"Of late historians have become increasingly interested in the vast re-ordering of the environment involved in the creation of America. Nowhere was this more tr

In its natural condition the Sacramento Valley was a flood-ravaged region where an inland sea a hundred miles long regularly formed during the rainy season, to

The United States has one of the largest and costliest flood control systems in the world, even though only a small proportion of its land lies in floodplains.

This is the first comprehensive environmental history of California’s Great Central Valley, where extensive freshwater and tidal wetlands once provided critic

Traces the history of the California Gold Rush from 1849 through 1884 when a court decision forced the shut down of the hydraulic mining operations, bringing de