Isotopic Perspectives on Residence Patterns at Point San Jose

In the decades following the 1848 Gold Rush, the city of San Francisco experienced significant growth as the population increased from around 100,000 in the 1870s to over 274,000 in the 1880s, facilitated by an expansion in steamboat travel and the establishment of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 (Mosier 2001). Further, the development of local railroads and a ferryboat system connected many of the Bay Area communities (Mosier 2001; Walker 2001). These transportation networks fundamentally changed the demographics of the city and brought a wave of immigration from other parts of the US and abroad. By 1870, approximately 49.3 percent