Posted on

California Grizzly: Acknowledgments

The Lost Icon of Home


Location

Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts
Downtown Mountain View
500 CASTRO STREET, MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA 94041
Box Office & General Information 650.903.6000 | MVCPA.COM

California Grizzly Exhibition on display October 23 – December 10.

Sales

Purchases can be made online here, or through the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts Ticket Office Wednesday through Saturday from noon to 6 pm. 
Box Office Sales 650.903.6000 | MVCPA.COM

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Ariana (@arianakamprad) for helping design the exhibition’s title card and California bear flag motif artwork!

Works Cited

  1. Alagona, P. S. (2013). After the grizzly: Endangered species and the politics of place in California. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  2. Blog. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.calgrizzly.com/blog/
  3. California State (USA) Flag Color Scheme. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.schemecolor.com/california-flag-usa.php
  4. Chapin, R. (1971). The grizzly bear in the land of the Ohlone Indians. Local History Studies, California History Center.
  5. Cunningham, L. (2015). State of change: Forgotten landscapes of california. Berkeley, CA: Heyday Books.
  6. Grizzly Bear History. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://westernwildlife.org/grizzly-bear-outreach-project/history/
  7. Hayes, D. (2007). Historical atlas of California: With original maps. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  8. Herrero, S. (2002). Bear attacks: Their causes and avoidance. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press.
  9. History of the IGBST. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.usgs.gov/centers/norock/science/history-igbst?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects
  10. Hittell, T. H. (1911). The adventures of James Capen Adams: Mountaineer and grizzly bear hunter of California. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
  11. Leonard, R. (1966). Arctos the grizzly. Sacramento: California State Department of Education.
  12. Leopold, A. (1933). Game management. New York: C. Scribners Sons.
  13. Leopold, A., Brooks, A., & Jahn, L. R. (1986). Game management. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
  14. Leopold, A. (1987). A Sand County almanac, and sketches here and there: With other essays on conservation from Round River. New York: Oxford University Press.
  15. Leviton, A. E. (1979). San Francisco Bay: The urbanized estuary: Investigations into the Natural History of San Francisco Bay and Delta with reference to the influence of man. San Francisco, CA: The Division.
  16. Lopez, B. (1986). Arctic dreams: Imagination and desire in Northern landscape. New York: Scribner.
  17. McCracken, H. (1955). The Beast that walks like Man: The Story of the Grizzly Bear. Lanham, MD: Hanover House.
  18. Resources about Salmon and Other Anadromous Fish -. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://baynature.org/article/resources-about-salmon-and-other-anadromous-fish/
  19. Simpson, S. (2013). Dominion of bears: Living with wildlife in Alaska. Lawrence (Kansas): University Press of Kansas.
  20. Snyder, S. (2003). Bear in mind: The California grizzly. Berkeley, CA: The Bancroft Library, Univ. of Calif.
  21. Storer, T. I., & Tevis, L. P. (1955). California grizzly. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Posted on

California Grizzly: Lost Icon

California Grizzly: Lost Icon

The bear is gone, but an echo still exists.

Ursus arctos californicus.

On our state flag. On the sports fields of our schools and universities. On the labels of our beer and wine bottles. This exhibition explores that echo in the form of grizzly bears from afar. The California grizzly shared many characteristics with its still surviving cousins in North America. The images depicted in this exhibition are taken from that ursine stock, prominently featured is the Alaskan brown bear, which the California Grizzly was especially akin.

The Grizzly, emblem of California, was once numerous and dominant, is no more, and unable to tell its own story. This collection of natural history photos attempts to explore how this iconic beast would fit into the scenes of the San Francisco Bay area.

Purpose

To explore the lost icon of California and how it relates to us today. Does it even matter? And should you even care that the icon emblazoned across California’s finest institutions is gone forever? Exterminated, extirpated, made extinct by the modern California man.

Range of Ursus arctos: Former and Present

Photo Locations

Brooks River, Alaska, Katmai National Park
Margot Creek, Alaska, Katmai National Park
Naknek Lake, Alaska, Katmai National Park
MikFik Creek, Alaska
McNeil River, Alaska
Denali National Park, Alaska
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Glacier National Park, Montana

Not a California Grizzly
B1: An average of 6 men are killed yearly in California by grizzly bears, many more injured. “Almost all of these hurt or killed by a grizzly was trying to hunt it and enraged the beast by stinging it with a bullet.” – JS Hittel, 1863 
B2: “If you play with a bear, you must take the bear’s play.” A common saying in old California; and appreciated in full by those who tussled with California grizzlies.
B3: A group of 10 Spanish Californians, with a relay of horses, “lassoed and killed forty bears in one night” at the cattle slaughtering ground near the town of Mountain View.
B4: Bear and bull fights were held all-over early California, including San Jose. San Francisco sponsored this event until the 1860s. Monterey’s last official Bear and Bull fight was in 1881.

B5: Our home, the community of Mountain View and surrounding areas, was teeming with grizzly bears in former times.

F1A: The grizzlies of California probably resembled their counterparts elsewhere in North America, given some similarities in food resources and the landscape in the coastal areas of Alaska and British Columbia.
F1B: Bear traps, made of redwood, were still visible as recent as 1952, in the Santa Lucia mountains of Monterey County. Perhaps to this day there still exists physical evidence in these hills of the California grizzly?
F1C: The largest stock of information about the California Grizzly come from hunting narratives. Accounts of “How I killed the bear” in 1800s California are as verbose as they are today, when describing similar episodes in other regions.
F1D: “Youth yet unborn will pole up the Missouri with Lewis and Clark, or climb the Sierras with James Capen “Grizzly” Adams, and each generation in turn will ask: Where is the big white bear?”
F2A: 1924- When the last grizzly sighted in California was shot in Sequoia National Park. Less than 100 years ago and within the span of a human’s lifetime.
F2B: The grizzly is exceptionally agile with its paws. It can strike like a sledgehammer, and move boulders. It boxes with lightning-like rapidity….or it feels an itch, it will daintily use but one claw to gently scratch.
F2C: Grizzlies regularly made a habit of cleaning up the beaches of the carrasses that washed ashore, making grizzlies the major beach sanitarians of early California.
F2D: Before the arrival of Europeans, it is estimated that California had 10,000 grizzlies living alongside 130,000 Natives, making for an interesting bear-to-man ratio.
F2E: The hills surrounding Mountain View once provided the shelter needed by mother bears for their dens. There is a cave near Skunk Hollow, Santa Clara county that served as the maternity den for countless grizzly moms and their cubs.
F3A: In 1857, Grizzly Adams built a grizzly trap northwest of Crystal Springs and captured bear cubs he used in his San Francisco menagerie.
F3B: In Sept 1861, on Black Mountain in Santa Clara county, the state botanist reported seeing an abundance of grizzly tracks navigating through the chaparral.
F3C: In March 1776, the Anza expedition was making its way north up the SF peninsula and in the hills west of Millbrae and he saw many bears.
F3D: California’s state grass “Purple Needlegrass” was referred to as “beargrass” in the 1800s, perhaps because it was eaten by bears in spring, as sedges are today in Alaska coast regions.
F3E: The grizzly was a paradox. Attacked in the wild by man it was a deadly adversary, yet when left alone and with an abundant and consistent supply of food resources, it could be as docile as a sheep.
F3F: Starting in 1854, the salmon cannery industry grew rapidly in the Bay Area. In 1864 one cannery packed 2,000 48-lb cases of salmon, increasing to 200,000 cases by 1882. By 1916 all SF Bay commercial fishing operations had ceased

L1: Relegating grizzlies to Alaska is about like relegating happiness to heaven; one may never get there.
L2: In 1909 there were grizzlies in every major mountain mass, today only four states have any at all. There seems to be a tacit assumption that if grizzlies survive in Canada and Alaska, that is good enough. It is not good enough for me…
L3: In 1841, an observer noted that grizzlies were “an almost hourly sight” in the Sacramento Valley and that “it was not uncommon to see 30 or 40 a day”. Many other early observers recorded similarly remarkable descriptions of grizzly bear abundances.
L4: Only those able to see the pageant of evolution can be expected to value its theater, the wilderness, or its outstanding achievement, the grizzly.
L5: Aldo Leopold, through some of his writing, discusses ideas for why it matters the California Grizzly is gone. He promotes a nuanced thought process about appreciating your own backyard as much as you appreciate faraway, exotic locations.

O1: During 1850, a traveler en route between San Jose and Santa Cruz measured a bear track that was 14 by 8 inches in the chaparral. This print measures 14 by 11.
O2: The California Grizzly was a strong swimmer. In fact, in 1827 a boat near Angel Island in San Francisco Bay came upon one swimming that attempted to board the boat.
O3: In 1602 Father Ascension, Vizcaino expedition, was the first European to write about the California Grizzly. While in Monterey he saw California grizzlies, noting that they came to the shore at night to feed on the carcass of a whale that had washed up.
O4: Sometimes Mountain Lions would be taken in the live traps designed to catch grizzlies for the arena. When this happened a bear-and-lion fight would be arranged, as occurred in Castroville in 1865.

S1: The California Grizzly fished for river salmon…For instance, bears were said to come down at night to [Mountain View] streams, such as Steven’s Creek, when the salmon and steelhead ran.
S2: Spawning streams were already being destroyed as early as the Gold Rush days by hydraulic gold mining, railroad construction and lumbering operations. These activities left many streams badly silted or blocked by debris
S3: Grizzlies in coastal Alaska regularly fish the inlets for salmon, and those in California probably had similar ways. Bears were observed using their paws to fish along the coast in San Mateo County. 
S4: The livestock brought by white men proved a temporary boon to the bear population, and campaigns to exterminate the grizzlies sealed its eventual fate in 1924 of extinction in California.
S5: Aborigine and beast were competitors for the same kinds of food, a state of affairs that was bound to bring conflict at certain times of year.
Farewell and thanks. Please see 4b.io for more information, print sales, and works cited.
Thank you to Ariana (@arianakamprad) for helping design the exhibition’s title card and California bear flag motif artwork!

Posted on

California Grizzly: The Lost Icon 

California Grizzly: The Lost Icon 

a discussion

The bear is gone, but an echo still exists.

Ursus arctos californicus.

On our state flag. On the sports fields of our schools and universities. On the labels of our beer and wine bottles. This exhibition explores that echo in the form of grizzly bears from afar. The California grizzly shared many characteristics with its still surviving cousins in North America. The images depicted in this exhibition are taken from that ursine stock, prominently featured is the Alaskan brown bear, which the California Grizzly was especially akin.

The Grizzly, emblem of California, was once numerous and dominant, is no more, and unable to tell its own story. This collection of natural history photos attempts to explore how this iconic beast would fit into the scenes of the San Francisco Bay area.

Purpose

To explore the lost icon of California and how it relates to us today. Does it even matter? And should you even care that the icon emblazoned across California’s finest institutions is gone forever? Exterminated, extirpated, made extinct by the modern California man.

Range of Ursus arctos: Former and Present

Photo Locations

Brooks River, Alaska, Katmai National Park
Margot Creek, Alaska, Katmai National Park
Naknek Lake, Alaska, Katmai National Park
MikFik Creek, Alaska
McNeil River, Alaska
Denali National Park, Alaska
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Glacier National Park, Montana

Not a California Grizzly

F2D: Before the arrival of Europeans, it is estimated that California had 10,000 grizzlies living alongside 130,000 Natives, making for an interesting bear-to-man ratio.

Aborigine and beast were competitors for the same kinds of food, a state of affairs that was bound to bring conflict at certain times of year .  

F3D: California’s state grass “Purple Needlegrass” was referred to as “beargrass” in the 1800s, perhaps because it was eaten by bears in spring, as sedges are today in Alaska coast regions.

F3E: The grizzly was a paradox. Attacked in the wild by man it was a deadly adversary, yet when left alone and with an abundant and consistent supply of food resources, it could be as docile as a sheep.
F1A: The grizzlies of California probably resembled their counterparts elsewhere in North America, given some similarities in food resources and the landscape in the coastal areas of Alaska and British Columbia.
S3: Grizzlies in coastal Alaska regularly fish the inlets for salmon, and those in California probably had similar ways. Bears were observed using their paws to fish along the coast in San Mateo County.
F2C: Grizzlies regularly made a habit of cleaning up the beaches of the carrasses that washed ashore, making grizzlies the major beach sanitarians of early California.
F2B: The grizzly is exceptionally agile with its paws. It can strike like a sledgehammer, and move boulders. It boxes with lightning-like rapidity….or it feels an itch, it will daintily use but one claw to gently scratch.
O3: In 1602 Father Ascension, Vizcaino expedition, was the first European to write about the California Grizzly. While in Monterey he saw California grizzlies, noting that they came to the shore at night to feed on the carcass of a whale that had washed up.

B5: Our home, the community of Mountain View and surrounding areas, was teeming with grizzly bears in former times.

The hills surrounding Mountain View and Silicon Valley once provided the shelter needed by mother bears for their dens. There is a cave near Skunk Hollow, Santa Clara county that served as the maternity den for countless grizzly moms and their cubs. 
F3C: In March 1776, the Anza expedition was making its way north up the SF peninsula and in the hills west of Millbrae and he saw many bears.

During 1850, a traveler en route between San Jose and Santa Cruz measured a bear track that was 14 by 8 inches in the chaparral. This print measures 14 by 11.

In 1857, Grizzly Adams built a grizzly trap northwest of Crystal Springs and captured bear cubs he used in his San Francisco menagerie.
In Sept 1861,on Black Mountain in Santa Clara county, the state botanist reported seeing an abundance of grizzly tracks navigating through the chaparral.
In 1841, an observer noted that grizzlies were an almost hourly sight in the Sacramento Valley and that it was not uncommon to see 30 or 40 a day. Many other early observers recorded similarly remarkable descriptions of grizzly bear abundances.

The California Grizzly was a strong swimmer. In fact, in 1827 a boat near Angel Island in San Francisco Bay came upon one swimming that attempted to board the boat.

The California Grizzly fished for river salmon…For instance, bears were said to come down at night to Mountain View streams, such as Steven’s Creek, when the salmon and steelhead ran.
Spawning streams were already being destroyed as early as the Gold Rush days by hydraulic gold mining, railroad construction and lumbering operations. These activities left many streams badly silted or blocked by debris
The largest stock of information about the California Grizzly come from hunting narratives. Accounts of “How I killed the bear” in 1800s California are as verbose as they are today, when describing similar episodes in other regions.
“”If you play with a bear, you must take the bear’s play.” A common saying in old California; and appreciated in full by those who tussled with California grizzlies.
An average of 6 men are killed yearly in California by grizzly bears, many more injured. “Almost all of these hurt or killed by a grizzly was trying to hunt it and enraged the beast by stinging it with a bullet.” – JS Hittel, 1863.

A group of 10 Spanish Californians, with a relay of horses, “lassoed and killed forty bears in one night” at the cattle slaughtering ground near the town of Mountain View.

Bear and bull fights were held all-over early California, including San Jose. San Francisco sponsored this event until the 1860s. Monterey’s last official Bear and Bull fight was in 1881.

Sometimes Mountain Lions would be taken in the live traps designed to catch grizzlies for the arena. When this happened a bear-and-lion fight would be arranged, as occurred in Castroville in 1865.

Bear traps, made of redwood, were still visible as recent as 1952, in the Santa Lucia mountains of Monterey County.

The livestock brought by white Europeans proved a temporary boon to the bear population, and campaigns to exterminate the grizzlies sealed its eventual fate in 1924 of extinction in California.

1924: When the last grizzly sighted in California was shot in Sequoia National Park. Less than one hundred years ago and within the span of a human’s lifetime.

In 1909 there were grizzlies in every major mountain mass, today only four states have any at all. There seems to be a tacit assumption that if grizzlies survive in Canada and Alaska, that is good enough. It is not good enough for me.…

Aldo Leopold, through some of his writing, discusses ideas for why it matters the California Grizzly is gone. He promotes a nuanced thought process about appreciating your backyard.
Relegating grizzlies to Alaska is about like regulating happiness to heaven; one may never get there. 

“Youth yet unborn will pole up the Missouri with Lewis and Clark, or climb the Sierras with James Capen “Grizzly” Adams, and each generation in turn will ask: Where is the big white bear?”

Only those able to see the pageant of evolution can be expected to value its theater, the wilderness, or its outstanding achievement, the grizzly. 
Farewell and thanks. Please see 4b.io for more information, print sales, and works cited.

Posted on

Copy of California Grizzly: Lost Icon

California Grizzly: Lost Icon

The bear is gone, but an echo still exists.

Ursus arctos californicus.

On our state flag. On the sports fields of our schools and universities. On the labels of our beer and wine bottles. This exhibition explores that echo in the form of grizzly bears from afar. The California grizzly shared many characteristics with its still surviving cousins in North America. The images depicted in this exhibition are taken from that ursine stock, prominently featured is the Alaskan brown bear, which the California Grizzly was especially akin.

The Grizzly, emblem of California, was once numerous and dominant, is no more, and unable to tell its own story. This collection of natural history photos attempts to explore how this iconic beast would fit into the scenes of the San Francisco Bay area.

Purpose

To explore the lost icon of California and how it relates to us today. Does it even matter? And should you even care that the icon emblazoned across California’s finest institutions is gone forever? Exterminated, extirpated, made extinct by the modern California man.

Range of Ursus arctos: Former and Present

Photo Locations

Brooks River, Alaska, Katmai National Park
Margot Creek, Alaska, Katmai National Park
Naknek Lake, Alaska, Katmai National Park
MikFik Creek, Alaska
McNeil River, Alaska
Denali National Park, Alaska
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Glacier National Park, Montana

Not a California Grizzly
B1: An average of 6 men are killed yearly in California by grizzly bears, many more injured. “Almost all of these hurt or killed by a grizzly was trying to hunt it and enraged the beast by stinging it with a bullet.” – JS Hittel, 1863 
B2: “If you play with a bear, you must take the bear’s play.” A common saying in old California; and appreciated in full by those who tussled with California grizzlies.
B3: A group of 10 Spanish Californians, with a relay of horses, “lassoed and killed forty bears in one night” at the cattle slaughtering ground near the town of Mountain View.
B4: Bear and bull fights were held all-over early California, including San Jose. San Francisco sponsored this event until the 1860s. Monterey’s last official Bear and Bull fight was in 1881.

B5: Our home, the community of Mountain View and surrounding areas, was teeming with grizzly bears in former times.

F1A: The grizzlies of California probably resembled their counterparts elsewhere in North America, given some similarities in food resources and the landscape in the coastal areas of Alaska and British Columbia.
F1B: Bear traps, made of redwood, were still visible as recent as 1952, in the Santa Lucia mountains of Monterey County. Perhaps to this day there still exists physical evidence in these hills of the California grizzly?
F1C: The largest stock of information about the California Grizzly come from hunting narratives. Accounts of “How I killed the bear” in 1800s California are as verbose as they are today, when describing similar episodes in other regions.
F1D: “Youth yet unborn will pole up the Missouri with Lewis and Clark, or climb the Sierras with James Capen “Grizzly” Adams, and each generation in turn will ask: Where is the big white bear?”
F2A: 1924- When the last grizzly sighted in California was shot in Sequoia National Park. Less than 100 years ago and within the span of a human’s lifetime.
F2B: The grizzly is exceptionally agile with its paws. It can strike like a sledgehammer, and move boulders. It boxes with lightning-like rapidity….or it feels an itch, it will daintily use but one claw to gently scratch.
F2C: Grizzlies regularly made a habit of cleaning up the beaches of the carrasses that washed ashore, making grizzlies the major beach sanitarians of early California.
F2D: Before the arrival of Europeans, it is estimated that California had 10,000 grizzlies living alongside 130,000 Natives, making for an interesting bear-to-man ratio.
F2E: The hills surrounding Mountain View once provided the shelter needed by mother bears for their dens. There is a cave near Skunk Hollow, Santa Clara county that served as the maternity den for countless grizzly moms and their cubs.
F3A: In 1857, Grizzly Adams built a grizzly trap northwest of Crystal Springs and captured bear cubs he used in his San Francisco menagerie.
F3B: In Sept 1861, on Black Mountain in Santa Clara county, the state botanist reported seeing an abundance of grizzly tracks navigating through the chaparral.
F3C: In March 1776, the Anza expedition was making its way north up the SF peninsula and in the hills west of Millbrae and he saw many bears.
F3D: California’s state grass “Purple Needlegrass” was referred to as “beargrass” in the 1800s, perhaps because it was eaten by bears in spring, as sedges are today in Alaska coast regions.
F3E: The grizzly was a paradox. Attacked in the wild by man it was a deadly adversary, yet when left alone and with an abundant and consistent supply of food resources, it could be as docile as a sheep.
F3F: Starting in 1854, the salmon cannery industry grew rapidly in the Bay Area. In 1864 one cannery packed 2,000 48-lb cases of salmon, increasing to 200,000 cases by 1882. By 1916 all SF Bay commercial fishing operations had ceased

L1: Relegating grizzlies to Alaska is about like relegating happiness to heaven; one may never get there.
L2: In 1909 there were grizzlies in every major mountain mass, today only four states have any at all. There seems to be a tacit assumption that if grizzlies survive in Canada and Alaska, that is good enough. It is not good enough for me…
L3: In 1841, an observer noted that grizzlies were “an almost hourly sight” in the Sacramento Valley and that “it was not uncommon to see 30 or 40 a day”. Many other early observers recorded similarly remarkable descriptions of grizzly bear abundances.
L4: Only those able to see the pageant of evolution can be expected to value its theater, the wilderness, or its outstanding achievement, the grizzly.
L5: Aldo Leopold, through some of his writing, discusses ideas for why it matters the California Grizzly is gone. He promotes a nuanced thought process about appreciating your own backyard as much as you appreciate faraway, exotic locations.

O1: During 1850, a traveler en route between San Jose and Santa Cruz measured a bear track that was 14 by 8 inches in the chaparral. This print measures 14 by 11.
O2: The California Grizzly was a strong swimmer. In fact, in 1827 a boat near Angel Island in San Francisco Bay came upon one swimming that attempted to board the boat.
O3: In 1602 Father Ascension, Vizcaino expedition, was the first European to write about the California Grizzly. While in Monterey he saw California grizzlies, noting that they came to the shore at night to feed on the carcass of a whale that had washed up.
O4: Sometimes Mountain Lions would be taken in the live traps designed to catch grizzlies for the arena. When this happened a bear-and-lion fight would be arranged, as occurred in Castroville in 1865.

S1: The California Grizzly fished for river salmon…For instance, bears were said to come down at night to [Mountain View] streams, such as Steven’s Creek, when the salmon and steelhead ran.
S2: Spawning streams were already being destroyed as early as the Gold Rush days by hydraulic gold mining, railroad construction and lumbering operations. These activities left many streams badly silted or blocked by debris
S3: Grizzlies in coastal Alaska regularly fish the inlets for salmon, and those in California probably had similar ways. Bears were observed using their paws to fish along the coast in San Mateo County. 
S4: The livestock brought by white men proved a temporary boon to the bear population, and campaigns to exterminate the grizzlies sealed its eventual fate in 1924 of extinction in California.
S5: Aborigine and beast were competitors for the same kinds of food, a state of affairs that was bound to bring conflict at certain times of year.
Farewell and thanks. Please see 4b.io for more information, print sales, and works cited.
Thank you to Ariana (@arianakamprad) for helping design the exhibition’s title card and California bear flag motif artwork!

Posted on

California Grizzly: Lost Icon[2022]

California Grizzly: Lost Icon

The bear is gone, but an echo still exists.

Ursus arctos californicus.

On our state flag. On the sports fields of our schools and universities. On the labels of our beer and wine bottles. This exhibition explores that echo in the form of grizzly bears from afar. The California grizzly shared many characteristics with its still surviving cousins in North America. The images depicted in this exhibition are taken from that ursine stock, prominently featured is the Alaskan brown bear, which the California Grizzly was especially akin.

The Grizzly, emblem of California, was once numerous and dominant, is no more, and unable to tell its own story. This collection of natural history photos attempts to explore how this iconic beast would fit into the scenes of the San Francisco Bay area.

 

Purpose

To explore the lost icon of California and how it relates to us today. Does it even matter? And should you even care that the icon emblazoned across California’s finest institutions is gone forever? Exterminated, extirpated, made extinct by the modern California man.

Range of Ursus arctos: Former and Present

 

Photo Locations

Brooks River, Alaska, Katmai National Park
Margot Creek, Alaska, Katmai National Park
Naknek Lake, Alaska, Katmai National Park
MikFik Creek, Alaska
McNeil River, Alaska
Denali National Park, Alaska
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Glacier National Park, Montana

Not a California Grizzly
B1: An average of 6 men are killed yearly in California by grizzly bears, many more injured. “Almost all of these hurt or killed by a grizzly was trying to hunt it and enraged the beast by stinging it with a bullet.” – JS Hittel, 1863 
B2: “If you play with a bear, you must take the bear’s play.” A common saying in old California; and appreciated in full by those who tussled with California grizzlies.
B3: A group of 10 Spanish Californians, with a relay of horses, “lassoed and killed forty bears in one night” at the cattle slaughtering ground near the town of Mountain View.
B4: Bear and bull fights were held all-over early California, including San Jose. San Francisco sponsored this event until the 1860s. Monterey’s last official Bear and Bull fight was in 1881.

 

B5: Our home, the community of Mountain View and surrounding areas, was teeming with grizzly bears in former times.

 

F1A: The grizzlies of California probably resembled their counterparts elsewhere in North America, given some similarities in food resources and the landscape in the coastal areas of Alaska and British Columbia.
F1B: Bear traps, made of redwood, were still visible as recent as 1952, in the Santa Lucia mountains of Monterey County. Perhaps to this day there still exists physical evidence in these hills of the California grizzly?
F1C: The largest stock of information about the California Grizzly come from hunting narratives. Accounts of “How I killed the bear” in 1800s California are as verbose as they are today, when describing similar episodes in other regions.
F1D: “Youth yet unborn will pole up the Missouri with Lewis and Clark, or climb the Sierras with James Capen “Grizzly” Adams, and each generation in turn will ask: Where is the big white bear?”
F2A: 1924- When the last grizzly sighted in California was shot in Sequoia National Park. Less than 100 years ago and within the span of a human’s lifetime.
F2B: The grizzly is exceptionally agile with its paws. It can strike like a sledgehammer, and move boulders. It boxes with lightning-like rapidity….or it feels an itch, it will daintily use but one claw to gently scratch.
F2C: Grizzlies regularly made a habit of cleaning up the beaches of the carrasses that washed ashore, making grizzlies the major beach sanitarians of early California.
F2D: Before the arrival of Europeans, it is estimated that California had 10,000 grizzlies living alongside 130,000 Natives, making for an interesting bear-to-man ratio.
F2E: The hills surrounding Mountain View once provided the shelter needed by mother bears for their dens. There is a cave near Skunk Hollow, Santa Clara county that served as the maternity den for countless grizzly moms and their cubs.
F3A: In 1857, Grizzly Adams built a grizzly trap northwest of Crystal Springs and captured bear cubs he used in his San Francisco menagerie.
F3B: In Sept 1861, on Black Mountain in Santa Clara county, the state botanist reported seeing an abundance of grizzly tracks navigating through the chaparral.
F3C: In March 1776, the Anza expedition was making its way north up the SF peninsula and in the hills west of Millbrae and he saw many bears.
F3D: California’s state grass “Purple Needlegrass” was referred to as “beargrass” in the 1800s, perhaps because it was eaten by bears in spring, as sedges are today in Alaska coast regions.
F3E: The grizzly was a paradox. Attacked in the wild by man it was a deadly adversary, yet when left alone and with an abundant and consistent supply of food resources, it could be as docile as a sheep.
F3F: Starting in 1854, the salmon cannery industry grew rapidly in the Bay Area. In 1864 one cannery packed 2,000 48-lb cases of salmon, increasing to 200,000 cases by 1882. By 1916 all SF Bay commercial fishing operations had ceased

 

L1: Relegating grizzlies to Alaska is about like relegating happiness to heaven; one may never get there.
L2: In 1909 there were grizzlies in every major mountain mass, today only four states have any at all. There seems to be a tacit assumption that if grizzlies survive in Canada and Alaska, that is good enough. It is not good enough for me…
L3: In 1841, an observer noted that grizzlies were “an almost hourly sight” in the Sacramento Valley and that “it was not uncommon to see 30 or 40 a day”. Many other early observers recorded similarly remarkable descriptions of grizzly bear abundances.
L4: Only those able to see the pageant of evolution can be expected to value its theater, the wilderness, or its outstanding achievement, the grizzly.
L5: Aldo Leopold, through some of his writing, discusses ideas for why it matters the California Grizzly is gone. He promotes a nuanced thought process about appreciating your own backyard as much as you appreciate faraway, exotic locations.

 

O1: During 1850, a traveler en route between San Jose and Santa Cruz measured a bear track that was 14 by 8 inches in the chaparral. This print measures 14 by 11.
O2: The California Grizzly was a strong swimmer. In fact, in 1827 a boat near Angel Island in San Francisco Bay came upon one swimming that attempted to board the boat.
O3: In 1602 Father Ascension, Vizcaino expedition, was the first European to write about the California Grizzly. While in Monterey he saw California grizzlies, noting that they came to the shore at night to feed on the carcass of a whale that had washed up.
O4: Sometimes Mountain Lions would be taken in the live traps designed to catch grizzlies for the arena. When this happened a bear-and-lion fight would be arranged, as occurred in Castroville in 1865.

 

S1: The California Grizzly fished for river salmon…For instance, bears were said to come down at night to [Mountain View] streams, such as Steven’s Creek, when the salmon and steelhead ran.
S2: Spawning streams were already being destroyed as early as the Gold Rush days by hydraulic gold mining, railroad construction and lumbering operations. These activities left many streams badly silted or blocked by debris
S3: Grizzlies in coastal Alaska regularly fish the inlets for salmon, and those in California probably had similar ways. Bears were observed using their paws to fish along the coast in San Mateo County. 
S4: The livestock brought by white men proved a temporary boon to the bear population, and campaigns to exterminate the grizzlies sealed its eventual fate in 1924 of extinction in California.
S5: Aborigine and beast were competitors for the same kinds of food, a state of affairs that was bound to bring conflict at certain times of year.
Farewell and thanks. Please see 4b.io for more information, print sales, and works cited.
Thank you to Ariana (@arianakamprad) for helping design the exhibition’s title card and California bear flag motif artwork!

 

Posted on

Memorial Day: California Bears, Sequoia National Park

Memorial Day weekend 2015

As I am apt to do before a big trip, I try to get into the right mindset and hone my skills as much as possible.

With an Alaska trip centered around brown bear photography at McNeil River State Park set for early June (less than two weeks away), it is important to ensure you are in top condition for bear photography.   Additionally, it was Jenna’s first time seeing a bear in the wild AND doing bear photography.   The single day trip to Sequoia National Park was wildly successful. Not only did we see bears, but we were able to get close to bears, and photograph them doing what bears do.  It was wonderful practice for McNeil River.

And while the american black bear is a different species from what we will see in McNeil, and has different behaviors and environments, it is still a bear, and within the genus ursus. 

When considering all 50 US states, California probably jumps out to the casual observer as the most “bear proud” state of them all. Their flag brandishes a grizzly, the top state universities’ have grizzly bear mascots, and California’s extremely short-lived independent nation was named the “Bear Republic”.  Given all the love there seems to be for the California grizzly bear, it is somewhat astounding that this subspecies was extirpated by humans.  Hunted completely to extinction, the California Grizzly lives only on the flags and mascots.

But I am not writing about California grizzlies here. I am writing because California still has plenty of bears; albeit the less ferocious and smaller type: the American Black Bear.

When comparing brown vs black bears, many people may shrug off a black bear sighting in a location where both inhabit (such as Yellowstone or Glacier NP), some even consider it as being the less interesting species, unworthy of their attention. The black bear is more common, has wider distribution, and can be a nuisance (especially in the Sierras). The grizzly is rarer, requires a larger range, and is more dangerous.  Given all of my past trips to Alaska devoted to brown bear photography, I am also guilty of this too…but it isn’t for my lack of love for the black bear.  Yes a black bear is more common and more accessible than a brown(grizzly) or polar bear, but the bottom line is that Black Bears are difficult to photograph.

A black bear is not typically a bold animal.  Among all the large north american predators, the black bear is probably only behind the mountain lion in terms of “shyness”.  This species does not like to be seen by humans. This characteristic makes it especially difficult to achieve top quality photos.

The behavior of some of the bears we observed this past past weekend in Sequoia National Park was mixed in terms of typical “flight initiation distance”, but the relative abundance of bears present, and gave good odds of making quality images…

Posted on

Fourth of July Road Trip Notes

This year’s Fourth of July road trip to the Dismal Side of the Sierras will have a more southerly focus than the previous year. The emphasis, like last year, will be on the Milky Way and sunrise. I plan to work with at least 3 sunrises (maybe 4) and will have 3 sunset to utilize.  Fortunately there are lots of neat things to see in the Eastern Sierra. The trip should be a productive one, without too much stress or sleep deprivation. The mornings will be early to catch sunrise, but the nights need not be too late because the Milky Way and the moon are both at their most useful positions before midnight. However, it will be important take advantage of the sunrises, as this is the most beautiful time of day in the Eastern Sierras.

Approximate Timing Considerations for the weekend

Sunrise/Sunset
⇑ 05:39, 
⇓ 20:13

    Twilights:
          ⇑ C 05:08, N 04:30, A 03:48
          ⇓ C 20:44, N 21:22, A 22:04

MOON

Setting in approximately due WEST

Thurs
⇑ 11:32
⇓ 23:49
Waxing Crescent 38%

Fri:
⇑ 12:28
⇓ 00:20 (Sat)
First Quarter

Sat:
⇑ 13:25 
⇓ 00:54 (Sun)
Waxing Gibbous 58%

Photographic Goals:

1 – Milky Way Landscapes
    Near object landscapes with arches, lightpainting
    Panoramics with Sierra range possible in twilight
2 – Evening Twilight by moonlight, tree and mountain range
3 – Petroglyphs and Paiute cultural sites
4 – Star Trails – foreground illuminated by twilight, moon
5 – Summer storms building on Eastern front at sunset
6 – Quarter Moon setting

1-Alabama Hills 

The best sunrise location in all of California.
Exploring the Hills and looking for Arches and granite formations
    Lightpainting the arches.
    The sunset potential here is also nice, but Mt. Whitney and the Sierra cut off the light early due to their height. 
    Twilight is interesting, especially when planning to combine it with astro landscapes.
There is possibility for capturing quarter moon setting in the west with a bit of twilight left.
Should plan to use the moon for milkyway landscapes, as moon shouldn’t interfere much with star visibility.  

Comfort Level

Highest. Tent not car. It is legal and free to camp here. Lone Pine is 15 min away. Cell reception is 10 min away.

2 – Death Valley

Highlights:   sunrise, wildlife, daytime mostly, daytrips
    Heat may limit options here. Although one weekend forecast has highs barely above 90F. But weather.com has a high of 120F at Furnace Creek. I don’t know what these weatherman are thinking. Lets see who wins out….it is July in Death Valley. The real deal.
    Wildrose may be downright chilly if Furnace Creek is only 90F.
    Look for Chuckwalla and other wildlife at Wildrose.
    Possibility to see cultural sights, but need to hunt for them (Ghost Towns, petroglyphs).
  Weak Offroad capability of 3er Wagon limits full access to best sights

Comfort Level

Medium. Must sleep in car. Hot night time temps. Food available in few locations with very limited hours.

3 – Volcanic Tablelands 

High cultural value. Harsh light makes area worthless photographically, but must still be in Golden Hour, blue hour is too late, and nothing after dark.
    Interesting for to see for scouting purposes, even during daytime. 
    Go beyond the already visited Fish Slough at Red Mountain. 
    Visit the BLM and Paiute visitor center in Bishop to learn more about the locations. 

Comfort Level

Medium. It is a bit of a grey area in terms of legal camping here.  The city of Bishop, and its food and hotels, is reasonably close.

4 – Bristlecone Pines

Oldest living organisms in the world, fascinating living drift wood. Stunning in twilight, moonlight, and sunrise/sunset.
    May be the best location in the United States for astrophotography. Very dark skies.  Light painting is also possible.
    Time-lapse, and star trails. The quarter moon will provide a gentle light at twilight for interesting images.

Comfort Level

Minimal. Extremely isolated and extremely high elevation (almost 12,000 feet).
Must sleep in car, or doze under the stars. The closest human building is 100+miles, on the very rough, dirt road on White Mountain.
Expect the temperatures to go below freezing.

 

Detailed Astronomical Timetable

Thursday (7/3)

SUN:
⇑ 05:39, C 05:08, N 04:30, A 03:48
⇓ 20:14, C 20:45, N 21:22, A 22:04

MOON:
⇑ 11:32 
⇓ 23:49
Waxing Crescent 38%

Friday (7/4) – Happy Fourth!

SUN:
⇑ 05:39, C 05:08, N 04:30, A 03:48
⇓ 20:13, C 20:44, N 21:22, A 22:04

MOON:
⇑ 12:28
⇓ 00:20 (Sat)
First Quarter

Saturday(7/5)

SUN:
⇑ 05:40, C 05:09, N 04:31, A 03:49
⇓ 20:13, C 20:44, N 21:22, A 22:04

MOON:

⇑ 13:25
⇓ 00:54 (Sun)
Waxing Gibbous 58%

Posted on

Memorial Day Road Trip: Alabama Hills

2014 Memorial Day Road Trip: Alabama Hills
May 26, 2014

As far as the meteor shower went, it was a bit of a bust.  Not as great as some astronomers predicted. But also there were some clouds in Death Valley on the days the shower was scheduled to peak. The presence of these clouds, however, improved the sunrise lighting conditions. Hence, the reason I switched my focus. I did  have an opportunity to do some astro landscape photography in the Alabama Hills on Monday morning. And while waiting for the first glimpse of morning twilight over Mount Whitney, I did happen to capture some fairly bright Camelopardalis meteors. This was also my first time using my new 24mm F/1.4, boy is it light sucking monster of a lens. That lens is so fast it turns night into day. I had to adjust my entire approach to night photography with that thing…eager to use it again on the night sky.

Despite this new ‘astro’ lens, the sunrise was king at the Alabama Hills.  I spent almost all of my energy preparing for my sunrise spot.  And it didn’t come easy. For sunrise, I had the objectives I hoped to accomplish in mind. A higher vantage point facing Mount Whitney and Lone Pine Peak with two or three “layers” of Alabama Hills in the foreground. I wanted to shoot across the morning light from a vantage point contrasty with canyons and ridgelines on the Sierra eastern front. I access the geodetic situation at the day before at sunset, knowing that the position of the sun would be mirrored in the morning.  In the dark, I hiked up to the top of the hill and began shooting at 04:00 (halfway through Astronomical twilight) with a two camera setup using a 24mm and 70-200mm as the glass. By around 05:15 the light went from blue to red, as it inched its way down the eastern face. By 05:35, the best part of the sunrise was finished and I sat there, quietly taking in the landscape before me.  

The important message here is that the best part of the sunrise, happens before the sun actually rises. You need to hike in the dark.

Final note: the pano shot of the Sierra Nevadas from Alabama Hills was taken with my phone after the morning light was finished.  I took it so I could study how the shadows lay on the mountains relative to the sun. I will use this information for the next trip, so I am able to better position myself for more dramatic contrasts.  But I ended up really liking the shot…especially the two cameras up there. 

By 06:30 I was back to my car, gear an all, and heading out of the Alabama Hills by 06:45. On my way back home to Mountain View, via a little park called Yosemite National Park. 

Posted on

Memorial Day Roadtrip Death Valley

2014 Memorial Day Road Trip: Death Valley
May 23-26, 2014

Memorial Day weekend: Desert Road trips was a nice way to kick off the summer shooting season, despite being a bit hotter than anticipated. This trip originally began as an astro centric one, with high speculative hopes that that Camelopardalis Meteor shower was going to produce.  After a hazy first night, and reports that the shower was a dud, I quickly changed gears to focus on rich quality of morning light in this part of the country.  It also had the secondary role to serve as a scouting trip for future visits.  This road trip took me from Mountain View all the way back to Death Valley National Park for the first time since visiting in 2002 with my family.

Death Valley is spectacular in more ways than most people realize. Especially surprising was the abundance of interesting wildlife within the park’s border to go along with the landscapes and night photography.  I had packed my 600mm for the trip, but didn’t really expect I would have much opportunity to use it.  I saw coyote, hummingbirds, kangaroo rats, and lizards. I also found a herd of feral burros wandering around. Which was cool to see. They are wild donkeys that escaped the miner’s camps from the Gold Rush era in the 1849-1900s.  I tried my best to find Sidewinders moving across the sand dunes at dusk/dawn, but they seem to be mostly nocturnal at this point in the year, as the temperatures begin to rise. At one point, my car thermometer read 121F (49.5 C).  It wasn’t the official temperature because I was driving out in the sun, but it was  definitely hot. There is something about the extremes of this planet that I, and many others, are drawn too. However, what is fascinating about Death Valley is that while floor is the hottest place in the world, it is possible to escape the heat (and photographically useless mid-day light) by driving up some of the canyons to higher elevations.  The high canyon walls on the road to Wildrose would hold their shadows long into the days and higher elevation had cooler temperatures that animals didn’t mind. These conditions gave interesting glowing backlights to the flowers and whatever animal subjects came out. So I was able to keep shooting all night, all morning and all day. I am already planning to go back there around the Fourth of July for my next “big weekend” trip.