Howdy, Scatter-shooting my 49er diaires/journals, I hit upon a sorta interesting description of 1849 San Francisco. It's in "Three Years in California - William PERKINS' Journal of Life at Sonora, 1849-1852". eds.Dale L. Morgan & James R. Scobie; (Berkeley:U of CA Press 1964)" Let's look at PERKINS'' journal entry: "It was in the 'merry month of May,'[actually June 9th?] in the year of 1849, that we arrived in California. The coast in the vicinity of the Bay of San Francisco is rugged and bare of vegetation. The coast range of mountains appears here to project into the sea, forming a dangerous lee shore; and the entrance to the bay is so narrow, and hidden by great masses of rocks, that in dark or foggy weather, the vessels have to lay well off, and wait for it to clear up..... "The Golden Gate, as the entrance to this magnificant harbor is poetically denominated[Please see NOTE below] is about a mile wide at its narrowest part, and about four miles long. In the centre, just before entering the inner harbor, stands a solitary naked rock, like a sentinel guarding the gateway. Passing this rock, which commands the entrance and the bay, the harbor opens out to the right and left, into a broad expanse of water 70 miles long by 10 to 15 feet wide[?]. "Immediately on rounding the point to the right, the town of San Francisco comes in sight, beautifully situated on the inner slope of the coast heights, fronting the bay, and with its rear to the sea, from which it is separated by a neck of highlands, five miles wide...... "The day was gloomy, windy and cold, when we rounded the inner point of the passage; and I confess that the feeling of satisfaction at having safely accomplished a long and perilous journey, was somewhat mingled with regret and disappointment. " The scene that presented itself was not calculated to inspire a cheerful feeling. The town itself, as seen from the deck of the vesse[brig "Johanna and Oluffa"], was wretched enough.The anchoring ground was crowded with vessels of all sizes, and apparently deserted by their crews. This we found to be actually the case. The greed of gold was too powerful an incentive for the sailors; and in many instances a ship has been left by her crew, captain and officers at anchor in the tide without a soul on board to take care of her, and sometimes even with valuable cargo on board" ".....In 1849, San Francisco presented a strange aspect. The old town was composed of some scores of poor adobe huts, with four or five houses of a better class. The plaza or square [Portsmouth Square], situated at that time with a hundred yards of high water, had on its upper side two old-fashioned buildings, the principal ones in the town. One was the alcalde's house, the other a government building, occupied at the time I am speaking of, as a post office. "Here and there, without much regard to regularity, were scattered the mud houses or rather huts of the natives. "But these were features completely thrown into the shade by what we may call the New town, which, not as yet offering any buildings as solid even as adobe, monopolized notwithstanding the attention, on account of its lightness and gaiety. "Tents of all colors; light wooden structures; deck cabins from the vessels; brush houses lined with cotton cloth, were placed wherever an open space was to be found near the sea. "The slope of the hills presented the appearance of a military encampment on a SPREE; the tents pitched without regularity, and piles of mercandise scattered about in all directions. "The PARKER HOUSE had just been erected; the first American house perhaps in California. It had been brought out ready framed, and was placed on the lower side of the plaza. Already its spacious rooms were full of gambler's tables; and the gamblers themselves were even at this time the aristocracy of the place. ".....The streets were full, piled up in places, with merchandise of every kind. Boxes of tobacco and kegs of nails formed a pavement from the sea to the plaza. Valuable goods outside of all the tents and houses were strewed about, apparently uncared for.... I have not exaggerated the fact of the pavement being in places being composed of kegs of nails and boxes of cavendish tobacco, which were well embedded in the mud of the streets which led from the bay to the plaza. "The tide rises about six feet, and at low water about a hundred acres of the bay becomes a muddy morass, and made the landing extremely disagreeable and even difficult. Two years after my arrival, this space contained the FINEST streets of the city." NOTE :In a footnote, Editor Dale Morgan gives this origin for Golden Gate's name as: "John Charles FREMONT orgininated the term 'Chrysopylae' or Golden Gate in his "Geographical Memoir upon Upper Califorinia"(Washington, 1848). The name was applied , he says, 'on the same principle that the harbor of Byzantium..[later Constantinople] was called 'Chrysoceras' (goldn horn). The form of the harbor, and its advantages for commerce (and that before it became an entrepot[warehouse?] of eastern commerce) suggested the name to the Greek founders of Byzantium. The form of the entrance into the bay of San Francisco, and its advantages for commerce(Asiatic inclusive) suggest the name which is given this instrance.'" Boy, things sure changed fast back then:-) Bob Norris in Dallas <BNorris166aol.com>