East Contra Costa County California (Postcard History Series)

1841, East Contra Costa County has been a grain and fruit basket to the world, a recreational playground for resort living, and a home for health and family life. Its wheat was exported for brewing Guinness beer, and fresh apricots, peaches, and cherries still bring produce fanciers for summer harvest. Weekenders houseboat, wakeboard, and fish through the

region's thousands of miles of delta waterways. This sentimental history of the communities of Brentwood, Bethel Island, Byron, Discovery Bay, Knightsen, and Oakley reveals the importance of these California Delta communities in settling and developing the Golden State.

Ho for California! The terminus of the first overland immigrant pack train destined for California was John Marsh's adobe, Brentwood. Since

1841, East Contra Costa County has been a grain and fruit basket to the world, a recreational playground for resort living, and a home for health and family life. Its wheat was exported for brewing Guinness beer, and fresh apricots, peaches, and cherries still bring produce fanciers for summer harvest. Weekenders houseboat, wakeboard, and fish through the

region's thousands of miles of delta waterways. This sentimental history of the communities of Brentwood, Bethel Island, Byron, Discovery Bay, Knightsen, and Oakley reveals the importance of these California Delta communities in settling and developing the Golden State.

Carol A. Jensen is author of Arcadia Publishing's Images of America: Byron Hot Springs. Working with local history enthusiasts, she has drawn from public and private postcard collections to capture small-town life. Historical details and anecdotes accompany the views to tell the interesting story of these fast-growing communities.