Okla-homey
7/9/2008, 06:09 AM
July 9, 1846: U.S. takes San Francisco
162 years ago today, an American naval captain occupies the small settlement of Yerba Buena, a site that will later be renamed San Francisco, lending historical truth to the notion that Mexicans didn't cross the border to enter the US. Instead, the border crossed them.
http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/2050/sancaptmontgomeryqw3.jpg
The 1933 drawing by Parker Hall shows boats rowing toward today's Montgomery Street between Washington Street and Clay Street. The Plaza, named Portsmouth Square after the warship, became the hub of Gold Rush California. Nurtured by gold, little Montgomery Street rapidly matured into the Wall Street of the West.
Surprisingly, Europeans did not discover the spectacular San Francisco Bay until 1769, although several explorers had sailed by it in earlier centuries. When Spanish explorers finally found the bay in that year, they immediately recognized its strategic value.
http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/203/sanfr12bi0.png
In 1776, the Spanish built a military post on the tip of the San Francisco peninsula and founded the mission of San Francisco de Asis (the Spanish name for Saint Francis of Assisi) nearby.
The most northern outpost of the Spanish, and later Mexican, empire in America, the tiny settlement remained relatively insignificant for several decades. However, the potential of the magnificent harbor did not escape the attention of other nations.
http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/6455/sanphotolgsanfranciscokq0.jpg
In 1835, the British Captain William Richardson established a private settlement on the shore of Yerba Buena Cove, several miles to the east of the Mexican mission. That same year the U.S. government offered to purchase the bay, but the Mexicans declined to sell.
In retrospect, the Mexicans should have sold while they still had the chance. A little more than a decade later, a dispute between the U.S. and Mexico over western Texas led to war. Shortly after the Mexican War began, U.S. Captain John Montgomery sailed his warship into San Francisco Bay, anchoring just off the settlement of Yerba Buena.
On this day in 1846, Montgomery led a party of marines and sailors ashore. They met no resistance and claimed the settlement for the United States, raising the American flag in the central plaza.
http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/262/72906749yh2.png
Americans were very interested in Mexican War news. This image depicts country folks availing themselves of "breaking news" supplied by one of the thousands of local newspapers which bore news of the war. Perhaps a story included here told of US occupation of the tiny Mexican community on the magnificent northern California harbor.
The following year, the Americans renamed the village San Francisco. When the Mexicans formally ceded California to the United States in the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe, San Francisco was still a small town with perhaps 900 occupants.
http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/8759/sanfrancisco1849zi3.jpg
San Francisco c.1849
That same year, however, gold was discovered at the nearby Sutter's Fort. San Francisco became the gateway for a massive gold rush, and by 1852, the town was home to more than 36,000. And the rest, as they say, is history.
http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/2901/santhelindberghlinesanfmr0.jpg
162 years ago today, an American naval captain occupies the small settlement of Yerba Buena, a site that will later be renamed San Francisco, lending historical truth to the notion that Mexicans didn't cross the border to enter the US. Instead, the border crossed them.
http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/2050/sancaptmontgomeryqw3.jpg
The 1933 drawing by Parker Hall shows boats rowing toward today's Montgomery Street between Washington Street and Clay Street. The Plaza, named Portsmouth Square after the warship, became the hub of Gold Rush California. Nurtured by gold, little Montgomery Street rapidly matured into the Wall Street of the West.
Surprisingly, Europeans did not discover the spectacular San Francisco Bay until 1769, although several explorers had sailed by it in earlier centuries. When Spanish explorers finally found the bay in that year, they immediately recognized its strategic value.
http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/203/sanfr12bi0.png
In 1776, the Spanish built a military post on the tip of the San Francisco peninsula and founded the mission of San Francisco de Asis (the Spanish name for Saint Francis of Assisi) nearby.
The most northern outpost of the Spanish, and later Mexican, empire in America, the tiny settlement remained relatively insignificant for several decades. However, the potential of the magnificent harbor did not escape the attention of other nations.
http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/6455/sanphotolgsanfranciscokq0.jpg
In 1835, the British Captain William Richardson established a private settlement on the shore of Yerba Buena Cove, several miles to the east of the Mexican mission. That same year the U.S. government offered to purchase the bay, but the Mexicans declined to sell.
In retrospect, the Mexicans should have sold while they still had the chance. A little more than a decade later, a dispute between the U.S. and Mexico over western Texas led to war. Shortly after the Mexican War began, U.S. Captain John Montgomery sailed his warship into San Francisco Bay, anchoring just off the settlement of Yerba Buena.
On this day in 1846, Montgomery led a party of marines and sailors ashore. They met no resistance and claimed the settlement for the United States, raising the American flag in the central plaza.
http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/262/72906749yh2.png
Americans were very interested in Mexican War news. This image depicts country folks availing themselves of "breaking news" supplied by one of the thousands of local newspapers which bore news of the war. Perhaps a story included here told of US occupation of the tiny Mexican community on the magnificent northern California harbor.
The following year, the Americans renamed the village San Francisco. When the Mexicans formally ceded California to the United States in the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe, San Francisco was still a small town with perhaps 900 occupants.
http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/8759/sanfrancisco1849zi3.jpg
San Francisco c.1849
That same year, however, gold was discovered at the nearby Sutter's Fort. San Francisco became the gateway for a massive gold rush, and by 1852, the town was home to more than 36,000. And the rest, as they say, is history.
http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/2901/santhelindberghlinesanfmr0.jpg