Category Archives: History

History, Travel

Feast of the Serpari (Snake Festival) in Italy (Part Three – the Roman Catholic Twist – Still Celebrated Today)

Saint Domenic is draped in snakes
Saint Domenic is draped in snakes

By Judy Pinegar

But along came the Roman Catholic Church, who could not approve of such paganism, so we now have the Festival of Saint Dominic (who is the patron saint of the town of Cocullo). Saint Dominic is of course known for many other things, the greatest of which was founding the Dominican order within the Catholic Church. However this legend has the village fields overrun with snakes, and when Saint Dominic cleared the fields of snakes the villagers of Cocullo came up with a lasting show of gratitude, where the effigy of Saint Domenic is draped in snakes and paraded around in May of each year, also known as the Feast of the Serpari. The snakes are primarily of the local variety, four-lined aesculapian, grass and green whip snakes, and are released into the fields at the end of the day. (Humm, I guess we need Saint Dominic to come back and clear the fields again!)

But on feast day the statue is draped in snakes and carried around the town, while many people also allow themselves to be draped with snakes as well. Of course the snakes are all non-poisonous, or have had their fangs removed, but this is not a festival for the faint of heart or anyone with a snake phobia! The festival is held to seek the Saint’s protection from snake bite.

It is believed that the snakes, once on the statue can predict the future. The people in attendance watch the snake behavior carefully. According to custom, if the snakes wind around the head of the statue it is a good sign. But if they go in the direction of the arms or body something bad is ahead.

This is a video of the current day celebration

 

 

Judy Pinegar is a writer. Part of this three part series appeared in the Corriere della Valle Magazine

 

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History, Travel

Feast of the Serpari (Snake Festival) in Italy (Part Two – Early Roman Times)

Women celebrating Bona Dea from: abitabout.com/Bona+Dea
Women celebrating Bona Dea from: abitabout.com/Bona+Dea

By Judy Pinegar

Meanwhile, the Romans who always had to re-name the Greek gods and goddesses to fit their “new” civilization seem to have adapted Angitia into Bona Dea, an ancient and holy Roman goddess of women and healing. Women also referred to her as Fauna, but men were not allowed to use that name, or attend her secret ceremonies and festivals. Bona Dea, “the Good Goddess” protects women through their changes, and is believed to watch over virgins and matrons especially. She was skilled in healing and herb lore, and snakes and wine were sacred to her. As a healing goddess, the sick were tended in her temple garden with medicinal herbs. Bona Dea was portrayed sitting on a throne, holding a cornucopia. The snake is her attribute, a symbol of healing, and consecrated snakes were kept in her temple at Rome, tended by her priestesses.

Under the laws of the Roman republic, patrician women were not supposed to drink wine, and could be punished, if caught. But by calling it “milk” the ancient and sacred practices could be reconciled with the rules of Roman Society. Bona Dea’s secret festival for women was held at night during the First of May, in the house of the chief elected official ( although he was not allowed to attend), the Vestal Virgins officiated, and a great jar of wine was in the room, although it was called “milk” and the jar was called a “mellarium” or honey jar. After making libations to the Goddess Bona Dea, the women drank and danced to music. It is said that later in the history of the empire this festival “degenerated” into wild and extravagant affairs, such as the Greeks had with Dionysus, the God of Wine.

Judy Pinegar is a writer. Part of this three part series appeared in the Corriere della Valle Magazine
Thinking of buying or selling?
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History, Travel

Feast of the Serpari (Snake Festival) in Italy (Part One – Pre-Historic Times)

Angitia, Snake Goddess of the Marsi from www.thaliatook.com/OGOD/angitia
Angitia, Snake Goddess of the Marsi from www.thaliatook.com/OGOD/angitia

By Judy Pinegar

While the region of Puglia is the “heel”, and the Gargano Pennisula is the “spur”, the mountainous regions of Abruzzo and Molise (united until 1963) are the “ankle” of the “boot” that is Italy. The area was settled by Apennine tribes in the Middle Bronze age (2000 to 1700 BC), was later taken over by the Romans, by the Normans in the 12th century, then by a succession of rulers out of Naples. In spite of all this, the Abruzzo region, dominated by the Apennines Mountains, to this day is a brooding, introspective land, with precipitous drops from mountain sides, endless tracks of forests, small towns clinging to mountainsides, a semi abandoned, poor area, one of the last wildernesses of Italy.

Yet the first Thursday of every May, ophidiophiliacs (snake-lovers, often accompanied by their own snakes) come from all over the world come to the town of Cocullo (with a population of 316 persons) for a festival, the Feast of the Serpari (Snake Festival) that has been re-created possibly three different times over the eons of time to become one of the most multicultural, ancient and historic festivals in all of Italy.

Town of Cocullo (Google pictures)

In pagan times, the tribe of the Marsi ruled this area east of Rome. A tough warlike, mountainous tribe, they were ruled from about 800 to 580 BC (before Christ) by the Eutruscans, and then until 325 BC under the Samnites. The chief divinity in their society was the ancient snake goddess, Angitia.  She was an early goddess of witchcraft and healing, associated with verbal and herbal charms, especially against snake bite. Her name referred to killing snakes through enchantment, possibly with just a word from her deific lips.  The Greek myths say Angitia was one of the three daughters of Aeetes along with Medea and Circe, two of the most famed sorceresses of Greek mythology. Angitia lived in the area around the Lake Fucinus (later drained) and specialized in curing snake bites.

Judy Pinegar is a writer. Part of this three part series appeared in the Corriere della Valle Magazine

 

 

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Education, Hiking, History

A Tour of Granite Quarries – Griffith Quarry, Penryn, CA and Rocklin, CA


By Judy Pinegar

John and I wanted some exercise so we went to Griffith Quarry Park and Museum in Penryn, CA.  This site is listed on both the National Register of Historic Places and the California Landmark Program. The surrounding 23-acre park contains ruins of the first polishing mill built in California and some of the quarry holes from which the unique Penryn granite was taken. It is a wooded area with trails both close to and wider around two large former quarries. The walk starts at the parking lot, where the museum is the same building that used to house the Quarry Office, and the parking lot itself used to be the main Yard and polishing buildings.

Here is a picture of what it looked like circa 1881.

Click on picture to enlarge

As we walked John took pictures of several areas of interest in the park.

museum

Image 1 of 6

Office and museum

Click on picture to enlarge. Click on picture to return to page.

The Penryn stone is dark gray biotite granite, uniform in color, and there was also “black granite,” a very dark granite one mile east of Penryn.  This stone is used mainly for cemetery monuments and buildings.

Then we went to the Museum, and learned more about the quarry, established as Penryn Granite Works, by Welsh immigrant Griffith Griffith in 1864. Mr. Griffith formerly worked in the famous slate quarries in Penrhyn, Wales. He quarried granite at Folsom, but in 1864 he came to Penryn, which he named after his Welsh home. Here he remained, and he and his descendants quarried granite from that time until about 1906. The museum contains some of the original office furniture of the Penryn Granite Works and information on the Griffith family, the granite industry, and the history of the Penryn-Loomis Basin area. While there, talking to the volunteer we heard about the Rocklin History Museum, which had some old mining tools in the basement.

Since that is just a few miles down Taylor Road, we went there next, where they display Rocklin’s history of “Rock, Rails and Ranches”. They have a timeline of the small settlement of the 1850’s to the thriving community of today. There also was a lot of information about when the Central Pacific Rocklin Roundhouse provided engines to power the Transcontinental Railroad over the high Sierra. When they grew out of space in Rocklin, they moved the whole roundhouse to Roseville along with some of the houses!

Rocklin was the “Granite Capitol of the West” over 40 quarries were in operation at one time. The Rocklin granite quarries were first opened about 1861. The Big Gun granite quarry is located behind the Rocklin City Hall building, and John and I walked across the street to see it. Rocklin stone is biotite granite, lighter in color than the Penryn granite.

For further information:
Rocklin Historical Society Presentation Big Gun Granite Quarry: Past, Present, Future
 (Very large PDF file)

Judy Pinegar is a writer and her articles have appeared in numerous publications

 

View Larger Map to see the location of the quarries

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History

A Short History of the California Delta Part 4 of 4

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Image 1 of 7

Photos courtesy of Bill Wells

By Bill Wells

Agriculture
Reuben Kercheval is credited with building the first man made levees in the Delta on Grand Island about 1849. They were built from peat and only lasted a few years. In 1850 the Swamp and Overflow act which gave control of these swamplands to the state was enacted. Later the state gave control to the counties and most of the swampland was sold off. The original levees were built upon berms of material that were deposited by floods on the banks of the rivers and sloughs over thousands of years. Some of these natural levees were as much as 25 feet high. Once drained the land was prime agriculture land with fabulous peat soil that was later bagged and sold for gardens. Many early farmers were almost able to recoup the price they paid for the land with their first harvest. Sacramento-San Joaquin levees were built in the mid to late 19th Century to prevent flooding on prime agricultural land. Most of the land was at sea level, and levees were frequently constructed on top of natural dirt barriers that formed along rivers and sloughs. Originally Chinese laborers using hand shovels and wheelbarrows built most of the levees.

The trans-continental railroad was completed in 1869 with its terminus in Sacramento where passengers and goods were transferred from the railroad to the steamers plying the river for the rest of the journey to San Francisco. The railroad brought in many European immigrants from the East Coast over the next few decades.

By the turn of the 20th Century, the steam powered clamshell dredge was used to remove material from riverbeds to increase the size of levee barriers. Delta levees are built on sand, silt and peat, which makes them susceptible to erosion, seepage and breaks.

In 1917 Congress authorized the Sacramento Flood Control Project, which was completed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1960. “Project levees” built by the Corps were designed to provide superior flood control protection. Once completed, the general upkeep was turned over to local entities. There are over 1600 miles of State-federal project levees in the Central Valley, with about 385 miles located in the Delta. Over a 40-year period about 100 clamshell dredges were used to create the geography in the Delta as we know it today.

In 1927 the bridge over the Straits of Carquinez was completed. This was also the year the majestic steamers Delta King and Delta Queen entered service to Sacramento. The writing was on the wall however and the days of the overnight steamers between Sacramento and Stockton were numbered with the advent of paved highways. There were 300 plus steamers cruising the Delta from 1849 to about 1951. The smaller ones that could ply the smaller rivers and sloughs were called “Mosquito boats” because of the huge clouds of mosquitoes they would attract when their paddle wheels churned the water. The larger ones were floating palaces with elegant food and drink as well as gambling and other activities.

Recreation

As the people of the Delta region became more prosperous they had more time for leisure and pleasure boating. The Sacramento Yacht Club is recognized as the oldest yacht club in the Delta area. The SYC started as the Capital City Boat Club in 1929 but has ties to the Undine Boat Club dating from April of 1870. Originally the club was located on the Sacramento side of the river but eventually moved to its present location on the Yolo side. The oldest yacht club in Northern California is The San Francisco Yacht Club, which began in 1869.

These days the Delta is reported to have “1,000 miles of waterways” but some publications in the 1930s mentioned 1500 miles of waterways. My recollection from the mid-1950s is that by then people were saying 1,000 miles and the late Erle Stanley Gardner mentions in his 1965 book World of water the 1,000 mile figure. That is the earliest written mention I have seen of 1,000 miles. The City of Rio Vista in their publication says 1,100 miles. Hal Schell used the figure of 1,000 miles but was always challenging people to measure the waterways. The Delta Protection Commission reports “635 miles of contiguous waterways”. Whatever the figure, there are plenty of places to visit and explore by pleasure boat and if you have a canoe, kayak or shoreboat there are even more creeks and swamps to explore that larger craft can not enter.

With the advent of the internal combustion engine around the turn of the twentieth century pleasure boats no longer had to rely on oars, sail, or steam for motivational power. Sailing vessels had problems from the time the rivers began silting in around 1870. (Steamboat Slough went from a depth of 15 feet in 1850 to 5 feet by 1870!) Steam vessels generally were larger, expensive and used large amounts of wood or coal for fuel. The gasoline engine so successfully used in automobiles was soon modified for use in boats. This opened boating to a whole new class of people. No longer were power vessels the playthings of the very affluent but were now available to middle class Americans. Small powerboats were ideal for traversing and exploring the Delta with their shallow draft and shorter length they could get into many small backwaters that the larger steamers could not.

Ship and boat construction started early in the Delta area. The first steamer to visit Sacramento was Sitka a 37-foot boat assembled at Yerba Buena (San Francisco) in 1847. Lady Washington was launched in Sacramento in August of 1849. Her owner / skipper was Peter Lassen for whom Mount Lassen was named. (Some accounts say John Sutter was the owner.) She was apparently shipped from the East Coast and assembled in Sacramento). On her maiden voyage she made it all the way to Coloma the site of Marshall’s gold discovery. Unfortunately she hit a snag and sank on the return trip. She was raised and later renamed Ohio and cruised the area until 1868.

Several boat builders made the area their home. The Nunes family were boat builders in the Azores who moved to Sausalito where they founded the famous Nunes boatyard. Along with many other famous yachts they built Zaca a beautiful schooner owned by actor Errol Flynn for several years. Some of the other builders of note in the bay and Delta were Stone Boat Yard, Stephens Brothers, Madden and Lewis, Anderson and Cristofani, Geo. Kneass, Colberg Boat Works, Besotes, and United Ship Repair.

Stephens Brothers began operation in Stockton in 1902. In 1901 two brothers Theodore and Robert Stephens built a 33 foot sloop Dorothy in their back yard on Yosemite Street in Stockton. They sailed the boat from Stockton to Santa Cruz on her maiden voyage. Soon after, they started receiving commissions to build other boats. The neighbors complained about the commercial activity going on in the back yard so the brothers purchased a barge moored in the Stockton Channel to use as a construction site. Within a few years the company was moved to its location at 745 South Yosemite Street where it remained until 1987 when it went out of business. Currently the location is the home of the fine 5 Star Marina operated by the McDonald brothers Bob and Terry. Many of the buildings today look like they did in the heyday of the business. Early on Stephens built quick open runabouts that were called “spud boats”. In 1912 a Stephens spud boat set a speed record from Stockton to San Francisco. They were used by brokers and produce dealers to roam the Delta buying crops. Speed was important, as generally the first buyer to reach a farm would purchase the crop.

These boats later evolved into pleasure boats that were both beautiful and fast. In the winter of 1925 a Siam teak hulled, Scripps powered, 26-foot Stephens runabout ran from San Francisco to San Diego in less than 24 hours, a record time. For the next several years the 26-foot runabouts carried the company financially. In 1929 Stephens started producing stock cruiser hulls which could be customized to the owner’s requirements. These would allow the owner a custom yacht at close to a production boat price. These boats did well and saw the company through the depression. Pleasure boat construction stopped at the outbreak of World War II and yards such as Stephens concentrated on building military vessels for the duration.

Plywood and Fiberglass became popular boat building materials after World War II, which further opened boating to a wider class of boaters. Likewise many war surplus vessels were converted to yachts and placed in service in the Delta. Other boats that had been seized for duty during the war found their way back into private hands, stripped of their gray paint, and varnished once again. The vessel Pat Pending owned by the Owen family of San Francisco which was mounted with a cannon and depth charges during the war and used as a submarine net tender was purchased back from the government, restored to her original beauty and cruises the Bay and Delta today.

The Lauritzens were early pioneers of the Delta. They ran Lauritzen Transportation Company and at one point had a fleet of 8 boats that moved goods and people between the bay and various Delta landings. Today Chris III and his sister Margaret run the business as one of the finest yacht harbors in the Delta located near the Antioch Bridge at the gateway to the Delta.

In 1931 the Korth family purchased land at the confluence of the San Joaquin and Mokelumne Rivers at the very Southern tip of Sacramento County. They originally planned to be farmers and grow asparagus on the property. In 1937, the Korth’s began renting out rowboats for a dollar a day. The following summer in 1938 Albine Korth decided to start building his own rowboats and his rental fleet began to grow. After World War II the Korths purchased more boats at US Government surplus auctions, and so Korth’s Pirate’s Lair as a Delta destination was beginning. During the 1940’s a snack bar was opened which evolved into the current restaurant at Korth’s. Boat sheds were constructed and the harbor was dredged and breakwater built in the 1960’s and Korth’s evolved into the fine marina that it remains today. These days the third generation of the Korth family operates three of the best marinas in the Delta with Korth’s Pirate’s Lair, Oxbow Marina, and Willow Berm Marina.

As shipping on the river declined the owners of river ports converted the docks to moor pleasure boats and converted large produce sheds into dry storage for trailer boats. Tower Park marina on Potato Slough and Boathouse Marina on the Sacramento are two examples of this strategy.

Boating expanded greatly in the Delta after the war due to the new low cost materials and the availability of surplus boats at very low prices. Many military vessels were converted to yachts, and people learned how to build a conventional pointed bow onto Higgins landing craft. With a superstructure added and cabins built inside many of these found there way into the Delta as yachts.

At this writing there are about 95 marinas with 11,700 boat slips in the Delta area and every year thousands of other boats are trailered in from all over the West coast and beyond. Many boats visit the Delta from San Francisco Bay and larger yachts travel in from West Coast ports and all over the world.

According to the Delta Protection Commission the Delta area covers about 750,000 acres with about 64,000 acres of urban areas and about 56,000 acres of waterways, and much of the remaining given to agriculture. Recreation opportunities abound with Cruising, sailing, gunkholing, water-skiing, wakeboarding, wind-surfing, camping, hunting, fishing, biking, hiking, and just hanging out all available in the Delta.

The Future

At this writing, there are many pressures on the Delta. Delta waters serves perhaps two-thirds of the population of California (about 20,000,000 legal residents) and most of this population lives in Southern California. One recent study by the University of California made a case for more of salt water intrusion in in the Delta which is supposed to help restore the ecology of the area.

Other plans call for a dam possibly at Carquinez Strait or flooding Delta Islands to store water.  The peripheral canal has reared its ugly head again after lying dormant for many years.  The peripheral canal is a plan to take water out of the Sacramento River well above the Delta, which will drastically reduce the water quality in the Delta.  One thing is known, the next hundred years or so in the Delta will certainly be interesting!

Source:

Bill Wells
Executive Director
California Delta Chambers & Visitor’s Bureau
PO Box 1118
Rio Vista, CA 94571

916-777-4041

Click Here for California Delta Chambers Website

For all your real estate needs call or write:

John J. O’Dell
Real Estate Broker
O’Dell Realty
(530) 263-1091

Email John at jodell@nevadacounty.com

History

A Short History of the California Delta Part 3 of 4

Early San Francisco from article by Susan Saperstein
Early San Francisco from article by Susan Saperstein

Picture from Guide Lines News Letter

By Bill Wells

European Settlement

The Mexican Government surely became concerned about the interlopers ferreting around in their territory and it is believed that this is what led them to grant John Sutter his vast tract at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers.  One of Sutter’s boats was the schooner Isabella which legend has it had been the private yacht of King Kamehameha the Great of the Sandwich Islands, possibly the first yacht in the Delta!  Leaving what is now San Francisco in August of 1839 it took Sutter and his band eight days to find the entrance to the Sacramento after passing through Carquinez Straits which speaks to the maze of waterways even then.  Sutter eventually landed on the bank of the American River at about where the city dump of Sacramento is located.  He built his fort nearby at what is now the corner of 27th and L streets in Sacramento.  Sutter became a Mexican citizen on August 29, 1840 and was appointed Captain in the Mexican Army as well as judge and representative of the “Government at the Frontier of the Rio Sacramento”.  Sutter’s treatment of the Indians is a matter of controversy. Certainly he treated them no worse than did the Mexicans or the Spanish before them. What is known is that he minted tin coins with stars stamped into them for payment to the Indians for work performed and the coins could be redeemed later for food or dry goods in Sutter’s store.

Charles Weber migrated westward and arrived at John Marsh’s ranch at the base of Mt. Diablo in October of 1841.  Weber made his way to Sutter’s fort and was employed there in the winter of 1841.  Sutter sponsored Weber to obtain Mexican citizenship, which made Weber eligible to receive a land-grant from Mexico.  In 1844 Captain Charles Weber and William Gulnac obtained a Mexican land grant for the Rancho del Campo de los Franceses of about 48,000 acres.  Weber later bought out Gulnac for $200 and started the settlement of Slough Town later renamed Tuleburg.

During the Mexican-American war the Mexicans imprisoned Weber for refusing to raise arms against the Americans.  Commodore Robert F. Stockton the American military commander of California rescued him.  In gratitude Weber renamed his settlement Stockton which name it still bears today. The Steamer John A. Sutter was the first power boat to arrive in Stockton on November 1849.

On June 16, 1846 the settlers in California under the command of John Fremont declared independence from Mexico and created the Bear Flag Republic.  On July 11, 1846 Paul Revere’s nephew Lieutenant Joseph Revere sent a United States flag to Sutter and the U.S. annexed California under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which included paying Mexico a cash payment of $15,000,000 and the United States assuming claims of American citizens against Mexico of $3,250,000. This ended Mexico’s 21 year control of California.  On September 9, 1850, by act of congress California became the 31st state in the Union.

Gold!

Sutter's Mill - Photo courtesy of Bureau of Ocean Management, Regulation and Enforcement
Sutter's Mill - Photo courtesy of Bureau of Ocean Management, Regulation and Enforcement

In January of 1848 James Marshall found gold at Sutter’s sawmill on the American River at Coloma and the news quickly spread to San Francisco in spite of Sutter’s attempt to keep the discovery secret.  The first known newspaper account was on March 15, 1848 in The Californian in San Francisco and from then on the population of Northern California grew exponentially.

Sam Brannan seized the opportunity and opened a store selling mining supplies.  Sam is credited with founding the city of Sacramento and was rumored to have been seen running through the streets of San Francisco yelling “gold has been discovered in the Sierras!”  Brannan was reported as California’s first millionaire.  John Sutter later in 1848 said:”Every little shanty in or around the Fort became a store, a warehouse or a hotel, the whole settlement was a veritable bazaar.”

Captain William Warner and Lieutenant William T. Sherman (later as General Sherman of Civil War fame) surveyed the area between Sutter’s Fort and the Embarcadero along the Sacramento River laying out the first grid of the city that would be known as “Sacramento City”.  Sam Brannan claimed credit for the name.   From Sherman’s memoirs: “ Having finished our work on the Cosumnes, we proceeded to Sacramento, where Captain Sutter employed us to connect the survey of Sacramento City, made by Lieutenant Warner, and that of Sutterville, three miles below, which was then being surveyed by Lieutenant J. W. Davidson, of the First Dragoons. At Sutterville, the plateau of the Sacramento approached quite near the river, and it would have made a better site for a town than the low, submerged land where the city now stands; but it seems to be a law of growth that all natural advantages are disregarded wherever once business chooses a location. Old Sutter’s embarcadero became Sacramento City, simply because it was the first point used for unloading boats for Sutter’s Fort”

Originally the San Joaquin had a myriad of turns and bends and plans to straighten it were formulated in the 1870’s.  The project was finished in the 1930’s by cutting through numerous islands and dredging the channel to 26 feet.  This one project created many new islands and meandering waterways that are still in existence today.

John Bidwell had a 17,700 acre land grant along the Sacramento River starting in 1844 that included the area that now is the City of Rio Vista.  In 1848 at the beginning of the gold rush a wharf was built to handle the steamer traffic.  N.H. Davis purchased the town site from Bidwell in 1855 and by 1860 the town was called Rio Vista.  The great storm of 1861 washed the town away and it was later rebuilt on higher ground where it remains today.  The channel of the Sacramento river originally went through horseshoe bend to the east of Decker Island just downstream from Rio Vista but a cut was made and the channel moved to its present location in 1918 creating Decker Island.

Up until the rivers were silted in by hydraulic mining in the 1870’s steamers could make it all the way up the Sacramento to Red Bluff and up the Feather River as far as Yuba City.  On the San Joaquin steamers made it as far as Firebaugh near Fresno.  There are even records of steamboats going as far as Coloma (!) on the American River.  The hydraulic mining caused terrible silting of the rivers, which is still a major problem today.   The Yuba river near Marysville went from a “fish filled 30-foot (deep) water” in 1850 to where “the river was almost level with Marysville streets” in 1878 according to Marysville mayor at that time C.E. Stone.  The Briggs orchard near Marysville was covered with 20 feet of silt.  In one year in the 1870’s “46 Million cubic yards of gravel, a mass a mile wide and a mile long and fifteen yards deep had been hurled into the streams or spread over the farm lands”.  Over a thirty year period two billion cubic yards of debris filled the Sacramento River and its tributaries.

The gold rush brought hoards of people to Northern California.  Some came overland but many came by sea.  As of March of 1850 Sacramento City had thirty stores, six saloons, and many other business establishments.  By 1855 Sacramento produced $300,000 worth of manufactured items per month.

The name of the settlement of Yerba Buena was changed to San Francisco in 1847.  The original settlement was started at Yerba Buena Cove but as the population and area expanded a new name was thought to be in order.  Gold captivated most people until about 1860 at which time agriculture was rediscovered.  The original farmers were called rimlanders because they farmed on the edges of the Delta before the islands had been surrounded with levees and reclaimed.

Source:

Bill Wells
Executive Director
California Delta Chambers & Visitor’s Bureau
PO Box 1118
Rio Vista, CA 94571

916-777-4041

Click Here for California Delta Chambers Website

For all your real estate needs call or write:

John J. O’Dell
Real Estate Broker
O’Dell Realty
(530) 263-1091

johnodell@nevadacounty.com

History

A Short History of the California Delta Part 2 of 4

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By Bill Wells

European Exploration

Hernando Cortez with his Indian allies seized Mexico in 1519, and in 1521 two of his soldiers deserted and headed north to Alta California possibly because of rumors of great wealth to be found there.  Legend has it that these two were the first Europeans to visit the Great Valley and to view the Sacramento River.  In April of 1879 two miners cutting down an old oak near the Middle Fork of the Feather River found an old manuscript buried inside the tree.  Ten years later in 1889 the miners showed it to a Spanish speaker and the manuscript was translated as the story of the two.  It was shipped to the Naval Museum in Madrid but apparently lost and as of yet has not resurfaced.

A Portuguese, Joao Rodriquez Cabrilho is probably the first European to venture up the California coast and in 1542 discovered San Diego Bay and sailed as far North as Monterey Bay before turning back and dying in an accident at San Miguel Island early in 1543.  The Spanish possibly still smarting that Columbus was Italian corrupted his name to Juan Cabrillo.

Francis Drake was possibly the first European to enter San Francisco Bay and anchored near what is now San Quentin prison in 1579.  (This is in dispute and some say he actually anchored in Drake’s Bay or Bodega Bay or even farther North).  In the 1930’s a brass plaque was discovered near San Quentin purportedly left there by Drake, in the 1990’s it was exposed as a fake.  The description later narratives left of the Indian culture Drake and his crew spent five weeks with is convincingly Coastal Maidu.  The Coastal Maidu inhabited the area from Duncan’s Point on the North Coast to the Northern side of the Golden Gate and included Bodega Bay, Drake’s Bay, and the North Bay area of Sausalito, San Rafael, Petaluma, and Cotati.

Continue reading A Short History of the California Delta Part 2 of 4 →

History

A Short History of the California Deta Part 1 of 4

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Mt. Diablo from the San Joaquin Bridge
Mt. Diablo from the San Joaquin Bridge

By Bill Wells

The Sacramento / San Joaquin Delta is the largest tidal estuary on the West Coast of the United States.  Technically it is an inverse delta where many waterways combine into one and empty into the sea.  This is the opposite of a delta such as the Mississippi where one or a few waterways expand into many as they reach the sea.

Pre-history

About 140 million years ago the predecessors to the Sierras rose and eroded away giving rise to the present Sierra range.  Later perhaps 1,000,000 years ago the ice ages carved the Markley Gorge, which today lies about 2,000 to 5,000 feet under the floor of the Great Valley (the combined Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys collectively are known as the Great Valley).  As the sediment filled Markley Gorge the current Delta as we know it was created.  As the last ice age receded 10,000 to 12,000 years ago humans wandered down from the northern latitudes and settled the land we know today as California.

Probably the first written reference to the name California was in 1510 in the book: Las Sergas de Esplandin published in Seville and written by Garci Ordonez de Montalvo.  This was a fantasy and spoke of a mythical island in the West Indies populated by Amazons ruled by Queen Califia.  The early Spaniards gave the name to the land lying West of Mexico, which we now know as Baja California.  Originally this was thought to be an island and later the Spanish gave the name to all the territory from Cabo San Lucas to Alaska.

Aboriginal Culture

Indians were the first inhabitants of the central California area. Radio Carbon dating of shell mounds near San Francisco Bay show that the area was inhabited at least 3,000 to 4,000 years ago.  There were 425 recorded shell mounds around the bay and up into Suisun Bay.  These mounds were composed largely of mussel shells but many artifacts and human remains from burials were also found.  Some of these mounds were up to 40 feet high..  The vast majority of the mounds have been destroyed to build parking lots and shopping centers throughout the bay area.  Shellmound Road in Emeryville was so named because of its proximity to a large mound.

At the time the Spanish began exploring California it is estimated that there could have been as many as 250,000 Native Americans in what is now the state.  The Maidu and Miwok groups inhabited the Delta  and its tributary river areas.  In the late 1700’s it is estimated that there were about 9,000 Maidu and about 11,000 Miwoks inhabiting about 1000 square miles of the greater Delta area in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys.

The native cultures in the Delta and bay area used acorns as a dietary staple.  The acorns were gathered, stored and dried, and ground into meal and the acid leached out with water.  There was also a huge abundance of game and fish in the Delta area.  There were many villages in the Delta area and these lent their names to many local features.

These people lived in a Stone Age culture until the Spanish began settling the area with their missions in 1770.   After the missions were established most of the Indians that lived in proximity were either conscripted for labor or fled, many into the Delta area.  A terrible fever probably malaria swept through the Indian population starting in 1833.  Trappers passing through the Sacramento valley in the fall of 1832 reported a large Indian population but when they returned in the summer of 1833 they found only five living Indians between the head of Sacramento valley and the Kings River.  Malaria was probably brought to California by early adventurers, fur traders, and Spanish missionaries beginning in the early 1800’s, and remained epidemic in the Central Valley until the late 1800’s. By 1900 the level of malaria had been greatly reduced by the efforts of many of California’s mosquito control districts.

Tomorrow: Part 2

Source:

Bill Wells
Executive Director
California Delta Chambers & Visitor’s Bureau
PO Box 1118
Rio Vista, CA 94571

916-777-4041

Click for California Delta Chambers Website

For all your real estate needs Call
John J. O’Dell
Real Estate Broker
(530) 263-1091
Email jodell@nevadacounty.com

DRE# 00669941

 

History, Nevada County Information

Nevada County Airport

Nevada County Airport was built in 1932 by Errol McBoyle, owner of the Idaho Maryland Mine. The purpose was to fly gold to Mills Field which is now the San Francisco International Airport. In 1956, Charles Litton of Litton Industries gave the airport to Nevada County.

Nevada County Air Airport covers an area of 117 acres (47 ha) at an elevation of 3,152 feet (961 m) above mean sea level. It has one asphalt paved runway designated 7/25 which measures 4,350 by 75 feet (1,326 x 23 m)  For those that are pilots, GOO is the National Inventory of Airports designator for Nevada Count Airport. In 1995, over $5 million was invested in improvements at the airport. Over 30,000 take-offs occur each year.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buYZzj-ORmA
Video of Nevada County Airport

According to MyNevadaCounty.com “Nevada County Airport is home to the California Division of Forestry (CDF) Grass Valley Air Attack Base. This center of wild land fire fighting from the air is the permanent location for two Grumman S-2 Air Tankers that drop fire retardant, and an air attack lead plane that coordinates the efforts of the tankers. Aircraft from Nevada County Airport are on standby, ready at a moment’s notice, to respond to fires throughout the foothills and mountains. When larger fires occur nearer to the airport, many other fire fighting aircraft use the airport as a base for fuel and supplies.

Search & Rescue and Medi-Vac aircraft also use the airport year round for public safety missions.

Aircraft used in law enforcement are a common site at the Nevada County Airport. The California Highway Patrol, the Nevada County Sheriff’s Department, and the FBI are only a few of the State and Federal agencies that have used our airport facilities.”

John J. O’Dell
Real Estate Broker
Looking for property in Nevada County
Go to JohnODellRealty.com

History, Recreation, State Parks

Bridgeport Covered Bridge, Nevada County, CA

bridgeport-bridge-1

To contact the Bridgeport State Park call (530) 432-2546

One of the most beautiful bridges in Nevada County, if not in all of the Gold Country is the Bridgeport covered bridge on the South Fork of the Yuba River in the South Yuba River State Park.

The bridge was originally constructed in 1862 and was part of the Virginia Turnpike Company Toll Road that served the northern mines and traffic to and from Virginia City and the Comstock Lode in Nevada. The bridge is 230 feet (70 m) long. Bridgeport Bridge, or “Wood’s Crossing”, is the longest single span covered bridge in existence. Bridgeport Bridge was built as part of a toll road. Toll roads were authorized by the State of California in 1853 as a means to start construction of much needed roads by private companies.

On October 20, 1997, there was a flood on the South Yuba River that almost took the bridge out.  It was 135 years old at the time and workers put in 10 hour days making repairs on the landmark wooden bridge.

More than a century ago, pioneers and miners paid a $2 toll to drive their wagons and horses across a covered wooden bridge over the South Yuba River at Wood’s Crossing. Now, traffic is limited to pedestrians only and there is no toll.

bridgeport-plaque

The historical plague dedicated to the bridge which reads:

Bridgeport (NYE’s Crossing) Covered Bridge

Built in 1862 by David Issac Johnwood with lumber from his mill in Sierra County, This Bridge was part of the Virginia Turnpike Company Toll Road which served the Northern Mines and the busy Nevada Comstock Lode.  Utilizing a combination truss and arch construction, it is one of the oldest housed spans in the west and the longest single span, wood covered bridge in the United States.

California Registered Historical Landmark No. 390

Plaque placed by the California State Park Commission in cooperation with the Nevada County Historical Society and the Wm. B. Meek-Wm. M. Stewart Chapter No. 10, E Clampus Vitus, May 23, 1964

To contact the Bridgeport State Park call (530) 432-2546


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