There’s something both sweet and sad about old photos. A glimpse into our Northern California past is like looking into another world. Our part of the state has change a lot in the past hundred years. It’s photos like these that make us appreciate how far we’ve come and give us the chance to smile and breathe a prayer of thanks for all those who worked so hard to make Northern California such a beautiful place.
- Six miles outside of Eureka is a town named Faulk. This is where logging families back in the late 1800s and early 1900s made a living and a life.
flickr/bureau of land management
- This is believed to be a Giant Sequoia with the bark already removed. They fell these trees at an alarming rate.
flickr/david foster
- Good Ol’ California Cowboys. This is what you’d see most days. Care didn’t exist–not yet anyway.
flickr/ashley van haeften
- A small diner in Shasta. This was the hub of life outside of farms and logging. Simple.
programmer/dorothea lange
- The 1906 San Francisco earthquake left the entire city devastated. These are the emergency service folks who kept the peace during unrest and heartache. The earthquake was followed by fire and more deaths.
wikimedia
- This young girl is a daughter of a Tennessee coal miner. It’s 1936 and she’s living in a camp alongside the American River after travelling by wagon.
programmer/dorothea lange
- In this 1895 photo of the Pitcairn in the Alameda harbor, the schooner is being loaded to head to the South Pacific.
wikimedia
- 1935 is when this child was in preschool. His family members were immigrant farm workers and he was being watched inside while they worked.
flickr/dorothea lange
- Almonds have always been a crop of abundance in our part of the state. This is the early 1900s in Contra Costa County. Day labor was a blessing for these men.
programmer/dorothea lange
- This young woman had a job in Port Richmond. She was one of many working during World War II. The ship she’s working on is the George Washington Carver. She was among the first wave of women in the workforce.
programmer/ef johnson
It’s both beautiful and strange to see such vintage images of where we live today. How lucky are we to get to live here today. How about you – would you go back in time if you could? What year would you want to live in Northern California?
flickr/bureau of land management
flickr/david foster
flickr/ashley van haeften
programmer/dorothea lange
wikimedia
flickr/dorothea lange
programmer/ef johnson
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