Tag San Francisco Bay Area
California lore contains lots of strange and wonderful stories. One of the best, I think, features a chance encounter in 1852 between James P. Beckwourth—a freed slave, famous guide, noted spinner of tales, and somehow a Crow chief— and an… Continue Reading →
Around the turn of the year, some moderately respectable rainstorms greened foliage around the Central Coast, which, like other parts of California then, hadn’t seen much moisture since last winter. Thanks to this moisture, and the young grasses holding it,… Continue Reading →
This past spring I visited San Francisco’s iconic–but currently shuttered for renovations–Cliff House on the windy northwestern edge of the city. The version of Cliff House that I gazed upon is at least version 3.0–some historians even argue it’s the… Continue Reading →
Now that recent rains have completely reconfigured California’s hydrological world—and it’s a record year for California’s snowpack—I wanted to return briefly to the wildflower theme of our last post. Partly because, thanks to the rainfall, we may have a great… Continue Reading →
It’s a story that’s vaguely familiar to many San Joseans: on November 9, 1933, the young heir to Hart’s Department Store, Brooke Hart, was kidnapped by local oil company salesman Jack Holmes and his unemployed accomplice Harold Thurmond. Hart, a… Continue Reading →
