Includes bibliographical references (pages 265-308) and index.

"An enthralling guided tour of California's past, conjured with originality, insight, and wit by a brilliant historian. Layers of the past swirl like ocean mist around the abandoned buildings of D Ranch at Point Reyes; the absence of trees in the starkly beautiful landscape speaks of early tenant workers who did not expect to stay long. A vista of Drake's Estero conjures the darkly amusing story of the Drake Navigator's Guild and its dubious effort to establish an Anglo-Saxon heritage for California. A placid riverside park in the fertile Tulare Lake Basin belies scenes of horror in the 1850s as settlers transformed an Indian homeland into American property. A Gilded Age story of real-estate boosterism and connivance is set amidst the industrial rubble of Corcoran. And the missions open sightlines into a still-vital Spanish, Mexican, and Californio past. Capturing the passage of time through a combination of photography and powerful companion narratives, this book presents California's history in resonant, astonishing detail"--,Provided by publisher.