For 4,000 years before Spanish explorers entered San Francisco Bay, Native Americans populated the San Francisco Peninsula and called it home. These natives lived in small villages, spoke a mixture of dialects, and used the natural materials around them for food, shelter, and clothing. They tended their land, shared or allocated property, and traded with...Read More

Sigurd and Russell Varian were born in Ireland near the turn of the century, and grew up in Northern California. Their father was a poet and a masseur, who lectured in a theosophist community and encouraged his boys’ creativity. Both boys were interested in electricity and its properties. Russell attended Stanford but struggled to find...Read More

  The worst shipwreck in San Francisco history occurred off Land’s End in February, 1901. The Rio de Janeiro, a steam-powered passenger ship, sailed through the Golden Gate Straits in heavy fog. With very little warning or time to react, the iron-hulled ship hit a shallow reef near Fort Point and began to sink. The...Read More