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As the U.S. Nears 250 Years, What Was Happening in the Bay Area?

We look back on the Bay Area in 1776, when the people, ecosystems and coastline were dramatically different.
Alexis Madrigal
Mission Dolores, San Francisco, California', circa 1897. The Mission was founded in 1776, by Lieutenant Jose Joaquin Moraga and Francisco Palou in the de Anza Expedition, charged with bringing Spanish settlers evangelizing local Natives, From "A Tour Through the New World America", by Prof. Geo. R. Cromwell. [C. N. Greig & Co., London, circa 1897]. Artist Unknown. (The Print Collector/Getty Images)

Airdate: Thursday, June 25 at 9 AM

As our nation nears its 250th anniversary, we reflect on what was going on in the Bay Area at the time. In 1776 California was newly part of the Spanish colony that would later become Mexico. The summer of 1776 was also pivotal in San Francisco’s history: construction started on the Presidio and Mission Dolores was founded five days before the Declaration of Independence was signed. Most of the local population consisted of indigenous people and some Mexican settlers. The people, ecosystems and coastline were dramatically different. We look back on the Bay Area in 1776.

Guests:

Steve Hackel, professor of history, UC Riverside; author, "Junipero Serra: California's Founding Father"

Laura Feinstein, resilient landscapes program director, San Francisco Estuary Institute

Vincent Medina, East Bay Ohlone cultural leader; co-founder, Cafe Ohlone in Berkeley

Michael Wilcox, senior lecturer, Native American Studies and Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, Stanford University

Gabriel Duncan, founder, Alameda Native History Project

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