Hello cloud. My posts have been slim the last month due to the celebration of my 30th birthday. But as any self respecting historian, anywhere you tread, history exudes from the very physicality of the landscape.
From Yosemite over Tioga, then Sonora and Ebbets Passes my fiancé and I lived and breathed the Sierra Nevada. To walk through the California gold fields of today and imagine the upheaval of Anglo empire; climb the John Muir Trail to explore what was a spiritual experience for many 19th century folks; to see the Big Trees of Calaveras, the tuft of Mono Lake, and to climb the longest ridge line in the Sierras is something that is hard to experience through a presentist perspective without falling into the mindset of historical inquiry.
The history of the Sierras of California is quite diverse and unique. While many national historical trends equally affected the path of American California, many more phenomena were entirely unique; Stanford was not like Gould and Gould never became a popular senator (as one example). My goal is to illustrate this Western and California uniqueness through this blog and my side projects. Check out my Gilded Empire Blog for more of my interests and San Francisco's role in the late 19th century. And thanks again to all the #twitterstorians for their inspiration.
Check out my blog Gilded Empire for details on the new project I am working with. Lets begin Fall 2011!
