Gold? GOOOOOLLLLLLD!!!!!!
The flood broke in January of 1848 when a big huge gold nugget was plucked out of the American River on John Sutter's Mill.
Suddenly, the little town of Yerba Buena, (The City of San Francisco) exploded from 800 people in 1848 to 25,000 by 1850. Holy Moly! Totally massive influx of rabid capitalists. Gotta get that gold!
Don Peralta's land had towns growing on it, logging camps in his hills, sawmills! And there wasn't sh** he could do about it.
The Fall of the Redwoods and the spamming of the Australian Eucalyptus.
Mass consumerism is not something new to Americans. Back in the day they did it by burning down their cities. In eighteen months during 1850 and 1851, San Francisco was destroyed by fire SIX times...*
Once the sawmills arrived in 1850 in the east bay, they were able to chew through ALL of the ancient redwoods in less than three years.** Mass murder of our elders.. It has to stop.
And so after there were no redwoods left, they brought in The Euks. Eucalyptus trees are everywhere in California!!! And they're starting to fall down now. There are literally signs that say "Falling Trees" near rows of 160...170 yr old euks. In 1849 the Gold Rush drew more than 2600 Australians from Sidney. They brought bags of euk seeds and they spread legends about the ancient giants of Australia.*** With the redwoods gone to exports and city burning events, the fast growing eucalyptus was enthusiastically propagated throughout California during the state's early years. But....
Unfortunately for them, the timber from the young Eucalyptus tree kinda sucked. It twisted as it dried and became so hard they couldn't drive a railroad nail into it. The Australian legends were about old growth, centuries old trees, not little babies. They didn't have the long vision of history we are gaining. The long vision which helps us realize that truth changes.
Imagine if America had been "discovered" by people looking for an exchange of knowledge and prosperity with new cultures instead of just gold.
The consequences of choices made in the early years of American Society affect us greatly still. Our choices will resound through time. We will learn to take responsibility for the future we are creating.
* Bagwell, p. 18-19
** Gibbons
*** The Eucalyptus of California, Section 1, by Robert L. Santos, Alley-Call Publications, Denair California, 1997
P.S. The redwoods didn't die. The stumps were way too big to kill. The redwood rings you see everywhere in the Oakland hills now are not just because of fairies. They're the new growth of those ancient giants. Those trees you touch are thousands of years old.
The flood broke in January of 1848 when a big huge gold nugget was plucked out of the American River on John Sutter's Mill.
Suddenly, the little town of Yerba Buena, (The City of San Francisco) exploded from 800 people in 1848 to 25,000 by 1850. Holy Moly! Totally massive influx of rabid capitalists. Gotta get that gold!
Don Peralta's land had towns growing on it, logging camps in his hills, sawmills! And there wasn't sh** he could do about it.
The Fall of the Redwoods and the spamming of the Australian Eucalyptus.
Mass consumerism is not something new to Americans. Back in the day they did it by burning down their cities. In eighteen months during 1850 and 1851, San Francisco was destroyed by fire SIX times...*
Once the sawmills arrived in 1850 in the east bay, they were able to chew through ALL of the ancient redwoods in less than three years.** Mass murder of our elders.. It has to stop.
And so after there were no redwoods left, they brought in The Euks. Eucalyptus trees are everywhere in California!!! And they're starting to fall down now. There are literally signs that say "Falling Trees" near rows of 160...170 yr old euks. In 1849 the Gold Rush drew more than 2600 Australians from Sidney. They brought bags of euk seeds and they spread legends about the ancient giants of Australia.*** With the redwoods gone to exports and city burning events, the fast growing eucalyptus was enthusiastically propagated throughout California during the state's early years. But....
Unfortunately for them, the timber from the young Eucalyptus tree kinda sucked. It twisted as it dried and became so hard they couldn't drive a railroad nail into it. The Australian legends were about old growth, centuries old trees, not little babies. They didn't have the long vision of history we are gaining. The long vision which helps us realize that truth changes.
Imagine if America had been "discovered" by people looking for an exchange of knowledge and prosperity with new cultures instead of just gold.
The consequences of choices made in the early years of American Society affect us greatly still. Our choices will resound through time. We will learn to take responsibility for the future we are creating.
* Bagwell, p. 18-19
** Gibbons
*** The Eucalyptus of California, Section 1, by Robert L. Santos, Alley-Call Publications, Denair California, 1997
P.S. The redwoods didn't die. The stumps were way too big to kill. The redwood rings you see everywhere in the Oakland hills now are not just because of fairies. They're the new growth of those ancient giants. Those trees you touch are thousands of years old.