By Kasandra BartelsHistory 141

One of the most famous misconceptions

in cartographic history is of California as

an island. The origin of this error is Las

Sergas de Esplandian, a romantic novel

written in 1510 by Garci Rodriguez de

Montalvo, stating“that on the right hand

of the Indies there is an island called

California very close to the side of the

Terrestrial Paradise; and it is peopled by

black women, without any man among

them, for they live in the manner of the

Amazons.”

This idealized view of California as a

kind of Garden of Eden at the edge of

the known world was negated by Father

Eusebio Kino’s expedition from 1698 to

1701.

Kino proved that Baja California, the

(currently Mexican) peninsula which runs

parallel to the mainland for hundreds of

miles, is connected to it in the north.

Island of California 1510

California was created by the

collision of the North American

and Pacific Plates.

The state is 158,693 square

miles. While the shoreline

stretches 1,264 miles across the

Pacific coastline.

The California-born philosopher

and historian, Josiah Royce, has

observed California and says that

there is nothing subtle about the

landforms and landscapes of

California. Everything is scaled in

bold and heroic arrangements

that are easily understood.

California’s shoreline

The highest point in California is Mount Whitney, just 60 miles away is the lowest point, Death Valley, which is 262 feet below sea level.

The temperature in Death Valley can reach up to 134 degrees Fahrenheit, as recorded July 10th, 1913.

There are two seasons in this region; wet and dry.

Badwater

Lake in Death

Valley

and

Mt. Whitney

In 1857, an earthquake shook the Tejon Pass in S. California, in 1872 Owens Valley shook, in 1906 San Francisco shook, Long Beach in 1933, San Fernando Valley in 1971, San Francisco again in 1989, and again in San Fernando in 1994.

California is well-known for its earthquakes, since it is filled with many faults.

Most common fault:

San Andreas Fault

Because California is mountain country, it is bear country as well.

Native Americans considered grizzly bears to be another form of humans, and treated this animal with respect.

The California flag has a bear on it, in honor of the grizzly bear which once inhabited this region in large numbers.

Historic Bear Flag raised at Sonoma on

June 14, 1846, by a group of American

settlers in revolt against Mexican rule.

The flag was designed by William Todd

on a piece of new unbleached cotton. The

star imitated the lone star of Texas. A

grizzly bear represented the many bears

seen in the state.

In its first three decades, the newly established

state of California invented and reinvented itself

through law, politics, institution building,

agriculture and the construction of a trans-Sierra

railroad.

In the strife-ridden 1870’s, California approached

abyss, flirted with self-destruction, then

regrouped.

On the last five years of Mexican governance,

there had been a flurry of land grants, many of

them vague and indeterminate.

On April 13, 1849, Halleck filed a report

questioning the validity of many land grants. And

in fall of 1850, many riots broke out when the

sheriff sought to evict squatters from the lots. First railroad in the West

For the rest of the century, much of California would remain resistant to small farming.

The vast domains of the ranch might pass from Mexican to Yankee ownership, but these extensive landholdings, together with the quasi-feudal economy they encouraged, continued to dictate the structure of California agriculture.

Agriculture in the late 1800’s

Despite the humiliation and the continuing efforts to dismantle it, California-volatile, uncertain, a continuing question-survived and continued the development of its institutional life.

Between 1850 and 1854, the capital of the state was moved around San Francisco Bay from San José to Vallejo, back to Vallejo then to Sacramento, then back to Vallejo, then to Benicia, then permanently to Sacramento.

Construction of Sacramento

In 1851, Jesuit missionaries from northern Italy founded the first college at Mission Santa Clara.

Soon after, the Methodists opened California Wesleyan college in San José.

In 1852, the first female seminary, later Mills College, opened in Benicia.

Wesleyan College, today

In 185, the legislature commenced plans to build a state prison at Point San Quentin on San Francisco Bay in Marin County, where the prison ship Waban, housing 152 convicts, was already anchored.

Architect Reuben Clark, a veteran of Charles Bulfinch’s studio in Boston, was chosen to design the structure.

By 1854, the first cell block-called “the stones”- was ready for occupancy.

It remained in use until 1959.Point San Quentin

California’s oldest

prison

The first 40 years of statehood saw California organize its political and socioeconomic structures and lay the foundation of its built environment.

The dams, adeqducts, reservoirs, power plants, industrial sites, bridges, roadways, public buildings, and stadiums created during this second phase served the growing population of the state.

Dams being built

Irrigation was a reorganization of nature, and all such reordering had their risks.

In October 1904, the California Development Company cut a second canal from the western bank of the Colorado across northern Mexico into the Imperial Valley.

The start of irrigation

After the 1906 earthquake struck in San Francisco , arch were on hand for the rebuilding of the city between 1906 and 1909. Yet the buildings that were built were able to withstand the quake.

However, these new structures had to be observed again and repaired.

After the earthquake in San Francisco

South of San Francisco, in the townships of

Burlingame, San Mateo, Menlo Park,

Atherton, and Woodside, the Italianate or

neo-Gothic villas of the nineteenth century

had been succeeded by a second generation

of estates designed in the Beaux Arts style

for the elegant rustication of Bay Area

elites.

These stately homes-for which architect

Willis Polk’s “Filioli” (1916) in San Mateo

County, designed for mining and water

company heir William Bowers Bourn II, can

easily serve as a summation and concluding

paradigm-more than fulfilled Bayard Taylor’s

prediction in 1850 that the peninsula south

of San Francisco was destined to develop as

a Tuscan landscape of villas, cypresses,

lawns, flowers and fountains.

Mediterranean Revival style was also a

characteristic of the newly developing

neighborhoods of San Francisco.

1900’s houses in San Fran

Newcomers fled to California, mainly from the

Midwest. Nine tenths of Los Angelinos by

1926, for example, were of European descent.

On the other hand, the city supported

challenge but persistent Japanese American,

Mexican American, and African American

communities.

Between 1910 and 1924, 30,000 Japanese

women migrated to the U.S most of them for

marriages arranged according to ancient

Japanese custom to issei, fist generation

immigrants.

Lombard Street in San Fran