Around the Bay: Man-Made Sites of Interest in the San Francisco Bay Region published by the Center for Land Use Interpretation is a fascinating trip around the edge of the San Francisco Bay. I’ve lived in the bay area for 16 years and knew about a good number of them in the South Bay in particular — but the farther I travelled through this book the more interesting it became.
Not that it is entirely comforting: the number of landfills, chemical plants, explosive plants that we built at the edge of the water — where no doubt things were dumped, poured, and leached into the bay for ages before there was any protection — is entirely depressing. Many of these things have made some transition to offices and parks, others remain with contaminated dirt or like the Selby Works Site have a enormous asphalt slab to cap the contamination that lies beneath.
Still it is a fascinating glimpse at the history of this enormous place — from the eye of naturalist, I might have wanted to see more about the natural history of these places — but that is clearly not the goal of the book.
The only real criticism I’d have is I would have loved to see an inset map for each location. Even though I am fairly familiar with the shape of the bay, and the direction of the circuit is obvious — it would be good to know where exactly each thing was — and what might have been passed over as you travel around.
Even more ambitious perhaps, it would be cool to see a link to more information online, where more information and historical photographs might be examined.
All in all though, if your a fan of San Francisco Bay this book is well worth having around as a reference and resource.
Find the book on Amazon — Around the Bay: Man-Made Sites of Interest in the San Francisco Bay Region (The Center for Land Use Interpretation American Regional Landscape Series)
SF Natural History Series 