On Sacred Places
Tom Smith. A simple name. Not so the man. My great-great-grand-father. Father and grandfather and great-grandfather to many Coast Miwok and Pomo people. I’ve told stories about him, stories I...
History
The Fire Down Below
A shower of magma-heated liquid and steam makes for more than just a pretty Calistoga postcard. It's a 30-million-year-old lesson in California's dynamic underground history of sliding plates, volcanic eruptions,...
Between River and Bay
At the intersection of coastal tides and inland rivers there's a place that's rich in history and full of life. The Delta has been greatly altered by human hands, but...
Rooted in History
Once a major crossroads for the Coast Miwok, and briefly a home for the Grateful Dead, Rancho Olompali now sits quietly beside Highway 101 north of Novato. But follow its...
Whaling from San Francisco Bay
Though whales were never hunted in San Francisco Bay itself, the whaling industry had a long presence here. Beginning in the 1830s, whaling ships of British and New England–based fleets...
A Redwood Century at Big Basin
At the dawn of the 20th century, a number of Peninsula residents—including photographer Andrew Hill and lawyer Delphin Delmas—watched in horror as loggers cut their way into groves of ancient...
Exploring a Sense of Place
Everybody talks about sustainable development, but how do you really achieve it? You have to start from an understanding of the local ecosystem, to know what it can and cannot...
The Eastshore State Park and the Fate of the Albany Bulb
The new Eastshore State Park comprises one of the largest undeveloped public landholdings fronting San Francisco Bay, stretching from the Bay Bridge in Oakland to Marina Bay in Richmond. The...
Postcards from Pescadero
True, there was no e-mail, snail mail, or even Pony Express, but somehow postcards from intrepid explorers of the San Mateo coast in days of yore have reached our mailbox....
Butterflies and Bulldozers on an Island of Time
San Bruno Mountain rises along the southern border of San Francisco, remnant of an ecosystem that once covered much of this peninsula. The mountain provides a tenuous refuge for some...
