A collection of articles relatiing to East Contra Costa County spanning the Native American period to the late 20th Century. The communities served include: Brentwood, Byron, Knightsen, Oakley, Point of Timber, Bethel Island, Discovery Bay, and the far eastern islands of the California San Joaquin Delta.

History / United States / State & Local / General

Footprints in the Sand - Revised and Expanded

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East Contra Costa County, California

Ho for California! Welcome to Brentwood, Byron, Knightsen, Oakley, Discovery Bay, Bethel Island and the Far East Islands. To eastern Contra Costa County first came the Native Americans, then Mountain Men, the Bartleson/Bidwell party, and overseas pioneers. Their destination was John Marsh’s Rancho Los Meganos at the terminus of the California Trail. Many stayed to make their home in the California Delta – paradise to both Indigenous and recent populations. Here farmers grew and exported more grain in the 1870s than did the entire Mississippi Valley. Wheat and diverse agricultural production brought the San Pablo & Tulare and the Santa Fe railroads. Towns were born and flourished. Families arrived, communities were built and islands emerged from the San Joaquin River swamplands. Today, these Delta tule lands provide wildlife habitat, family livelihoods, recreation and an all-important conduit for water. You will enjoy these stories of emigrants, immigrants and events that shape the California experience we share today. Long out of print, Footprints in the Sand, as written by local historian Kathy Leighton, captures the fascinating late 19th- and 20th-century life and times that formed these communities.

324 pages

157 images