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This is a print showing the San Francisco Harbor in 1848 (below left). There's a little smattering of houses, and a few boats in the water. It looks pretty peaceful, and it was. San Francisco only had about a thousand residents, and California had only newly become a U.S. territory at the close of the Mexican-American War. And this is a photograph of San Francisco Harbor in 1850 (below right). The water is crowded with ships, and the land is crowded with houses. Less than two years later, San Francisco had 30-thousand residents, mainly young men who had come from all over the world, making the city perhaps the most culturally-diverse place on earth at that time period. What happened?

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