OAKLAND — Many longtime Oakland residents have heard of the Key System, the bus and streetcars that served commuters in the East Bay for decades before the advent of BART.
But few probably know about plants such as Woodland Woolythreads, last seen here about 1888, or about Santa Clara Red Ribbons, which disappeared in 1936.
And then there’s the “City of Oakland,” an 80-foot gas balloon that briefly carried two men aloft in a wicker basket over the town’s streets in August 1909, until winds sent it over San Francisco Bay and then brought it inland again and back to Earth on Moss Avenue.
Amateur historian Liam O’Donoghue wants to change that historical amnesia among local residents.
With the help of illustrations by Oakland-based T.L. Simons of Front Group Design, O’Donoghue has created a hand-drawn map, “Long Lost Oakland,” which highlights buildings, wildlife and other stuff that once were here and now are gone.
“The idea is that Oakland is going through massive change right now,” O’Donoghue said. “Some changes can be good. But it also can be disorienting for people. The idea behind the map is to help people make sense of things.”
The poster is more like a treasure map than a street map. The map features hand-drawn illustrations and captions, such of old growth redwood trees, the Piedmont Baths and Idora Park.
The map has been funded and can be purchased through a Kickstarter campaign. It took about eights months to plan and create.
The goal, O’Donoghue said, is to make presentations and distribute the document at libraries, schools, bookstores and other venues.
He has already given talks at libraries in Oakland and Berkeley.
“This map tells a story — a story about when the plants, animals and even the shoreline of Oakland looked a lot different than it does today,” O’Donoghue said in a promotional video about the map that appears on its Kickstarter page. “It tells a story about why people came here, and how they lived and what happened to the native people who were here first.”
Simons, the illustrator, said in a statement on the page that he hopes people will view the map “as a reflection of the resilience and magic I see in the city around me” amid the dizzying the changes happening in Oakland, which can include people forced out by high rents and cranes and concrete trucks making over multiple downtown locations.
“Illustrating this map by hand over hundreds of hours has been a meditation on the place I have chosen to call home for much of my life,” Simons said. “It has been a way to look beyond the immediate transformations that I see every day and to understand them as contemporary manifestations of much longer processes that extend back to the earliest days of European colonization.”
As part of promoting the map, O’Donoghue has used some of the illustrations to inspire segments of “East Bay Yesterday,” a podcast he produces and hosts that explores the culture, politics, nature and history of Oakland, Berkeley and other towns.
A native of Illinois, O’Donoghue moved to the Bay Area in 2003, seeking work and other opportunities. His background includes working for Salon.com. He now does freelance journalism, gives talks on local history and occasionally works as DJ at weddings and other events.
His interest in Oakland history was piqued after witnessing the changes in the local landscape, including neighbors moving out.
There were abandoned buildings that also made him ask: What’s the story behind that?
“Who used to live there?” O’Donoghue said. “That’s what I want to know. And I think other people want to know, too.”
For more information on the map, go to https://eastbayyesterday.com/.