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H. P. Lovecraft

1890-1937

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by

Cody Goodfellow

additional materialDavid Conyers, Brian M. Sammons, Elizabeth A. Wolcott,

Hilary Ayer, Janice Sellers, Badger McInnes

cover artworkPaul Carrick

interior illustrationsEarl Geier, Paul Carrick, Badger McInnes, Tom Sullivan

mapsDavid Conyers, Janice Sellers

editorial and layoutBadger McInnes, Janice Sellers

cover layoutCharlie Krank

readerHilary Ayer

chaosium is:Charlie Krank, Lynn Willis, Dustin Wright, Fergie,

and a few odd others

2006

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Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Clear Credit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

History of San Francisco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

The City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Chinatown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Earthquake & Fire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Greater Bay Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Societies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Legends and Celebrities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Recreation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Scenario: The Ferry Ride . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Scenario: The Westchester House . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Scenario: The Colour of His Eyes . . . . . . . . . . 121

Scenario: Beyond The Edges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Appendix: Maps & Handouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Contents

Secrets of San Francisco is published by Chaosium, Inc.Secrets of San Francisco © 2006 Chaosium as a whole; all rights reserved.

Main text for Secrets of San Francisco is © 2003 by Cody Goodfellow. Contributions by Hilary Ayer and Janice Sellers are © 2003 by them,respectively. Interior illustrations are © 2003 by Earl Geier. Cover illustration is © 2003 by Paul Carrick. All rights reserved.

Call of Cthulhu ® is the registered trademark of Chaosium, Inc.Special thanks go to Michael Savage of the Mechanics’ Institute and to Gracie of the Winchester Mystery House, who were very helpful with esoteric

information. Similarities between characters in Secrets of San Francisco and persons living or dead are strictly coincidental. The reproduction ofmaterial from within this book for the purpose of personal or corporate profit, by photographic, electronic, or other methods of retrieval, is prohibited.

Address questions and comments regarding this book to Chaosium, Inc., 22568 Mission Blvd. #423, Hayward, CA 94541, U.S.A. To see our list ofChaosium books, games, and supplements, please see our website at www.chaosium.com.

Chaosium Publication 23104. Published in 2006. ISBN 1-56882-136-0Printed in Canada.

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In all of North America, there is no more perfectintersection of climate, culture, and colorful historythan San Francisco: the culmination of Manifest

Destiny, the Golden Gate to the Pacific Ocean, and thetreasure house of the wealth of the great CaliforniaGold Rush. Purged of her wild, anarchic past by a dev-astating earthquake at the opening of the twentiethcentury, San Francisco emerged as the most cos-mopolitan city on the West Coast, and perhaps themost sophisticated metropolis west of Paris. If any citycould be taken as the antithesis of Lovecraftian eldritchhorror, it is San Francisco . . . but look again.

San Francisco is deceptively ancient, and itshistory is likewise shrouded behind a veil of falsedomesticity. The Bay Area has changed handsmany times, and each caretaker has left adistinctive mark upon the land. It washome to several tribes of Indians forthousands of years, and the found-ing of the first European set-tlement coincided with thesigning of the Declaration ofAmerican Independence. As SanFrancisco blossomed into an Amer-ican boom town, it attracted fugitivesand practitioners of unorthodox faithsfrom all across America. Tales of nineteenth-century San Francisco assumed mythic proportionsas it became the most ethnically diverse city inAmerica and the most lawless. To compare it toSodom might not be so far from appropriate, as judg-ment came in the form of the most destructive earth-quake and fire yet observed in the West in 1906. Thecolorful figures of San Francisco faded into the past—or into the shadows, where they linger still.

To those who live and work in San Francisco, it ismore than a metropolis—it is the City, a living entitywhose unique character and changeable nature shapeits atmosphere, its institutions, and its leading citi-zens. The San Francisco Bay Area is an excellent loca-tion from which to launch campaigns focusing on theOrient, and it possesses abundant research resources

and outré locales for scenarios within its extensiveboundaries, including the largest, oldest Americanenclave of Chinese settlers, the world’s most famoushaunted house, and two of the most infamous prisonsever erected. We have endeavored to provide as com-plete a portrait of San Francisco in the 1920’s as ispossible, with careful attention to the vast body oflocal folklore and unique opportunities for Mythosinvestigation. We think you will find after perusingthis book’s contents that the Golden Gate rivals any-thing to be found in New England and truly deservesto be granted that dubious distinction that is Lovecraft

Country.

This resource guide will provide the back-ground for a campaign setting in the San

Francisco Bay area of the 1920’s, includ-ing urban geography, civic history, and

research venues; where San Fran-ciscans go when they break the law,

go insane, or die; and thesights, sounds, and secrets ofthe city that make it unique

among all the cities of the Earth.

In assembling this book, we havetried to separate fact from folklore, des-ignating items not proven as historically

true in scenario hooks, speculations upon theCity’s darker features from which the keeper mightcreate a scenario. Still, much of what you will find

in this guide will seem stranger than those fictionalhooks. The City has its own Mythos, and where thetruth parts way with legends like Emperor Norton,Mammy Pleasant, or Sara Winchester, San Fran-ciscans can always be counted on to take the legend.For this reason, the tall tales and hearsay legendry ofSan Francisco are placed alongside the truth to evokethe romanticized image of the City’s past that is asmuch a part of it as its true history.

I give special thanks to Scott Elsesser, J. AdamBarnes, Chris Bush, Todd Mullin, and HaileyGoodfellow.

— Cody Goodfellow

IntroductionThe City by the Bay

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Dedicated to Ambrose Bierce(1842–1914)

The material on New World Incorporated, the Marsden Residence, the Carnby Mansion, the Zebulon PharrCollection, Lang Fu's Deep One Cult, the Rhon-Paku Temple and the Nestarian Cult of Cthugha were written byDavid Conyers, incorporating and expanding upon the works of the original authors. The Marsden Residenceand the Carnby Mansion are based on Clark Ashton Smith's stories “The Venus of Azombeii” and “The Returnof the Sorcerer” respectively. New World Incorporated, Lang-Fu's Deep One Cult, the Rhon-Paku Temple andassociated locations are the creation of Keith Herber, all of which first appeared in Chaosium's campaign TheFungi from Yuggoth and later reprinted as Day of the Beast.

The Zebulon Pharr collection originally appeared in the Call of Cthulhu Third Edition rulebook and was laterexpanded upon by Chris Elliott and Richard Edwards in their scenario “The Statue of the Sorcerer” published byGames Workshop in The Statue of the Sorcerer and the Vanishing Conjurer, another San Francisco-based Callof Cthulhu adventure. The Nestarian Cult of Cthugha first appeared in “This Fire Shall Kill” by Andre Bishopappearing in Chaosium's The Stars Are Right!. Mr. Shiny, resident shoggoth in human clothing, is a creation ofLynn Willis and first appeared in Chaosium's campaign “At Your Door”. Mr. Shiny was inspired by MichaelShea's short tale “Fat Face” appearing in Cthulhu 2000, Jim Turner Editor.

The Scenario “The Colour of His Eyes” was written by Brian M. Sammons.Background text on the Pinkerton National Detective Agency was written by David Conyers, while the article

on opium, morphine and heroin was written by David Conyers and Richard Watts.Various bits and pieces, which really aren’t large enough to bother mentioning, were written by Badger

McInnes.The scenario “Beyond the Edges” is based on the short story “Vanishing Curves” by David

Conyers appearing in the Book of Dark Wisdom issue #3 published by Elder Sign Press and editedby William Jones. Thanks to Paul Maclean of Yog-Sothoth.com and Marcus Bone of The Unbound

Book for their assistance and for organizing play-tests for this scenario.

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History of San Francisco — 7

The first human inhabitants of the area that wouldbecome San Francisco were two tribes of Indianswhose ancestors arrived there between five and ten

thousand years ago. The Ohlone lived on the peninsulaand in the East Bay, while the Miwok claimed the northcoast. The Bay Indians were as peaceful as the climate andlived a pastoral existence that was irrevocably shattered onNovember 4, 1769, when an overland expedition led byCaptain Gaspar de Portolá discovered the bay. The regionthe Spaniards came to call Yerba Buena was annexed toAlta California and Spain.

In 1775, Lt. Juan Manuel de Ayala sailed the packetship San Carlos into the bay through the Golden Gate,mapping the bay and naming many of its features. Withinthe year, another overland expedition left México to estab-lish a military garrison and a Franciscan mission. The firstmass on the site of Misión San Francisco de Asís was heldon June 29, 1776, five days before the signing of theDeclaration of Independence in Philadelphia. Thus wasSan Francisco itself christened.

The Franciscans set to bending the natives toCatholicism, with limited success. While many acceptedthe new religion and strict lifestyle in return for food andclothing, others often fled, and the monks found themselvesbecoming slave drivers. Legends abounded of the hiddendenizens of the Golden Gate, and it was only through forceof arms that the Spaniards were able to erase them.

Meanwhile, the soldiers erected an earthwork com-pound near the tip of the peninsula, calling it the Presidio,and prepared for an invasion which never came. Russianand British vessels visited the settlement, contributing jet-tisoned crewmen and runaways from every nation ofEurope. México claimed Alta California in its declarationof independence from Spain in 1821, although news ofthis shift in power did not reach San Francisco until 1822.The new government secularized the missions in 1834,ejecting the Franciscans and parceling out the Church’sholdings to incoming colonists. Immigrants from the east-ern United States began to arrive from overland in 1840and were welcomed to Alta California. A few motleydwellings sprouted up around the mission, multiplied, andbecame the town of Yerba Buena.

The tranquil scene was again torn asunder in 1846,when sailors from the USS Portsmouth landed and raisedthe American flag over Yerba Buena. The residents again

went unresisting into the fold of a new conqueror; thistime it was the United States. In 1847, Yerba Buena offi-cially became San Francisco.

Less than three years later, gold was discovered on theAmerican River. Within weeks of the announcement, 80%of San Francisco’s male population had lit out for the SierraNevada, and within a year the town became a booming cityas it flooded with would-be prospectors from all over theglobe. Nearly everyone who came looking for gold,whether around perilous Cape Horn or over the RockyMountains, passed through San Francisco, andeveryone who found gold returned to SanFrancisco to squander it. The city eruptedwith countless gambling houses, saloons,and cribs of prostitution. The law, whenenforced at all, as often as not was

Map of 1775 San Francisco

History of San FranciscoThe Pastoral Home of Coastal Indians Becomes a Land of Gold

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8 — Secrets of San Francisco

of the vigilante variety, as prominent businessmen banded together into“Vigilance Committees” to deport and lynch arsonists, thugs, and cut-throatswho threatened, robbed, or offended the wrong people. The vast influx of newwealth drove inflation in San Francisco to staggering heights, then into adepression in 1854 when property values collapsed, halting the booming devel-opment. It had been engineered by newly made millionaires such as William C.Ralston, who spent his fortune building the Palace Hotel only to die shortlybefore it opened, and Samuel Brannan, the rogue Mormon leader who turnedhis flock away from Brigham Young’s sect and fled the United States forCalifornia. He landed in San Francisco a few days after the Bay Area wasclaimed by the United States.

The depression lasted until 1859, when the Comstock Silver Lode was dis-covered in Nevada. A second, smaller, boom swept through San Francisco, cre-ating more millionaires and perpetuating the climate of lawless excess. The BigFour, a consortium of tycoons who built the Southern Pacific Railroad andgained a stranglehold over all of the western United States, made their homesin San Francisco, as did tens of thousands of Chinese who came to America tobuild the railroad and make their own meager fortunes. After the silver rushcooled down, San Francisco settled down and civilized itself, building SanQuentin Prison to house its reprobates and recruiting fairly incorruptible policeto guard the rest. The city had become the crown of California when, in 1906,San Francisco shook and burned to the ground.

San Francisco quickly rebuilt itself and in 1915 hosted the Panama-PacificInternational Exposition, celebrating its own rebirth as much as the opening ofthe Panama Canal. By the 1920’s, San Francisco was a thriving metropolis.Even with the Crash of 1929 come due, it went into the 1930’s intent on bridg-ing the bay with two monumental structures, the Golden Gate and Bay bridges.

The Bay’s FormationSan Francisco Bay began as a valley among the Coast Range mountains. For sev-eral million years the valley was shielded from the ocean by the prominent knobof the San Francisco peninsula, and the hills of Oakland to the east blocked anyrunoff from the Sierra mountain range. The waters eventually forced a path intothe valley via the Carquinez Strait, flowing into the Raccoon Strait betweenAngel Island and Tiburon in present-day Marin County, into the basin of theGolden Gate, and finally to the Pacific coast, seventeen miles from the presentcoastline, at the time marked by the Farallone Islands. The Ice Age drove the tidein to fill the bay about 100,000 years ago, then retreated, only to return with thelast Ice Age, about 10,000 B.C., forming the bay’s present geography.

Few regions in the bay are deeper than twenty feet, with the notable excep-tion of the Golden Gate itself, which lies about 350 feet deep. The bay runs asfar south as Palo Alto, as far east as Fremont, and as far north as Suisun Bay,where it meets the mouth of the Sacramento River. The shores are lined withchains of steep hills against which the bay’s omnipresent fogbanks surmountand enfold the coastline, blotting out visibility but conducting sounds overgreat distances. The bay itself thrives with hundreds of species of fish, birds,and marine mammals. Sharks, ranging from soupfins to eight-foot threshers,hunt in the treacherous currents of the Golden Gate, and whales are sometimesstranded on the beaches at low tide. The shellfish beds of the north and southends of the bay have been largely played out after decades of exploitation.

The Pacific disgorges all manner of strange detritus on the shores of north-ern California, but in 1925 the strangest discovery of all washed up on thebeach two miles north of Santa Cruz (sixty miles south of San Francisco). The

Historical Events of Fame & Notoriety

< 7000 B.C. Indians migrating across theBering ice bridge settle in northernCalifornia.

12,000–7000 B.C. Costanoans arrive inSan Francisco, establish peaceful hunter-gatherer societies.

2000 B.C.–A.D. 1000. Rumsen bandsarrive in Bay Area, commence worship ofgod of the whirlpool; ongoing internecinewarfare results; Rumsen retreat or vanish,but are never wiped out.

A.D. 1542. Cabrillo maps California coast-line for Spain, fails to spot Golden Gate.

1579

June 17: Sir Francis Drake lands atDrake’s Bay (named for him in 1792 byGeorge Vancouver), claims “New Albion”for England.

1776-1821 MISSION PERIOD

Small detachment of Franciscan mission-aries and Spanish soldiers establish them-selves at San Francisco, San Rafael, andSan José and set about the conversion ofthe Costanoan Indians. Indians are drivenfrom tribal to plantation lifestyle and forciblyconverted to Christianity. Soldiers pasturedout on sizable land grants.

1775

August 5: Lt. Juan Manuel de Ayala sailsinto San Francisco Bay.

1776

San Francisco is born as an inadequatelydefended Catholic concentration camp.

March 29 (Friday of Sorrows): De Anzaexpedition makes camp on San Franciscopeninsula.

June 29 (Feast Day of Saints Peter &Paul): Father Palou celebrates first massat Laguna de Nuestra Señora de LosDolores; official founding of San Francisco.

September 17: Founding of the Presidio.

October 9: Founding of Misión SanFrancisco de Asís (Mission Dolores).

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carcass of a serpentine creature, forty feet long with a tapered, toothless snoutand several pairs of vestigial elephantine legs, was photographed and examinedby experts from the Hopkins Marine Laboratory at Monterey (see StanfordUniversity, page 63), who debated its origin. While some maintained that thecreature was a specimen of Berardius bairdi, an extremely rare whale, othersinsisted that the remains were prehistoric in origin, thawed from a migratingglacier from the north Pacific. The press linked the carcass with sea serpentsightings that have plagued the coast from Monterey to Marin’s Stinson Beachfor decades, and seasoned mariners claimed that it was only one of a popula-tion of throwbacks.

Gertrude Atherton’s TheoryThe origin of San Francisco Bay has long been a matter for heated speculation.A Costanoan Indian legend maintains that the bay was formed by a catastroph-ic crash when a god stumbled with the body of a mortal whom he thought tomarry. The god’s arm crushed the ridge connecting the peninsula with theMarin headlands, and the water of the ocean rushed in to fill the valley, form-ing the bay. San Francisco novelist and historian Gertrude Atherton alsobelieves that the bay was formed in a single geological event and that itoccurred within the last 500 years. She writes, “Why had Drake and theSpanish explorers sailed along the coast in the sixteenth and early seventeenthcenturies and anchored as close as Point Reyes and the Farallones without everseeing this auspicious portal to the Bay?” (See “Drake’s Treasure”, page 99.)The logical answer to her question could have been simple fog, which oftentotally obscures the mile-wide passage today. But Atherton insists that wherethe gate now provides a break through the Coast Range, there was only a solidwall of mountains in Drake’s time. If this is correct, an earthquake must haveoccurred between 1609, when Sebastian Vizcaino failed to spot the GoldenGate, and 1769, when Gaspar de Portolá stumbled across it after having over-shot his goal of Monterey. There is no support for the Atherton theory exceptfor Indian legends and the suspicions of nineteenth-century geologists that theGate did indeed form in recent history.

In an 1853 survey, geologist W. P. Blake wrote a description of the shore-line of the bay: “It is a curious fact that the sand beach between Fort Point andPoint San Jose has been thrown up by the surf upon an extensive alluvialdeposit, which has the characteristics of a peat bog or swamp. The sand andloose boulders rest on a foundation of peat which can easily be examined at lowtide. A continuation of the peat layer is found in the flat meadowland inside thebelt of sand. Traces of the bog can also be found between the sand belt and thesandstone hills nearby. It is difficult to account for the swamp under conditionslike those at present. The constant action of the surf is destructive and theswamp could not possibly have formed while the Golden Gate was open as wenow find it.”

Geologists since feel they have disproved Atherton’s theory many timesover, with vast amounts of evidence that the Gate was indeed formed by mil-lions of years of water rushing to the sea.

NativesWhen the Spanish discovered the bay, they discovered living around it whatthey thought was a sizable tribe of natives, whom they called the Costanos(“People of the Coast”). In truth, the Costanoans were made up of two distinctyet similar tribes. The Miwok inhabited what is now Marin County and theNorth Bay region; the Ohlone controlled the East and South Bay areas as wellas the San Francisco peninsula. The two tribes lived similar lifestyles but had

History of San Francisco — 9

Santa Cruz Sea Serpent

1784

August 28: Founder of mission systemFather Junípero Serra, 71, dies at MisiónSan Carlos.

1792

November 14: Capt. George Vancouversails into San Francisco Bay, and surveysdefenses.

1821-1846 RANCHO PERIOD

México wins independence from Spain.Independent México neglects Californianholdings. Huge ranch nation-states pros-per; civilian colonists arrive from U.S. andMéxico. Harbor defenses decay. Mexicangovernment shuts down missions; surviv-ing Indians fade away.

1821

Don Augustín de Iturbide proclaims himselfEmperor Augustín I of México.

1834

August 9: California missions secularized;Franciscans, and Indians expelled.

1835

Richard Henry Dana visits on the brigPilgrim.

1838

June–July. Series of earthquakes virtuallydestroys Presidio and Monterey.

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10 — Secrets of San Francisco

different cultures. One major difference between them lay in the languages theyspoke. An estimated 300,000 Costanoans lived in the Bay Area when theSpanish arrived, though the true number will never be known because of thestructure of the tribes. The Miwok and Ohlone were semi-nomadic bands thatmoved in small clan groups or families. These groups were as large as thirty oras small as five, with each one led by a chief or shaman. The leaders servedonly as counsel in the rare disputes that might occur between bands.

As a people, the Costanoans were kindly to a fault; disputes between tribesand families were resolved by shouting matches in which the combatantsexchanged the most devastating insults they could imagine (as in the Eskimosong-duel). If that failed, the opponents resorted to sticks and stones, but phys-ical conflicts were typically short-lived and resulted only in minor injuries.

The Costanoans were firmly lodged in the Stone Age; because of the rich-ness of the land, they never developed pottery nor knowledge of metals. Theirmost noteworthy skill was superb basket weaving. The Costanoans made bas-kets for every function, and made even their fishing boats and lodge housesfrom tule reeds. The only lasting monuments to their way of life are the gigan-tic shell mounds that mark their village sites. The Costanoans piled the debrisof their meals on the edge of their lodgings, forming mounds ten feet high andhundreds of feet long.

Religious PracticesAnother difference between the two tribes was religious. The primary deity ofthe Miwok was Wuyoki (“Old Man Coyote”), the god of the dead. The Miwokbelieved that the souls of the dead leapt from a cliff into the waters of the bayand followed a path west along the “Golden Road”, which led to a place calledUte-yomigo (“Dead-Home”) at the heart of the setting sun. There the spiritswould face the test of fire. If the soul was true to Wuyoki it would pass withinand live in peace with Old Man Coyote forever. Power was given to the travel-ing souls through offerings of bread, shells, and acorn mash. Rituals were alsoheld for the dead to give them strength through their trials.

The Ohlone also worshiped Old Man Coyote and other Miwok gods, buttheir primary belief was in the spirits of nature. They filled the wind withprayers and offerings of pipe smoke and seeds to the sun. Offerings to the skyspirits—dried meat, furs, and seeds—were placed in baskets atop high poles.Offerings to the sea spirits were cast into the seething waters of the GoldenGate. The Ohlone also paid heed to dreams and omens. To them, dreams servedas guides to the future, and many common occurrences were seen as powerfulomens. A bird entering the house foretold evil fortune. The twitching of a legmuscle meant the person must soon travel. The call of an owl meant death.Omens were deciphered by the tribal shaman, who was the final authority onany matter regarding omens or dreams. The shamans lived solitary lives apartfrom the tribe and had to be sought out when a dream required interpretationor an unexplained omen presented itself. The shamans communicated with thespirits through complex rituals which involved fasting, song-incantations, andprolonged spells of dancing.

The Costanoan population plummeted to 20,000 within a century of firstcontact with the Spaniards, due to infection and violence. Most survivors wereassimilated into the Mexican population after the missions were closed down,their heritage forgotten. Mexican ranchers scattered the last tribes in theirsearch for slave labor. Indians who were caught were worked to death and killedwhen they tried to escape. By the time California came under the dominion ofthe United States, there were not enough Indians in the Bay Area to merit offi-cial recognition as a tribe.

1840

Monterey capital of Alta California underGov. Alvarado.

1846-1880 BONANZA AGE

California joins the U.S.; San Franciscobecomes the hub of the Gold Rush andimmigration from Asia and Europe; cycle ofboom and bust economy spawns million-aires, laissez-faire culture. During frequentbrief depressive periods, workers railagainst Chinese immigration.

1846

California joins U.S. after brief conflict withMéxico.

May 23: United States declares war onMéxico.

June 14–July 19: William B. Ide leadsRepublic of California’s short-lived BearFlag Rebellion for an autonomousCalifornia.

July 9: Capt. J. B. Montgomery (USSPortsmouth) bloodlessly takes SanFrancisco, raises Stars & Stripes overPortsmouth Square.

July 31: Sam Brannan’s Mormon colony of230 arrives aboard Brooklyn fromSandwich Islands.

1847

January 9: First issue of California Star,San Francisco’s first newspaper.

January 13: Mexican-American War ends.

January 30: Yerba Buena changes nameto San Francisco.

1848

January 24: Gold discovered at Sutter’smillrace in Coloma.

February 2: First boatload of Chineseimmigrants in San Francisco.

April 3: First U.S. public school opens inSan Francisco.

November 9: First post office at Clay andPike.

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History of San Francisco — 11

The last Indian “wild man” of California was captured on a ranch nearOroville in 1911 while trying to steal a chicken. Starving and naked, he was calledIshi and was immediately remanded to the care of a team of anthropologists who“taught him the ways of civilized behavior.” Ishi died in 1916 of tuberculosis inSan Francisco.

Grizzly Bear ShamansThe annals of Mission Dolores are laced with mention of a third tribe in the

Golden Gate region beforethe Spaniards came. Thetribe called themselves theRumsen; their shamanswere the Grizzly Bearshamans.

The Costanoans be-lieved the Grizzly Bearshamans were the sourceof all black magic. Theywore bear skins with theteeth and claws intact anddaubed with venom for theslaying of their victims.

The Rumsen shamans killed their mothers, fathers, and siblings as sacrifice toa loathsome being who dwelt in a whirlpool at the heart of the Golden Gate.The Grizzly Bear shamans made offerings of blood and meat to this dark godin exchange for magical power. They also believed that their god sat in the pathof hapless Miwok souls on their way to Ute-yomigo, where it devoured themwhole. The god of the whirlpool exerted an overwhelming pressure on the emo-tionally weak and distressed among the living, as well as among the dead, sothat those who could not uphold the effort of existence and became a burden tothe tribe were sacrificed to feed their god’s hunger.

It was because of this outrageous heresy that the peaceful Costanoans weremoved to make war on the Rumsen. Grizzly Bear shamans were attacked onsight and were killed by stoning or buried alive in burning shell mounds. TheGrizzly Bear shamans retaliated by stealing away Costanoan children to sacri-fice to their god of the whirlpool. When the Spanish missionaries arrived, thosefew Costanoans who learned to speak Spanish said little about the Rumsen orthe Grizzly Bear shamans, only that they were evil and had to be destroyed.None could say whether any of the fearful beings still survived, and all seemedto fear that merely mentioning them might call them out of the wilds.

1849

July 15: 230 volunteer policemen depu-tized.

July 28: First clipper ship, Memnon, 120days out of New York, arrives in SanFrancisco.

December 24: Fire destroys downtown.

1850

San Francisco becomes a bit more civi-lized, with government, a new city hall,and seven newspapers.

January 22: Alta California, California’sfirst daily newspaper.

February 18: Bay Area counties defined.

April 1: San Francisco County govern-ment established.

April 15: City Charter enacted.

May 4: Fire levels site of futureChinatown.

June 14: Fire ravages Union Square dis-trict; volunteer fire companies respond.

September: First city directory published.

September 9: California becomes 31ststate in the Union.

September 17: Fire in Chinatown areaagain.

November 6: Alcatraz, Angel, GoatIslands and Pt. San Jose reserved for mil-itary use.

1851

First Committee of Vigilance organizes,clashes with the Hounds and SydneyDucks.

May 4: Fire wipes out entire city.

1852

April 19: Incorporation of CaliforniaHistorical Society.

July 23: First interment at NationalCemetery, Presidio.

December 10: Murderer José Fornerhanged on Russian Hill, San Francisco’sfirst legal execution.

Local Indians During the Time of the Spanish

SCENARIO HOOKWhat if Atherton’s theory is correct? One may easily pre-

sume that human or supernatural forces were responsible forthe breach of the Golden Gate. From this point there are many

paths to take. The Rumsen Grizzly Bear shamans (see below)might have summoned the chthonians to breach the Gate to unearth

their sleeping god, or the Miwok might have done it themselves in a vainattempt to drown Him.

If the Grizzly Bear shamans still do exist in this century, could theearthquake of 1906 have been an attempt on their part to revive their god inthe whirlpool using the power of the chthonians? What price was paid to thechthonians the second time?

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