Tramps of San Francisco

In search of San Francisco's forgotten histories

Category: Natural San Francisco

A-Foresting We Will Go: A History of Trees in San Francisco (Part III)

Part III:  The Land of Giants ”There is not much great timber, nor indeed wood of any kind, …”  — The Annals of San Francisco, 1855 By 1850, the most significant “trees” in San Francisco could be viewed among the “forests” of the felled kind, mainly in the form of ships’ masts and other structures. […]

A-Foresting We Will Go: A History of Trees in San Francisco (Part II)

Part II: Bleak and Barren Hills Apparently, we love trees. I never anticipated the magnitude of interest for this topic. On a Tramper’s scale, Part I: Peninsular Natives is the most visited and forwarded article at Tramps of San Francisco to date. And, because of our adoration for all things arboreal, it is essential that […]

A-Foresting We Will Go: A History of Trees in San Francisco

Part I: Peninsular Natives                                 An excerpt of this post is simultaneously published                                                       […]

The Auriferous City: Eureka Moments in San Francisco

It’s number 79 on the Periodic Table of the Elements. Such an inauspicious number for the mineral that continues to drive the masses on a never-ending search for perpetual wealth and happiness. According to some sources, its symbol, Au, is derived from the Latin aurum, meaning the “glow of sunrise” … a time filled with […]

Where’s Ursus? Tracking Bear in San Francisco

Hiking anywhere along the streets of San Francisco, it may be difficult to imagine the wildness that once dominated the City’s landscape. Today, open space areas such as Glen Canyon and the Presidio tease us with hints of the previous nature of the City. But it wasn’t so long ago that residents were still at […]