Geologic Time and the Supercontinents

The Challenge of Understanding

The earth was created some five billion years ago (BP-before present); let’s write that out to get a sense of the enormity, 5,000,000,000 BP. Our lives come in short and small packages; 85 years to live if we’re lucky, a marriage may last some 30 years if both are strong and patient, high school a mere 4 years. Even for those who profess to understand geological time, they are strained to imagine these near eternal periods.
The earth has gone through several cycles of supercontinents. A supercontinent is when all the landmasses are stuck together. These are followed by divisions into separate landmasses. Examples of these:
Gondwana, 500,000,000 BP and Pangaea, 200,000,000 BP
These cycles change the formations of landmasses; affect climate, and ocean levels, and the evolution and extinction of species. There were periods of “great extinctions” when the majority of all living things died. This is all part of a natural process. Some of us are unaware of these facts. This process is going on even now. The land west of the San Andreas Fault is moving at a rate of 2” a year and will someday be far to the north, sliding along the Pacific Plate. The San Francisco Bay during the Ice Age, only 15,000 years ago receded and was a valley much like the Salinas Valley.The rise and fall of the bay water, caused from either uplifting the land or a drop in the water level, will continue.
So what causes these supercontinents to form and then to split off into separate continents?
Landmasses float on top of the earth crust which is +- 50 miles thick and is called the Lithosphere. They float above the deep molten, heavy, dark and full of iron, magma core because the rocks are lighter. Granite is a good example. These landmasses are moved around by tectonic plates. Think of taking a hardboiled egg in the shell and carefully drop it and you get a good idea what the plates look like. In addition to these plates there are ocean rifts which spew out molten rocks from deep within the earth. These in turn create more landmasses and move the plates around. Volcanoes on a local scale do the same thing, supplying rock material for building mountains.
So what proof is there for the formation and deformation of supercontinents?
Like a giant puzzle the continents can fit together. A good example of this is Africa and South America which are nearly a perfect match. Check it out on a Globe sometime.
Animal and plant fossils of the same families or species have been found in separate continents proving that once upon a time they evolved within the same supercontinent.
By analyzing rocks found within the edges of different continents scientist have discovered they have the same or similar components. Rocks found within the Appalachian Mountains in the east and rocks from Scotland and Iceland are all the same type.
So what good is an understanding of geological time and supercontinents? Some people could care less. But for those who do care about the origin and nature of the earth, this knowledge will give a basis for accepting the undisputable evidence of our ever changing world. These changes will occur despite any human efforts to interfere with or change the natural process.

HELP WANTED at the CAROLYN PARR NATURE CENTER

The heavy rains of El Nino and loose soil over a clay and rock foundation have eroded the hillside in the side back of the Nature Center.  Thanks to the City of Napa Park and Rec Dept. two trees, a bay and an oak, which have fallen in the last couple of years of drought, were removed- trunk, limbs and stumps. It is now covered in Miner’s Lettuce, Forget-Me-Nots, ivy, blackberry vines and a variety of other weeds.

We would like to redevelop this area with native plants that would control the erosion, provide a habitat for wildlife and that would provide caterpillar food and nectar for pollinators and other beneficial insects.  It is a shady area with dappled sunlight part of the day.  We could include small trees and shrubs, perennials, ground covers, grasses, bulbs and corms, and annuals to make it an attractive place for outdoor activities.

We have some plants on site that can be lifted and divided for use in the back.  Others we need to buy or have donated, like neighbors who share plants.  The recommended plants can be found on the list below.  The California Native Plant Society has suggested a few that they have for sale now. Other recommendations are from Western Sunset Garden, for erosion control and shade areas.

Assistance in preparing the area for new plants would be greatly appreciated. Then help with the plantings, early this fall, according to a plan developed after donations. If you would like to take part in these activities or donate plants, please respond to Joyce Nichols at cpnaturecenter@gmail.com or call 707-927-2031.

Shady, dry area plants at California Native Plant Society

Geum (1gal) -  4.45 ea

Heuchera maxima (4”) – 3.50 ea

Heuchera cylindrical (2”) – 1.24 ea

Ribes viburnifolium. Spreading evergreen shrub (1 gal) – 4.70 ea

Rhamnus californica (1gal)- 1.50 ea

Erosion control (NPSOC recommendations)

Shrubs and Subshrubs

Arctostaphylos (all), manzanita

Baccharis pilularis, coyote bush

Ceanothus (all) Cercocarpus (all), mountain mahogany

Cornus sericea, creek dogwood

Dendromecon (all), bush poppy

Eriogonum (all), buckwheat

Galvezia (all), island snapdragon

Mimulus (all except cardinalis and guttatus), monkey flower

Rosa (all), wild rose

Salvia (all), sage

Perennials

Aster chiolensis, coast aster

Other-  Shade/ little water  

Penstemon ( various)

Your world for a moment: The Recovered History of Carl Franco

 By Lauren Coodley with Stephanie Grohs

“If you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for a moment.” (Interview with Georgia O’Keeffe, New York Post 1946).  

The wildflowers in this album were collected in Napa Valley by Carl Franco in 1929, 1931 and 1932.  We have no information about Mr. Franco, but he would probably be pleased to know his collection has held up over the years.  Enjoy and please handle with care.  

I have been haunted by this quote, which I found in an album of pressed wildflowers at the Carolyn Parr Nature Center.  Happily the center is now reopened after being damaged by the West Napa earthquake of 2014.  Napa Valley Naturalists was founded in 1978 by a group of local citizens. At the time of her death in 1980, member Carolyn Parr left her modest estate for the purpose of establishing a nature center.  

I decided to find the history of Carl Franco.  I invited crack researcher Stephanie Grohs to assist me.  Her research revealed that Carl Franco was born in California in 1910.  His father John was born in Argentina, mother Amelia Banchero was descended from a pioneer Napa family.   The 1930s census tells us that Carl Franco was the head of household’s son, twenty years old and identified as white and unmarried.  Amelia’s family immigrated to Napa from Italy in 1875 and bought land on Soda Springs Road.  Her father Louie worked at Sawyer Tannery; his photograph is included in my first book about Napa.  John came to America as an indentured servant and worked grafting trees in the Napa orchards.  The family home was on Eggleston Street.  

In 1945, Carl Franco was President of Local 137 of the Garment Workers Union.  Also that year, Audubon Magazine listed him as part of a group that traveled to “Tulocay Cemetery, Henry Lane, Bush Creek from Waterworks to Little Trancas, along the road to Big Trancas and up Napa river ¾ mile: upland pasture 50%, wooded creek bed 30%, lightly wooded upland 20%.”  It was December 31^st and the eight people traveled ten miles, noting birds that included the Western Bluebird, the Golden Crowed Kinglet, Cedar Wax Wing, Western Meadow Lark and the California Purple Finch.

          Carl Franco died suddenly in 1946 at Parks Victory Hospital.  He was 36 years old.  “Local Union No. 137 mourns death of Carl Franco” was the headline story on April 5^th, 1946 in The Garment Worker (Journal of the United Garment Workers of America).  The obituary states that Franco attended the “Napa Public School.  Upon graduation from Napa High he attended Heald Business College in Oakland.  He entered the employment of the Cameron Shirt factory upon completing his education and was in the cutting room at the time of his death”.  

The Cameron Shirt Company, which opened in 1901, was the first union shop in town, its workforce turning out 1,200 work shirts in a day. W. H. Cameron, a salesman for Levi Strauss in San Francisco, founded the company, and brought a young cutter named Bert Gans to act as superintendent in 1901. Rita Bordwell, former secretary to the Napa Central Labor Council, wrote:

I don’t believe there ever was any superintendent that was as

popular as Bert Gans. San Francisco requested his help to

affiliate with the Shirtmakers Union. All joined, at the request

of Messrs. Cameron and Gans.  

The Garment Workers obituary reveals that Franco was a member of the Young Men’s Institute, Knights of Dunamis, Audubon Club, Saint John’s Church Choir and the Assistant Scout Leader of Troop No.10.  More than one hundred Scouts formed a guard of honor at the church, and Cameron Shirt Company closed its doors during the funeral.  

Nature Center docent Karen Swain compiled Carl Franco’s work into a scrap book. Opening its pages, we find that Carl Franco collected specimens of 96 flowers.  Each page contains a Latin name, a common name and a location.  He found flowers such as Blue Larkspur, Western Buttercup and Woodland Star on Soda Spring Road in April of 1929.  He preserved a Wild Iris from Dry Creek Road in June of 1929.  He found a yellow Tulip on Redwood Road in May 1929.  His last entry is a Lupine, location unspecified, in1932.    

Most of these flowers were native to Napa.  Naturalist Robin Grossinger writes that 19^th century historical accounts describe numerous fields of wildflowers. He cites a Mr. Bartlett who in 1853 wrote that “wild flowers of varied hues were thickly scattered around” (American Canyon).  Heading north from Oak Knoll, Bartlett noted “a luxuriant growth of grass, studded with brilliant wildflowers” and described the valley as “surrounded by a world of wildflowers of most gorgeous hues, which covered the plains on either side and loaded the air with rich perfume”.  W.L. Jepson, who wrote extensively about California flowers between 1892-1936,  remembers “a radiant springtime when for four glorious weeks I botanized the whole length of the valley…cream cups, poppies, clover, filled the meadows and fields”.  Grossinger notes that the loss of this remarkable expression of local climate and ecology is a largely overlooked transformation of the landscape: “Native wildflower seed banks lie intact waiting for the right conditions to return.”  The website of Pressed Flower Craft explains:

The idea of preserving plants by pressing originated with early botanists. Even in Greek and Roman times, flower pressing was a practical way for a botanist to bring lots of specimens back from the wild for later recording and analyzing. The botanist’s plant press was simply two large flat boards surrounding alternating stacks of paper. Plants were kept tight with adjustable belt like straps.  During Victorian times flower pressing was one way to capture and preserve the beauty of the natural world.  Nature’s beauty was brought inside where it could be appreciated forever.  

Nature’s beauty was brought inside where it could be appreciated forever …in this case, at the Carolyn Parr Nature Center.    

Sources:

Braggilotti, Mary “Her Worlds are Many,” New York Post. May 16, 1946.  

Coodley, Lauren.  Napa Valley Chronicles “Discovering Rita Bordwell”.  Charleston, SC: History Press, 2013.  

Grossinger, Robin Napa Valley Historical Ecology Atlas: Exploring a

Hidden Landscape of Transformation and Resilience.  Berkeley CA:

University of California Press, 2012

Minnich, R. A California’s fading wildflowers:  Lost Legacy and biological invasions.  Berkeley CA: University of California Press, 2008.  

http://www.pressed-flower craft.com/histperspect.html

Special thanks to Les Franco, nephew of Carl, for the family history and photograph.