CALIFORNIA: ° Benicia ° Berkeley ° Los Angeles
° Mendocino ° Oakland ° Monterey ° Point Reyes
° Port Costa ° Sacramento
° San Diego
° San Francisco ° Santa Barbara ° Santa Monica
Berkeley
The Huchiun Ohlone people were the first inhabitants of the land that is today Berkeley.
Early in the 1800s, the 47,000-acre ranches of the Peralta family stretched into the hills from San Leandro Creek to El Cerrito Creek. Only a scant 50 years later, newly arrived American settlers established the community of Ocean View on the bay, and in 1860, land nestled into the foothills was dedicated for the establishment of the future University of California. With a university to the east and Ocean View to the west, the threat of annexation by the larger town of Oakland finally brought the two communities together into one, and "Athens of the West," as Berkeley was known, became a municipality in 1878.
Oakland
San Francisco Call, June 9, 1895
THREE CAPTAINS BADLY FOOLED
Sent Boats to the Rescue of a Supposed Drowning Man.
He Seemed to Be Struggling for Life With a Big Pack on His Back. He Was Only Testing a New Invention for Saving Life at Sea, However
Three captains on three of the Oakland freightboats were unwittingly fooled yesterday morning.
A man swimming in the creek with a pack tied to his back was the cause of all the trouble, and as steamer after steamer lowered a boat and went to his rescue, only to find that it was some crank trying a new invention, the sailors swore not only deep but loud.
The freightboat Emma was the first to run across the swimmer, and Captain Johnston tells the following; story:
"As far as I can gather." said he, "the man has a new life-saving apparatus by whichhe can support himself for days, and in which he can carry enough food to support life for a week at least. The buoy not only keeps him afloat, but out of it he can get his meals.
"The inventor was testing his invention yesterday. He and a strong swimmer went to Alameda mole and in a boat reached the breakwater. There the swimmer took off his clothes and appeared in a bathing suit. His garments were packed in the buoy and when it was attached to liim he sprang into the water and started for the Webster-street bridge. He was half way up when we met him and he only laughed when we offered him assistance. His companion was following him up the breakwater and yelled to us, 'Call your boat back; it's only an experiment we are trying. The man was a good swimmer and the man on the mole had to hustle in order to keep up with him."
Shortly after the Emma had passed the swimmer the big steamer Transit backed out from the Southern Pacitic freight slip. Her captain noticed the swimmer, and, making the same mistake as the captain of the Emma, lowered a boat and the sailors were again greeted with a laugh when they proffered the man assistance. Considerably above Peralta street the Garden City, bound from Webster street for San Francisco, also encountered the man in the water, and there was another stop and another boat lowered. This time the sailors were within an ace of taking the man out whether be liked it or not, but finally desisted when the man said he was swimming a race against time.
