Harvey Woo passed away in 2023. He lived down the street from me, I saw his wife and she told me. An uncanny thing, mentioning his name, without tilting her head, her eyes looked straight upwards. Harvey is a local legend, and Carol Pogash (freelance) wrote a 1987 profile of Harvey's Place for the S.F. Examiner: FRIDAY NIGHTS They call him the patron saint of bike messengers. Without Harvey, a lot of bike messengers would starve. On Friday nights, the line of messengers with their paychecks stretches a long way from the counter. "If it weren't for Harvey, I'd starve," said R.K.O. Radio. He's buying a jug of Gatorade and a plate of Harvey's special: beef stew w/ rice. The bike messengers line up at the Bank of Harvey Woo to pay off their tabs, or part of them. "No matter how much money you make by Friday," said bike messenger Lizard, "you always manage to charge Monday's sandwich." "I HEART Harvey," said Amy Rockette of U.S. Courier, who has pedaled on down to Harvey's Place on Fifth Street just below Folsom. "I want to give Harvey $70", she said. Harvey gives bike messengers credit when they're hungry. He gives Amy credit when she needs toilet paper and cat food. He advances them credit when they can't pay their rent. FREE OIL It's not just the matter of money that keeps bike messengers coming to Harvey's. When their bikes need oil, he hands them his can. "I know that they can't afford it. What the heck, they don't need to buy the whole can, they only need a few drops", he explains. For minor injuries, he keeps peroxide and Band-Aids close to the cash register. BATHROOM He lets the messengers use his bathroom in the back. BREAKFAST Breakfasts at Harvey's include R.K.O.'s favorites: a double cheeseburger, potato chips, coffee and OJ. If R.K.O. has any criticism of Harvey it is that Harvey refused to make milkshakes in the morning. ... Bike messenger Lizard appreciates a Harvey touch. "His is the only restaurant that has peanut butter and jelly on the menu." This is something about which bike messengers care. HARVEY WOO Theirs is a peculiarly symbiotic relationship. Harvey, the pre-law graduate of Michigan State, who grew up in Mississippi but settled into his shop and luncheon counter business in San Francisco. The hundreds of bike messengers with scraggly hair, black leather jackets and few inhibitions. A lot of folks probably have forgotten what Harvey remembers. "I was young once", he said.
MENU 1931 Shipboard Menu
• •
Soup
Main
Sides
Dessert
2022 College Town
MEE HENG LOW
protein
noodle
sauce
style
1940s Children's Menu
"Little Gobbler"
"Wimpy"
"Little Doggie"
"Humpty Dumpty"
"Little Jack Horner"
"Piggly Wiggly"
"Small Fry"
"Rub-a-Dub-Dub"
1954 Captain Nemo's
Japanese
Takara
1842 U.S. Navy Menu
Monday
one-lb Pork
half-pint Beans
fourteen-oz Biscuit
two-oz Sugar
quarter-oz of Tea
or oz of Coffee or Cocoa
quarter-oz Spirits (gill)
Tuesday
one-lb Beef
half-lb Rice
fourteen-oz Biscuit
two-oz Butter
two-oz Cheese
two-oz Sugar
quarter-oz of Tea
or oz of Coffee or Cocoa
quarter-oz Spirits (gill)
Wednesday
one-lb Pork
half-pint Beans
quarter-lb Pickles or Cranberries
quarter-lb Raisins or Dried Fruit
fourteen-oz Biscuit
two-oz Sugar
quarter-oz of Tea
or oz of Coffee or Cocoa
quarter-oz Spirits (gill)
Thursday
one-lb Beef
half-lb Flour
quarter-lb Raisins or Dried Fruit
fourteen-oz Biscuit
two-oz Sugar
quarter-oz of Tea
or oz of Coffee or Cocoa
quarter-oz Spirits (gill)
Friday
one-lb Beef
half-lb Rice
fourteen-oz Biscuit
half-pint Molasses
two-oz Butter
two-oz Cheese
two-oz Sugar
quarter-oz of Tea
or oz of Coffee or Cocoa
quarter-oz Spirits (gill)
Saturday
one-lb Pork
half-pint Beans
half-pint Vinegar
quarter-lb Pickles or Cranberries
fourteen-oz Biscuit
two-oz Sugar
quarter-oz of Tea
or oz of Coffee or Cocoa
quarter-oz Spirits (gill)
Sunday
one-lb Beef
half-lb Flour
quarter-lb Raisins or Dried Fruit
fourteen-oz Biscuit
two-oz Sugar
quarter-oz of Tea
or oz of Coffee or Cocoa
quarter-oz Spirits (gill)
...Section 3. That should it be necessary to vary the above-described daily allowance, it shall be lawful to substitute one pound of soft bread, or one pound of flour, or half a pound of rice, for fourteen ounces of biscuit; half a pint of wine for a gill of spirits; half a pound of rice for half a pint of beans or pease; half a pint of beans or pease for half a pound of rice. ...Section 5. That no commissioned officer or midshipman or any person under twenty-one years of age, shall be allowed to draw the spirit part of the daily ration; and all other persons shall be permitted to relinquish that part of their ration, under such restrictions as the President of the U.S. may authorize; and to every person who, by this section, is prohibited from drawing, or who may relinquish, the spirit part of his ration, there shall be paid, in lieu thereof, the value of the same in money, according to the prices which are or may be established for the same. ...
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CORNERS OF SAN FRANCISCO
Forest Hill is conveniently located near the middle of San Francisco. Seventh Ave aad Laguna Honda Blvd, Taraval St and 14th Ave, and has its own light-rail station. Developed in 1912, the "hilly hamlet" roads were wide and generous with a forgiving grade for the horse-and-carriage set.
✦ | Forest Hill Steps
There is a staircase system in lieu of sidewalks for the steepest parts; the first steps can be found next to Forest Hill Station, Laguna Honda Blvd at Sola.
✦ | Harvey’s Place
Harvey Woo passed away in 2023. He lived down the street from me, I saw his wife and she told me. An uncanny thing, mentioning his name, without tilting her head, her eyes looked straight upwards. Harvey is a local legend, and Carol Pogash (freelance) wrote a 1987 profile of Harvey's Place for the S.F. Examiner: FRIDAY NIGHTS They call him the patron saint of bike messengers. Without Harvey, a lot of bike messengers would starve. On Friday nights, the line of messengers with their paychecks stretches a long way from the counter. "If it weren't for Harvey, I'd starve," said R.K.O. Radio. He's buying a jug of Gatorade and a plate of Harvey's special: beef stew w/ rice. The bike messengers line up at the Bank of Harvey Woo to pay off their tabs, or part of them. "No matter how much money you make by Friday," said bike messenger Lizard, "you always manage to charge Monday's sandwich." "I HEART Harvey," said Amy Rockette of U.S. Courier, who has pedaled on down to Harvey's Place on Fifth Street just below Folsom. "I want to give Harvey $70", she said. Harvey gives bike messengers credit when they're hungry. He gives Amy credit when she needs toilet paper and cat food. He advances them credit when they can't pay their rent. FREE OIL It's not just the matter of money that keeps bike messengers coming to Harvey's. When their bikes need oil, he hands them his can. "I know that they can't afford it. What the heck, they don't need to buy the whole can, they only need a few drops", he explains. For minor injuries, he keeps peroxide and Band-Aids close to the cash register. BATHROOM He lets the messengers use his bathroom in the back. BREAKFAST Breakfasts at Harvey's include R.K.O.'s favorites: a double cheeseburger, potato chips, coffee and OJ. If R.K.O. has any criticism of Harvey it is that Harvey refused to make milkshakes in the morning. ... Bike messenger Lizard appreciates a Harvey touch. "His is the only restaurant that has peanut butter and jelly on the menu." This is something about which bike messengers care. HARVEY WOO Theirs is a peculiarly symbiotic relationship. Harvey, the pre-law graduate of Michigan State, who grew up in Mississippi but settled into his shop and luncheon counter business in San Francisco. The hundreds of bike messengers with scraggly hair, black leather jackets and few inhibitions. A lot of folks probably have forgotten what Harvey remembers. "I was young once", he said.
✦ | St Boniface
Seven remaining brick buildings near Market St and Van Ness Ave, built between 1911 and 1925, were recognized
in 2011 as being of remarkably intact condition and hence exceptional; some with well-preserved storefronts, and others "unaltered bronze glass window frames".
✦ | 2003 Landmarks
The architects, including August Nordin (b.1869) and George Applegarth (b.1876), favored the revival style, including colonial, classical, and venetian gothic. The seven buildings, approved in 2003, are now in the Market Street Masonry Landmark District, and can be found at: 20 12th St (left), 72 Gough St, 20 Franklin St (right), and 1651, 1668, 1670 and 1698 Market St.
✦ | S.F. Fire Station #1
✦ | Museum of Modern Art
MODEL BEHAVIOR Treasured art collected by San Franciscans Donald and Doris Fisher was, not long ago, gifted to the Museum of Modern Art (the original plan had been something else). Then Don (b.1928) suddenly passed away, and Doris (b.1931) revisited the idea. Changing course, she came to an agreement with the museum whereby galleries dedicated to the collection could be added.
The museum then closed its door in 2013 for a three-year remodel: adding an annex connected to the original Mario Botta building. The new building, by Snøhetta, is a ten-story slice of baked alaska, held up on the 3rd St side by the Botta biscuit. Lacking support on the 4th St side, it begins a slump, sculpting sand-drifts as if built by fog. The new museum (2016) has current-best practices in green building, with savings in environmental cost. Thermal energy-reducing materials. A lighting system that is daylight-sensitive and self-adjusts. Waste-use reduction and a recirculation system for wastewater generation (?). Visitors during Opening Week had a preview when they visited bathrooms on the lobby level, with their shock of the whew.
Richard Serra (b.1938) had the first show in the Howard St Gallery.
FISHER COLLECTION The inaugural shows from the Doris and Don Fisher Collection did not disappoint, and Opening Week was attended by performances and be-ins; music, dance and drinks. Some 185 twentieth-century artists and some 1,100+ works. British sculptors was represented by Henry Moore, Antony Gormley, Barbara Hepworth, and Anish Kapoor. German paintings after 1960 by Gerhard Richter, Georg Baselitz, Sigmar Polke, Anselm Kiefer. German photographers include Thomas Struth, Andreas Gursky, Bernd, Hilla Becher. Warhols, Donald Judds, Chuck Closes, and those "approaching American abstraction".
Botta biscuit supports the slumping Stonetta baked alaska + Original front entrance steps to the second level.
CLOSING WEEK In 2013, before the museum closed for remodeling, they threw a California-style shindig. Admission to the one-week event was free. Visitors found every wall space and opportunity pressed into the service of art, and during last four days, the museum stayed open 24 hours around the clock. THURSDAY A campsite. Hotrod on display. A town hall given by multimedia makers and fans of art, on what was happening locally, in backyards, workplaces, cultural institutions, public spaces. There was a live radio show by the Kitchen Sisters. Some kind of happening mushroomed around the b-&-w photo of Alvord Lake Bridge and the vibe stayed omnipresent. Curbside pizza trucks vied for attention from how-to booths for chocolate, cheese and kimchi. T-shirt screenprinting station on the rooftop pavilion, where the evening party kicked off. FRIDAY Friday was like groundhog day but different mix. SATURDAY Round-the-clock nonstop variety show took place simultaneously, on the Rooftop Pavilion and in Schwab Room.
Talks with musician Penelope Huston (b.1958) and archivist Rick Prelinger.
Food trucks lined the front door curb and served 11 to 3 and 5 to 9.
A 24-hour long film (2010) by Christian Marclay began at the stroke of midnight. By popular acclaim it played a second time; consensus for the best time was Sunday 4-5am.
SUNDAY On the roof, the nonstop variety show kept going, pausing at 5pm for some closing remarks by museum director Neal Benezra. DOCENT TALKS Among many memories, one of the highlights of Closing Week 2013 were talks given by docents while in front of their personal favorites. Joan Hammer and 'Freida and Diego Rivera' by Frida Kahlo. Dragan Monson and 'Femme au Chapeau' by Henri Matisse. Larry McDonald and 'The Mouse's Tale' by Jess. Lisa Macabasco and 'Psycho Slut' by Tracey Emin. Yvonne Cheng and 'united nations - babel of the millennium' by Gu Wenda. Don Ross and 'Self-Portrait w/ Thorns' by Ellsworth Kelly. Eva Klein and 'Guardians of the Secret' by Jackson Pollock. Regina Sneed and 'Unternehmen Seelowe' by Anselm Kiefer. Grey Samoulides and Joan Kaplan shared while in front of 'Self-Portrait' by Andy Warhol. Most-frequented docent talk took place in front of 'Fountain' by Marcel Duchamp, where Verena Lukas and, on a separate occasion David Fagan, shared their points of view.
HELLO
and welcome to the studio of Francisco Mattos, built with experiments in layout.
...Font Lab
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How San Francisco’s cable car came to be built will require more than one stop on its telling, wending this way and that, and passing landmarks of wealth and waste.
Before the cable car, the task for getting to Nob Hill was relegated to paying for a ride in a horse-drawn cab. On October 11, 1869, this necessary yet wanton civic cruelty of using animals as beasts of burden changed for the good. The San Francisco Chronicle had a front page article on the death of a wretch. It took place when a horse finally lost it on California Street and, throttled, dragged down to its death.
+
When Andrew Hallidie read this, he paused and paced his inner office, reflecting on what if anything he could learn from this. Hallidie was already prosperous, although not yet famous. He had inherited a company from his father. The senior Hallidie had invented and then patented a “steel cable”: strands of wire lined up and braided into a rope that was super strong, and proved indispensable in the gold fields and gold mines.
Hallidie took on a failed concern: to build a conveyance capable of conquering the city‘s hills. He bought the Clay Street Hill Railway Co., and by May 1873 had built tracks and a cable assembly up Clay from Portsmouth Square to Nob Hill, a vertical climb of seven blocks.
+ +
Early on August 2 1873, a prototype was in place and, lantern-lit, Hallidie stepped on board. Activating a grip lever onto a moving cable, he ascended on that peril-prone maiden voyage. Few were awake to witness, yet by opening day on September 1, the service was in demand. In 1880 over one million tickets were sold.
The first cable cars were tiny trams powered by a patented grip that alternately holds, and releases, a continuously moving steel cable running under the street. Power is supplied by huge drums housed at nearby power stations along the route.
The tram operator is stationed forward of the tram. He employs the grip grabs and holds on to the moving cable, the tram also moves. When grip is released, tram stops, even on a hill, using a gear invention preventing slippage. Besides the tram operator (gripman) is the conductor.
+
Andrew Smith Hallidie was born on March 17, 1837 in London, to Andrew Smith (b.1798 Dumfrieshire, Scotland) and Julia Johnstone (Lockerbie). He died April 24 1900, in San Francisco. Six years later his cable car system would survive the 1906 Earthquake.
Cable cars then sprouted worldwide, from New York to Hong Kong. Naples crowned its opening by commissioning a song, “Funiculi, Funicula.”
+ +
In 1917, Andrew Smith Hallidie had an innovative building named for him. The Hallidie Building (the architect is Willis Polk) has a facade rising eight stories and sheathed in glass.
When news of the discovery of gold in California traveled back east, the brawn and brains of a young nation came westward, where notions of Freedom waltzed hand-in-glove with greatness as well as greed.
Accordingly, access from the gold mines to San Francisco were surveyed. Roads, bridges and tracks were built wherever gold was found, with waystations established for respite and recreation. The mining methods these men brought with them quickly evolved to meet the challenges posed by the Comstock Lode and its tributaries.
The Deidesheimers
+
The Industrial Revolution created tools used in scientific precisioning, allowing innovated models to be tested and profitably manufactured. Among these ideas was the ingenuous “square set” created by german engineer Philipp Deidesheimer. Grey Brechin picks up the umbilical cord:
+
The Square Set introduced methods of construction. Deidesheimer’s gift went from constructing safety zones to conduct the backbreaking business of mining into other uses, including the ability of a grid of steel beams and columns to allow support for more height.
“Skyscraper” came into usage in the 1880s; America had fifteen. These buildings usually came w/ modern plumbing, electrical outlets in every room, a telephone line in every unit, central heating, and an elevator.
+
❛ … NASA took a fresh look at the steel cable in light of a super material, carbon nanotube ... uber-strong, light and flexible. “Space Elevators: An Advanced Earth-Space Infrastructure for the New Millenium” is the feasibility paper of this new science, to erect a track running on cables, from here to the Moon, a journey of some 62,000 miles.❜ — Meghan Neal, February 28 2014.
CABLE CAR NOTES | Based on San Francisco’s Golden Era by Lucius Beebe and Charles Clego (1060); Cable Car Days in San Francisco by Edgar Myron Kahn (1940); The Headlight, March 1947, Western Pacific Club; Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin by Gray Brechin (1999); and online articles by Mary Bellis (“The History of Skyscrapers”), Karen Barss (“Manhattan’s Golden Age of Skyscrapers”), and Meghan Neal (“Space Elevators Are Totally Possible”)
| A 1959 episode of TV series Bonanza features a Philipp Deidesheimer plot point.
| Thank you Taryn Edwards, MLIS, Mechanics’ Institute.
| Thank you Penelope Houston, SF Public Library.
...Section 3. That should it be necessary to vary the above-described daily allowance, it shall be lawful to substitute one pound of soft bread, or one pound of flour, or half a pound of rice, for fourteen ounces of biscuit; half a pint of wine for a gill of spirits; half a pound of rice for half a pint of beans or pease; half a pint of beans or pease for half a pound of rice. ...Section 5. That no commissioned officer or midshipman or any person under twenty-one years of age, shall be allowed to draw the spirit part of the daily ration; and all other persons shall be permitted to relinquish that part of their ration, under such restrictions as the President of the U.S. may authorize; and to every person who, by this section, is prohibited from drawing, or who may relinquish, the spirit part of his ration, there shall be paid, in lieu thereof, the value of the same in money, according to the prices which are or may be established for the same. ...
Illustrated w/ collages, drawings, maps, paintings, photographs, prints and quotes
|⁋|
Out west, when 1848 was only twenty-four days old, mechanic James Marshall was making a routine inspection on the grounds of a sawmill he managed for his employer. That was when the New Jersey native noticed some odd-looking ore in a water channel of the South Fork of the American River. It was “... bright, yet malleable. I then tried it between two rocks, and found that it could be beaten into a different shape, but not broken.”
|⁋|
Nine days after Marshall emerged from the waters w/ his find, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, transferring a large tract of Mexico to the United States.
|⁋|
These concurrent events together precipitated the California Gold Rush of 1849, when folks came from all over, bringing dreams while praying to the god and goddess of wealth for a show of “colour”
|⁋|
The first came from Monterey, San Francisco, San Jose and Sonoma: when clerks, doctors, laborers, lawyers, mechanics, rancheros left their jobs. Sailors deserted their ships. Soldiers deserted the Mexican War. As word spread more came from Hawai‘i, Mexico and Oregon.
|⁋|
Gold seekers showing up near the sawmill of John August Sutter, where gold was first discovered, had no need for milled lumber, and his business went into decline. All the while, a new settlement grew across the American River to become Coloma, the first gold rush town. Nearby stands a monument, by the Native Sons of the Golden West, to mark the grave of James Wilson Marshall, the “discoverer of gold.”
One can cross Panama to get to California rather than sail around Cape Horn. Up Chagres river to the town of Culebra; then donkeys to Gulf of Panama, eleven miles away.
Maps were consulted
and what became the California Trial began w/ existing routes. Emigrants showed up along the Missouri river and towns in Illinois or Iowa. Wagon trains hitched, they headed out, crossing landapes of grasslands, prairies, steppes, valleys and rivers to Wyoming and Fort Laramie.
|⁋|
The only way to cross the Rockies was a corridor beyond Fort Laramie, level and broad. South Pass afforded several routes passage to California. At a fork in the road soon after, the Oregon Trail veers right while the Mormon Trail turns south toward Fort Bridger.
|⁋| Overland travelers chose routes dependent on starting point and final destination. Other factors were the condition of their wagons, livestock, and the availability of water.
|⁋|
From California, one can get to Oregon on the Applegate Trail (1846), an alternative to the hazardous last leg of the Oregon Trail.
|⁋| The Oregon Trail begins in Missouri and leaves either Fort Leavenworth, Independence or Saint Joseph for a two thousand mile trek to the Oregon Territory. Past the Great Plains, then the Rockies, heading west northwest to the Snake river, Fort Boise, Witman Mission, The Dales, Fort Vancouver, the Columbia river, and the coast.
The Santa Fe Trail starts off in Missouri, rolls through Kansas and a corner of Colorado. Crossing the Arkansas river before dropping to New Mexico, the trail loses its identity somewhat in Santa Fe, where it is braided to the Gila Trail, a local 16th-c. commerce and travel high road, bringing trade from inland to the coast.
|⁋|
The Mormon Trail, gathers in Illinois and wends by Iowa and Nebraska before joining established trails in Wyoming. Together they cross the Rockies, then the Mormon Trail continues south southwest to Utah Territory to end up in Los Angeles. Besides the overlanders there were also seafarers.
|⁋| An eight-month sea route from New York to San Francisco would involve a hazardous rounding of Cape Horn.
A 49er carries pickaxe, shovel and pan. Can add a rocker and a hopper; some also conduct hydraulic experiments. A water wheel would be jim-dandy, to pick up individual quantities of gold-bearing gravel and sand.
Personal gear: pair of blankets, frying-pan, flour, salt pork, brandy (or other sanctifying spirit). Field gear must-haves: pickaxe, shovel and pan. Some procure a mule.
|⁋| Gold miners w/ no financial backing learn to congregate along mountain roads and wait for supply wagons passing through, bringing food and tools and carrying out gold dust. Saturday nights were for salooning and carousing. Sunday is a holiday – laundry, tool repair, swapping stories, writing letters, napping.
|⁋| A twelve inch shallow sheet-iron pan to rinse soil w/ water and locate the gold.
|⁋| A rocker is a rectangular wooden box mounted on two rockers and set at a downward angle.
|⁋|
The hopper is a box sitting on top of the rocker, lined w/ a sheet of perforated iron. Beneath is an area called the “riddle-box.”
|⁋| The long tom is an improved rocker plus hopper, reaching to twenty feet in length. A long sheet of perforated iron lines the bottom and beneath that iw the riddle-box.
|⁋| Women too had gold fever, coming from Mexico, Chile, Peru, England, France, New York and New Orleans.
|⁋| Depicted in history as adventuress, courtesan, harlot, pickpocket, prostitute and the demimonde, these women were also bookkeepers, cooks, laundresses, shop-keepers, maids, wives. When mountain roads improved sufficiently to make travel between towns feasible, they set forth as performers.
|⁋|
Mrs Clappe came west in 1851 w/ her husband. In her letters home she gives an account of the era, about geology and a visit to a rural doctor’s rude office of pine shingles and cotton cloth.
Yerba Buena was a hamlet on the San Francisco peninsula w/ an excellent harbor. The Spaniards established a maritime trading post and built the Mission of San Francisco de Asis. Ships docking in its cove discharged seafarers to a Spanish-style plaza known as Portsmouth Square.
|⁋| On arrival gold seekers rented lodgings in shanties and tent towns, and stayed long enough to buy tools and provisions before heading out.
|⁋|
Brought over from Australia to perform labor, English convicts deserted en masse and instead formed a gang. Soon a frontier patch of lawlessness, Sydney Town, sprouted at the base of Telegraph Hill. The Sydney Ducks preyed on people and property, augmented by a gang of lady pickpockets, and willingly committed murder to survive.
|⁋| The embers of Sydney Town rekindled and gave birth to the Barbary Coast, chock-a-block w/ bars, saloons, brothels, concert halls, dance halls; where “getting shanghaied” was first rehearsed. Survived the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, by 1917 the red-light district was no more.
Sutter’s Mill on the South Fork of the American River.
Coloma, next to Sutter’s Mill, was the first gold mining town. A post office and jail were added in 1852 – both proved popular. Gold mining also took place north at Bidwell’s Bar, Cut Eye Foster’s Bar, Downieville, Dutch Flat, Goodyear’s Bar, Grass Valley, Helltown, Illinoistown, Iowa Hill, Kanaka Flat, Lousy Level, Marysville, Murderers Bar, Nevada City, Plumas City, Poker Flat, Rough and Ready, Washington, Whiskey Flat, Wisconsin Hill, and You Bet.
|⁋|
Coloma is now a ghost town inside Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park.
|⁋|
South at Angels Camp, Chinese Camp, Dogtown, Fair Play, Hornitos, Jackson, Mokelumme Hill, Mormon Bar, Rawhide, Rich Gulch, Shaw’s Flat, Sonora, Volcano.
|⁋|
Gold was found along tributaries to the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers. At Auburn, Diamond Springs, Grizzly Flats, Missouri Flat, Placerville.
|⁋|
Home to Native Americans incl. the Miwok, the Sierra Nevada was rudely affected by the Gold Rush. In 1849 an incident occurred along the Middle Fork of the American River when some 49ers died and some indigenes killed. An uneasy truce obtained when Native Americans were hired on as laborers and paid in tin, but by 1900 their population had declined to only ±16,000.
|⁋| Before James Cagney was the Frisco Kid and Edward G.
Robinson dramatized life in the Barbary Coast era, there was a 1913 feature, The Last Night of the Barbary Coast, now a lost film.
The 1849 state census counted 42,000 overlanders and 35,000 seafarers caught up by gold fever; together w/ 3,000 sailors who had deserted ships.
Like all who seek a better tomorrow, the Chinese too came to the California Gold Rush, formed a fraternity in Coloma, squatted spent claims and worked as a team over the “tailings” left behind. In 1880 this gold-mining Chinatown was lost to fire.