The area covered by our project covers only a portion of what was the Spanish province of Alta California, but at least it's fairly specific. 'Early' is open to discussion, but for the purposes of our feature, the period from when Gaspar de Portola and Junipero Serra journeyed to San Diego in 1769 to establish the first of 21 coastal missions to the explosion in population following the discovery of gold in them thar hills in 1848 and the arrival of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 frames our selections.