2022: Mysteries & Curiosities Premium Edition

Re-enactors dressed in 1920s period clothing stand at the ruins of the Sutro Baths in San Francisco. The Sutro Baths were a large swimming pool complex built in the late 19th century and destroyed by a fire in 1966.

LIPO CHING/STAFF ARCHIVES

San FranciSco’S E mpE ror norton wa S th E r E igning monarch in an Era oF hiStoric odditi ES

STORY BY JOHN METCALFE

PHOTOS BY KARL MONDON

The Emperor said we should meet under the Dewey Monument in San Francisco’s Union Square, but the guidance proved unnecessary. It’s impossible to miss a mustachioed man in a Union officer’s frock coat and feathered hat giving royal waves while people gleefully wave back.

This is Joseph Amster, one of a handful of reenactors in the Bay Area who cosplay as the region’s greatest 19th-century eccentric, Emperor Norton I. (What do all the Nortons talk about when they get together?

“Norton,” he says.) Amster’s here to give a tour of downtown’s strange and wondrous history, from trashy bordellos to a president’s deathbed and a subterranean city of smuggling tunnels and buried giant tortoises.

For those unfamiliar, Joshua A. Norton emigrated from South Africa to San Francisco in 1849 and made a fortune in real estate before losing it all trying to corner the rice market. He disappeared for a couple of years, only to resurface declaring himself Emperor of the United States and henceforth began greeting steamships at the docks, inspecting sidewalks and buildings for quality and printing his own treasury bonds.

Joseph Amster brings to life the eccentric 19th century San Francisco character, Emperor Norton, ruler of the United States and Protector of Mexico, on history-themed walking tours of downtown San Francisco.

San Francisco in the latter half of the 1800s was crawling with characters. There was Oofty Goofty, who supposedly couldn’t feel pain and who made money by having people hit him as hard as they could. George Washington II was a phrenologist who, when not drafting imaginary battle plans for the Revolutionary War, paraded with a banner proclaiming himself the “Great Matrimonial Candidate.” There are tales of a Whispering Riley, whose speech was always inaudible, and a Drummer Boy who couldn’t stop drumming.

“You don’t get on a boat and take a six-month voyage around the horn of South America — or cross Panama on a burro in a cloud of malaria-laden mosquitoes — to get your ass to the West Coast, without being somebody who’s up for anything,” says Judi

Leff, a San Francisco humorist and historian. “You had to be a little nuts to come out here.”

What’s surprising about Norton was that locals embraced and celebrated him as if he truly were the emperor. “I’m given a suit and uniform by the officers of the Presidio,” says Amster. “I eat for free in restaurants, have the best seats in the theater. On opening night, people rise in my honor. I ride transit for free. The police salute me.”

Norton was so beloved, his renown has trickled down. Amster is greeted with calls of “Emperor!” and, from one confused man, “You are the Grand Marshal!”

The modern-day majesty carries a “steam-powered iPhone,” pepper spray — using his walking stick to wield off, say, if the man currently screaming incoherently across the street could mount an assault

Channeling his inner Emperor Norton, Joseph Amster explains the history of Lotta’s Fountain, a critical meeting spot after the 1906 earthquake, to visitors during a walking tour of the city.

“ You don’t get on a boat and take a six-month voyage around the horn of South America

— or cross Panama on a burro in a cloud of malaria-laden mosquitoes — to get your ass to the West Coast, without being somebody who’s up for anything. You had to be a little nuts to come out here.”

Judi

Leff, a San Francisco humorist and historian

charge — and his own imperial money advertising his tour company, Emperor Norton’s Fantastic San Francisco Time Machine. (I tried passing some at a bar in Chinatown; the bartender was not amused.)

A BLAST TO THE PAST

The first tour stop is Morton Street just east of Union Square, an historic red-light district. “Ladies openly displayed what they had to offer from the waist up,” says Amster. After the thoroughfare burned down in the 1906 earthquake, it was rebranded Maiden Lane, an upscaling that seems to have worked. Peer in the windows of 140 Maiden Lane, an Italian menswear store, and you’ll notice the shop’s interior is a miniature replica of the Guggenheim, with curved walls, skylight and spiral ramp. Frank Lloyd Wright designed it in 1948 as a proof of concept for the real museum.

Amster stops by the Palace Hotel, a landmark building that’s housed U.S. presidents up to Clinton and Obama. One president

Above: The gravestone of Joshua Norton, aka Emperor Norton I, remains at rest at Woodlawn Cemetery in Colma. Left: Pins adorn the imperial uniform worn by Amster, who leads tours as the eccentric Emperor Norton, who declared himself ruler of the United States and Protector of Mexico.

didn’t check out: In 1923, Warren G. Harding was found dead in his eighth-floor suite. One rumor is he kicked the bucket at a speakeasy and was secretly brought back through a tunnel. Another is “he was poisoned by the first lady, who discovered he was having an affair,” says Amster. Incidentally, the hotel is also the birthplace of that fun treat, Green Goddess dressing.

As we walk through Jackson Square, we encounter wavy lines in the pavement. This marks the city’s shoreline — nearly half a mile from where it is today — before settlers filled in Yerba Buena Cove to make room for growth. Part of the original seawall is viewable in a nearby saloon, the High Horse.

“It’s right beneath the main bar in what we jokingly call the catacombs,” says manager Will Herrera. “There’s old adobe, masonry, rubble from the beaches — it actually has strata to it, so you can see the layers of San Francisco of that time.”

Dig around here, and you’re likely to hit the remains of dozens of wooden ships entombed as

the city expanded, as well as weirder things (as an archaeologist recently discovered) like the skeletons of giant tortoises. Sailors voyaging to California’s gold fields would stop at the Galapagos Islands to grab these slow-moving, tasty and now-endangered animals, which one explorer described as “extraordinarily large and fat, and so sweet that no pullet eats more pleasantly.”

“They’d chuck them into the hold, and they’d last forever there — they hardly needed any water or food,” says Richard Everett, former curator at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. “Tortoise steaks were on the menu in pretty much every restaurant during the Gold Rush era.”

BARBARY BROTHELS

“We are now within the wicked, wicked Barbary Coast,” Amster says, turning onto Pacific Avenue. Gold miners arrived loaded with dust and ore, sold it and made a beeline here to get the things they couldn’t in the Sierra.

“Let’s see, that was a brothel,” says Amster. “That red-brick building? That was a brothel, as well. These were the lower-priced ones. The rooms often had an opening in the ceiling; people could pay to go into a gallery and watch.”

A former nightclub, the Hippodrome, features a bas-relief of a nearly nude man whose private parts appear scrubbed out. “They censored it at some point.

MORE ...

Emperor Norton’s Fantastic San Francisco Time Machine: Joseph Amster’s imperial alter ego leads this two-hour walking tour ($30) that traces the history, legends and colorful personalities of early San Francisco; www.emperornortontour.com.

Emperor Norton Trust: Learn more about Norton and his ideas about building a Bay Bridge at http:// emperornortontrust.org.

Barbary Coast Trail: Explore San Francisco historic sites from the Gold Rush to the Beat era along this trail marked by 180 bronze waymarkers. Pick up a printed ($10-$19) or audio guide ($10 each), or book a group tour ($25 per person for groups of 16 or more) with Daniel Bacon at https://barbarycoasttrail.org.

California State Library: Explore the state library’s California history collections at www.library.ca.gov/ california-history/.

Let’s just say he was aroused.” Beneath the building is an arc-shaped brick tunnel that Amster has personally visited. It was used for smuggling — “human trafficking, drugs, any sort of contraband they didn’t want

people to see would be brought off the ships at night.”

The tunnel was also possibly used for shanghaiing. Runners looking to supply sea captains would lure men to saloons with promises of free booze and fun women, then the bartender would give them drinks laced with laudanum.

“In some of the bars, he would pull a lever, and the guy would drop down onto a mattress in the basement,” says Daniel Bacon, local historian and author. “They would drag him out onto a ship, so by the time he woke up, the ship would already be out of the harbor, through the Golden Gate and onto the ocean.”

Folks wanting to relive this history can head up the block to the Old Ship Saloon, reputedly the city’s oldest-running bar and filled with maritime memorabilia. It once operated inside the carcass of a damaged vessel and was also a notorious den of shanghaiing. The bartender would “basically roofie them,” says Herrera, who manages this watering hole, as well. “That’s not something we’re necessarily proud of, but we’re certainly proud of the Old Ship’s legend.”

THE IMPERIAL LEGEND

Outside the Wells Fargo museum on Montgomery Street, Amster turns to a topic dear to his heart: Norton. In 2015, robbers rammed an SUV through the museum doors and stole gold nuggets dating from the Gold Rush.

“Luckily, they did not take the most valuable thing

Emperor Norton carried his imperial fantasy so far, he even issued his own treasury bonds. COURTESY OF THE CALIFORNIA HISTORY ROOM, CALIFORNIA STATE LIBRARY, SACRAMENTO

in their collection — one of my original imperial treasury bonds, the only one available for the public to view on a regular basis,” he says. Too bad for them: “The last one to come up for auction was around four years ago, and it went for $12,000.”

Amster halts at Eureka Park on Commercial Street, where Norton used to dwell in a 10-by-6-foot boardinghouse room. It was here, perhaps, that he dreamed up some of the imperial proclamations he published in newspapers: that the “western terminus of the Central Railroad be in San Francisco,” that locals support the opera because it “tends to elevate and refine the public taste,” that a mean man who wouldn’t rent him skates at an ice rink be arrested if he “perpetrate the offence the second time.”

Some of Norton’s soothsaying was prescient, like his oft-repeated idea for a bridge to Oakland in the exact location the Bay Bridge stands now. Today, you can find his proclamations safeguarded in the California State Library in Sacramento, which keeps Norton-themed literature and other bizarre history in a database called “California Oddities.”

“There was such a demand for interesting and strange history that one of our reference librarians in our California History Section put this research guide together,” says Jessica Knox-Jensen, State Library Services bureau chief. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re the only library with something like this.... Maybe California is just the right melting pot for that sort of material.”

Norton’s reign ended on Jan. 8, 1880, when he dropped dead at the corner of California Street and Grant Avenue. Doctors attributed his demise to “sanguineous apoplexy” and noted, perhaps to their surprise, that his brain’s anatomy was “quite normal.” His passing might have aggrieved holders of his treasury bonds, which were to be made payable that same year. Nevertheless, the Emperor drew one of the largest funeral crowds in city history, with a cortege stretching two miles long.

He left behind loose coins, a tattered coat and hat, scrapbooks and not much else save for an enduring — some might say inspiring — legacy.

“Did he have some sort of breakdown around losing his money and a lot of other peoples’ money? Very possibly,” says Judi Leff, the historian.

“Maybe somebody else would’ve become so depressed they would’ve done away with themselves. But Norton managed to create a persona that allowed him to emerge from this terrible situation and have a rather high opinion of himself and through his charisma, convince other people it was fine he was the Emperor. Any other city would’ve locked the guy up, I’m convinced.”

Top: The Old Ship Saloon was built atop a Gold Rush-era shipwreck. One of the oldest operating bars in San Francisco, it’s still open for business.

Left: A bronze plaque marks the path of the Barbary Coast Trail in San Francisco’s North Beach.

Peeling back some East Bay history with a podcaster-in-the-know

BY JESSICA YADEGARAN

Who knew that Bruce Lee taught ballroom dancing in Oakland? Or that the walnut groves that once covered Walnut Creek dated back millennia?

Liam O’Donoghue does. The Oakland-based creator of the East Bay Yesterday podcast — available via Apple, Spotify and others — knows all the fascinating stories that shaped Oakland, Berkeley and the rest of the East Bay. A former journalist, O’Donoghue started the podcast in 2016 “to feel more connected” to his hometown and deliver the type of fleshed-out back stories and real-life voices you won’t find on Atlas Obscura. With 83 episodes under his belt, he’s covered everything from the region’s earliest baseball teams to the country’s first Black union, John Muir and more.

QHow do you see the grand arc of East Bay history?

AWe look around and see how fast things are changing, especially in the past 20 years with the tech boom, development and the price of real estate, (but) we have to remember that when we look back on the last 150 years of California history, things have always been changing fast. You can pick almost any decade to

5 EAST BAY HISTORIC SITES

Redwood Regional Park: The Alameda-Contra Costa county line was deliberately placed in the middle to split the old groves — valuable resources for the local lumber industry — between counties.

Lake Merritt: Oakland’s rich history lives on at the CamronStanford House and Grand Lake Theatre.

Middle Harbor Shoreline Park: Take in the port views as you ponder the great railroad and shipping history of the area.

Mount Diablo: On a clear day, you can see all the way to the Sierra and San Francisco, including scars from mining and agriculture.

Albany Bulb: There is so much history under this landmass. There was once a TNT manufacturing plant on Albany Hill.

prove it. The exciting thing is we can look back at these crossroads and have this critical view, look at issues like development and say, “Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to plow through thriving neighborhoods.”

QWhat don’t we know about John Muir?

AThe reason John Muir ended up moving to Martinez in the late 1800s was because he met and married Louisa Strentzel and went into business with her father managing the orchards on his farm. People would see him come into the bank with dollar bills stuffed into pillowcases. I think his burial site is a really overlooked East Bay destination.

QThe Transcontinental Railroad was a game changer for the Bay Area ...

AIt really changed everything. Oakland was a small town before the railroad got there. Tons of industry developed around the terminal. At the Oakland Long Wharf, people would get off and take a ferry into San Francisco. Another terminus was at Point Richmond, where people would take a ferry to San Rafael. At one point, the Bay Area was the most passengered ferry system in the world. History goes in cycles. Those ferries went out of business in favor of the trains. Now they’re trying to bring the ferries back again.

QWhat can you tell us about the country’s first Black union?

Liam O’Donoghue started the East Bay Yesterday podcast in 2016 “to feel more connected” to his hometown and deliver the type of fleshed-out back stories and real-life voices you won’t find on Atlas Obscura.

ANDA CHU/STAFF

AOne of the defining struggles in the years before the 1960s marches for racial equality was the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. In the early 20th century, the Pullman Car Company was the biggest employer of Black men in the country. By the 1920s, the workers were fed up with the low pay and abusive conditions. Oakland activist C.L. Dellums helped them organize, and that was a training ground for future struggles, including the 1940s struggle to desegregate the U.S. military. People like Thurgood Marshall would come to Oakland and meet with Dellums at his house.

QAny little-known East Bay pop culture factoids?

ABefore (Bruce Lee) was a kung fu master, one of his side hustles was as a ballroom dancer and instructor (in Oakland). He would hang out at various hotels, like The Leamington, and charge couples $1 for a dance lesson.

And on one of my Oakland walking tours, a 96-year-old man said when he was a kid, he would go down to the airport and watch Amelia Earhart fly her plane. She had an office in Oakland.

QAny curious Contra Costa County morsels?

AThere’s an abandoned hotel in Byron, the Byron Hot Springs Hotel, that is closed to the public. But in the 1920s, it was a resort to Hollywood’s elite. I was going cherry picking in Brentwood with my wife and some friends and decided to check it out, but we got chased away by a security guard. What is fascinating about the site is that the government took it over in 1941 as an interrogation place for prisoners of war during World War II.

Curiosity-piquing places to poke around abound in our greater Bay Area

BY JIM HARRINGTON AND JESSICA YADEGARAN

Everybody knows the Winchester Mystery House, the definitive A-list attraction when it comes to curious and unusual destinations.

But it’s not the only place — by a long shot — to get your mystery fix in the greater Bay Area. From the Santa Cruz Mountains to Fisherman’s Wharf, Benicia and Oakland, adventure seekers can find plenty in the way of the strange and unusual — and just plain fascinating.

Here are nine intriguing spots to explore.

ROSICRUCIAN EGYPTIAN MUSEUM

San Jose

Ancient Egypt is riddled with curiosities and mysteries. Lucky for us, many of them are on display at this impressive, white-columned museum in San Jose’s Rose Garden neighborhood. The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum is home to the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts in western North America. Here, you’ll discover a mummy in the flesh and learn

A sculpture known as the “Beseeching Woman” stands at the Albany Bulb.

why Egyptians were the first to domesticate cats. One of the oldest artifacts is a 1.5 millionyear-old stone hand ax — it’s not on display, but hundreds of other fascinating pieces are.

Dig tombs? Head downstairs to get up close and personal with the funerary practices of the ancient Egyptians. Modeled after rock-cut tombs found at the Beni Hasan cemetery site in Egypt, the exhibit was constructed to show a burial style popular during the Middle Kingdom (2066-1650 BCE), especially for nomarchs, or provincial administration officials. Who knew?

Don’t miss: The Alchemy Exhibit. The first of its kind in the United States and the largest in the world, the exhibit features a journey through the seven stages of the alchemical process.

Details: Admission is $8-$10. The museum is typically open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekends at 1660 Park Ave. in San Jose; www.egyptianmuseum.org.

ALBANY BULB

Albany

The coolest thing about this place is that it wasn’t supposed to exist at all. The Albany Bulb and its twisting trails, intriguing art installations and curiosities was a makeshift dump, filled with construction debris from projects including the adjacent Golden Gate Fields. Nature took over, as birds, trees and greenery flourished. Then came artists who took found objects — bicycle rims, broken concrete and other discarded items — and turned them into intentional installations, some otherworldly, others simply odd.

Walk along the bulb’s roughly 2-mile long, well-maintained loop — there are not-so-wellmaintained offshoots and often-quite-dicey side trails, as well — to explore. Some displays are a bit unsettling, especially for someone who has watched a lot of horror films. The found objects hanging from the trees, in particular, feel a little too “Blair Witch Project” — like you’ve entered a place where you’re not supposed

to be. It’s an image immediately shattered by fellow pedestrians chatting loudly on their phones.

Don’t miss: The setting, jutting out into the bay from Albany, offers some fantastic views of the San Francisco skyline and the Bay Bridge on a clear day.

Details: Free admission. Open 5:30 a.m.10 p.m. daily at the end of Buchanan Street at the Albany waterfront; albanyca.org.

MUSÉE MÉCANIQUE San Francisco

This Fisherman’s Wharf carnival-midway-meets-museum offers more than 300 antique arcade games and fun oddities, some dating back a century or more, for those who want to experience what entertainment was like long before PlayStation (or even Atari) came of age. Most

The Musee Mechanique’s Thimble Theatre dancing puppets are ready to dance for visitors.

DAI SUGANO/STAFF

of these are known as “penny” arcade games, but you’ll need quarters to play them. So hit the change machine, then explore the array of animatronic fortune tellers, vintage pinball machines, cool dioramas and other coinoperated devices.

If you’ve brought kids along, you might want to think twice before dropping coins in the machines labeled “Execution” (which simulates a hanging) and “Opium-Den” (every bit as disturbing and depressing as it sounds). But, by all means, save some quarters for the legendary Laffing Sal, the larger-than-life animatronic character who has delighted (and frightened) thousands over the decades. She hails from the long-gone Playland at the Beach, a Roaring Twenties-era amusement park that closed in 1972.

Don’t miss: Truth be told, we come here

mainly for the usually very accurate “love tester” devices, which deliver a person’s romance rating on a scale from “Blah” to “Uncontrollable.” Generally speaking, anything “Sexy” and above is considered a good score. Clearly, the machine wasn’t working properly on our most recent visit, given that we ended up with the very low score of “Clammy.”

Details: Free admission. Open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily at Pier 45, Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco; museemecanique. com.

CHAPEL OF THE CHIMES Oakland

This remarkable Piedmont Avenue columbarium and mausoleum dates back to 1909 and is the final resting place for many Bay Area icons, including Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis and blues artist John Lee Hooker. But it’s

the dazzling 1920s architecture and labyrinthine design by Julia Morgan that will seal this iconic place of remembrance into your memory.

Chapel of the Chimes is a magnificent three-story “indoor cemetery,” where Morgan’s use of Moorish, Romanesque and Gothic influences dazzles at every turn, from the endless arched cloisters and terraced gardens to the Belgian stained glass windows. Just when you think you’ve seen all the tombs, exotic plants and fountains — even two songbirds — you hit another corridor that takes you to more. Grab the free map and self-guided tour pamphlet in the office. It’s a must.

Don’t miss: The primitive Boar Fountain, dating back to 1550, in the Garden of Worship. The downward staircase toward The Sanctuary was originally built for Hearst Castle, but Morgan brought it here instead.

Details: Open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily at 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland; https:// oakland.chapelofthechimes.com.

BRODERICK-TERRY DUEL SITE Daly City

Everyone knows about the Alexander Hamilton-Aaron Burr duel of 1804. But Daly City has its own duel site, where U.S. Senator David C. Broderick and former California Supreme Court Chief Justice David S. Terry squared off in a deadly duel — over the issue of slavery — in the early morning of Sept. 13, 1859, near the banks of Lake Merced. Broderick lost the duel, dying a few days after being shot by pro-slavery advocate Terry. But in death, Broderick became a martyr for the anti-slavery movement. History buffs can still visit the site, a California Historical Landmark, where marker No. 19 describes “the famous duel that ended dueling in California.”

Don’t miss: A historical marker providing details about the duel is actually located right outside the park, but don’t stop there. Continue into the park, where you’ll find two more markers representing the

spots where Broderick and Terry stood and dueled. (And yes, visitors have been spotted acting it out — with Nerfs, not 19thcentury weaponry.)

Details: Free admission. The park is open from sunrise to sunset daily at 1100 Lake Merced Blvd. in Daly City; nps.gov.

BENICIA HISTORICAL MUSEUM at

the Camel Barns

A visit to this impressively curated museum on the edge of town is an eye-opening education in Benicia’s contributions to the development of California as a state. It was, after all, the state capital from 1853 to 1854, an epicenter for industry and home to California’s first public school and hospital. It also housed the U.S. military’s first and only camel corps — as in humped dromedaries.

In the 1850s and ’60s, the U.S. army tried using camels,

Top: The Portals of the Past stand ghostlike on the shore of Lloyd Lake in Golden Gate Park. Above: A stone plaque marks the site of a deadly duel between a U.S. senator and a former California Supreme Court chief justice.

ARIC CRABB/STAFF

imported from the Middle East, as pack animals in the harsh desert conditions of the American West. That lasted all of six weeks before the operation went bust, and the camels were auctioned off to the public. That quirky history may be what lures you to this stunning 1854 sandstone building — one of four in the Benicia Arsenal Historic District — but the exhibits will keep you there as you absorb the many historic firsts for what is today a quiet, waterside town.

A couple of those firsts: During the Gold Rush, Benicia was the first town to disclose the discovery of gold (at the von Pfister Adobe Store in 1848) and the first west of the Mississippi to have a railroad ferry (SS Solano, 1879)

Don’t miss: An opportunity to chat with the volunteer docents, who have a wealth of knowledge beyond museum signs and panels. Ours told us how Benicia got its name.

Details: Admission is $2-$5. Typically open from 1 to 4 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday at 2060 Camel Road, Benicia; https:// beniciahistoricalmuseum.org.

PORTALS OF THE PAST

San Francisco

Is it a replica of Roman ruins?

A Shakespearean stage? The entrance to a cemetery?

Nestled against the lush greenery of Golden Gate Park, the white Portals of the Past looks almost ghostly. The stately portico with six white marble columns that sits on the edge of Lloyd Lake is a memorial to all that was lost in San Francisco following the 1906 earthquake. The “portals” are actually the remains of an 1891 Nob Hill mansion at California and Taylor streets that belonged to railroad tycoon Alban Towne. The house crumbled in the fire, along with so many other structures of the Gilded Age.

Designed by architect Arthur Page Brown, it once sat where the Masonic Auditorium sits today.

When the original location was cleared of rubble in 1909, the portals were placed on the edge of Lloyd Lake as a remembrance.

Don’t miss: A factlet: In 2008, the San Francisco Arts Commission completed a restoration of the monument, repairing damaged pillars and doing seismic retrofits.

Details: Located on the far side of Lloyd Lake along John F. Kennedy Drive in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.

THE MYSTERY SPOT

Santa Cruz

You’ve likely seen the infamous yellow-and-black bumper stickers, found plastered on cars from coast to coast and proudly proclaiming that their drivers have visited one of the country’s oddest destinations.

The Mystery Spot is billed as a gravitational anomaly, where water appears to run uphill of its own accord, people grow shorter (or taller) for no easily discernible reason and the laws of gravity seem to have changed. An optical illusion? Or magic? You’ll leave feeling more befuddled than when you first arrived.

Don’t miss: The bumper sticker, of course. They’re handed out at the end of each tour.

Details: Admission is $8 per person; parking is $5 per vehicle. Open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays, until 5 p.m. weekends, 365 days per year. 465 Mystery Spot Road, Santa Cruz; mysteryspot.com

CAMERA OBSCURA

San Francisco

Finding this ingenious struc-

ture, built on the lower level of the old Cliff House on the ocean side in the 1940s, is half the adventure. Park at the Lands End lot and walk down and around the now-shuttered restaurant to reach San Francisco’s “Giant Camera.” Inside the small, dark building you can experience the Camera Obscura, a device based on a 15th-century design by Leonardo da Vinci that uses a rotating rooftop lens to deliver 360-degree views of the ocean and Seal Rock area onto a surface inside.

Don’t miss: Once you’ve had your fill of the ocean views from inside the Camera Obscura, step outside and spend some time with the real thing. The views are stunning.

Details: Admission is $2-$3. Open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily (weather permitting) at 1096 Point Lobos Ave., San Francisco; giantcamera.com.

Above: The Mystery Spot is nestled in redwoods in Santa Cruz. Right: San Francisco’s Camera Obscura was built in the 1940s. SHAE HAMMOND/STAFF; ARIC CRABB/STAFF

Let’s face the factoids

How much Bay Area trivia do you know?

BY JOAN MORRIS ILLUSTRATION BY SARAH COLEMAN

Nothing about living in the Bay Area is trivial, from fighting your way through backed-up traffic on the Bay Bridge to taking in the last flickering glow of a sunset over the Pacific, but there are volumes of factlets, historic tidbits and trivia embedded in this beautiful home of ours. ¶ How much do you know about this place where we live? We’ll test your knowledge on topics that range from bridges to basketball, wild turkeys, famous whales and even oscillators — and a few surprises. (Psst, you’ll find the answers on page 70.)

There’s something in the water

The Bay Area would just be the Area, if not for the Bay. How much do you know about our beautiful waters?

This might come as a surprise, but Lake Merritt isn’t really a lake. What is it?

• A reservoir

• An inland sea

• A tidal estuary

The opening lines of Otis Redding’s hit song, “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay,” were literally written on a dock on San Francisco Bay. What kind and where?

• San Francisco’s Muni fishing pier

• The Angel Island ferry pier

• A Sausalito houseboat dock

The Berkeley Pier originally extended 3½ miles into the Bay and was used by cars to drive onto a San Franciscobound ferry. In 1936, that traffic stopped. Why?

• A ferry boat captain accidentally piloted into the pier in heavy fog,

damaging it beyond repair.

• The Bay Bridge opened, making ferry travel obsolete.

• The pier was swept away during a 100-year storm, and the city decided the cost to replace the entire pier was too great. It built 2½ miles of it, but the ferry company, which was to pay for the remaining 1 mile, reneged on the deal.

How deep, on average, is the San Francisco Bay?

• 12 to 15 feet

• 120 to 150 feet

• 1,200 to 1,500 feet

Bridging the difference

The Bay Area, by necessity, has a love affair with bridges that span the bay, as well as the rivers and estuaries that feed into it. How much do you know about them?

What is the longest bridge to span the bay?

• The Golden Gate

• The Oakland Bay Bridge

• The San Mateo Bridge

The first San Francisco Bay bridge was a privately owned span that stretched from Hayward to San Mateo. It opened in 1923 but was deemed a failure in its first year of operation. Why?

• There wasn’t enough traffic to generate sufficient tolls.

• It partially collapsed shortly after opening. Even though the bridge was quickly repaired, the driving public lost confidence in it.

• An internal dispute over the operation of the bridge created so much chaos, the bridge never actually opened. It was torn down a few years later, and

the materials used to build the Bay Bridge.

The Bay Bridge has special protection that the average motorist never sees. What is it?

• After 9-11 and the threat to infrastructure and landmarks, the U.S. Navy began posting a patrol boat beneath the bridge to provide 24-hour security.

• After the partial collapse of the bridge during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, CalTrans installed 200 cameras beneath the bridge to monitor the structure for cracks and rust.

• After the Loma Prieta earthquake, repair crews secretly hid a sculpture of a troll on the bridge structure. When the eastern span was replaced in 2013, a new troll was hidden, too.

Getting wild

Nature icon — and Martinez resident — John Muir once said of the wilderness, “In every walk with Nature, one receives far more than he seeks.” How much do you know about Bay Area wildlife?

You’ve seen the wild turkeys that strut around Bay Area suburbs — and we all know about Gerald, the bullying tom that had Oakland residents on the run. Turns out the first wild turkeys were deliberately introduced by California Fish & Wildlife in 1959. Why?

• To provide free grass and weed-trimming and thus improve the aesthetics of the suburbs

• To encourage recreational hunting that would generate revenue through licenses and fees

• It may have been a deliberate introduction, but it was an unauthorized one by a rogue Fish & Wildlife employee.

The sea lions that lounge around Pier 39 in San Francisco have become something of a tourist attraction — sea-lebrities, if you will. They first appeared on the marine docks in 1990, but why come at all?

• Managers of Pier 39 lured them onto the docks as a photo op for a tourism brochure, then couldn’t get rid of them.

• Sea lions started showing up there shortly after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Researchers believe the tremor changed their migratory patterns.

• It’s a nice, safe place to hang out, as Great White sharks and orcas that feed on sea lions rarely venture into the bay, and there are lots of herring for the sea lions to feast upon.

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom originated in Redwood Shores. What was it called when it moved to Vallejo?

• Disneyland North

• Underwater Magic

• Marine World Africa USA

In 1985, Bay Area residents became fixated on a wayward humpback whale, dubbed Humphrey, who swam into the bay and traveled up the Delta, where experts and volunteers finally convinced him to head back to sea. In 2007, another pair of humpbacks — a mother and daughter — made a similar journey. What were their names?

• Rosy and Lily

• Delta and Dawn

• Ma and Baby Girl

In the 1970s, the spread of a disease similar to canine distemper, paired with the aggressive poisoning of ground squirrels, wiped out most of an apex predator population living on Mount Diablo. The animal has made a comeback In recent years. What is it?

• American badger

• Pacific Coast Yeti

• Mountain lion

Being a good sport

The Bay Area is known for its amazing football, baseball, basketball and hockey teams. You might bleed red and gold or hemorrhage blue and yellow, but how are you on sports trivia?

Long before the Giants started sending home run balls into McCovey Cove, they gave out pins to faithful fans who huddled at frigid Candlestick Park for extra-inning games. What were these pins called?

• The Croix de Candlestick, which included the motto “Veni, Vidi, Vixi” or “I came, I saw, I survived”

• West Coast Polar Bear Club

• Mighty Breath of the Giants

There have been a few great left-handed quarterbacks, but only two are in the Football Hall of Fame, and both are Bay Area legends. Name those QBs.

• Joe Montana and Daryle Lamonica

• Y.A. Tittle and Jeff Plunket

• Steve Young and Kenny Stabler

Before the Sharks swam into San Jose, the Bay Area had another hockey team, based in Oakland. What was its name, and what happened to it?

• The California Golden Seals; the team moved to Cleveland and became the Barons

• The Oakland Oaks; after suffering through five unsuccessful seasons, the team disbanded

• We’re just kidding — there wasn’t a hockey team here before the Sharks.

Like a few other teams — and many of us residents — the Golden State Warriors are transplants to the Bay Area. Where did they come from?

• The Philadelphia Warriors were founded in 1946 and moved to the Bay Area in 1962, becoming first the San Francisco Warriors and later — in 1971 — changing their name to the Golden State.

• It’s complicated. The Warriors originally were the home team in Milwaukee, before relocating to Green Bay. Then they moved to Seattle and became the Washington Warriors.

• The Warriors got their start in 1942 as the Montreal Royal Guardsmen, but in the league expansion following World War II, California was awarded a franchise, and the Guardsmen decided to head to sunnier climes. They dropped the distinctive Canadian moniker and became the Warriors.

When the San Francisco 49ers and the Miami Dolphins faced off for Super Bowl XIX at Stanford Stadium in 1985, which company made the seats cushier? AP PHOTO

What’s in a name?

We’re all familiar with most of the cities and towns throughout the Bay Area, but do you know how they got their names?

What was Oakland’s original name?

• You’re not fooling us; it was Oakland from the start.

• Encinal del Temescal, which roughly translated is “the oak grove near the sweat lodge.”

• East San Francisco

How did Sunnyvale get its optimistic name?

• Residents delighted in the fact that the area had the most sunshine (or fog-free days, at least) of any Bay Area city, so they named their town Sunnyvale.

• It was pure crass marketing by the real estate speculator Walter E. Crossman. The town was originally called Murphy, but Crossman pushed the Sunnyvale name as a way to “attract winter-weary Easterners to a new world of sunshine, fruit and flowers.”

• The townspeople voted to incorporate, but couldn’t decide on a name. They finally agreed that the next morning, they would look out their windows and let the weather decide. Fortunately, it was sunny that day, or the town could have been called Foggyville.

The origins of Napa’s name aren’t clear, although most historians believe it’s

derived from an indigenous word for village, fish or maybe grizzly bear. But what we do know is that originally, it was spelled Nappa. What happened to the second P?

• When recording the town’s official name and zip code, a postal clerk in Washington accidentally omitted the second P — and once it had become official, the post office refused to change it.

• The two Ps were considered vulgar, and the Women’s League for Decency petitioned the town leaders to change the spelling.

• No one really knows. Sometime around 1848, the second P just disappeared from use.

What’s the meaning behind Vacaville?

• The literal translation of Vacaville is cow (vaca) town (ville), and the town once had a thriving cattle market.

• The original landowner, Juan Manuel Vaca, agreed to sell off the property for development on the condition the city was named after him. Voila.

• It was all a misunderstanding. Leaders of the new town wanted to call it Encantador Casa , meaning “enchanted home,” but something went wrong with the translation, and they ended up with Vacaville.

The best of the rest

Here’s

San Francisco’s iconic Sutro Tower hasn’t had a major paint job in more than 20 years. Why?

• The fog routinely disrupts exterior maintenance work, including the repainting schedule.

• It’s nearly impossible to avoid dripping paint on the houses and cars below, when you’re painting at such a height, and then people complain.

• The type of paint used in the original 1971 construction is no longer available.

MC Hammer was originally an Oakland kid — and Oakland A’s ball boy — named

Rapper MC Hammer waits to throw out the first pitch before an Oakland Athletics game at the Coliseum in 2019.

NHAT V. MEYER/ STAFF ARCHIVES

bought eight HP audio oscillators to test recording equipment for which movie?

• “Fantasia”(1940)

• “Pinocchio” (1940)

• “Sleeping Beauty” (1959)

What’s the crookedest street in San Francisco?

• The Embarcadero

• Vermont Street, near 20th

• Lombard Street

The Hell’s Angels were hired to provide protection at what turned out to be the infamous “Gimme Shelter” Altamont Speedway Free Festival concert in December 1969. What were they paid for the gig?

• $50 per motorcycle

• $500 in beer

• The concert was such a disaster, they ended up making nothing.

• Bottle Rock

• Coachella

Where did Francis Ford Coppola write most of the “The Godfather” screenplay?

• Caffe Trieste in North Beach

• At American Zoetrope, the film production company he founded with George Lucas

• A hospital bed

What Bay Area community bills itself as California’s First Hollywood?

• Berkeley

• Santa Clara

• Niles

Stanley Burrell. Where did the Hammer name come from?

• At an Oakland A’s victory party, the underage Burrell got into the libations and never lived it down.

• Reggie Jackson thought he looked like Hammerin’ Hank Aaron.

• Nothing so esoteric as that: Early on in his rap and hip-hop career, he was so driven, colleagues described him as hammering his way up the charts. The name stuck.

Walt Disney was one of HewlettPackard’s first customers. Disney

So, how’d youdo? Fliptopage70 to check your score on the Bay Areasavvyscale.

When Super Bowl XIX was played at the old Stanford Stadium, which relatively new, soon-to-be superstar company gave away seat cushions to provide padding for all those wooden stadium benches?

• Apple

• Google

• Amazon

What now-mega event was first launched at San Francisco’s Baker Beach in 1986 with about 35 attendees?

• Burning Man

KCBS Radio got its start when Charles David “Doc” Herrold, who ran Herrold’s College of Wireless and Engineering in San Jose, broadcast his first voice transmissions in 1909. Herrold began regularly scheduled broadcasts in 1912. What was the station’s radio identification?

• KNBC

• KSFO

• San Jose Calling

A California winery stunned the world when its vintage cabernet sauvignon won the 1976 Judgment of Paris, effectively putting California and its Napa Valley on the global wine map. What was the name of the winery?

• Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars

• Gallo

• V. Sattui Winery

MYTHORMAMMOTH MAMMALFORREAL?

True believers dog the gigantic prints of Bigfoot

STORY BY ELLIOTT ALMOND ILLUSTRATION BY DAVIDE BARCO

hey’re out there. Shadowy creatures of the night making mischief, or worse, under the cover of darkness. These magnified legends have wormed their way into the subconscious, propelling legions of seekers to swarm dense North American forests in search of Bigfoot.

Ken Carter of Martinez has never seen one. But he says he has had close encounters — red eyes eerily glowing in the woods that he swears could not have been an animal. He has heard grunting and stomping in his campsite and once found a big handprint where something smacked the camper shell in the wee hours, startling him awake.

These unexplained occurrences took place over the years at a secretive Sierra hunting ground in Stanislaus National Forest. That’s where Carter stood with fellow East Bay searcher Rich Mingus on a recent brisk fall afternoon. Among the camping accoutrements they brought along was “Stenny,” a Bigfoot doll named for fellow searcher Mark Stenberg, whose

After battling cancer twice, Ken Carter returns to the Stanislaus National Forest to continue his pastime of searching for Bigfoot. KARL MONDON/STAFF

health no longer allows him to camp with the gang.

The men embody a cabalistic pursuit of the paranormal that, for a sliver of Americans, has morphed into a pastime as addictive as golf.

Carter, 64, has searched for the famed hominid since 2012, when he and a daughter spent their Sundays watching Animal Planet’s “Finding Bigfoot,” one of the many shows the legendary beast has inspired.

“We can’t say there is something or there isn’t something,” said Carter, who published “Cancer & Bigfoot, My Story” in 2021. “Just different things happen that make you think there is something.”

Carter had to table the search in 2016 after learning he suffered from lymphoma. He thought he’d never return to these forests, while enduring 700 hours of chemotherapy and, in 2018, a 92-day stay at Stanford Hospital for a bone marrow transplant. But the inveterate outdoorsman has made it back to his favorite spot in the past three years to continue the quest.

Throughout human history, variations of otherworldly creatures have populated folklore. Australia’s Indigenous people told stories of yowies in the Outback; the Himalayan people had Yetis.

Sasquatch — a variation of the Salish name meaning “wild men” — is an entrenched North American legend that has birthed a community of believers as robust and absolute as anything that came out of Area 51.

We’ve got unsubstantiated reports of furtive, apelike creatures standing 8 feet to 10 feet tall and weighing upward of 500 pounds. The creature is said to release foul-smelling odors and reportedly blasts factory-whistle sounds, all the while evading humans, except for those unproven sightings shown on videos and photographs.

It cannot be denied that this

Mike Rugg, 75, is one of the main Bay Area Bigfoot aficionados. Rugg, a Stanford graduate, says he saw a Bigfoot on the Eel River in Humboldt County when he was 4 years old and has been interested in the legend since.

narrative serves valuable anthropological purposes. Bigfoot has become the connective tissue between indigenous cultures and Western interlopers. For example, native inhabitants of the Santa Lucia Mountains told stories of giant silhouetted figures appearing at twilight in the surrounding Big Sur backcountry.

Sixteenth-century Spanish explorers and the Mexican settlers that followed turned the tribal tales into California folklore when recounting stories of los Vigilantes Oscuros, or Dark Watchers.

John Steinbeck mentioned the mysterious men in his short story

“Flight.”

The old tales have grown into a pseudoscience known as cryptozoology, a singular devotion to prove Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and other existential crisis-causing creatures do exist.

Carter found the remote Sierra site on the edge of the Emigrant Wilderness during an expedition with the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, which has tracked and investigated reported encounters with the bipedal primate in question since 1995.

The group has nine expeditions scheduled across North America in 2022. It charges customers

ELLIOTT ALMOND/STAFF

Top right: Michael Rugg opened the Bigfoot Discovery Museum across Highway 9 from Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park in Felton in 2004. The small museum is filled with memorabilia about the legend of Bigfoot. The museum features casts of Bigfoot feet, maps of where sightings have been reported and other knickknacks, many for sale.

ELLIOTT ALMOND/STAFF

$300 to $500 to join the outings, not including food and transportation.

Professional Bigfoot companies have a financial stake in keeping the legend alive. Carter and Mingus, friends from decades of working together at the former Shell Oil Refinery in Martinez,

have no such ulterior motive.

Carter camps at this facility-less locale he calls “Frog Meadow” two to three times a year. A grove of aspen stands on the far side of the meadow. A mixed conifer forest of Jeffrey pine, red fir and Lodgepole pine surround the campsite.

Carter plays host to a regular

Top: As dusk falls in California’s Stanislaus National Forest, Bigfoot searchers Rich Mingus and Ken Carter string up light sticks to hang in the woods in hopes of catching the attention of a nearby Sasquatch.

Left: A traffic sign warns of possible Bigfoot crossings on Highway 108 in the Stanislaus National Forest, near Pinecrest.

“Squatch on the Rocks” summer camping trip here.

“You go up with a bunch of your friends and see what you come up with,” Mingus said. “If you don’t find anything, you had a good day of hiking.”

to create an eerie atmosphere as nightfall approached, and we sat around the campfire seeking warmth.

Much of Bigfooting involves watching a crackling fire and recounting story after story of potential encounters. But the men could not out-talk Jason Garcia, a Stanislaus National Forest fire prevention officer, who dropped by for the night from his home in nearby Soulsbyville.

He met Carter and Mingus in 2020 at the camp. Garcia, 40, is intrigued by the possibility but doubtful that Bigfoot is real.

“I might just be out here wasting my time,” he said. “At the same time, there’s a lot of stories. Something is going on out there.”

On this particular day, the men walked to a “gifting stump” about 200 yards away to leave apples and a slice of upside-down pineapple cake for any resident Sasquatches.

Carter wore a cap that said “Bigfoot Lives!” and packed a 45 automatic Kimber pistol. Mingus had a “Squatch and Soda” T-shirt and a Citadel 45 gun.

“Self protection, if nothing else works,” said Mingus, 64.

Late in the afternoon, the sun dipped behind the tree line as temperatures plummeted. Carter played Tibetan chant recordings

Carter and Mingus followed a ritual others have employed to attract what they refer to as “visitors.” They hung glow sticks from trees just beyond our tents and later took a night walk in groups.

Carter and I skulked along a dirt road on a blissfully dry night deep in November. Carter’s red-lighted headlamp guided us into the blackness as he hoped for the moment of a Bigfoot revelation. Carter banged on two sticks — wood knocks, he called it — and had me do a high-pitched scream from my youth. Nothing responded.

I slept through the sub-freezing night without a disturbance beyond numb toes. The offerings

KARL MONDON/STAFF

“I might just be out here wasting my time. At the same time, there’s a lot of stories. Something is going on out there.”

Jason Garcia

at the “gifting stump” were untouched when we checked in the morning.

It seems the Big Guy is media shy.

that reality.”

As the Abominable Snowman did decades earlier, Bigfoot dug its pudgy toes into modern-day popular culture through questionable eyewitness accounting.

But there might be more to this Bigfoot mania than chasing rainbows. Utah State folklorist Lynne S. McNeil sees Bigfoot adventures in the wild as returning to some primordial time.

“That says something about what we feel in our hearts,” said McNeil, who grew up in Lafayette and graduated from UC Berkeley. “We want that connection to the wilderness. We don’t want to lose

The origin of the Bigfoot name came from a 1958 Humboldt Times column about a logging camp finding enormous footprints in eastern Del Norte County. It turned out a logger had pulled a prank on fellow crewmates, which his children acknowledged upon his death in 2002.

The admission did not derail the Bigfoot train. The definitive moment that launched the legend occurred in 1967 along a tributary of the Klamath River near where the logger had conducted his hoax. Washington cowboys Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin rode

Sasquatch searchers Rich Mingus and Ken Carter return to Stanislaus National Forest for another night of “Squatchin,’” the hunt to see the elusive hominid also known as Bigfoot. Joining them is “Stenny,” a scaled replica of the furry beast named for fellow searcher Mark Stenberg, whose health no longer allows him to camp.

horses into the Northern California backcountry and captured film of a Bigfoot.

Whatever really happened, the ranchers returned with a grainy, shaky and unreliable film of a subhuman creature strolling near a river bank that believers say is the ultimate proof of Bigfoot’s existence.

Their 16-millimeter work with a rented Cine Kodak camera has been dissected as much as Abraham Zapruder’s cinematic capture of the John F. Kennedy assassination. No one has proven that the cowboys’ film is fake, though strong circumstantial evidence casts doubts on its authenticity.

In the half century since the film surfaced, Bigfoot seekers have produced all sorts of purported evidence, including hairs,

footprints, photographs and video clips. They are not deterred when documentation is proven false or pranksters acknowledge they created a hoax.

“Good quality evidence is scarce if nonexistent,” said Benjamin Radford, a research fellow at the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. “We don’t have a body, we don’t have teeth. We don’t have a dead one, we don’t have a live one.”

Nothing reliable has been produced, even with the advent of drones, wildlife cams, night vision binoculars and other technology.

Northern Californians are tethered to the legend because of Patterson-Gimlin’s 59.5-second film. In the Sierra just west of Pinecrest, a pedestrian crossing sign on Highway 108 has the

added touch of a Bigfoot illustration, a clear signal that this is Sasquatch country.

I’m not sure what it says about the Bay Area, but the region has spawned a number of aficionados. Tom Biscardi of Menlo Park founded Bigfoot Project Investments, Inc., which raises capital to search for the elusive creature. Former San Jose police officer David Paulides created the North America Bigfoot Search in downtown Los Gatos but has since moved operations to western Montana.

And then there’s the Bigfoot Discovery Museum in Felton.

Michael Rugg, 75, opened his little roadside attraction in 2004 at a time when he was rummaging around the Santa Cruz Mountains at night in search of Bigfoot.

The museum is stuffed with Rugg’s collection of footprints, photographs, videos and a locator

map with pins showing where local “sightings” occurred.

Rugg, a Stanford graduate in fine arts, sat behind a wooden counter at the museum on a recent afternoon, looking like Santa Claus without the famous red costume. It didn’t take much to coax Sasquatch tales out of him.

Rugg said he stood 10 yards from a Bigfoot along the Eel River in Humboldt County as a small child.

“Nothing like having a sighting to change your skepticism,” he said.

Then Rugg offered that Bigfoots work with coyotes to hunt deer.

Um….

Rugg said a Bigfoot-coyote hunting party once surrounded his group on a stakeout above Highway 9. At 4 a.m., the coyotes started moving toward the men, Rugg said. At this point, Rugg

The Bigfoot Discovery Museum features casts of Bigfoot feet, maps of where sightings have been reported and other knickknacks, many for sale.

ELLIOTT ALMOND/STAFF

played a recording of what the group heard. First, the coyotes yip, then birds make a racket and then “right here,” Rugg said, a faraway scream.

“That was the Sasquatch — at least we think it was,” he said.

The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization lists reported Bay Area sightings in Pleasanton in 1963, in Livermore in 1990 and “unnatural howling sounds” in the Diablo foothills of Walnut Creek in 2000. It also has found evidence of Bigfoot in the Oakland hills, according to founder Matt Moneymaker, one of the stars of Animal Planet’s “Finding Bigfoot.”

I have spent more than 1,000 days traipsing around the Santa Cruz range, logging some 7,000 trail miles along the way. I’ve seen big pumas (cougars) and little ones (bobcats). I’ve crossed paths with king, gopher and rattle-

snakes. There have been foxes, raccoons, coyotes, squirrels, owls, eagles, wild turkeys, banana slugs, salamanders, newts, pond turtles, treefrogs and the California redlegged frog. Not to forget the tick that once attacked me somewhere along the banks of Waddell Creek.

But not a trace of Bigfoot, black bear scat notwithstanding.

I’m not here to debunk myths. Plenty of skeptics and academics have questioned the reality of this species and the sanity of those who believe in them. I can report only that the biggest foot I’ve ever encountered belonged to Australian swim champion Ian Thorpe, whose size 17 appendages propelled him to Olympic greatness.

Still, humans are intrigued by the unexplained, whether it is ghosts, crop circles or UFOs. Bigfoot holds a special place in this corner of the X-Files.

USC anthropologist Tok Thompson said some people see Bigfoot as a hero who lives successfully beyond the reach of Western capitalism. The legend represents hope, Tok said, at a time of climate change and the daily loss of animal species.

Carter, Mingus and Garcia seem drawn to a sense of wonder that still might exist in the natural world. Every unusual sight or sound in the woods keeps them coming back to their Sierra sanctuary in search of answers.

Squatch on.

BIGFOOT DISCOVERY MUSEUM

This Sasquatch-centric museum in the Santa Cruz Mountains is typically open from 1 to 5 p.m. Friday through Monday at 5497 Highway 9 in Felton; www. bigfootdiscoveryproject.com.

Q&A

‘Our brains are wired for stories!’

Oakland performer Diane Ferlatte on how humans make sense of the world

BY MARTHA ROSS

Ascheduled 30-minute Zoom interview with Grammy nominee and Oakland storyteller Diane Ferlatte easily stretches into an hour and a half of tales, fables and musings on the importance of stories and legends to a culture.

“That’s what happens when you call a storyteller,” she says, laughing. Even through a Zoom window, the charismatic Ferlatte brings her stories to life with song, gestures and the facial expressions and voices of some dozen characters, including a hungry crocodile, a 9-year-old boy, an elderly White woman and herself.

For more than 30 years, Ferlatte has told stories at schools, events — including a presidential inauguration in 1993 — and festivals in the Bay Area and around the world. She’s proud to continue an oral tradition that’s “as old as humankind,” she says, and one used by people across cultures to bond, share knowledge and make sense of the world.

QWere you always interested in performing?

AI was born in New Orleans, so I was surrounded by music. I grew up in a time called “once upon a time,” when there were no TVs, Gameboys or cell phones. In the South, everybody had a front porch. There was always talking and laughter and people sharing stories — true stories, ghost stories. If you were a kid who was curious and listened to the old folks, you got some stories.

We left Jim Crow when I was 9 years old in 1954. My father was a plasterer and a brick mason, and my mother was a maid all her life, working in White folks’ homes. We moved to East Oakland, the first Black family to live on that block.

QHow did you start storytelling?

AI adopted two children: my daughter as a baby, but my son when he was almost 3½. He had been in foster homes. They would just put him in front of the TV all day. When I tried to read to him, he’d whine and say, “I want to watch TV!” I realized I was reading to a TV brain. (So), I read like I was telling him the story. If it had a dog in it, I’d (act out) “ruff, ruff,” or a cat, “meow.” As I brought stories to life, one day he said, “Mama, are we going to have a bedtime story tonight?”

QHow did that lead to your career?

For more than 30 years, Diane Ferlatte has told stories at schools and events — including a presidential inauguration in 1993.

JANE TYSKA/STAFF

AI never thought of telling stories outside of my house until one day at my church, someone asked me to be chairman of the Christmas program. All these kids were coming from shelters. We’d give them toys and food, but what were we going to do with all these kids? I said, “Stories might be good.” So I told some stories. Someone came up after the program and said, “You’re good. Can you come to my kids’ school and tell some stories?” It was all word of mouth. The more I went into schools and told stories, the more I saw the power of telling stories and the need for it.

QHow does storytelling differ from, say, theater?

AIn theater, you have the fourth wall. With storytelling, you’re looking at the audience and engaging with them. I might change something, depending on the audience. I do the call-and-response, like in church. I always expect people to participate in my stories. It’s not a spectator sport. It’s a shared activity. I go to a school in Orinda every year where the seventh graders are studying Africa. I explain how I tell stories in the African way, which was passed down by slaves coming over from Africa. It’s not just pure narration.

QYou’ve performed and recorded stories from Aesop’s fables and the trickster Br’er Rabbit stories from the American South...

AThey talk about the human condition. (Aesop) is my favorite storyteller. His stories (tell) people that if we try hard at something, we can do it. My slave ancestors loved Br’er Rabbit. He gave them a chance to have a little power through his stories. He would always outsmart bigger animals by using his head. If you had to be a slave, you better be a smart one.

QWhy do humans need stories?

AOur brains are wired for stories! And the power of stories is that they have emotion in them — they build empathy. When I started out as a storyteller, I never told personal stories. But I learned that they really help build empathy and understanding. White people hear stories about Black people, but they’re not told by Black people themselves. It makes a difference who tells the story.

(Breaking into a story)

Q: Storyteller, storyteller: Is it true that the lion is king of the jungle?

A: Oh yes, it is true, my son.

Q: But why is it that in every book I read, the lion gets killed?

A: It will be that way until the lion tells the story.

Find inner peace in a purposeful meander through a labyrinth

BY JOAN MORRIS

When the pandemic descended across the globe, sending people into isolation and raising blood pressures everywhere, Lars Howlett’s phone began ringing. And ringing. And ringing.

Howlett, one of the nation’s foremost labyrinth makers and facilitators, was getting calls from people suddenly desperate for a labyrinth experience.

“I had more calls that year than in the five years before,” Howlett says. “People are looking for ways to find order in this time of chaos.”

Order in chaos is exactly what a labyrinth is all about. It’s a path that winds and meanders from one point on the edge of the labyrinth to the center and

The labyrinth at San Jose’s Rosicrucian Park is open to the public during daylight hours. NHAT V. MEYER/STAFF

back again. There is nothing deceiving about the path, although you may feel like you’re moving farther away from your goal before suddenly reaching it.

Labyrinths often are confused with mazes, Howlett says, and Webster’s dictionary still lists them as being synonymous. But mazes are designed to confuse and confound those traversing their paths. You can’t see around corners, and many of a maze’s pathways lead to dead ends.

A labyrinth can take different shapes and designs; it may have many rings — or circuits —or just a few, but it is purposeful in its aim to enlighten. There is no getting lost and no failing in a goal.

“I’m not sure who said it, “Howlett says, “but you lose yourself in a maze and find yourself in a labyrinth.”

Howlett didn’t start out to become a labyrinth maker. He began his adult life as a part-time journalist and a photography teacher at a Half Moon Bay school that had a labyrinth. He began walking its paths during stressful times in his life and found answers and peace as he paced. So he began having his students walk it at the beginning and end of each semester, and he listened to the feelings they were experiencing.

The first labyrinth he designed was drawn in sand at the beach, but the more he learned about labyrinths and the more he used them, the more he became certain his life’s journey would follow those pathways.

In 2010, he attended a workshop on how to build labyrinths and began studying classic and

medieval structures, as well as exploring forms outside the traditional ones. For three years, Howlett apprenticed with renowned master builder Robert Ferré, learning the art of sacred geometry and his methods for creating proportional and precise patterns.

When Ferré retired in 2015, he handed over his tools, labyrinth library and workshop curriculum to Howlett, who started his own San Francisco Bay Area company, Discover Labyrinths.

In 2017, Lars was named a master builder by contemporaries in his field. He’s a faculty member at Veriditas, a nonprofit dedicated to “inspiring personal and planetary change and renewal through the labyrinth experience.”

Although labyrinths have just one meandering pathway, there are many ways to walk them. The most common begins with walkers asking themselves a question before starting on the path, then pondering it as they meander. Some people pray while walking the path or simply focus on peace of mind and well-being. A facilitator can help set the tone and the pace of a labyrinth walk.

The origin of labyrinths is an ancient mystery. They’re found in churches dating back to medieval times. The best known and often copied is a French labyrinth built in the early 13th century at the Chartres Cathedral near Paris. The Scots and Swedes also were fond of them, but no one is certain of their true purpose. Was it for religious reasons — a symbolic path to walk for pilgrims who couldn’t safely travel to the Holy

“I’m not sure who said it but you lose yourself in a maze and find yourself in a labyrinth.”

Lars Howlett, labyrinth maker and facilitator

San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral hosts candlelight labyrinth walks and contemplative sessions. SHAE HAMMOND/STAFF

Land? Or was it the homework of masons just learning their craft?

The Bay Area is home to dozens of labyrinths, some private but most accessible to the public at churches, parks and schools. If you’re looking further afield or traveling, you can find more through Veriditas’ worldwide labyrinthlocator.com. And if you want to walk a labyrinth at home, head for https://labyrinthsociety.org/ make-a-labyrinth, where you can download patterns to trace with a pencil or finger and instructions for building your own, using rocks or simply masking tape.

Here’s a sampling of Bay Area labyrinths to explore — a baker’s dozen — with information about the designers and builders where available.

SIBLEY VOLCANIC REGIONAL PRESERVE, OAKLAND

This rustic, isolated labyrinth is hidden in a canyon surrounded by park wilderness. Sometimes called the Mazzariello Labyrinth, or Mazzariello’s Maze, it’s named after its designer, a Montclair artist, psychic and shamanic practitioner. The labyrinth is available to hikers during park hours. Find access details and trail maps at the East Bay Regional Parks website, www.ebparks.org/parks/ sibley.

Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve, 6800 Skyline Blvd., Oakland

Type: This classical 7-circuit labyrinth was installed in 1990, and a funky eighth circuit was added at a later date

Material: Rock

Size: 56 feet

Designed and built by Helena Mazzariello

ROSICRUCIAN PARK, SAN JOSE

This labyrinth sits in the gardens of the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, whose building and grounds evoke a timeless, mystical peace. The labyrinth, which is open from 8 a.m. to sunset daily, is inspired by the design of the Chartres labyrinth. Here, native plants surround five concentric paths leading to the center.

Rosicrucian Park, 1660 Park Ave., San Jose www.rosicrucianpark.org/labyrinth

Type: Medieval 5-circuit installed in 2015

Material: Rock

Size: 80 feet across

MASTICK SENIOR CENTER, ALAMEDA

This labyrinth, located at the corner of Santa Clara Avenue and Bay Street, is always open.

1155 Santa Clara Ave., Alameda

Type: Classical

Material: Concrete

Size: 50 feet by 35 feet

Designed and built by Walter McQuesten in 2015

WILLARD MIDDLE SCHOOL, BERKELEY

This labyrinth is open for public use outside of school hours.

On Telegraph Avenue between Stuart and Derby streets, Berkeley

Type: Medieval Chartres replica installed in 1994

Material: Painted on blacktop

Size: 35 feet

Designed by Richard Feather Anderson; painted by East Bay Labyrinth Project volunteers

SAINT JUDE’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH, CUPERTINO

This private labyrinth at the corner of McClellan and Stelling roads, behind De Anza College, is open to the public every day.

20920 McClellan Road, Cupertino

Type: Medieval 7-circuit modified Chartres style installed in 2011

Material: Painted concrete

Size: 28 feet

HAP MAGEE RANCH PARK, DANVILLE

This labyrinth was built as a tribute to Alamo resident William Schramm, 24, who was killed in a car accident shortly after he made labyrinth walking part of his spiritual practice. The labyrinth is available during park hours.

1025 La Gonda Way, Danville

Type: Medieval Chartres replica installed in 2015

Material: Brick pavers

Size: 45 feet

Built by Marty Kermeen

GRACE CATHEDRAL, SAN FRANCISCO

Grace Cathedral has two labyrinths, one indoors and one outside. The outdoor labyrinth is open all the time. The indoor one is typically open during cathedral hours, but availability may vary depending upon church activities.

At the Albany Bulb, hikers can take a walk through a labyrinth, created with natural foliage and construction debris, as they explore the park.

DAI SUGANO/STAFF

The cathedral hosts a candlelight labyrinth walk with live music each month. Find details at gracecathedral.org/our-labyrinths.

1100 California St., San Francisco

Type: The indoor labyrinth is a medieval Chartres replica installed in 2007; the outdoor labyrinth was installed in 1995

Material: Limestone pavement (indoors); terrazzo (outdoors)

Size: 42 feet

BRIONES REGIONAL PARK, MARTINEZ

Getting to this labyrinth requires traversing a bit of a maze. Enter Briones Regional Park at the Alhambra Creek Staging Area, go through a cow gate and follow Alhambra Creek Trail about a quarter mile until you reach a water trough. Turn left, follow the path, cross a tiny creek bed and continue east on the path toward the end of the meadow. The labyrinth is open during park hours,

Above: The labyrinth at Hap Magee Ranch Park was built as a tribute to Alamo resident William Schramm, 24, who was killed in a car accident shortly after he made labyrinth walking part of his spiritual practice.

west of Lake Merritt BART Station. It’s always open for use.

Eighth and Madison streets, Oakland

Type: Medieval 11-circuit with four extra circuits around the outer perimeter

Material: Painted concrete

Size: 89 feet

ALBANY BULB

The Albany Bulb is a reclaimed landfill at the end of a peninsula jutting into San Francisco Bay. It can be reached via Buchanan Street or the San Francisco Bay Trail. The labyrinth is always open.

End of Buchanan Street, Albany

Type: Classical, installed in 2010

Material: Concrete taken largely from old landfill material

Size: 36 feet

Designed and built by Matthew Gillam

SOFIA UNIVERSITY, PALO ALTO

This nontraditional labyrinth is set on a grassy bank beside a sidewalk and is open to the local community.

1069 E. Meadow Circle, Palo Alto

Type: Contemporary, installed in 2012 Material: Rubber mulch

Size: 50 feet

Designed and built by Robert Ferré and Lars Howlett

BROOKWOOD PARK, PLEASANT HILL

Left: A statue welcomes visitors to the Rosicrucian Park labyrinth in San Jose.

sunrise to sunset.

Reliez Valley Road, Martinez

Type: Medieval Chartres replica installed in 1999, restored in 2006

Material: Rock

Size: 36 feet

Builder: Friends of the Alhambra Creek Meadow Labyrinth

FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH OF SAN JOSE

The labyrinth at First Congre-

gational is modeled after the medieval Chartres labyrinth. Red-tinged granite from northern Mexico outlines the path made from flagstone quarried in Montana. It was built as a community labyrinth, and the public is invited to walk it. (A donation is requested.) Find details at https:// firstccsj.org.

1980 Hamilton Ave., San Jose Type: Medieval, full size Chartres style, without lunations (which form the halo

around the labyrinth), installed in 2010 Material: Granite and flagstone Size: 42 feet.

Designed by Lance Brown; built by Lance Brown and more than 60 community volunteers

MADISON PARK, OAKLAND

One of the largest labyrinths in the Bay Area is at the western end of Madison Park near downtown Oakland and Chinatown, a block

Created by a group of volunteers and landscape material suppliers, this labyrinth was originally conceived by the people at Kindred Hospice in conjunction with Pleasant Hill Recreation and Park District. It took nearly a year to design, fundraise and construct the classical ring with a glass tile mosaic center and stones suitable for sitting. The labyrinth is open during regular park hours.

3240 Withers Ave., Pleasant Hill

Type: Classical, installed in 2015

Material: Brick pavers

Size: 33 feet, 8 inches

Designed by Chris Donton and Lara Dutto; built by Chris Donton

JOSE CARLOS FAJARDO/ STAFF

NHAT V. MEYER/STAFF

Crossword puzzlemaker plants her voice, across and down the grid

BY JOAN MORRIS

If you think trying to solve Sunday’s New York Times crossword is a challenge, try making one of your own.

Writing crossword puzzles is way harder than solving them, says Aimee Lucido, a Berkeley author who knows. Not only is she a devoted puzzle solver, she writes about 30 puzzles a year.

She had always been an avid mystery buff and enjoyed puzzles and games of all sorts, but she was relatively new to crosswords when she entered Brown University to study software engineering.

For reasons she hasn’t been able to puzzle out, she mostly hung out with a group of fellow students who were all into crossword puzzles. She joined in some of the campus crossword puzzle tournaments, but when a friend taught her how to make the puzzles, that’s when all the bells started ringing.

Lucido, who lives in Berkeley with her husband and dog, left her tech job in 2019 to concentrate on her writing. She’s the author of two young adult books, “Emmy and the Key of Code” and “Recipe for Disaster.” Her crosswords appear in the New York Times and the New Yorker, as well as the American Values Club Crossword, an online subscription service.

QSo, why write crossword puzzles? What is that draws you in?

AI’ve always loved solving puzzles, just in general. I love the mystery, but I also love having that “aha moment,” the thrill of figuring it out when I’ve been banging my head trying to solve it. With crosswords, (the appeal) is puzzling out how to make these words fit together. When I first learned how to do them, it was such a challenge — I had to do it. It’s also less about the puzzle and more about my voice — having words I care about in the crosswords. I love coming up with a new pun or a different angle, and it’s fun to see my name in print. I was never a journalist, so seeing my name in the newspaper is really cool.

QWhat’s the first step you take in writing a puzzle?

AThe first step is deciding what sort of puzzle I’m making. Will it be an easy one, a hard one, will it have a theme or be a themeless puzzle? Then I pick a couple of words that I really want to use. They might be an actress’ (name) or a colloquial phrase. If it’s a themed puzzle, then I might start with a revealer. For example, I did a puzzle where the theme was “mind over matter,” and in the crossword, there were states

of matter under synonyms for mind, so it was mind over matter. From there, you kind of work backward to write the rest of the puzzle. The last part is the reveal, which is a question that also is a hint to the other clues. In this case, it would be “something you say to yourself before the big game or a hint to solving the eight starred clues.”

QDo you have a particular crossword style?

AI do have a style. I always have tech references, but I also end up referring to young adult books. I’ve written two books myself, and I love to reference children’s books. Children’s book authors are not as famous as other authors, so I like to give them a little bit of attention.

I also love Taylor Swift, so there are a lot of song references, too. Sometimes it’s just simple words from a song, but it’s a way to enliven the puzzle. I love musical theater, too, so I use a lot of musical references.

I also like to include a lot of women and women of color. And because I’m Jewish, I use a lot of Jewish slang. I try to make my crosswords a reflection of who I am.

Q Is there a crossword clue that you’re dying to use, but haven’t?

Children’s author and crossword puzzle writer

Aimee Lucido writes puzzles for The New York Times and the New Yorker.

JANE TYSKA/STAFF

AI don’t want to say it, because I still want to use it. There’s one that’s just never going to make it because it would be too hard. The clue would be electric chair, and the answer, Elon Musk. But it’s just too hard.

QDo you use a computer to write your puzzles?

AIt’s all on a computer with software that helps out, but I do a lot of curating to make sure the best words get in. I have my own personal dictionaries and lists.

QDo you still work crossword puzzles?

ANot as many I used to. I was solving so many every day that I had to pare it back. I’m not a fast solver, and I just don’t have that kind of time any more, but I do a few every week, and I do a lot of trivia puzzles that are sort of adjacent to crosswords.

QI have to admit that I do pretty well on Mondays and Tuesdays, but by Thursday’s crossword, I have to cheat a little.

A There’s not anything wrong with cheating — looking up the answers. Just make sure you’re learning, too.

QDo you have advice for anyone wanting to write crosswords?

A Keep your voice in the puzzle. If it’s a puzzle anyone could make, it’s not going to be very fun.

Aimee Lucido created a custom crossword puzzle just for the readers of Mysteries.

A realm for royals

CREATED BY AIMEE LUCIDO FOR THE BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

ACROSS

1. Strapped support

4. Back-to-school mo.

7. “Middle” note

10. Ailment that may be helped by Botox injections

13. Text system that includes emoji

15. Audiophile's buys

16. Where you might find Christ the Redeemer

17. Queen of the Island of California

18. Crude structure?

20. Archer of teen bookdom

22. “____ Am Telling You” (popular audition piece)

23. Give a hoot

26. Palatial Berkeley home designed by John Hudson Thomas in 1929

28. Suffix for “sea” or “man”

30. Corp. symbols

31. Feb. 14

32. “Phew, good to be back!”

34. Cork's home

36. San Francisco resident who declared himself ruler of the United States in 1859

41. Rink whistle-blowers

42. “Eva Luna” author Allende

44. Like some Hanukkah prayers

47. Quaint cry of disapproval

49. ___ Gay

50. With 59-Across, Calistoga winery styled to look like it came directly out of Tuscany

53. Seaweed variety

54. Some

55. Beverage that comes from the Spanish word for “blood”

57. “One” punch

59. See 50-Across

63. Baton Rouge sch.

64. Enjoyed, as a bratwurst

65. Short end of the stick

66. Where the Blues play, briefly

67. Fashion inits.

68. Federal retirement org.

69. Turn blue, say

DOWN

1. Tampa Bay N.F.L.er

2. Focus of some vaccine conversations

3. Feel rotten

4. Place to veg out while watching Netflix

5. Head of Hollywood?

6. Nickname for a small person

7. Converges

8. Protestant denom.

9. Non-native speaker's subj.

10. Huge size at Starbucks

11. In an understated way

12. Angelina's last name that means “pretty one”

14. Instagrammable dessert on a stick

19. Alternative to the arrow keys, in gaming

21. Method of language learning

23. Longtime CBS drama

24. High point

25. Former Chicago mayor Emanuel

27. Anti

29. Come into view

33. Afore

35. Versailles VIP

37. Like the use of beta blockers to treat anxiety

38. Pub container

39. One with a solo in Brahms's Symphony No. 1

40. Jodie Foster title role

43. Sleeping dog's spot

44. Least risky

45. Of service

46. Pkg. datum

48. Mystery awards, named for a famous author

50. Facetimes

51. Exams for would-be attys.

52. Soul singer Thomas et al.

56. Dubuque's state

58. Silent Bob's partner

60. Multi-vol. reference set

61. “Hey, wait a minute...”

62. The “A” of I.P.A.

True-crime junkies have many good reasons for fixating on the foulest of human misdeeds

BY MARTHA ROSS

I found myself in the basement of the Contra Costa County Superior Courthouse in Martinez, staring at a partial bloody footprint on the lid of a plastic bin. The footprint looked markedly similar to the tread on the bottom of the teenage boy’s slip-on shoe I held in my hand.

I had fallen down a true-crime rabbit hole. Somehow I had hoped that seeing the shoe and footprint in person would help me make sense of a gruesome murder I’d covered as a reporter. A teenager who had gone to my high school had been convicted of bludgeoning his 52-year-old female neighbor to death.

Even after the boy’s conviction, I scoured public records, hit up key players for insights and traded theories on mid-2000s message boards. And, yes, my curiosity led me into a courthouse basement to search through boxes of crimescene evidence.

Fifteen years later, I don’t have more clarity on this case, but I know I’m not alone in going down

Top: Paul Holes, retired Contra Costa investigator, spent 24 years investigating the “Golden State Killer.”

Between 1976 and 1986, the prolific Golden State Killer committed a dozen homicides, 45 rapes and more than 120 residential burglaries across California. Evidence gathered at the scenes helped build a case.

One day in 2007,

LAURA A. ODA/STAFF

PHOTO COURTESY FBI

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a rabbit hole in a high-profile crime, even when the results are elusive.

In her 2018 New York Times best-seller, “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark,” the late author Michelle McNamara wrote about her obsession with uncovering the identity of the Golden State Killer, before the arrest of Joseph DeAngelo. And retired cops and amateurs have spent decades trying to name the Zodiac, the terrorizing figure linked to five Bay Area murders in the late 1960s.

More casual consumers of true crime feed a genre that sprawls across TV networks, streaming services, podcasts, movies, Facebook and Reddit groups and the annual CrimeCon convention. Fans of murder and missingperson narratives consistently push crime documentaries to No. 1 spots on Netflix. And last fall, so-called web sleuths feverishly tracked the ill-fated road trip of Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie, making the 22-year-old woman’s disappearance a national sensation.

WHY ARE WE SO OBSESSED?

Criminologists discount the idea that the public fascination with tales of violence and mayhem is necessarily morbid, unhealthy or exploitative. Our interest, they say, is very, well, human. If murder has long been a popular subject for entertainment, that’s because humans are innately intrigued by mysteries, puzzles and whodunits.

Certainly, the enduring interest in the Zodiac killer is largely due to the puzzles he left behind — menacing letters he sent to the media, in which he claimed responsibility and shared cryptograms he said would reveal his identity.

For Virginia software developer David Oranchak, it was an intellectual challenge to successfully decipher a 340-character cryptogram the Zodiac sent the San Francisco Chronicle in 1969. “I hope you are having fun trying to catch me,” the cipher began, as Oranchak and two colleagues discovered.

Oranchak and his fellow

Above: Dave Domingo holds family photos of his mother, Cheri Domingo, at his home in Pleasanton in 2018. Domingo was 13 years old when his mother was murdered by the Golden State Killer. RAY CHAVEZ/STAFF ARCHIVES

Below: True crime author Michelle McNamara wrote about her quest to track down the Golden State Killer in her book, “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark.” HBO

cryptographers spent 14 years trying to crack the Zodiac’s code, finally succeeding in December 2020, as the FBI acknowledged.

“There is sometimes great satisfaction in solving hard problems,” Oranchak said via email.

But beyond the satisfaction of playing detective, people are hard-wired for empathy. It’s in our nature to want to understand why people do terrible things, especially people who could be our neighbors, classmates or co-workers, said David Schmid, an associate professor of English at the University of Buffalo who studies crime narratives and popular culture. And telling stories has always been a way for humans to create order out of chaotic events.

“I think the more confusing and complicated and frustrating the world around us is, the stronger that desire is to have something make sense. I think that’s a big part of the fascination with mystery and cold cases,” Schmid, a Stanford alum, said.

Schadenfreude “is always going to be part of the equation,” he said, with people feeling relieved that “thank god, it’s them and not me.”

Crime stories appeal to our “visceral instincts” and fears for our safety, said Scott Bonn, a criminologist and author of “Why We Love Serial Killers: The Curious Appeal of the World’s Most Savage Murderers.” Like Greek tragedies, horror movies and roller coaster rides, these stories allow us to experience terror in a controlled way — the adrenaline rush followed by catharsis.

Bonn noted that producers at Discovery, Oxygen and the A&E network arrange their true-crime shows accordingly. The shows allow people to live in the “nightmare” of a crime but end with a resolution — police finding a body or arresting the criminal. “They are like little morality plays,” he said, “and in the end, justice prevails.”

Indeed, a concern for justice is part of the attraction of truecrime cases for people avidly

following a case in the media or for an investigative writer such as McNamara, who wanted the victims of the Golden State Killer to find relief with his arrest. “The hook for me was that the case seemed solvable,” McNamara wrote.

Sadly, McNamara died in 2016, two years before authorities identified the Golden State Killer as DeAngelo, an ex-police officer living in Citrus Heights. Paul Holes, the former Contra Costa County criminalist who helped find the DNA link between a relative of DeAngelo’s and one of the crime scenes, credited McNamara with uncovering details that weren’t in the original case files.

Holes’ work on the Golden State Killer case also made him a star in true-crime circles, and he has continued to work on cold cases in retirement. He co-hosts a popular true-crime podcast, “The Murder Squad,” which spotlights long-forgotten cases.

When questions about a case linger, public interest grows. It’s that need for “a story” for why

Experts and true crime enthusiasts alike spent years trying to decode the strange cryptograms in the taunting letters the socalled Zodiac killer sent San Francisco Police.

a crime happened, said Jennifer Buckholtz, a Los Gatos-reared criminal justice professor at the American Military Institute, who investigates cold cases as a volunteer and has helped with recent efforts to name the Zodiac killer.

Buckholtz is gratified that she helped provide that “story” for people following the long-unsolved 2004 murder of 22-yearold Rebekah Gould, an Arkansas college student. Buckholtz’s work helped police identify a suspect, news that also provided answers for Gould’s family.

“(Rebekah’s dad) told me countless times, I just want the guy involved, ‘I want the story,’” Buckholtz said.

Experts chart Americans’ fascination with true-crime back to the sensationalist media coverage on both sides of the Atlantic of Jack the Ripper, who murdered and mutilated women in London in the late 1800s. Throughout the 20th century, the American public devoured lurid, dime-store crime novels, gangster movies, high-minded nonfiction like

ERIC RISBERG/ AP ARCHIVE

Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood” and the circuslike coverage of cases from the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby to the trial of O.J. Simpson.

Schmid believes the fascination with true crime went “mainstream” in the late 1980s or ’90s. “Before, someone’s fascination might be their dirty secret,” he said. But he noticed the shift during the 1992 Academy Awards when “The Silence of the Lambs,” the thriller about FBI profiling of serial killers, won best picture. At one point, host Billy Crystal came onstage in Hannibal Lecter’s famous mask.

“How is it possible that Hannibal Lecter and Anthony Hopkins were the stars of the evening?” said Schmid.

Thirty years later, Hannibal Lecter’s stature as an icon of American pop culture has only grown, but Schmid argues that our enduring fascination with the world of crime can serve another important human need: to create “a more just and equal society.”

Thoughtfully crafted narratives can bring attention to policing, the court system, human behavior and social policy, he said. More recently, the genre has made room for magazine articles, documentaries and podcasts about wrongful convictions and police abuses.

“This form of popular culture has so much potential to be exploitative and problematic,” Schmid said, “yet I also think it has the potential to do good.”

B R A S E P C E E T M J

U N I C O D E L P S R I O

C A L A F I A O I L W E L L K A T N I S S A N D I C A R E H U M E C A S T L E

S C A P E T M S V D A Y

I M H O M E E I R E E M P E R O R N O R T O N R E F S I S A B E L S U N G F I E E N O L A C A S T E L L O D I K E L P A

CROSSWORD PUZZLE ON PAGE 40

Sensational cases, from the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby to the trial of O.J. Simpson, left, fascinate the public and fuel the true crime genre.

VINCE BUCCI / AP ARCHIVE, POOL

Computer history curator stands watch over a techie’s treasure trove

BY LINDA ZAVORAL

It’s been called the geek’s Valhalla.

The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, the world’s largest collection of computing artifacts, boasts such innovations as ENIAC, the electronic whiz; the speedy Cray-1 supercomputer; the legendary Apple I personal computer; and Enigma, the historically significant World War II machine used to encrypt Axis troop movements.

But believe us when we say that you don’t have to be a geek’s geek to enjoy this museum. There’s a whole display on a teapot (the legendary curved 3-D model kick-started the world of CGI). And a shrine to Pac-Man.

We tapped into the boundless enthusiasm of senior curator Dag Spicer, a former hardware engineer and technical writer whose car license plate reads “TURING1” — a nod to the brilliant mathematician who cracked the Enigma code — for his guide to the highlights. When the museum reopens to the public early this year, you’ll be ready.

Here’s an edited version (aka a compressed file) of our conversations:

QWhat is the oldest relic in the museum?

AThe oldest object is a set of Napier’s Bones, a pre-computing artifact from about 1700. It is a beautiful set of wooden rods, with multiplication tables delicately etched on them. Using the rods, multiplication can then be

Details: When the museum reopens, find details on workshops, events, hours and admission at https:// computerhistory.org. 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View

reduced to addition, and division to subtraction.

QWhich exhibit prompts techies’ jaws to drop? And what’s the jaw-dropper for non-techies?

AThere is some overlap in astonishment factor between techies and non-techies. For example, RAMAC — the world’s first disk drive — holds about 3.75 MB of data and is the size of a refrigerator, which nearly everyone finds very surprising.

For the technically inclined, I think seeing an original Seymour Cray design notebook for the Cray-1 supercomputer is pretty interesting, as is the visually stunning Cray-1 itself, the fastest computer in the world for over five years.

QWhat don’t we know about the Nazis’ Enigma and the code-breakers?

AGerman military Enigma operators used codes that were changed at varying intervals — as World War II went on, there were frequently multiple code changes per day.

The Enigma method was largely broken by three Polish codebreakers in the 1920s. The

British built on their work and automated it at scale to enable useful, urgent, large-scale enemy code-breaking.

Enigma machines are still very much in circulation, albeit as collector’s items. Since their circuitry is very simple, most still work or can be made to work. They are easy to operate, reliable and rugged — as would be expected of a technology for military use.

Fun fact: Occasionally, contests are held to decode original Enigma messages. A vintage message is sent out over the air via Morse code, and whoever can decode it first wins!

QDo you seriously have an important piece of computer history that came from a Sunnyvale bar?

AWe do! It’s the one-of-akind 1972 Pong video game prototype that was first installed at Andy Capp’s Tavern in Sunnyvale. Two weeks after installing it, Pong engineer Al Alcorn was asked to check on the machine, as it appeared to be broken. Instead, Pong’s coin box was actually full of quarters, showing that there was a healthy market for video games. The company Alcorn worked for, Atari, would lead a video game revolution.

QDid the museum inherit anything from the now-defunct Fry’s Electronics?

AWe are in discussion with them now, actually. They were a key part of Silicon Valley history.

An Enigma machine, a cipher device used by Nazi Germany during WWII, is part of the vast collection at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View.

QGeeks may think paper is passé, but you have quite a collection of documents. What’s one of the cool pieces of ephemera?

AOne of my favorites is the punched card holiday wreath made in the 1960s. IBM defined the “IBM Card” in 1928 for its mechanical office equipment. Cards were made by the billions until rendered obsolete by online input methods in the mid-1970s.

Dag Spicer, senior curator at the Computer History Museum, stands in front of a 1964 CDC 6600 computer in Mountain View.

Speaking of paper, we also have one of the largest paper archives in the history of computing in the world, with nearly one linear mile of often rare and unique documents from leading thinkers and pioneers in computing. During COVID, we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of research requests and people accessing our archives. So computer history marches on, in spite of things.

DAI SUGANO/STAFF

ARIC CRABB/STAFF

Time traveling your way across the Bay

History left deep footprints at these half-dozen spots

BY CHUCK BARNEY

Remember how Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) used a plutonium-powered DeLorean to take off on a wild bit of time travel in “Back to the Future”? Ah, if only modern technology could somehow turn cinematic fantasy into reality.

But you don’t need the help of crazy Doc Brown — or a flux capacitor (whatever that is) — to experience the Bay Area’s colorful past. That’s because there are vestiges of it everywhere.

Yes, just a little legwork — and some imagination — is all it takes to experience the days of yesteryear and important historical moments.

Now, buckle up, history buffs. We have sights to see that evoke California’s Spanish colonial past and the glitzy turn of a different century — and several distinctly more modern landmarks. Some you can tour, some you can stroll by, and others are better suited for armchair reading.

THE PALACE HOTEL

San Francisco

Enter the majestic Garden Court, with its marble columns, crystal chandeliers and massive displays of stained glass, and you’re instantly thrust into the

Previous page: San Francisco’s Palace Hotel goes all out during the holidays, decking the famous Garden Court in grand style.

ANDA CHU/STAFF

Right: A statue of a Native American man at Mission San Juan Bautista bears testimony to the indigenous people whose labor supported the Spanish colonial efforts.

PATRICK TEHAN/STAFF ARCHIVES

wondrous opulence of the Gilded Age.

Established in 1875 and rebuilt after extensive fire damage incurred after the 1906 earthquake, the Palace is San Francisco’s oldest luxury hotel. It’s also the site of some incredible history.

On the night of Aug. 2, 1923, President Warren G. Harding was lying in bed in Room 8064 when he suddenly died at the age of 57. The Presidential Suite where Harding died is still here, and a new lobby-level museum — Landmark 18 — features info about Harding, along with other Palace stories, photographs and memorabilia. Bonus points if you knew that Hawaiian King Kal kaua also died at the Palace — in 1891.

Visit the hotel — and enjoy weekend brunch or afternoon tea in the Garden Court — at 2 New

MISSION SAN JUAN BAUTISTA

San Benito County

Head for San Juan Bautista for a blast to the summer of 1797, when California’s largest Spanish-era mission was founded and named for Saint John the Baptist.

As you stroll along a lovely colonnaded walkway, try to imagine what life was like here, including the arduous ranching and farming activity, much of it conducted by Native Americans. And yet, there was still time for melodious performances delivered by a choir of Native American boys inside the church. No wonder the place was nicknamed “the Mission of Music.”

Right nearby is San Juan Bautista Historic State Park, where restored structures reflect California’s Spanish, Mexican and Gold Rush years.

You’ll even find a bit of movie history here, as the mission appeared in the final scenes of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 classic “Vertigo.”

Of course, San Juan Bautista wasn’t the only Bay Area mission established by Spanish colonizers during the 18th and early 19th centuries. Other mission sites include Carmel, Fremont, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Rafael, Sonoma and Soledad.

The mission and gardens at San Juan Bautista mission, 402 Second St., are typically open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday-Sunday for self-guided tours ($4-$7) and docent-led, reservation-only tours

($20) on weekdays. San Juan Bautista Historic State Park, which is on Second Street between Washington and Mariposa streets, is typically open from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily for self-guided visits and guided walking tours by reservation. Living History

Days have returned to the park and are usually held on the first Monday of each month, but check for details, special events and park closures at www.parks.ca.gov before you go.

FAMOUS STARTUP GARAGES

Silicon Valley

It all began in a garage. Or several garages, actually.

The birthplace of Silicon Valley — according to a plaque posted out front — is 367 Addison Ave. in Palo Alto. That’s where, in 1939, Stanford students Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard launched their groundbreaking partnership. In a one-car garage — a converted shed — they began developing their first product, an audio oscillator.

The garage and home, restored in 2005 by HP, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The property isn’t open for public tours, but visitors can take selfies from the sidewalk.

Other South Bay garages of note include the one adjoining Steve Jobs’ childhood home at 2066 Crist Drive in Los Altos. It’s here that Jobs and Steve Wozniak built the first 50 Apple 1 computers in 1976.

And then there’s the Google garage at 232 Santa Margarita Ave. in Menlo Park. Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin rented this space from their friend Susan Wojcicki in 1998 and began building the search engine that would dramatically change the Internet.

These three garages serve as vivid reminders that big dreams often take root in humble places. Snap those selfies, then head for Mountain View’s Computer History Museum, which is reopening in 2022 at 1401 N.

Rays of sunlight illuminate the chapel at Mission San Juan Bautista, which was built in 1797.

VERN FISHER/ MONTEREY COUNTY HERALD

Montgomery St., San Francisco; www.marriott.com.

Shoreline Blvd., to learn more; https://computerhistory.org.

EARTHQUAKE RELIEF COTTAGES

San Francisco

Tiny houses are trendy these days, but minimalist living was more a necessity than choice for thousands of San Franciscans left homeless in the wake of the 1906 earthquake and fire. Swift action was needed to shelter them. Bring on the “earthquake shack.”

City officials partnered with the U.S. Army to quickly build 5,300 cottages in tight clusters throughout local parks. With green walls made of redwood and roofs shingled in cedar, the dwellings typically occupied less than 200 square feet. Tenants paid $2 monthly rent toward the total cost of $50, with an option to own. When the cottages were paid off, they were hauled to empty lots in San Francisco and beyond.

Most of the earthquake shacks have been demolished, but it’s estimated that at least 30 endure — many of them modified and expanded by modern residents. Among the more visible are the petite dwellings at 1227 24th Ave. (San Francisco City Landmark

No. 171), 48 Cortland Ave. and 14 Elsie St. And three unoccupied cottages have been preserved in their original form, two of which

A pair of earthquake cottages used by 1906 survivors are on display at The Presidio in San Francisco. ANDA CHU/STAFF

can be found behind the Old Post Hospital in the Presidio. Another is located in Greenie’s Conservation Corner at the San

A signpost marks the former Black Panther party headquarters in Oakland.

RAY CHAVEZ/STAFF

Francisco Zoo.

Learn more about their history at www.nps.gov/places/000/1906earthquake-cottages.htm.

In October 1966, as war raged in Viet-

nam and disputes over equality and civil rights erupted here at home, young students Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale met at Merritt College to found the Black

Panther Party of Self Defense. Eventually establishing themselves as the most influential organization in the Black Power movement, the Panthers advocated for social reform, fought against police brutality, held voter registration drives and organized free school breakfast programs and health clinics. During its 16-year run, the Black Panther Party expanded beyond Oakland to more than 40 chapters and branches across the nation and the world. Their work paved the way for today’s passionate activists.

You’ll find several sites in Oakland where Black Panther history unfolded, including the party’s central headquarters in the Victorian at 14th and Peralta streets. Adorning the walls of the nearby Sav-Mor store is a glorious mural by artist Refa One that recalls Newton and the Panthers. And the It’s All Good Bakery at 5622 Martin Luther King Jr. Way is a more humble but key locale. It served as the party’s first office and features a tribute wall dedicated to famous Panther members.

Learn more at www. visitoakland.com/blog/post/blackpanther-party.

PATTY HEARST’S APARTMENT Berkeley

Around 9 p.m. on the night of Feb. 4, 1974, there was a knock on the door of apartment No. 4 at 2603 Benvenue St. In a chaotic instant, a group of armed men and women burst into the dwelling and abducted 19-year-old college student Patty Hearst, the granddaughter of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst.

The kidnappers — members of a guerrilla group called the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) — beat up her fiance, Stephen Weed, and sent witnesses fleeing as they fired guns while locking the blindfolded Hearst into the trunk of a car and speeding away.

Thus began a bizarre crime story that made national headlines. The Berkeley apartment still exists and is a private residence.

BLACK PANTHER ORIGINS Oakland

Art Deco enthusiasts protect and preserve its timeless, elegant aesthetic

Q&A

rugs and silver.

We’d love to return to our walking tours, where we go into neighborhoods and talk about buildings. And I’d be remiss not to mention that we’ve brought back Deco Drinks. All of these events are open to the public!

BY KATE LUCKY

Mirrored and balanced. Angular and geometric. Shimmering and opulent. The Art Deco aesthetic, which flourished in the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s, is as striking as it is beautiful. No wonder The Art Deco Society of California is working to preserve the period’s architecture here in the Bay Area — and celebrating its music, dress and culture, too. (Read on to learn more about their fabulous, Great Gatsby-themed summer picnic!)

Serafina Miller has been involved with the Art Deco Society for 24 years. She’s currently serving as the group’s interim president. Amos White joined the board in 2021. Their responses have been edited for clarity and length.

QWhy do you think saving Art Deco buildings in the Bay Area is important?

SM: My elevator pitch for what we do: We preserve really beautiful spaces so we can throw amazing parties in them!

We appreciate the visual diversity that a city maintains by holding on to Art Deco buildings. It’s about small details. I live in a 1933 San Francisco flat that was built by the grandmother from whom I bought it. It was pretty much original when I came in. The ceiling molding is still there. The doors are still dark, natural wood. There are certain design elements that just can’t be

replicated today. And I think it’d be a shame to lose them. It keeps neighborhoods interesting. And it helps preserve history.

AW: I would emphasize how modern this aesthetic was — its subtle futurism, its break from the pastoral themes of the past. Artists, designers, architects and engineers were really trying to project forward into the future.

QI know the Art Deco Society is also an educational organization. Can you talk about that aspect?

AW: Art Deco used gold and things that gleam. It wasn’t pedantic or pedestrian. But it also wasn’t necessarily reality! Literature and films showed the glitter of the moment, though that wasn’t literally representative of society at the time.

It’s been eye opening to watch the Art Deco Society acknowledge its whiteness and start bringing in more diverse speakers as part of its programming. We all love Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, but what was the world like from their point of view? What about Langston Hughes and Harlem Renaissance poets like Countee Cullen? How can we educate people on those diverse perspectives?

SM: We recently hosted a lecture on Chinese artists working in Hollywood during these decades. We also had a speaker present on

Above: Soaring ceilings and Art Deco touches grace the grand interior of Oakland’s Paramount Theatre.

how to dress for our Gatsby picnic: shopping for vintage dresses, making modern dresses look old with styling and accessories. This year, we made sure the example pictures we brought forward were of a more diverse group of people. These stories have always existed, but they haven’t always been accessible.

QUntil tours return (and until next summer’s picnic!): Where should the curious reader go to see some Bay Area Art Deco in action?

AW: Just explore! The Bay Area has its own flair. I live in Alameda, the birthplace and home to the Bruton sisters — they were prolific artists of the period.

SM: We had major Art Deco influences like Timothy Pflueger and Julia Morgan working in the Bay Area. The City Club of San Francisco, which used to be the Stock Exchange, was designed by Pflueger — not just the building, but its interiors and furniture. It’s breathtaking, but not always easy to get into. (Editor’s note: The Art Deco Society’s annual Preservation Ball will be held at the City Club on March 19 — get tickets if you want to catch a glimpse inside!)

Right: A gala ball in 2013 presented by the Art Deco Society celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Paramount Theatre restoration project.

QTell us more about that picnic!

SM: The Gatsby Summer Afternoon is always in September, at the Dunsmuir Hellman Historic Estate in Oakland. Everyone who attends is dressed in period picnic attire. There’s a dance floor and a bandstand, automobiles from between the wars and elaborate picnics with tents, couches, chairs,

Oakland’s Paramount Theatre was one of the first buildings that the Art Deco Society helped preserve. I love the fact that you can still go there and see a movie. The Wurlitzer is still there. The Fox Theater has been restored and reopened. And the old Floral Depot building on the corner of Telegraph and 19th is now home to a restaurant. In San Jose, there’s the Hotel De Anza, which opened in 1931.

Learn more about the Art Deco Preservation Society at www. artdecosocietyofcalifornia.org.

LAURA A. ODA/ STAFF ARCHIVES

RAY CHAVEZ/ STAFF ARCHIVES

BY MARTHA ROSS AND LINDA ZAVORAL

f you can’t decide between getting your Old World castle fix in Scotland, France, Germany or Spain, why not try something much closer to home?

Yes, the Bay Area has castles, magnificent chateaus and other unique structures built to evoke the romance and mystery of a medieval royal abode. And one was erected to serve the classic function of a castle, providing shelter and defense against enemy attack.

Here are five of the Bay Area’s most iconic castles to explore on the printed page or in real life.

Fort Point SAN FRANCISCO

On a foggy night, we thought we saw a ghost lurking among the cannon mounts on the roof of Fort Point.

While playing Union soldiers on a memorable fifthgrade overnight field trip, a classmate and I had pulled midnight to 2 a.m. guard duties at the fort, built in 1861 at the southern end of the Golden Gate to protect against Confederate invasion. A dark figure stood on the west bastion, looking out over the strait to the sounds of a fog horn, waves lapping against the rocks and the thunk-thunk of cars crossing the bridge above.

The figure turned out to be a parent chaperone, but our brief terror is a reminder of the lore and mysteries attached to this national historic site. The fort is so atmospheric, Alfred Hitchcock used it for a scene in “Vertigo,” when his haunted heroine jumps into the bay to escape her demons. Banquo’s ghost roamed its halls in 2013, when a theater company used it as a stand-in for Macbeth’s castle.

Built with seven-foot-thick brick walls to withstand a lengthy siege, the four-tier, brick-and-mortar fort fits the Old World definition of castle. The original design even called for a moat, and Fort Point replaced the Castillo de San Joaquin, an adobe gun battery

For a no-hassle castle visit, check these five fortresses by the Bay

built on the bluff by the Spanish in 1794.

Winemaker Dario Sattui opened his re-created Tuscan castle, Castello di Amorosa, in Calistoga in 2007. The $30 million, 121,000-square-foot castle boasts 107 rooms on seven levels.

PATRICK TEHAN/STAFF ARCHIVES

Fort Point is one of many fortifications built around San Francisco Bay over two centuries to stop an attack — from the British, the Russians, the Japanese, the Soviets or fellow Americans. The invaders never came to Fort Point, though a Confederate ship was just a few days away from the Golden Gate in the summer of 1865, when its captain learned that the Confederacy had fallen.

How to get a closer look: Fort Point hours vary by season (and pandemic precautions), but the outdoor areas should be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday through Sunday through May.

Find the San Francisco fort at the end of Marine Drive, beneath the Golden Gate Bridge; https://www. nps.gov/fopo/.

Castello di Amorosa

CALISTOGA

This is the castle that wine built.

Make that wine and Dario Sattui.

The fourth-generation winemaker, who intended to construct an edifice that would honor his Italian ancestors and showcase his Castello di Amorosa wine

Above: Thick walls, crenellated towers and dragons add to the aura at Castello di Amorosa. ERIC RISBERG/AP FILE

Above: Visitors take in the view from one of the towers at Castello di Amorosa, a winery south of Calistoga.

Left: Fresco-lined walls and a 22-foot vaulted ceiling add opulence to the great hall.

PATRICK TEHAN/ STAFF ARCHIVES

Right: The Gilbert family rents out their Albion Castle in San Francisco to the occasional A-lister looking for eclectic accommodations.

KARL MONDON/STAFF

label, discovered that his passion for medieval architecture knew few bounds.

Sattui had 8,000 tons of stones chiseled by hand and set individually. He imported lead glass from Italy and one million antique bricks from throughout Europe. He found artisans to handcarve the gargoyles. He added a drawbridge, a moat, five towers, an armory and a chapel. He filled below-ground chambers with wine barrels and artifacts.

“You either do it right, or people will know it’s not authentic,” he noted on the winery’s website.

After 14 years and many, many millions of dollars, this authentically styled 13th-century Tuscan castle opened to visitors in 2007. Originally designed to cover 8,500 square feet, the awe-inspiring Castello measures 121,000 square feet, with 107 rooms on eight levels, four of them underground. The great hall is 72 feet long, with a 22-foot-high ceiling.

The architectural masterpiece found itself in the news in 2020, when flames from the Glass Fire destroyed a farmhouse on the property and $5 million worth of wine that had been stored there. The majority of Sattui’s wine is stored in the Castello’s cellars and off-site.

Fresh spring water fills a cistern located under Albion Castle in San Francisco.

KARL MONDON/STAFF

Winery president Georg Salzner said at the time, in the medieval ages, kingdoms stored goods that were flammable in a farmhouse that was separated from the main castle. Hoping to re-create Castello as authentically as possible, Sattui did the same here — just without the expectation that “one day it would really pay off,” Salzner said.

How to get a closer look: The castle is open daily for tasting and tours by reservation only. 4045 St. Helena Highway, Calistoga; https://castellodiamorosa.com

Albion Castle SAN FRANCISCO

When a young Englishman named John Hamlin Burnell immigrated to San Francisco to build a brewery in 1870, he set the stage for one of the Bay Area’s most unusual but hidden architectural treasures: Castle Albion in Hunters Point.

Burnell chose a site above a natural underground spring, dug caves and built two stone cisterns beneath the hill to capture the thousands of gallons of pure cold water that collect in aquamarine

pools. For his home, he erected a small castle above the brewery, featuring a five-story stone tower that was no doubt inspired by castles back home.

In the 150 years since, the brewery became a casualty of Prohibition, and the castle has largely remained hidden behind high walls and a tangle of garden in a neighborhood that’s best known for shipyards and housing projects.

But Castle Albion was never a secret to current owner Bill Gilbert, a retired San Francisco police lieutenant-turned-real estate developer. The history buff grew up in Hunters Point and was enchanted every time he passed the property while patrolling the neighborhood. He bought the castle in 2011, and he and his family lovingly restored its woodwork, stone carvings and medieval-inspired interiors, largely created by a sculptor who once owned the property.

The family rents out the castle for eclectic private parties and the occasional A-lister looking for off-the-beaten-track accommodations, and they may one day bottle its spring water. Like her father, Jennifer Gilbert finds herself enchanted anytime she works at the castle. “When I step through the gates, it becomes quiet,” she said. “You hear the birds in the garden, not the buses on the street or the construction, and I love to smell the wood and see the carvings. It’s like stepping into another world.”

How to get a closer look: Castle Albion is not open for public tours but is available for overnight stays or private events, starting at $1,500, at 881 Innes Ave. in San Francisco. Peek inside at www. thealbioncastle.com.

Sam’s Castle PACIFICA

The imposing hillside castle that sits above the town of Pacifica, with majestic views of the Pacific Ocean just beyond, was built as a fortress.

The enemy? Mother Nature. San Francisco railroad attorney Henry Harrison McCloskey and his wife, Emily, were so unnerved

by the great 1906 earthquake and fire that they never wanted to live in the city again. So they looked south to an emerging area called Salada Beach and hired architect Charles C. McDougall to construct this 24-room concrete edifice, modeled after a Scottish castle, for peace of mind. (If they knew that Pacifica sits in what’s known today as the San Andreas/ San Gregorio/Pilarcitos fault zone, they certainly built it to withstand the temblors.)

Members of the McCloskey family lived in their unshakeable mansion for just eight years, from 1908 to 1916. After that, the castle shed its role as a safe haven and became, according to historian Bridget Oates, a Prohibition-era speakeasy, a doctor’s illegal abortion clinic and a U.S. Coast Guard lookout during World War II.

Left in disrepair after those rollicking years, the property was rescued by Sam Mazza, a painting and interior decorating contractor and art collector, in 1959. He bought the castle for $29,000, restored it and filled it with antiques, works of art and vintage oddities. Though Mazza and his wife, Mary, never lived there, they entertained at the castle – and he was careful to ensure its future.

Now known as Sam’s Castle, the structure is owned and run by the

Sam Mazza Foundation, an arts and culture nonprofit which offers tours by the Pacifica Historical Society that are enlivened by tales from the past. As one docent told visitors, “There are ghosts flitting around who have interesting stories to tell of their time here.”

How to get a closer look: The foundation plans to reopen the castle at 900 Mirador Terrace for tours and events during 2022. Check the website, www.sammazzafoundation.org, for updates.

Nat Cisneros holds a crown-shaped medallion he is installing in pavers outside the entrance to the Albion Castle.

KARL MONDON/STAFF

The Sam Mazza Foundation, which runs Pacifica’s Sam’s Castle, hopes to resume historical tours in 2022.

PHOTO BY ROBERT AZZARO FOR THE SAM MAZZA FOUNDATION

Lyford’s Tower TIBURON

It wouldn’t be fair to draw too many comparisons between Tiburon’s Benjamin F. Lyford and King Ludwig II of Bavaria, whose turreted fortress Neuschwanstein inspired Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty” castle.

Lyford was no “mad king.” Still, the Civil War surgeon and inventor shared Ludwig’s fondness for fairytale castles, as well as a Victorian-era ambition to be a master builder. After Lyford pioneered techniques in embalming at his San Francisco practice, he moved into real estate development, courtesy of his wife Hilarita Reed, who inherited 9,000 acres of prime land along the Tiburon peninsula.

In 1889, he built his “castle,” a two-story Romanesque-style tower overlooking Angel Island. The circular tower was to serve as his office and the gateway to “Hygeia,” his utopian health resort and residential community for people who wanted to enjoy the peninsula’s stunning scenery, temperate climate and freedom from “elements which retard growth and ultimately destroy life,” according to an 1895 brochure. Lyford’s Hygeia also promised such design and hygiene innovations as water closets and its own sewer system.

Alas, Hygeia never happened, because Lyford imposed too many design and lifestyle restrictions on future homeowners. The Lyford heirs eventually sold off the property, but the name is still attached to the tower and to a nearby cove that’s home to cliffside residences that boast killer views and private yacht ramps. Lyford’s Victorian mansion also can be seen at the Richardson Bay Audubon Center & Sanctuary, a few miles up the peninsula.

How to get a closer look: The open-air tower, at 2034 Paradise Drive, is always open to the public. But because parking near the tower is virtually nonexistent, visitors should park in downtown Tiburon or near Shoreline Park and stroll up.

Sam’s Castle in Pacifica was built by the McCloskey family of San Francisco as a refuge after the Great Earthquake of 1906. Sam Mazza purchased the property in 1959.

PHOTO BY ROBERT AZZARO FOR THE SAM MAZZA FOUNDATION

THE SPIRITS MOVE THEM

Podcasting partners explore San Jose’s spooky history

BY JIM HARRINGTON

Carmen Sánchez and Manuel Ávalos have been close friends since their days at San Jose’s John Muir Middle School and often discussed — jokingly — doing a podcast together. When the pandemic hit, they got more serious about the endeavor — in part because it gave them a way to stay close online.

The result was “San Hauntse: Mysteries of San José,” a podcast that explores Silicon Valley’s haunted spots and spooky tales. It’s available through Spotify, Apple and other platforms. (Find those links at https://sanhauntse. wordpress.com.)

“We’ve both always been into spooky things in general and thought this would be a fun way to learn more about our hometown’s history,” Ávalos says.

QWhat is it about mysterious, haunted subject matter that attracts you?

Sánchez: It’s the intrigue, the mystery, the dark, taboo subject matter that make people want to sit around the campfire or lean a bit closer at the dinner table.

Ávalos: For me, it’s that these kinds of topics have not been scientifically explained, (which) leaves a lot of room for the imagination. I also think that the legends and oral history of a community say a lot about the people, so it provides some insight into local culture.

QCan you give me a few examples of subjects you’ve

SPOOKY SPOTS

Want to explore San Jose’s spooky side? Here are five of Carmen Sánchez and Manuel Ávalos’ five favorite haunted sites in the San Jose area.

Hicks Road: According to urban legend, travelers on this road have seen or been attacked by members of a cannibalistic cult, ghosts, witches and possibly even aliens.

San Felipe Road: There are tales of weird creatures and spooky experiences in the darkness. Plus, a supposedly haunted 19th-century schoolhouse lies along the road.

St. James Park: The park was the site of an infamous 1933 incident in which two men accused of murdering young Brooke Hart were lynched before they could stand trial.

Dottie’s Pond: This small pond in Santa Teresa County Park has mysterious origins in Ohlone folklore and is said to be haunted by the ghost of a young girl with telekinetic powers, who was drowned by a demonic entity there.

Agnews Developmental Center: The site of a former hospital for psychiatric patients and the developmentally disabled is said to be haunted by ghosts of some of the 100-plus people killed there during the 1906 earthquake.

covered in the podcast?

Ávalos: We mostly cover ghost stories, but we’ve dabbled in a few other topics such as aliens, sea monsters, Bigfoot and vampires. There are definitely some recurring themes — ghostly vehicles, star-crossed lovers meeting an untimely demise and, given the historical context many of these legends are rooted in, a lot of prejudice. The scariest part of the podcast is actually the amount of sexism and racism we encoun-

ter when looking into San Jose’s history.

Sánchez: We have covered many of the major San Jose haunts, such as Hellyer House, Winchester Mystery House, Hicks Road, San Felipe Road, Marsh Road and Dottie’s Pond.

QHow much research goes into each episode?

Ávalos: We spend several hours every week researching topics and preparing the episodes. Even though it’s a podcast for fun, I do like to take an academic approach to our research. We always try to cite our sources or at least trace our steps, so that we always know where our information comes from — which is especially important in topics such as these, where there is so much conflicting or dubious information floating around.

QHas anything you’ve featured on the podcast truly creeped you out or scared you?

Podcast hosts Manuel Ávalos and Carmen Sánchez discuss Santa Teresa Spring, also known as Dottie’s Pond, at Rancho Santa Teresa Historic Park in San Jose, a supposedly haunted spot.

ANDA CHU/STAFF

Ávalos: A lot of these stories scare me. One in particular is the Skyline-to-the-Sea hiking trail in Los Gatos, which is said to be haunted by the lost souls of children. We always cast reasonable doubt on all of the legends we cover, but some of them just truly don’t have the evidence to support them, and we make sure to point that out. What’s more scary to me is seeing how some of these legends exemplify the ability of misinformation to spread and persist over time.

Explore the Bay Area’s 6 ghost towns

STORY BY ETHAN BARON

MAPS BY DAVE JOHNSON

In some parts of the Bay Area, ghosts still exist, if you can conjure them.

All you need are waypoints to a vanished time — decaying old buildings, a tombstone or two, a little history and a few old photos — and your imagination. You’ll find those spirits from the past in surprising locations — amid rolling hills in a lovely East Bay valley, for example, or on a muddy island at the south end of the bay.

Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve lies on the southwest edge of Antioch. Today, this parkland is an expanse of grassy green splendor, but the area once teemed with people, residents of five bustling towns that sprang

up after coal was discovered here in 1859.

The Mount Diablo Coal Field was the state’s largest coal-mining district from 1860 until 1914, powering California’s post-Gold Rush growth. This area, which was originally inhabited by three Miwok-speaking indigenous tribes, was taken over by Spanish, Mexican and American settlers in the late 1700s as ranch land. A century later, a settler named William Israel discovered a coal seam. Miners began tunneling into the earth to harvest the “black diamonds.”

The towns of Nortonville, Somersville, Stewartville, West Hartley and Judsonville were built around a dozen of those mines. Men and boys dug deep, the grimy fruits of their labor sent by rail and ship to San Francisco, Sacramento and Stockton. Horrific deaths occurred with regularity along the hundreds of miles of underground workings. Tunnels collapsed, methane gas and coal dust exploded. But it wasn’t until the coal seam petered out that residents packed up their belongings and left.

Fascinating artifacts of a lost time remain amid the nearly 9,000 acres of stunning parkland. Hiking and cycling trails wind through oak groves and meadows cut by wildlife trails and overseen by hawks and vultures. And whether you’re walking, hiking or cycling, one particular route offers plenty of options for difficulty and length — one to seven miles — allowing you the history-based adventure of your choice, plus ghosts a-plenty.

The journey starts at an old mine works with an explosive and tragic history, stops at a graveyard with views to die for, passes through the site of the coal district’s biggest town and mine and delivers you to the quite peculiar

JANE

residence of a phantom named Jim. Along the way, signs offer photos and information to help your imagination populate these long-gone dwellings.

The past hits you almost upon arrival. On the right side of the parking lot as you drive in, you’ll see a pit and the top of the Independent Mine, where men and boys went down (and sometimes never came up) and coal was hoisted to the surface. Two feet of concrete cap the opening. Below it, an open shaft plunges 700 feet into the earth. Beside the pit are remnants of the steam-driven hoisting works, including the bolts that held down a boiler that blew up in 1873, killing two men and hurling debris more than a quarter mile.

Head half a mile up the broad Nortonville Trail through a gorgeous valley to the Rose Hill Cemetery. On this gentle slope with splendid, expansive views lies proof that toiling in the mines was life-threatening — and so was

everyday living. Diseases stole souls at every age: scarlet fever, smallpox, diphtheria, typhoid. Above-ground accidents were common, too. The folks who lie below the cypress spires and pepper trees met their ends as far back as 1865. In addition to the 200-plus graves, Rose Hill boasts one very special ghost. And 142 years after her death in a horseand-buggy crash, she’s still the talk of the neighborhood.

Some call Sarah Norton the “White Witch” and claim she haunts the area, a pale apparition still floating around nearly a century and a half after she breathed her last.

In reality, according to the historical record, Norton was a Canadian immigrant who practiced midwifery, not witchcraft, and died at 68 while traveling to do her life-giving, life-saving work.

“We find the name ‘White Witch’ for her disrespectful,” says student interpretive aide Miranda Shuba, while greeting preserve

Right: Black Diamond Mines park visitors can hike the trails, explore ghost towns and check out exhibits on 19th-century coal mining.

TYSKA/STAFF

Opposite page: Sarah Norton, of Nortonville, is buried at the Rose Hill Cemetery at Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve in Antioch.

ANDA CHU/STAFF

“She helped deliver hundreds of children and never lost one, not the mother or the baby. If Sarah Norton was next to you at your birth, everything was going to be OK.”

Miranda Shuba

You can find Norton’s tombstone and those of other notables using the cemetery’s handy graves map. Diablo Valley College student Marri Williams, working on a history project while visiting the preserve with her father, said she had a particular interest in Norton.

“She was a hero,” said Williams, 18, of Martinez.

Wander around, and you’ll find fragmented windows into many lives. There’s Ruth, identified on her broken marker as “Wife of Jacob French” — she died at 81 in 1874. There’s a single stone for the two Jewett brothers, Walter and Milton, dead in their teens five years apart. And Susan, who met her end in 1880, was “aged 6 years 7 mos. 28 days.” There’s Annie Spowart — she didn’t see 12, but her father, David, placed her for eternity beneath a marble slab calling her “the darling of my heart.” Not far away, a plaque tells of the demise of three young Welshmen in an 1876 mine accident.

Sarah Norton’s marker stands upright, bearing her son’s lament for the loss of “one who was so kind.”

You can stop here or continue up the Nortonville Trail over a low saddle and down a steep slope to Nortonville, the metropolis of the Diablo Valley Coal Fields. Founded by Sarah Norton’s husband, Noah, it had more than 1,000 residents in its glory days, with a school, stores, churches, hotel and saloons.

To see what brought them there — the women and girls in their long dresses, the broad-shouldered miners in vests, dungarees and heavy coats, the boys nearly identical down to the occasional

suspenders or overalls — ascend the Black Diamond Trail to where massive, broken brick walls up to five-feet thick still stand at the entrance to the Black Diamond Shaft, the largest mine in the region. More than 1.5 million tons of coal were dug up for two decades, starting in the early 1860s. Shards

and chunks of coal still carpet portions of the mine’s tailings piles. If your legs and schedule allow, proceed up Black Diamond Trail to a paved road that will bring you to the remarkable cave home known as “Jim’s Place.” This single-room abode was carved into sandstone by a person or

persons unknown, but is believed to date from coal-mining times. According to the park district, no one seems to know who Jim was, but whoever dug the home out of solid sandstone took care to carve out a fire nook and bore a chimney hole and skylight through to the outside. Old Jim is (probably)

Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve

Greathouse Visitor Center

Sydney Flat Visitor Center HERE

Park entrance

visitors on a recent afternoon. “When people ask about the ‘White Witch,’ we give them the backstory. She helped deliver hundreds of children and never lost one, not the mother or the baby. If Sarah Norton was next to you at your birth, everything was going to be OK.”

An undated photograph captures Charlie Luce in the ghost town of Drawbridge. COURTESY OF US FISH AND WILDLIFE

Swirling fog adds ghostly atmosphere to the ghost towns on what is now a regional preserve in Antioch. ANDA CHU/STAFF

A hike along the Mallard Slough Trail offers views of wildlife, water and the ghostly remains of Drawbridge. DAI SUGANO/STAFF

Midwife Sarah Norton, right, with a member of the Gordon family of Clayton. CONTRA COSTA COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

long gone, but you can look out the skylight and take in his view. If you’re up for it, taking the pavement up a steep mile or so to the continuation of the Black Diamond Trail will grant you a vista-filled descent through classic East Bay grasslands and oak forest. You’ll rejoin the Nortonville Trail just above the cemetery. No matter which way you return to your starting point, when you pass Rose Hill on the home stretch, wave goodbye to the spirits you met along the way.

Getting here: Set your navigation app for 5175 Somerville Road, Antioch, to reach this East Bay Regional Parks preserve. Hours vary by season, but the Black Diamond Mines park gates are open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. through March 13, with later closing hours as we move into spring and summer. Parking is $5 on weekends and some holidays. Dogs are $2 each. Find details, including trail maps, at www.ebparks.org.

Where to eat: Just outside the preserve, Kabul Restaurant and Market offers savory Afghan delicacies perfect for a picnic in the preserve or a post-hike meal in the carpet-stacked dining room decorated with posters of Afghan life. Delicious rice-and-lamb qaubili palau or mantoo beef dumplings can be ready in five minutes; chicken, beef or lamb kabob plates take 15 minutes, as does the calzonelike leek-and-potato bolani, ideal for stashing in a day pack.

Just need snacks? Grab some organic, dried, Afghanistan-grown mulberries, locally made Afghan-style candied almonds and some California-grown walnuts from the market’s aisles for a DIY trail mix. You’ll find sodas, yogurt drinks, exotic juice drinks and water in the coolers. The eatery is open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily at 2521 San Jose Drive in Antioch.

A GHOST TOWN ON THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY

Travel to Alviso at the south end of the San Francisco Bay — with bicycles or walking garb —

DAI SUGANO/STAFF

and make the two-mile trip along a flat levee dirt road, past canals and ponds atwitter with bird life, and you’ll reach a viewpoint looking out on the dilapidated buildings of Drawbridge. This island ghost town was built around a former railroad station, beginning in 1876.

Once bustling with vice and bristling with six-shooters, Drawbridge is slowly falling apart and slipping into the muck. But the picnickers, the gamblers, the duck hunters, the carousers — they were real, and they were there. You just have to picture them.

We set out on a recent overcast morning from the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge visitor center. Moments later, we are surround-

Above: An archival photo of the Chief Bridge Tender Cabin captures the heyday of Drawbridge, a ghost town at the southern end of the bay.

COURTESY OF US FISH AND WILDLIFE

Right: Mike Chester of Santa Clara rides his bicycle on the Mallard Slough Trail.

ed by birds — in a canal to our right and all over a large pond to our left. A flotilla of gigantic white pelicans circles a small mud island, poking their beaks beneath the water and tipping them back to swallow their prey.

Everywhere, ducks float and fly, sometimes quacking quietly

as they paddle the waters. A great egret, stunningly white with a sturdy and sharp yellow bill, peers into the water, then takes flight with a prehistoric croak. A murmuration of sandpipers sweeps in front of us so closely we hear their swishing passage like a gust of wind through pines. Overhead,

lookout. “I love this,” the Santa Clara resident says. “This is a very special spot to me. There’s a lot of nostalgia for me — the history.”

We arrive at the lookout. A camouflaged skiff motors by on the channel separating us from the ghost town, two camo-clad duck hunters and their black Labrador aboard, heading out along the watery paths traveled by their predecessors, the hunters who founded Drawbridge.

In front of us: decrepit buildings near and far. Away to the northeast, the Tesla factory looms. We gawk at the intersection of past and future. A group of 11 local cyclists pulls up at the lookout, which one of the riders, Rick Gilbert, 73, of Campbell, declares to be “the suburbs of Drawbridge.” Four of the group have never been to the spot. “I came out for the history,” says Adrienne Harber, 68, a retired high school teacher from Cupertino. “To come out here and see it while it’s still here gives you a sense of what life was like then.”

Getting here: Head for the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge environmental education center at 1751 Grand Boulevard in the San Jose community of Alviso and park in the lot (the gate is open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.). Take the Mallard Slough Trail northward for about 1½ miles, then turn right at the stone pump station onto the Mallard Slough Trail Spur, which takes you to the lookout.

a peregrine falcon harasses a gull, then, harassed back by other gulls, barrel rolls and flaps away. We are immersed in the scent of salty air.

On the way, we run into Mike Chester, 63, a retired software engineer on one of his frequent bike trips out to the Drawbridge

Where to eat: You’ll find tasty tacos, burritos and more at the El Taco de Oro food truck in front of Mi Jalisco Market in Alviso, plus canned, bottled and freshly made drinks — horchata and tangy agua de jamaica — and Mexican pastries, inside the market at 5210 N. First Street. The food truck is open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. For a sit-down meal, adjacent El Taco de Oro restaurant has a large menu, beer and margaritas and is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays.

Bay Area Trivia Answers

BY JOAN MORRIS

Lake Merritt isn’t really a lake. What is it?

A tidal estuary

The opening lines of Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay,” were literally written on a dock. What kind and where?

A Sausalito houseboat dock

The Berkeley Pier originally extended 3½ miles into the bay so cars could drive onto a San Francisco-bound ferry. In 1936, that traffic stopped. Why? The Bay Bridge opened, making ferry travel obsolete.

How deep, on average, is the San Francisco Bay?

Although parts are very deep, the average depth is quite shallow, 12 to 15 feet.

What is the longest bridge to span the bay?

The San Mateo Bridge: When it was built, its 7-mile span was the longest in the country; now it’s the 25th.

The first San Francisco Bay bridge, which opened in 1923, was considered a failure because...

Shockingly, there wasn’t enough traffic to generate sufficient tolls.

The Bay Bridge is protected by ...

A troll

California Fish & Wildlife introduced wild turkeys to the state in 1959. Why?

To encourage recreational hunting and generate revenue through licenses and fees

Why have sea lions lounged around San Francisco’s Pier 39 since 1990?

There’s plenty of herring and few Great White sharks or orcas.

What was Six Flags Discovery Kingdom called when it moved to Vallejo?

Marine World Africa USA

Humphrey, the wayward humpback whale, swam into the bay and up the Delta in 1985. In 2007, another pair of humpbacks made a similar journey.

What were their names?

Delta and Dawn

In the 1970s, most of an apex predator population living on Mount Diablo was wiped out. It’s since made a comeback. What is it?

American badger

Back in the days of frigid Candlestick Park games, the Giants gave out pins to faithful fans who toughed it out through extra-innings. What were these pins called?

The Croix de Candlestick, which included the motto “Veni, Vidi, Vixi” or “I came, I saw, I survived”

There have been just two great lefthanded quarterbacks in the Football Hall of Fame and both are Bay Area legends. Name the QBs.

Steve Young and Kenny Stabler

Before the Sharks swam into San Jose, the Bay Area had another hockey team based in Oakland. What was its name and what happened to it?

The California Golden Seals — the team moved to Cleveland and became the Barons.

The Golden State Warriors are transplants to the Bay Area. Where did they come from?

Not so complicated after all — the Philadelphia Warriors moved to the Bay Area in 1962, becoming first the San Francisco Warriors and then the Golden State Warriors.

From Page 23

The original Bay Bridge troll was secretly welded to the eastern span of the Bay Bridge after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. That troll, pictured, currently dwells in Cal Trans’ Oakland office, but a new troll was added to the bridge in 2013, when the eastern span was replaced.

What was Oakland’s original name? Encinal del Temescal, which roughly translated is “the oak grove near the sweat lodge.”

How did Sunnyvale get its optimistic name?

Pure marketing by real estate speculator Walter E. Crossman, who pushed the Sunnyvale name as a way to “attract winter-weary Easterners.”

Napa’s name was originally spelled Nappa. What happened to the second P? No one really knows. Sometime around 1848, the second P just disappeared from use.

What’s the meaning behind the name of Vacaville?

The original landowner, Juan Manual Vaca, agreed to sell off the property for development on the condition the city was named after him.

San Francisco’s iconic Sutro Tower hasn’t had a major paint job in more than 20 years. Why?

It’s nearly impossible to avoid dripping paint on the houses and cars below — and then people complain.

MC Hammer was originally an Oakland A’s ball boy. Where did the Hammer name come from?

Reggie Jackson thought he looked like Hammerin’ Hank Aaron.

Walt Disney was one of HewlettPackard’s first customers. He bought eight audio oscillators to test recording

equipment for which movie? “Fantasia”(1940)

What’s the crookedest street in San Francisco?

Lombard gets all the attention, but it’s Vermont Street near 20th that is the crookedest. It has one less switchback (just seven), but the turns are much tighter, giving it more sinuosity.

How much were the Hell’s Angels paid to provide protection at the infamous “Gimme Shelter” Altamont Speedway Free Festival concert in 1969?

$500 in beer

When Super Bowl XIX was played at the old Stanford Stadium, which relatively new company gave away seat cushions for the wooden stadium benches?

Apple

Opposite page: The Winchester Mystery House’s Explore More tour, introduced in 2017, added 40 previously unseen rooms and lonely hallways to the visitor experience.

What now-mega event first launched at Baker Beach in 1986?

Burning Man

Where did Francis Ford Coppola write most of the “The Godfather” screenplay? Caffe Trieste in North Beach

What Bay Area community bills itself as California’s First Hollywood?

Niles

KCBS Radio got its start when Charles David “Doc” Herrold began regularly scheduled broadcasts in 1912. What was the station’s radio identification?

San Jose Calling

Which California winery’s triumph at the 1976 Judgment of Paris put California and its Napa Valley, on the global wine map? Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars

How Bay Area-savvy are you?

If you got fewer than 10 answers right, you might actually be Southern Californian.

11 to 20? You’ve clearly downed some serious sourdough.

More than 21? You know the Bay Area better than Karl the Fog!

LAURA A. ODA/ STAFF ARCHIVES

KARL MONDON/ STAFF ARCHIVES

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