170213 History Talk 13th Feb 2017: San Francisco and Yosemite

Date: Monday 13th February 2017 10:30

Location: Salón de Actos, Espai la Senieta, Moraira (next to the large free car park)

Subject: San Francisco and Yosemite

Lecturer:Peter Atkinson

Town and Country in Northern California: the History and Geography of San Francisco and Yosemite

A study of one of the world’s most interesting and attractive major cities, and, in marked contrast, one of its most breathtakingly beautiful areas of wilderness. The presentation will explore San Francisco from its origins as a Spanish village in the 1770s to its role at the epicentre of the IT revolution, via the Gold Rush, the coming of the railway, the 1906 earthquake, and the ‘Summer of Love’. Controversially, San Francisco gets its water from the Yosemite National Park, 300 kilometres to the east. We shall look at the park’s spectacular landscapes, the processes by which they were created, and the struggle to protect them.