Colorado, Montezuma County, near Mancos
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Imagine this mesa top in A.D. 1150 with fields of corn, beans, and squash; supplemented with wild plants such as amaranth, tubers, and sunflowers. Children could be seen watering corn with clay water jars (ollas), and young men could be seen cutting piñon and juniper trees to expand the gardens for future years.
The Ancestral Puebloans were attracted to the mesa top by fertile soil, a relatively long growing season, and an ample amount of precipitation for “dryland” farming. In the form of winter snow and summer rainstorms, Mesa Verde averages about 17 inches of moisture per year.
There is no evidence that agricultural fields within Mesa Verde were ever irrigated; however, the Ancestral Puebloans constructed an extensive network of ditches, canals, and reservoirs to collect and store rain water for domestic use.
(Left Photo Caption)
A Hopi farmer uses traditional techniques to grow corn. The introduction of corn, smaller and more drought-resistant than the kind we are familiar with today, changed the Ancestral Puebloans from nomadic hunter-gathers to settled farmers.
- Photo by A.C. Vroman, circa 1900s. Courtesy Seaver Center for Western History Research, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History
(Center Map Caption)
In September 2004, Morefield, Box Elder, Far View, and Sagebrush reservoirs were designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. This water management system is one of the oldest engineered public works in the United States.
- Map by National Park Service
(Center Photo Caption)
Corn requires 70 frost-free days to mature. The mesa top has an average of 85 frost-free days.
(Right Aerial Image Caption)
Aerial view of Chapin Mesa displaying the maize fields (near Far View Visitor Center) and a probable system of collector ditches and a canal ditch that carried water from the fields to Far View Reservoir.
- Aerial view courtesy of Bureau of Reclamation
(Right Photo Caption)
Digging stick used to loosen the soil before planting.
(Agriculture • Native Americans • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
Imagine this mesa top in A.D. 1150 with fields of corn, beans, and squash; supplemented with wild plants such as amaranth, tubers, and sunflowers. Children could be seen watering corn with clay water jars (ollas), and young men could be seen cutting piñon and juniper trees to expand the gardens for future years.The Ancestral Puebloans were attracted to the mesa top by fertile soil, a relatively long growing season, and an ample amount of precipitation for “dryland” farming. In the form of winter snow and summer rainstorms, Mesa Verde averages about 17 inches of moisture per year.
There is no evidence that agricultural fields within Mesa Verde were ever irrigated; however, the Ancestral Puebloans constructed an extensive network of ditches, canals, and reservoirs to collect and store rain water for domestic use.
(Left Photo Caption)
A Hopi farmer uses traditional techniques to grow corn. The introduction of corn, smaller and more drought-resistant than the kind we are familiar with today, changed the Ancestral Puebloans from nomadic hunter-gathers to settled farmers.
- Photo by A.C. Vroman, circa 1900s. Courtesy Seaver Center for Western History Research, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History
(Center Map Caption)
In September 2004, Morefield, Box Elder, Far View, and Sagebrush reservoirs were designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. This water management system is one of the oldest engineered public works in the United States.
- Map by National Park Service
(Center Photo Caption)
Corn requires 70 frost-free days to mature. The mesa top has an average of 85 frost-free days.
(Right Aerial Image Caption)
Aerial view of Chapin Mesa displaying the maize fields (near Far View Visitor Center) and a probable system of collector ditches and a canal ditch that carried water from the fields to Far View Reservoir.
- Aerial view courtesy of Bureau of Reclamation
(Right Photo Caption)
Digging stick used to loosen the soil before planting.
(Agriculture • Native Americans • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
Joaquin Miller Park was formed in 1917 when the City of Oakland and its citizens – led by The California Writers Club – purchased 68 acres from the estate of Joaquin Miller, the noted 19th century “Poet of the Sierras” and environmentalist. 
The tiny cottage known as “The Abbey” was built by the 19th century poet and environmentalist Joaquin Miller as part of a inspirational artists’ retreat. He purchased 70 grassy acres, parcel-by-parcel, in “The Hights” above the “City of the Oaks” in 1886 and erected monuments, structures for his mother and daughter, and coordinated the planting of 75,000 trees – Monterey pine, Monterey cypress, olive and eucalyptus. 
In the late 1800s, Joaquin Miller hosted gatherings of such notables as authors Jack London, Ambrose Bierce, Mark Twain, Bret Harte and Prentice Mulford; English humorist and playwright Tom Hood; illustrator/engraver Frank Leslie; poet Walt Whitman, Ina Coolbrith, and George Sterling; English statesman and writer Lord Houghton; actress Lillie Langtry.
Joaquin Miller, “Poet of the Sierras,” resided on these acres, named by him “The Hights,” from 1886 to 1913. In this building known as The Abbey, he wrote “Columbus” and other poems. The surrounding trees were planted by him and he personally built, on the eminence to the north, the funeral pyre and monuments dedicated to Moses, General John C. Fremont and Robert Browning. “The Hights” was purchased by the City of Oakland in 1991.
Opened in 1903, the timber-lined Kennedy Tunnel was the fast route between Oakland and Lafayette, saving four hours of driving around the San Pablo Reservoir. In 1914, it was wired for lights and renamed the Broadway Tunnel. In 1937, after the completion of the Caldecott Tunnel, the Kennedy Tunnel was closed to motor cars, allowing only foot, horses and two-wheeled traffic. In 1947, the timber lined tunnel was permanently closed due to repeated cave-ins and rising maintenance costs. It finally succumbed to nature in the late 1960’s and the median at the intersection of Old Tunnel Rd. and Skyline Dr. is the only remnant existing today.
The naming of the Rainbow Trout species was based on fish taken from the San Leandro Creek drainage. In 1855, Dr. W.P. Gibbons, founder of the California Academy of Sciences, was given three specimens obtained from the creek. He described and assigned them the scientific name Salmo iridia. Rainbow trout are now worldwide in distribution and are highly prized game fish.
The Sausal Creek Arch Bridge, commonly known as the Leimert Bridge since its completion in 1926, is a graceful example of a fixed arch bridge. George Posey, Alameda County Surveyor and engineer of the Posey Tunnel connecting Alameda and Oakland, designed the concrete and steel bridge, which is 357 feet long and 117 feet high. The Park Boulevard Company, owned by Walter and Harry Leimert, was responsible for building the bridge and running the Key System streetcar line across it, so that they could then develop Oakmore-Highlands on the other side of the canyon from Park Boulevard. It spans the scenic Dimond Canyon, originally part of the Antonio Maria Peralta land grant, and once the site of extensive lumbering activities, when the giant redwoods which originally crowned the Oakland hills were cleared and floated by creek down to Lake Merritt and the San Francisco Bay.
In 1901, Aquiles Arriola opened his store here with a great variety of goods lining the store walls. Arriol's son, Gustavo, grew up to be a well-known cartoonist with his own comic strip "Gordo". He wrote in his auto biography "Accidental Ambassador" that his father's general store was unique as it was the only one in town that sold fresh oysters. Aquiles would hold gramophone concerts at the store and he sold the gramophone players with the records.
The Fulbrights moved into the home on February 14, 1934 continuing to complete the house as cash became available. The adobe patio wall was completed in 1934, the outside and inside walls were plastered in 1937 and the tile roof was installed in 1947.
Originally called Huntington, Bowie developed as a result of the railroad junction at this location and is now a thriving city. 
Founded in 1854 for the ‘diffusion of knowledge at the least possible expense to the seeker’, the Institute’s Library and Chess Room and its literary and social activities are intertwined with the history of San Francisco and California. James Lick and Sam Brannan were among the Institute’s early benefactors. Andrew S. Hallidie, inventor of the cable car and president from 1868 to 1877, arranged to hold the first classes for the University of California at the Institute. Early Institute membership attracted engineers, architects, artists, furniture makers, photographers, and inventors, all of whom were proud to be called ‘mechanics’ in nineteenth-century parlance. The Institute’s international exposition form 1857 to 1899 promoted California’s economy. From 1882 to 1906, the Mechanic’s pavilion at the Civic Center served as the City’s auditorium. Since 1866 the Institute has owned the property on which this building stands. Designed by Albert Pissis and completed in 1910, it replaces the Institute’s earlier three-story building that was destroyed in the earthquake and fire of 1906. Membership in this center for educational and cultural activities is open to the public.
Hobart Building
In Honor of the One Hundredth Anniversary
In Honor and Remembrance of San Franciscans Who Served Our Country and Died in the Vietnam War
The shore line of San Francisco Bay reached a point twenty-five feet northeasterly from this spot at the time gold was discovered by James W. Marshall at Coloma, California, January 24, 1848. 
Constructed 1912