A Brief History of Oakland California

The earliest recorded inhabitants of the Oakland and California area were the Huchiun tribe, belonging to a linguistic grouping later called the Ohlone (a Miwok word meaning "western people"). The California Gold Rush in 1848, as well as the United States taking over control of California, started full-scale settlement and development of the area. It was not until 1852, however, that the California state legislature incorporated the town of Oakland.

The arrival of the railroads caused Oakland to grow quickly, becoming a major rail terminus in the late 1860s and 70s. The Central Pacific constructed the Oakland Long Wharf at Oakland Point in 1868. This wharf is the site of today's Port Of Oakland.

In 1906, Oakland's population doubled with refugees made homeless after the San Francisco earthquake and fire. During World War II, the East Bay Area was home to many war-related industries. Shortly after the war, the shipbuilding and automobile industries which had thrived when their services were more desperately needed died off and disappeared, as did the jobs that came with them. Many people decided to stay in their new Oakland home despite this, but by the late 1960s, Oakland found itself with a population that was increasingly poor.

Natural disasters in the late 1980s and early 1990s caused the rebuilding of many Oakland homes and buildings. On October 17, 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake occurred in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, measuring 7.1 on the Richter magnitude scale. Several structures in Oakland were badly damaged, but buildings throughout Oakland were retrofitted to better withstand earthquakes. On October 20, 1991, an incompletely extinguished grass fire started the 1991 Oakland firestorm, a wildfire which swept down from the Berkeley Hills above the Caldecott Tunnel. The fire killed 25 people and injured 150, destroying over 2,000 Oakland homes. During the rebuilding process, many homes were built much larger than they originally were, with more fire-resistant designs than the previous buildings, dramatically changing the architectural character of the region the fire swept through.