icon for podpress  birth of san francisco #1 [24:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

By the time I arrived, San Francisco was already a city — and had been one for the previous century and a half. But what went on before that time? What was San Francisco before it was San Francisco?

I’ve decided to look into the story of the pre-city peninsula, and the birth of the tiny town of Yerba Buena, starting with the arrival of the Spanish in the 1770s. It will take a couple of episodes to get it all out, so if you’re curious, stay tuned. (or jump ahead to episodes two and three.

for further edification:
» the presidio
» the founding of san francisco – an essay from 1926
» detailed presidio history – pdf
» de anza trail – map

thanks to ryo sode for the use of the beautiful tune “yosemite”, courtesy of the podsafe music network.


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correction – 4.5.06
while listening to this show recently, i noticed that one of the dates i had given was incorrect — and it happens to have been quite an important one! william richardson put up his four-posted tent in 1835, and it is to that year which we date the birth of yerba buena. a shocking and inexplicable error, but hereby corrected.