How often have you stepped over a bronze arrow embedded in the sidewalk marking the Barbary Coast Trail, and wondered: Is this worth doing? Is there a map for it, maybe an audio file I can download? An organized tour I could take?
To all the above: Yes, yes, and yes!
While many previous generations of San Francisco residents arguably ruined this city — the beats in the 50s, hippies in the 60s and 70s, punks in the 70s and 80s, and tech folk thereafter — the first group that really trashed this town had to be the Gold Rush crowd that lived along the then waterfront nicknamed the Barbary Coast. They didn’t just consume alcohol and opium at never equaled rates, didn’t just stab and shoot each other with casual frequency. They also committed wide-scale arson and looting, imported women to use as sex slaves, and employed gangs of kidnappers to Shanghai sailors. In response to these outrages, the good people of the city formed a vigilante committee that confiscated guns from the state militia and hanged suspects.
To commemorate this and later rambunctious periods, and help educate current residents about our predecessors, the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society and historian Daniel Bacon collaborated on the 4.3-mile walking trail.
The Barbary Coast Trail is marked with 180 bronze medallions, many located at turns with arrows showing walking directions. There are several helpful resources for experiencing the route, including these below:
- From the San Francisco Historical Society, you can register for in-person tours or buy a Barbary Coast Trail guide written by trail historian Daniel Bacon’s own site that includes guides, maps, downloads of self-guided audio tours, and registration for in-person tours
- From STQRY, you can download a free phone app of self-guided SF tours. These tours use Bluetooth beacons to send audio about each site to your phone as you approach.
For all the challenges of living here in these uncertain times, the history of the Barbary Coast reminds us that at least in today’s social interactions you’re more likely to be offered a job in Shanghai than be drugged, brained, and sold to a captain of a ship bound for that city.
