Geography of Oakland

Oakland's History of the Region

Oakland is at the center of the Pacific Coast, located on the east side of the San Francisco Bay. Oakland has miles of coastline to the west and hills to the east. The flat plains makes up 2/3's of the city and the rest is in the foothills, and hills of the East Bay range. The area Oakland lies in was once inhabited by Costanoan Indians when it was first explored by the Spanish in the late 18th century. In 1820 a Spanish land grant known as Rancho San Antonio was established in here. Logging started in the 1840's and led into the California Gold Rush in 1849, with all these things happening it soon became a trading and transit depot for goods and people. in 1869 Oakland was chosen for the transcontinental railroad and the city began developing their harbor where the port of Oakland is located. Also in 1869 Dr. Samuel Merritt donated 155 acres that also included what we know as Lake Merritt. The growing city attracted many Chinese and African Americans to work in factory's and on the construction of the railroad.

1906 Earthquake

The 7.7 to 7.9 magnitude earthquake is still one of the worst urban disasters in U.S. history. Even though the earthquake was short, and lasted less than a minute, its immediate impact was terrible. The earthquake also started several fires around the city that burned for three days and destroyed nearly 500 city blocks. The earthquake and fires killed an around 3,000 people and left half of the city's 400,000 residents homeless. After the 1906 earthquake, and fires, Oakland recieved a large amount of refugees from surrounding cities, especially San Francisco which was strongly effected by the fires that came after the earthquake. This added to the already growing population that Oakland had, in the three days following the earthquake, more than 150,000 people fled to Oakland, doubling its population in 72 hours.