In the 1920s, the Ferry Building was the world's second-busiest transit terminal (after Charing Cross, London), with more than 50,000 people a day passing through the elegant structure, designed by architect A. Page Brown and opened in 1898. When the 1906 earthquake struck and the ensuing fire was destroying the city, the venerable waterfront icon stood above the ruins, giving residents hope that the city would recover and rise from the ashes. By 1939, with the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge both open, ferry traffic fell off. By the late 1950s, ferry service ended altogether, and the building's beautiful facade was blocked by the double-decker Embarcadero Freeway. With the freeway's demise after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, the Ferry Building was restored and reopened in 2003. It is once again a beacon of civic pride, a landmark listed in the National Register of Historic Places, and a public space that anchors the San Francisco waterfront.

Port Hueneme

9780738530642

$24.99

Port Hueneme is a city of 25,000 residents surrounded on three sides by the City of Oxnard, with the Pacific Ocean as its western front. Port Hueneme's identity and character have endured valiantly despite the outside influences of the much larger city, a sometimes violent ocean, and the world's greatest armada. The U.S. Navy arrived in an enormous way at Port Hueneme during World War II to take command of the only deep-water port between San Francisco and Los Angeles. The servicemen stayed during the Korean War, maintaining an abiding relationship with the community. And still, the town itself has the strength of longevity, being three decades older than Oxnard and with a pioneering legacy of farmers, fishermen, merchants, and families. They survived, repeating the requisite spelling and pronunciation ("Y-nee-mee") of their city's name, which is Chumash Indian for "halfway" or "resting place" between Point Mugu and the estuary of the Santa Clara River.

Leimert Park

9780738595870

$24.99

Leimert Park, one of the first comprehensively planned communities in Southern California, was founded and developed in 1927 by Walter H. Leimert Sr. and designed by Olmsted Brothers, a firm headed by sons of Frederick Law Olmsted Sr., the master planner of New York City's Central Park. In its early years, Leimert Park was a pasture situated on portions of the Rancho Cienega O Paso de la Tijera, once owned by land baron E.J. "Lucky" Baldwin. The area is best known for its gracefully curved tree-lined streets, Spanish Colonial and Mediterranean-style homes, and Art Deco buildings designed by some of the nation's foremost architects. Famous residents Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, and Los Angeles's first African American mayor, Tom Bradley, have called Leimert Park home. In 1967, artists Alonzo and Dale Davis founded Brockman Gallery, and with this beginning, a new era of Leimert Park as an arts and cultural center dawned. Today, with its art galleries, jazz and blues clubs, coffeehouses, performance spaces, restaurants, and Afrocentric fashion and merchandise shops, the area has evolved into one of Los Angeles's great idyllic communities.

Yosemite National Park in Vintage Postcards

9780738508849

$24.99

A mere utterance of the word "Yosemite" conjures up images of Half Dome, El Capitan, giant sequoias, and the unmatched beauty this northern California park has to offer. However, the area known today as Yosemite has not always been a place of tranquility. Once the home of Ahwahnee tribe, these Native Americans were forced to surrender their home to armed miners rushing for gold and a California government clutching the philosophy of Manifest Destiny.

Yosemite National Park in Vintage Postcards

Twentynine Palms

9780738531496

$24.99

Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt recognized the beauty of this desert region of Southern California in 1936 when he created Joshua Tree National Monument, now a national park. But for 9,000 years, Native Americans had lived amid its monolithic rocks and strangely grotesque Joshua trees. Serrano and Chemehuevi Indians found a home at its Oasis of Mara, whose fan palms eventually gave Twentynine Palms its name. Cattleman Bill McHaney arrived in 1879, learned of gold ore deposits from the native people, and inaugurated an influx of prospectors seeking fortunes. In the 1920s, Dr. James B. Luckie of Pasadena discovered that the clean air and dry climate helped veterans with respiratory illnesses, and they homesteaded parcels of 160 acres. Artists, writers, actors, and composers later discovered Twentynine Palms, and a renaissance in the arts now includes studios, galleries, and world-class murals that adorn this gateway to Joshua Tree National Park.

African Americans in Vallejo

9780738595818

$24.99

African Americans have been part of the Vallejo mosaic since 1850, the year of the North Bay city's birth. John Grider, a Tennessee native and former slave who arrived in Vallejo in 1850, was one of the city's earliest residents and a veteran of the California Bear Flag Revolt of 1846. While many 19th-century black pioneers established homes, businesses, and schools, it was during the Great Migration period of 1910-1970s that the bulk of Vallejo's black community took firm root. During this period, black folks from throughout the South--tiny towns and big cities alike, from places like Itasca, Texas; Heidelberg, Mississippi; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Lake Wales, Florida--made their way west searching for war-industry jobs at Mare Island Naval Shipyard and lives relatively free of unrelenting racial discord. African Americans in Vallejo chronicles this proud and oftentimes complicated journey.

San Francisco Relocated

9781467133715

$24.99

San Francisco's colorful history has been explored so extensively that it is surprising to note that its moved buildings remain one of the city's best-kept secrets. Reports are widely scattered in newspapers and architectural references; yet, despite the fact that the city's relocations are second only to Chicago's, there are no books in print concerning this curious history--until now. And it is a long, lively tale indeed. Beginning in 1850 and continuing today, it involves hundreds of moved structures, from houses and apartment buildings to churches and schools. Buildings were relocated for many reasons, from street modifications in the early 1900s to the advent of freeways and Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) in the 1950s and 1960s. Buildings were cut in half and moved in pieces, disassembled and moved brick by brick, or (more commonly) moved intact--some as heavy as 9,000 tons or as long as 110 feet. Buildings moved to San Francisco via ship around Cape Horn, traveled across town using horses and wagons or (later) trucks, and were barged over the Bay.

Towns of the Sacramento River Delta

9780738596266

$24.99

What can be considered the first major exploration of the Sacramento River, from its mouth northward, began on May 13, 1817, when Padres Duran and Abella and 20 other men under the command of Lt. Louis Antonio Argullo sailed in two launches up the river. They continued north until May 20, 1817, when they turned back. The group recorded their point of farthest exploration by carving a cross into an oak tree; some believe this point is near the present-day town of Freeport. Three decades later, Clarksburg was established, followed by Walnut Grove, Paintersville, Rio Vista, Onsibo, Freeport, Courtland, Emmaton, Isleton, Vorden, Ryde, Hood, and Locke. Each one of the settlements has its own exciting tale about its founders and the origins of the name that it was given.

San Francisco's Noe Valley

9780738529059

$24.99

Named for Jose de Jesus Noe, San Francisco's last Mexican mayor, Noe Valley is undoubtedly one of San Francisco's favorite neighborhoods and certainly one of the most picturesque. Yet the area has a rich and varied history reaching far beyond the lovely buildings and lively street scenes familiar to so many citydwellers. Originally part of the Rancho de San Miguel land grant, the area was incorporated into the city and became an early example of a San Francisco enclave situated away from the noise and bustle of the downtown and waterfront areas. Noe Valley gradually became an important residential and business center known for its beautifully restored Victorian homes, as well as for the vibrant commercial corridor on Twenty-fourth Street.