Course Catalog

ZOOM: Fortune to the Bold - The French Adventure in Gold Rush San Francisco

**This class will be taught on Zoom**

In 1851, San Francisco mayor Charles Brenham referred to his numerous French constituents as "one of the two great elements (with Americans) that compose the population of California." This strong French presence so early in the history of our State, remains one of the little-known facets of that world-wide epic. With vivid pictures and original texts, we will explore with Claudine what triggered the rush of Frenchmen to California starting in September 1849. How they escaped from endless riots and the collapse of commerce and social order in their embattled nation, only to land, after a six-month voyage around Cape Horn, in a city that looked like a huge fairground, with no law, no infrastructure, no sanitation, no raison d'être except for gold! They survived, and prevailed, and with their distinct talents and skills, they helped shape the city so often called "Paris of the Pacific."

This class is not available at this time.

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