Portal:San Francisco Bay Area

The history of the city of San Francisco and its development as a center of maritime trade, have been greatly influenced by its location at the entrance to one of the world's best natural harbors. San Francisco is the name of both the city and the county, which share the same boundaries.

The first Native Americans to settle this region found the bay to be a vast natural resource for hunting and gathering their provisions and for the establishment of many small villages. Collectively, these early Native Americans were known as the Ohlone, and the language they spoke belonged to the Miwok family. Their trade patterns included places as far away as Baja California, the Mojave Desert and Yosemite.

The first Europeans in the vicinity of what would become San Francisco were members of a Spanish exploratory voyage led by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo. Cabrillo, sailing north from Mexico, explored the coast as far north as present-day Point Reyes, but failed to discover the entrance to San Francisco Bay. An English expedition led by Sir Francis Drake may also have sailed past the bay entrance, in 1579. Drake mapped the coast farther north at Drake's Bay, naming the area "Nova Albion", but made little effort to claim or settle the land. (more...)

Ina Coolbrith (March 10, 1841 – February 29, 1928) was an American poet, writer, librarian, and a prominent figure in the San Francisco Bay Area literary community. Called the "Sweet Singer of California", she was the first California Poet Laureate and the first poet laureate of any American state.

Coolbrith, born the niece of Latter Day Saint movement founder Joseph Smith, Jr., left the Mormon community as a child to enter her teens in Los Angeles, California, where she began to publish poetry. She terminated a youthful failed marriage to make her home in San Francisco, and met writers Bret Harte and Charles Warren Stoddard with whom she formed the "Golden Gate Trinity" closely associated with the literary journal Overland Monthly. Her poetry received positive notice from critics and established poets such as Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce and Alfred Lord Tennyson. She held literary salons at her home—in this way she introduced new writers to publishers. Coolbrith befriended the poet Joaquin Miller and helped him gain global fame. (more...)

Rodeo /roʊˈdeɪ.oʊ/ is a census-designated place (CDP) located in Contra Costa County, California on the shore of San Pablo Bay. The population was 8,679 at the 2010 census. The town is named for the livestock roundups common in the late 19th century. Cattle from the surrounding hills were regularly driven down through the old town to a loading dock on the shoreline of San Pablo Bay for shipment to slaughterhouses, a practice which continued through the early 20th century. The town of Rodeo is served by the Interstate 80 freeway and State Route 4. The Southern Pacific Railroad main line passes through Rodeo. Rodeo has not been a stop on the railroad since the 1950s. (more...)

• The The Daily Dramatic Chronicle (later logo pictured) is founded in San Francisco by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young
• The California Pacific Rail Road Company is incorporated in San Francisco
• The California State Mineral Collection is begun in San Francisco, driven by the mineral finds of the California Gold Rush
• Jefferson Thompson in West Marin begins making a fresh Brie "breakfast cheese" that is transported by horse-drawn carriage to Petaluma, then shipped by steamboat down the Petaluma River to San Francisco where it is sold to waterfront dockworkers

• ... that the vivid colors of the San Francisco Bay Salt Ponds (pictured), ranging from magenta to blue-green, come from the brine shrimp and microorganisms that thrive in the water?
• ... that the Laguna Creek watershed debouches into the San Francisco Bay near the site of the ghost town of Drawbridge?
• ... that the chase scene from the 1968 Steve McQueen film Bullitt starts on Cesar Chavez Street (then Army Street) before continuing through San Francisco?
• ... that the title of There There, a 2018 novel about urban Indians in Oakland, California, mirrors Gertrude Stein's quip about the city that "There is no there there"?

 • ... that Asiana Airlines Flight 214 (pictured, right) was a scheduled transpacific passenger flight from Incheon International Airport, South Korea, that crashed while attempting a landing at its destination, San Francisco International Airport, on July 6, 2013?
 • ... that the South San Francisco Hillside Sign (pictured, right) was created in the 1920s and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places?
 • ... that A Boy and His Atom was made by moving carbon monoxide molecules viewed through a scanning tunneling microscope, magnifying them 100 million times?
 • ... that John Mason 'Jack’ Harker was a member of the original team that developed the first disk storage system?
 • ... that Selden Connor Gile (pictured, left) was the founder and leader of the Society of Six, a Bay Area group of artists known for their plein-air paintings?
 • ... that John W. Dwinelle (pictured, right) helped establish the University of California, the right of black children to attend public school, and San Francisco's claim to much of the land within its borders?

July 2013

Steve Silver's Beach Blanket Babylon is America's longest-running musical revue. The show began its run in 1974, at Club Savoy Tivoli and has since moved to the larger Club Fugazi in the North Beach district of San Francisco. The show was created by Steve Silver (1944-1995) and continues under the direction of his widow, Jo Schuman Silver, with frequent changes and spoofs of pop and political culture. Performers wear disproportionately large hats/wigs and gaudy costumes while performing satirical renditions of popular songs. (Christopher Goodwin in character at the opening of the Tales of the City musical, pictured)

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