The California Coast

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Stretching from Oregon south to the Baja peninsula, the California coast has been the birthplace of extraordinary stories, some based on historic events, others created by immigrants or aboriginal people to explain the world around them. In four sections -- Adventurers, Great Places, Reapers and Sowers, and Wild Lives -- this book brings the region alive through historical and contemporary stories, poems, and memoirs, and the contributors represent nearly all of the ethnic groups that have made this region home.

An invitation --
Adventures --
"Almost a hanging" / Gretchen Woelfle --
"The real work" / Gary Snyder --
"The long bike ride" / Mélina Brown --
"Quicksand on the Gaviota Coast" / J. Smeaton Chase --
"Napa during El Niño" / Christina Hutchins --
"Surfing with sharks" / Daniel Duane --
"Pacific Coast storm" / Manuel Figuroa --
"The secret of C.D. Parkhurst" / Felicia Silcox --
"For an encore" / Katie McAllaster Weaver --
"Earthquake and fire" / We lived as children / Kathryn Hulme --
"Mysteries" / T.H. Watkins --
Great places --
"Hollywood and the pits" / Cherylene Lee --
"Fog--San Francisco" / Virginia Barrett --
"Camping out in Redwood Country" / Mrs. J.B. Rideout --
"Night beach" / Vic Coccimiglio --
"The earth dragon" / California coast Indians --
"At sea Ranch Beach" / Cherise Wyneken --
"Fire in the Chaparral!" / Gretchen Woelfle & Clea Woelfle-Erskine --
"Vasquez rocks" / Sue Alexander --
"The marsh at the edge of Arcata" / Danielle Jeanne Drolet --
Reapers and sowers --
"In trees" / Robin Beeman --
"Plum trees" / Alison Seevak --
"Catalina's pigeon express" / Richard Bauman --
"The lost hills" / Mitali Perkins --
"In the new garden" San Francisco Chinatown / Marlon K. Hom --
"To catch a grunion" / Aileen Kilgore Henderson --
"Aparición" / Gabriel Trujillo Muñoz --
"The lone woman of San Nicolas Island" / Helen Foster James --
"Dark sky" / Marian Haddad --
"Coyote and the acorns" / Yurok story --
Wild lives --
"Swimming lessons" / Jeffrey Harrison --
"Seacoast secret" / Nancy Dawson --
"Bougainvillea in L.A." / Stefi Weisburd --
"Invocation" / Jane Hirshfield --
"Left sink" / Ellery Akers --
"Entomológica" / Roberto Castillo Udiarte --
"The dolphins" / David Meuel --
"A-birding on a Bronco" / Florence A. Merriam --
"The poppy" / Dan Harder --
"Ode to a plain old pond frog" / William Pitt Root --
"There oughter be an otter!" / Olga Cossi --
Ecology of the California coast --
What is an ecoregion? --
Defining the California coast --
Habitats --
Animals and plants --
Stories by region --
Parks and preserves