Blood Meridian; or, The Evening Redness in the West is a 1985 anti-Western epic historical novel by American author Cormac McCarthy . McCarthy's fifth book, it was published by Random House .
187-641: Set in the American frontier with a loose historical context, the narrative follows a fictional teenager from Tennessee referred to as "the kid", with the bulk of the text devoted to his experiences with the Glanton gang , a historical group of scalp hunters who massacred American Indians and others in the United States–Mexico borderlands from 1849 to 1850 for bounty , sadistic pleasure , and eventually out of nihilistic habit . The role of antagonist
374-480: A 2008 interview with Eclipse Magazine Scott confirmed that the screenplay had been written, but that the extensive violence was proving to be a challenge for film standards. This later led to Scott and Monahan leaving the project, resulting in another abandoned adaptation. By early 2011, James Franco was considering adapting Blood Meridian , along with a number of other William Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy novels. After being persuaded by Andrew Dominik to adapt
561-526: A Rogue . Chamberlain rode with John Joel Glanton and his company between 1849 and 1850. Judge Holden is described in Chamberlain's account but is otherwise unknown. Chamberlain writes: The second in command, now left in charge of the camp, was a man of gigantic size who rejoiced in the name of Holden, called Judge Holden of Texas. Who or what he was no one knew, but a cooler-more blooded villain never went unhung. He stood six foot six in his moccasins, had
748-609: A Voyage Between China and the North-Western Coast of America, Made in 1804" and Richard Henry Dana 's more substantial and convincing account, of his 1834–36 voyage, the classic Two Years Before the Mast . In 1846, the United States went to war against Mexico and sent a naval and land expedition to conquer Alta California . At first, they had an easy time of it, capturing the major ports including San Diego, but
935-591: A center of the emerging biotech industry and is home to telecommunications giant Qualcomm . San Diego had also grown in the tourism industry with the popularity of attractions such as the San Diego Zoo , SeaWorld San Diego , and Legoland California in Carlsbad . According to SDSU professor emeritus Monte Marshall, San Diego Bay is "the surface expression of a north-south-trending, nested graben ". The Rose Canyon and Point Loma fault zones are part of
1122-523: A colon for setting off a list, but never semicolons. He believed there was no reason to "blot the page up with weird little marks". The New York Times described McCarthy's prose in Blood Meridian as " Faulknerian ". Describing events of extreme violence, McCarthy's prose is sparse yet expansive, with an often biblical quality and frequent religious references. Blood Meridian initially received little recognition, but has since been recognized as
1309-498: A crucial role in national expansion. It facilitated expansion into the West by creating an inexpensive, fast, convenient communication system. Letters from early settlers provided information and boosterism to encourage increased migration to the West, helped scattered families stay in touch and provide neutral help, assisted entrepreneurs to find business opportunities, and made possible regular commercial relationships between merchants and
1496-606: A ferry on the Colorado River at Yuma, Arizona . Local Yuma ( Quechan ) Indians are at first approached to help the gang wrest control of the ferry from its original owners, but Glanton's gang betrays and slaughters them and the passengers so they can plunder the ferry and frame the Indians for the attack. After a while, the Yumas vengefully attack and kill most of the gang in a second wave. The kid, Toadvine, and Tobin are among
1683-543: A few thousand French migrated to Canada; these habitants settled in villages along the St. Lawrence River , building communities that remained stable for long stretches. Although French fur traders ranged widely through the Great Lakes and midwest region, they seldom settled down. French settlement was limited to a few very small villages such as Kaskaskia, Illinois as well as a larger settlement around New Orleans . In what
1870-444: A few years, the pioneer added hogs, sheep, and cattle, and perhaps acquired a horse. Homespun clothing replaced the animal skins. The more restless pioneers grew dissatisfied with over civilized life and uprooted themselves again to move 50 or a hundred miles (80 or 160 km) further west. The land policy of the new nation was conservative, paying special attention to the needs of the settled East. The goals sought by both parties in
2057-672: A filibuster in Chihuahua , the kid is set free when his acquaintance Toadvine tells the authorities they will make useful Indian hunters. They join John Joel Glanton and his gang, among them Holden, and the bulk of the novel is devoted to detailing their activities and conversations. Though originally tasked with protecting locals from marauding Apaches , the gang devolves into the outright murder of unthreatening Indians, unprotected Mexican villages, and eventually even Mexican soldiers and anyone else who crosses their path, collecting
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#17327807403472244-458: A fire in each of the holes, and an assortment of wanderers trails behind him. A major theme is the warlike nature of man. Critic Harold Bloom praised Blood Meridian as one of the best 20th century American novels, "worthy of Herman Melville 's Moby-Dick ," but admitted that his "first two attempts to read through Blood Meridian failed, because [he] flinched from the overwhelming carnage". Caryn James of The New York Times argued that
2431-412: A fossilized skull three hundred millennia old seemed to have been scalped. Regarding the meaning of the epigraphs, David H. Evans writes that [t]he taking of scalps, as McCarthy's third epigraph suggests, enjoys a profound antiquity, one coterminous with, perhaps, the beginnings of the species Homo sapiens . The narrative closes with ambiguity pertaining to the final state of the kid, or the man. Since
2618-453: A frontier line. In the discussion of its extent, its westward movement, etc., it can not, therefore, any longer have a place in the census reports." Despite this, the later 1900 U.S. census continued to show the westward frontier line, and his successors continued the practice. By the 1910 U.S. census however, the frontier had shrunk into divided areas without a singular westward line of settlement. An influx of agricultural homesteaders in
2805-502: A given planning area there may be several distinct neighborhoods. Altogether the city contains more than 100 identified neighborhoods . Downtown San Diego is located on San Diego Bay . Balboa Park encompasses several mesas and canyons to the northeast, surrounded by older, dense urban communities including Hillcrest and North Park . To the east and southeast lie City Heights , the College Area , and Southeast San Diego . To
2992-551: A head is an allusion to Dante 's similar action in the Inferno . The second of the three epigraphs which introduce the novel, taken from the Christian theosophist Jakob Böhme , has incited varied discussion. The quote from Boehme is: It is not to be thought that the life of darkness is sunk in misery and lost as if in sorrowing. There is no sorrowing. For sorrow is a thing that is swallowed up in death, and death and dying are
3179-532: A large, fleshy frame, a dull, tallow-colored face destitute of hair and all expression, always cool and collected. But when a quarrel took place and blood shed, his hog-like eyes would gleam with a sullen ferocity worthy of the countenance of a fiend ... Terrible stories were circulated in camp of horrid crimes committed by him when bearing another name in the Cherokee nation in Texas. And before we left Fronteras,
3366-502: A little girl of ten years was found in the chaparral foully violated and murdered. The mark of a huge hand on her little throat pointed out him as the ravisher as no other man had such a hand. But though all suspected, no one charged him with the crime. He was by far the best educated man in northern Mexico. McCarthy's judge was added to his manuscript in the late 1970s, a "grotesque patchwork of up-river Kurtz and Milton 's Satan " and Chamberlain's account. McCarthy physically retraced
3553-502: A masterpiece and one of the greatest works of American literature . Some have called it the Great American Novel . American literary critic Harold Bloom praised Blood Meridian as one of the 20th century's finest novels. Aleksandar Hemon has called it "possibly the greatest American novel of the past 25 years". David Foster Wallace named it one of the five most underappreciated American novels since 1960 and "[p]robably
3740-462: A number of small parks and preserves. San Diego County has one of the highest counts of animal and plant species that appear on the endangered list of counties in the United States. Because of its diversity of habitat and its position on the Pacific Flyway , San Diego County has recorded 492 different bird species, more than any other region in the country. San Diego always scores high in
3927-468: A one-room log cabin. The main food supply at first came from hunting deer, turkeys, and other abundant game. Clad in typical frontier garb, leather breeches, moccasins, fur cap, and hunting shirt, and girded by a belt from which hung a hunting knife and a shot pouch—all homemade—the pioneer presented a unique appearance. In a short time he opened in the woods a patch, or clearing, on which he grew corn, wheat, flax, tobacco, and other products, even fruit. In
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#17327807403474114-818: A party of 20 soldiers to find the headwaters of the Mississippi. He later explored the Red and Arkansas Rivers in Spanish territory, eventually reaching the Rio Grande . On his return, Pike sighted the peak in Colorado named after him . Major Stephen Harriman Long (1784–1864) led the Yellowstone and Missouri expeditions of 1819–1820, but his categorizing in 1823 of the Great Plains as arid and useless led to
4301-403: A population of over 1.3 million residents, it is the eighth-most populous city in the United States and the second-most populous in the state of California , after Los Angeles . San Diego is the seat of San Diego County , which has a population of nearly 3.3 million people. It is known for its mild year-round Mediterranean climate , extensive beaches and parks , long association with
4488-549: A posthumous credit following his death on June 13, 2023. John Logan was later announced to be adapting the story. American frontier The American frontier , also known as the Old West , and popularly known as the Wild West , encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial settlements in
4675-470: A principal trading center for Mississippi River traffic and inland commerce but remained under Spanish control until 1803. Thomas Jefferson thought of himself as a man of the frontier and was keenly interested in expanding and exploring the West. Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase of 1803 doubled the size of the nation at the cost of $ 15 million, or about $ 0.04 per acre ($ 305 million in 2023 dollars, less than 42 cents per acre). Federalists opposed
4862-542: A profitable monopoly; he left the business as a multi-millionaire in 1834. As the frontier moved west, trappers and hunters moved ahead of settlers, searching out new supplies of beaver and other skins for shipment to Europe. The hunters were the first Europeans in much of the Old West and they formed the first working relationships with the Native Americans in the West. They added extensive knowledge of
5049-663: A result of the Mexican–American War of 1846–48, the territory of Alta California, including San Diego, was ceded to the United States by Mexico, under the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. The Mexican negotiators of that treaty tried to retain San Diego as part of Mexico, but the Americans insisted that San Diego was "for every commercial purpose of nearly equal importance to us with that of San Francisco", and
5236-584: A river or creek flowed through it, and that they would lead our men to it if they would follow." That river was the San Diego River. Several reservoirs and Mission Trails Regional Park also lie between and separate developed areas of the city. Notable peaks within the city limits include Cowles Mountain , the highest point in the city at 1,591 feet (485 m); Black Mountain at 1,558 feet (475 m); and Mount Soledad at 824 feet (251 m). The Cuyamaca Mountains and Laguna Mountains rise to
5423-402: A salutary restraint upon the tribes, who would feel that any foray by their warriors upon the white settlements would meet with prompt retaliation upon their own homes. There was a debate at the time about the best size for the forts with Jefferson Davis , Winfield Scott , and Thomas Jesup supporting forts that were larger but fewer in number than Floyd. Floyd's plan was more expensive but had
5610-550: A screenplay in 1995. In the late 1990s, Tommy Lee Jones acquired the film adaptation rights to the story and subsequently rewrote Tesich's screenplay with the idea of directing and playing a role in it. The production could not move forward due to film studios avoiding the project's overall violence. Following the end of production for Kingdom of Heaven in 2004, screenwriter William Monahan and director Ridley Scott entered discussions with producer Scott Rudin for adapting Blood Meridian with Paramount Pictures financing. In
5797-525: A spirit of nationalism and providing a necessary infrastructure. The army early on assumed the mission of protecting settlers along with the Westward Expansion Trails , a policy that was described by U.S. Secretary of War John B. Floyd in 1857: A line of posts running parallel without frontier, but near to the Indians' usual habitations, placed at convenient distances and suitable positions, and occupied by infantry, would exercise
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5984-688: A storekeeper, a minister, and perhaps a doctor; and there were several landless laborers. All the rest were farmers. In the South, frontier areas that lacked transportation, such as the Appalachian Mountains region, remained based on subsistence farming and resembled the egalitarianism of their northern counterparts, although they had a larger upper-class of slaveowners. North Carolina was representative. However, frontier areas of 1700 that had good river connections were increasingly transformed into plantation agriculture. Rich men came in, bought up
6171-555: A tent in Nacogdoches, Texas , at which Holden falsely accuses the preacher of raping children and goats, inciting the audience to attack him. After a violent encounter with a bartender that establishes the kid as a formidable fighter, he joins a party of ill-equipped U.S. Army irregulars on a filibustering mission led by a Captain White. White's group is overwhelmed by a Comanche raiding party, and few of them survive. Arrested as
6358-490: A toolbox. There are several new high-rises under construction , including two that exceed 400 feet (122 m) in height. The city had a population of 1,307,402 according to the 2010 census, distributed over a land area of 372.1 square miles (963.7 km ). The urban area of San Diego had a total population of 2,956,746, making it the third-largest in the state, after those of Los Angeles and San Francisco . The 2010 population represented an increase of just under 7% from
6545-410: A yet more terrible clarity than does Melville. Since the novel's release many have noted its cinematic potential. The New York Times ' 1985 review noted that the novel depicted "scenes that might have come off a movie screen". There have been attempts to create a motion picture adaptation of Blood Meridian , but all have failed during the development or pre-production stages. A common perception
6732-454: Is nihilistic or strongly moral , a satire of the western genre or a savage indictment of Manifest Destiny . Harold Bloom called it "the ultimate western". J. Douglas Canfield described it as "a grotesque Bildungsroman in which we are denied access to the protagonist's consciousness almost entirely". Richard Selzer declared that McCarthy "is a genius – also probably somewhat insane." Critic Steven Shaviro wrote: In
6919-518: Is famous for classifying and painting in minute details 500 species of birds, published in Birds of America . The most famous of the explorers was John Charles Frémont (1813–1890), an Army officer in the Corps of Topographical Engineers. He displayed a talent for exploration and a genius at self-promotion that gave him the sobriquet of "Pathmarker of the West" and led him to the presidential nomination of
7106-409: Is gradually filled by Judge Holden , a physically massive, highly educated, preternaturally skilled member of the gang with pale and hairless skin who takes extreme sadistic pleasure in the destruction and domination of whatever he encounters, including children and docile animals. Although the novel initially received lukewarm critical and commercial reception, it has since become highly acclaimed and
7293-489: Is judge of, and that "the night does not end". The kid recovers and seeks out Tobin, with no luck. He makes his way to Los Angeles, where Toadvine and another member of the Glanton gang, David Brown, were hanged for their crimes. In 1878, the kid, now in his mid-40s and referred to as "the man", makes his way to Fort Griffin , Texas. At a saloon he meets Holden, who seems not to have aged in the intervening years. Holden calls
7480-546: Is mostly because of the city's topography (the Bay, and the numerous hills, mountains, and canyons). Frequently, particularly during the "May gray/ June gloom " period, a thick " marine layer " cloud cover keeps the air cool and damp within a few miles of the coast, but yields to bright cloudless sunshine approximately 5–10 miles (8–16 km) inland. Sometimes the June gloom lasts into July, causing cloudy skies over most of San Diego for
7667-533: Is now New York state the Dutch set up fur trading posts in the Hudson River valley, followed by large grants of land to rich landowning patroons who brought in tenant farmers who created compact, permanent villages. They created a dense rural settlement in upstate New York, but they did not push westward. Areas in the north that were in the frontier stage by 1700 generally had poor transportation facilities, so
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7854-440: Is separated from Tobin and is subsequently imprisoned. Holden visits the kid in jail, and tells him that he has told the jailers "the truth": that the kid alone was responsible for the end of the Glanton gang. The kid is released on recognizance and seeks a doctor to treat his wound. While recovering from the effects of anesthesia , he hallucinates a visit from Holden along with a curious man who forges coins, and learns what Holden
8041-590: Is sometimes used by historians regarding the time from the end of the American Civil War in 1865 to when the Superintendent of the Census, William Rush Merriam , stated the U.S. Census Bureau would stop recording western frontier settlement as part of its census categories after the 1890 U.S. Census . His successors however continued the practice until the 1920 Census . Others, including
8228-415: Is that the story is " unfilmable " due to its unrelenting violence and dark tone. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal in 2009 McCarthy denied this notion, with his perspective being that it would be "very difficult to do and would require someone with a bountiful imagination and a lot of balls. But the payoff could be extraordinary." Screenwriter Steve Tesich first adapted Blood Meridian into
8415-478: Is the busiest single-runway airport in the United States. San Diego's name can be traced back to the 16th century when Spanish explorer Sebastián Vizcaíno bestowed it upon the area in 1602. He named the bay and the surrounding area "San Diego de Alcalá" in honor of Saint Didacus of Alcalá . Prior to the Spanish establishment of San Diego, the Kumeyaay town was called Kosa'aay , meaning "drying out place" in
8602-467: Is widely recognized as McCarthy's magnum opus and one of the greatest American novels of all time . Some have labelled it the Great American Novel . The novel tells the story of a teenaged runaway referred to only as "the kid", who was born in Tennessee during the famously active Leonids meteor shower of 1833. He first meets the enormous, pale, hairless Judge Holden at a religious revival in
8789-1001: The Gaslamp Quarter . In the early part of the 20th century, San Diego hosted the World's Fair twice: the Panama–California Exposition in 1915 and the California Pacific International Exposition in 1935. Both expositions were held in Balboa Park , and many of the Spanish/Baroque-style buildings that were built for those expositions remain to this day as central features of the park. The buildings were intended to be temporary structures, but most remained in continuous use until they progressively fell into disrepair. Most were eventually rebuilt, using castings of
8976-575: The Kumeyaay language . After the establishment of San Diego, the Kumeyaay called town and city Tepacul Watai , meaning "Stacked Big". Luiseño speakers in the North County region called it Pushuyi . What has been referred to as the San Dieguito complex was established in the area at least 9,000 years ago. The Kumeyaay may have culturally evolved from this complex or migrated into
9163-516: The Library of Congress and University of Oxford , often cite differing points reaching into the early 1900s; typically within the first two decades before American entry into World War I . A period known as "The Western Civil War of Incorporation" lasted from the 1850s to 1919. This period includes historical events synonymous with the archetypical Old West or "Wild West" such as violent conflict arising from encroaching settlement into frontier land,
9350-459: The Mexican–American War and was admitted as the 31st state in 1850. The largest sectors of the economy of San Diego include military and defense-related activities, tourism, international trade, research, and manufacturing. The city is home to several universities, including UC San Diego , San Diego State University , and the University of San Diego . San Diego is the economic center of
9537-505: The Mexico–United States border , and are physically separated from the rest of the city by the cities of National City and Chula Vista . A narrow strip of land at the bottom of San Diego Bay connects these southern neighborhoods with the rest of the city. For the most part, San Diego neighborhood boundaries tend to be understood by its residents based on geographical boundaries like canyons and street patterns. The city recognized
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#17327807403479724-707: The San Andreas Fault system. About 40 miles (64 km) east of the bay are the Laguna Mountains in the Peninsular Ranges , which are part of the American Cordillera . The city lies on approximately 200 deep canyons and hills separating its mesas , creating small pockets of natural open space scattered throughout the city and giving it a hilly geography. Traditionally, San Diegans have built their homes and businesses on
9911-594: The San Diego–Tijuana region, the second-most populous transborder metropolitan area in the Western Hemisphere, home to an estimated five million people as of 2022. The primary border crossing between San Diego and Tijuana , the San Ysidro Port of Entry , is the busiest international land border crossing in the world outside of Asia ( fourth-busiest overall). San Diego International Airport
10098-683: The San Pasqual Valley , which holds an agricultural preserve. Carmel Valley and Del Mar Heights occupy the northwest corner of the city. To their south are Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve and the business center of the Golden Triangle . Further south are the beach and coastal communities of La Jolla , Pacific Beach , Mission Beach , and Ocean Beach . Point Loma occupies the peninsula across San Diego Bay from downtown. The communities of South San Diego (an Exclave ), such as San Ysidro and Otay Mesa , are located next to
10285-654: The United States Navy , and its recent emergence as a healthcare and biotechnology development center. Historically home to the Kumeyaay people, San Diego has been referred to as the Birthplace of California , as it was the first site visited and settled by Europeans on what is now the West Coast of the United States . Upon landing in San Diego Bay in 1542, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo claimed
10472-475: The West Coast and the deep interior, with settlements such as Los Angeles and Salt Lake City respectively. The " West " was the recently settled area near that boundary. Thus, parts of the Midwest and American South , though no longer considered "western", have a frontier heritage along with the modern western states. Richard W. Slatta, in his view of the frontier, writes that "historians sometimes define
10659-524: The 1,223,400 people reported in 2000. The population density was 3,771.9 inhabitants per square mile (1,456.3/km ). The racial makeup of San Diego was 58.9% White , 6.7% African American, 0.6% Native American, 15.9% Asian (5.9% Filipino , 2.7% Chinese , 2.5% Vietnamese , 1.3% Indian , 1.0% Korean , 0.7% Japanese , 0.4% Laotian , 0.3% Cambodian , 0.1% Thai ). 0.5% Pacific Islander (0.2% Guamanian , 0.1% Samoan , 0.1% Native Hawaiian ), 12.3% from other races , and 5.1% from two or more races. 28.8% of
10846-466: The 1790–1820 era were to grow the economy, avoid draining away the skilled workers needed in the East, distribute the land wisely, sell it at prices that were reasonable to settlers yet high enough to pay off the national debt, clear legal titles, and create a diversified Western economy that would be closely interconnected with the settled areas with minimal risk of a breakaway movement. By the 1830s, however,
11033-581: The 1840s called for low-cost land for free white farmers, a position enacted into law by the new Republican Party in 1862, offering free 160 acres (65 ha) homesteads to all adults, male and female, black and white, native-born or immigrant. After winning the Revolutionary War (1783), American settlers in large numbers poured into the west. In 1788, American pioneers to the Northwest Territory established Marietta, Ohio , as
11220-463: The American West as lands west of the 98th meridian or 98° west longitude ," and that other definitions of the region "include all lands west of the Mississippi or Missouri rivers." Key: States Territories Disputed areas Other countries In the colonial era , before 1776,
11407-520: The American frontier, known as the frontier myth , have embedded themselves into United States culture so much so that the Old West, and the Western genre of media specifically, has become one of the defining features of American national identity. Historians have debated at length as to when the frontier era began, when it ended, and which were its key sub-periods. For example, the Old West subperiod
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#173278074034711594-536: The Americans, whose values focused on equality, democracy, and optimism, as well as individualism , self-reliance, and even violence. The frontier is the margin of undeveloped territory that would comprise the United States beyond the established frontier line. The U.S. Census Bureau designated frontier territory as generally unoccupied land with a population density of fewer than 2 people per square mile (0.77 people per square kilometer). The frontier line
11781-613: The Appalachian Mountains included the Connecticut River valley, and northern New England (which was a move to the north, not the west). Settlers on the frontier often connected isolated incidents to indicate Indian conspiracies to attack them, but these lacked a French diplomatic dimension after 1763, or a Spanish connection after 1820. Most of the frontiers experienced numerous conflicts. The French and Indian War broke out between Britain and France, with
11968-475: The British plan to set up a Native state in U.S. territory south of the Great Lakes. They explained the American policy toward the acquisition of Native lands: The United States, while intending never to acquire lands from the Indians otherwise than peaceably, and with their free consent, are fully determined, in that manner, progressively, and in proportion as their growing population may require, to reclaim from
12155-551: The Californios in southern Alta California struck back. Following the successful revolt in Los Angeles , the American garrison at San Diego was driven out without firing a shot in early October 1846. Mexican partisans held San Diego for three weeks until October 24, 1846, when the Americans recaptured it. For the next several months the Americans were blockaded inside the pueblo. Skirmishes occurred daily and snipers shot into
12342-704: The Colorado River and the depot fell into disuse. From 1857 to 1860, San Diego became the western terminus of the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line , the earliest overland stagecoach and mail operation from the Eastern United States to California, coming from Texas through New Mexico Territory in less than 30 days. In the late 1860s, Alonzo Horton promoted a move to the bayside area, which he called "New Town" and which became downtown San Diego . Horton promoted
12529-556: The French making up for their small colonial population base by enlisting Native war parties as allies. The series of large wars spilling over from European wars ended in a complete victory for the British in the worldwide Seven Years' War . In the peace treaty of 1763 , France ceded practically everything, as the lands west of the Mississippi River, in addition to Florida and New Orleans, went to Spain. Otherwise, lands east of
12716-521: The Glanton Gang's path through Mexico multiple times, and noted topography and fauna. He studied such topics as homemade gunpowder to accurately depict the judge's creation from volcanic rock. McCarthy's writing style involves many unusual or archaic words, dialogue in Spanish, no quotation marks for dialogue, and no apostrophes to signal most contractions. McCarthy told Oprah Winfrey in an interview that he preferred "simple declarative sentences" and that he used capital letters, periods, an occasional comma,
12903-513: The Homestead Law of 1862, with a moderated pace that gave settlers 160 acres free after they worked on it for five years. The private profit motive dominated the movement westward, but the federal government played a supporting role in securing the land through treaties and setting up territorial governments, with governors appointed by the President. The federal government first acquired western territory through treaties with other nations or native tribes. Then it sent surveyors to map and document
13090-426: The Mexican–American border was eventually established to be one league south of the southernmost point of San Diego Bay , so as to include the entire bay within the United States. The state of California was admitted to the United States in 1850. That same year San Diego was designated the seat of the newly established County of San Diego and was incorporated as a city. Joshua H. Bean , the last alcalde of San Diego,
13277-450: The Mississippi River and what is now Canada went to Britain. Regardless of wars, Americans were moving across the Appalachians into western Pennsylvania, what is now West Virginia, and areas of the Ohio Country , Kentucky, and Tennessee. In the southern settlements via the Cumberland Gap , their most famous leader was Daniel Boone . Young George Washington promoted settlements in West Virginia on lands awarded to him and his soldiers by
13464-722: The Missouri River, and such principal stream of it, as, by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean; whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado, or any other river may offer the most direct and practicable communication across the continent for commerce". Jefferson also instructed the expedition to study the region's native tribes (including their morals, language, and culture), weather, soil, rivers, commercial trading, and animal and plant life. Entrepreneurs, most notably John Jacob Astor quickly seized
13651-530: The Navy Coaling Station in Point Loma, and expanded greatly during the 1920s. By 1930, the city was host to Naval Base San Diego , Naval Training Center San Diego , San Diego Naval Hospital , Camp Matthews , and Camp Kearny (now Marine Corps Air Station Miramar ). The city was also an early center for aviation: as early as World War I, San Diego was proclaiming itself "The Air Capital of
13838-605: The Northeast, there was little competition on the western frontier for Transylvania University , founded in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1780. It boasted of a law school in addition to its undergraduate and medical programs. Transylvania attracted politically ambitious young men from across the Southwest, including 50 who became United States senators, 101 representatives, 36 governors, and 34 ambassadors, as well as Jefferson Davis,
14025-461: The Northwest terrain, including the important South Pass through the central Rocky Mountains. Discovered about 1812, it later became a major route for settlers to Oregon and Washington. By 1820, however, a new "brigade-rendezvous" system sent company men in "brigades" cross-country on long expeditions, bypassing many tribes. It also encouraged "free trappers" to explore new regions on their own. At
14212-471: The Old West; "[R]eaders encounter characters that are often depicted as more animal than human in their behaviors, participating in a ruthless struggle for fortune and power. It is the absence of a recognizable heroic character along with the negation of the Eurocentric oppositions that McCarthy's deployment of animal imagery is meant to illuminate." James D. Lilley argues that many critics struggle with
14399-640: The Royal government in payment for their wartime service in Virginia's militia. Settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains were curtailed briefly by the Royal Proclamation of 1763 , forbidding settlement in this area. The Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768) re-opened most of the western lands for frontiersmen to settle. The nation was at peace after 1783. The states gave Congress control of the western lands and an effective system for population expansion
14586-579: The San Diego City and County had the fifth-largest homeless population among major cities in the United States, with 8,102 people experiencing homelessness. In the city of San Diego, 4,887 individuals were experiencing homelessness according to the 2020 count. A December 11, 2023 article in The San Diego Union-Tribune by Blake Nelson reports a notable decline in the homeless population in downtown San Diego, specifically in
14773-460: The San Diego region would face Kumeyaay raids in the late 1830s and the town itself would face raids in the 1840s. Americans gained an increased awareness of California, and its commercial possibilities, from the writings of two countrymen involved in the often officially forbidden, to foreigners, but economically significant hide and tallow trade, where San Diego was a major port and the only one with an adequate harbor: William Shaler 's "Journal of
14960-545: The Spanish settlement, making it the first settlement by Europeans in what is now the state of California. In July of the same year, Mission San Diego de Alcalá was founded by Franciscan friars under Serra. The mission became a site for a Kumeyaay revolt in 1775, which forced the mission to relocate six miles (10 km) up the San Diego River. By 1797, the mission boasted the largest native population in Alta California, with over 1,400 neophytes living in and around
15147-533: The West and wholesalers and factories back east. The postal service likewise assisted the Army in expanding control over the vast western territories. The widespread circulation of important newspapers by mail, such as the New York Weekly Tribune , facilitated coordination among politicians in different states. The postal service helped to integrate already established areas with the frontier, creating
15334-517: The West was filling up with squatters who had no legal deed, although they may have paid money to previous settlers. The Jacksonian Democrats favored the squatters by promising rapid access to cheap land. By contrast, Henry Clay was alarmed at the "lawless rabble" heading West who were undermining the utopian concept of a law-abiding, stable middle-class republican community. Rich southerners, meanwhile, looked for opportunities to buy high-quality land to set up slave plantations. The Free Soil movement of
15521-467: The West". The city was home to important airplane developers and manufacturers like Ryan Airlines (later Ryan Aeronautical ), founded in 1925, and Consolidated Aircraft (later Convair ), founded in 1923. Charles A. Lindbergh 's plane, the Spirit of St. Louis , was built in San Diego in 1927 by Ryan Airlines. During World War II , San Diego became a major hub of military and defense activity, due to
15708-476: The Wilderness Road. Kentucky at this time had been depopulated—it was "empty of Indian villages." However raiding parties sometimes came through. One of those intercepted was Abraham Lincoln 's grandfather, who was scalped in 1784 near Louisville. The War of 1812 marked the final confrontation involving major British and Native forces fighting to stop American expansion. The British war goal included
15895-521: The abduction of Emma Goldman 's husband Ben Reitman and multiple riots . San Diego's proximity to Tijuana during the Mexican Revolution made this one of the most significant free speech fights during the Wobbly era. In 1916, the neighborhood of Stingaree , the original home of San Diego's first Chinatown and "Soapbox Row", was demolished by anti- vice campaigners to make way for
16082-415: The area around 1000 C.E. Archaeologist Malcolm Rogers hypothesized that the early cultures of San Diego were separate from the Kumeyaay, yet this claim is disputed, with others noting that it does not account for cultural evolution . Rogers later reevaluated his claims, yet they were influential in shaping historical tellings of early San Diego history. The Kumeyaay established villages scattered across
16269-491: The area for Spain , forming the basis for the settlement of Alta California 200 years later. The Presidio and Mission San Diego de Alcalá , founded in 1769, formed the first European settlement in what is now California. In 1821, San Diego became part of the newly declared Mexican Empire , which reformed as the First Mexican Republic two years later. California was conquered by the U.S. in 1848 following
16456-548: The area for the Catholic Saint Didacus , a Spaniard more commonly known as San Diego de Alcalá . On November 12, 1602, the first Christian religious service of record in Alta California was conducted by Friar Antonio de la Ascensión, a member of Vizcaíno's expedition, to celebrate the feast day of San Diego. The permanent European colonization of both California and San Diego began in 1769 with
16643-427: The area heavily, and people and businesses began to relocate to New Town because its location on San Diego Bay was convenient to shipping. New Town soon eclipsed the original settlement, known to this day as Old Town , and became the economic and governmental heart of the city. Still, San Diego remained a relative backwater town until the arrival of a railroad connection in 1878. In 1884–1886, John J. Montgomery made
16830-582: The arrival of four contingents of Spaniards from New Spain and the Baja California peninsula. Two seaborne parties reached San Diego Bay: the San Carlos , under Vicente Vila and including as notable members the engineer and cartographer Miguel Costansó and the soldier and future governor Pedro Fages , and the San Antonio , under Juan Pérez . An initial overland expedition to San Diego from
17017-599: The available resources, enough to give them the advantage against the Apaches. When the kid remembers seeing Holden in Nacogdoches, Tobin tells the kid that each man in the gang claims to have met the judge at some point before joining the Glanton gang. After months of marauding and scalp hunting, the gang crosses into the Mexican Cession , where they eventually set up a systematic and brutal robbing operation at
17204-523: The book portrays violence in explicit detail, this allusive portrayal has caused comment. Given Judge Holden's history and other details in the text, he presumably rapes the man before killing him. Alternatively, perhaps the point is that readers can never know. David Vann argues that the setting of the American southwest which the Gang traverses is representative of hell. Vann claims that the Judge's kicking of
17391-473: The canneries, mostly staffed by immigrant fishermen from Japan , and later from the Portuguese Azores and Italy whose influence is still felt in neighborhoods like Little Italy and Point Loma . Due to rising costs and foreign competition, the last of the canneries closed in the early 1980s. Downtown San Diego was in decline in the 1960s and 1970s, but experienced some urban renewal since
17578-498: The center of San Diego. The first skyscraper over 300 feet (91 m) in San Diego was the El Cortez Hotel , built in 1927; it was the tallest building in the city until 1963. As time went on, multiple buildings claimed the title of San Diego's tallest skyscraper, including the 530 B Street and Symphony Towers . Currently the tallest building in San Diego is One America Plaza , standing 500 feet (150 m) tall, which
17765-416: The century and a half that records have been kept. In 1949 and 1967, snow remained on the ground for a few hours in higher locations like Point Loma and La Jolla . The other three occasions, in 1882, 1946, and 1987, involved flurries but no accumulation. On February 21, 2019, snow fell and accumulated in residential areas of the city, but none fell in the downtown area. Like much of Southern California ,
17952-456: The characters of Blood Meridian speak. McCarthy conducted considerable research to write the book. Critics have repeatedly demonstrated that even brief and seemingly inconsequential passages of Blood Meridian rely on historical evidence. The book has been described as "as close to history as novels generally get". The Glanton gang segments are based on Samuel Chamberlain 's account of the group in his memoir My Confession: The Recollections of
18139-403: The city's economy by focusing on research and science, as well as tourism. From the start of the 20th century through the 1970s, the American tuna fishing fleet and tuna canning industry were based in San Diego, "the tuna capital of the world". San Diego's first tuna cannery was founded in 1911, and by the mid-1930s the canneries employed more than 1,000 people. A large fishing fleet supported
18326-477: The city, hoping to spread plague in the city and effectively kill tens of thousands of civilians. The plan was scheduled to launch on September 22, 1945, but was not carried out because Japan surrendered five weeks earlier. After World War II, the military continued to play a major role in the local economy, but post- Cold War cutbacks took a heavy toll on the local defense and aerospace industries. The resulting downturn led San Diego leaders to seek to diversify
18513-696: The coalition of hostile Native tribes. Meanwhile, General Andrew Jackson ended the Native military threat in the Southeast at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814 in Alabama. In general, the frontiersmen battled the Natives with little help from the U.S. Army or the federal government. To end the war, American diplomats negotiated the Treaty of Ghent , signed towards the end of 1814, with Britain. They rejected
18700-428: The coast are prone to wildfire , and the rates of fire increased in the 20th century, due primarily to fires starting near the borders of urban and wild areas. San Diego's broad city limits encompass a number of large nature preserves, including Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve , Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve , and Mission Trails Regional Park . Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve and a coastal strip continuing to
18887-697: The conquest and settlement of Native American lands west of the Mississippi River , in what is now the Midwest , Texas , the Great Plains , the Rocky Mountains , the Southwest , and the West Coast . Enormous popular attention was focused on the Western United States (especially the Southwest ) in the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century, from the 1850s to the 1910s. Such media typically exaggerated
19074-711: The creation of an Indian barrier state under British auspices in the Midwest which would halt American expansion westward. American frontier militiamen under General Andrew Jackson defeated the Creeks and opened the Southwest, while militia under Governor William Henry Harrison defeated the Native-British alliance at the Battle of the Thames in Canada in 1813. The death in battle of the Native leader Tecumseh dissolved
19261-483: The early 17th century and ended with the admission of the last few contiguous western territories as states in 1912. This era of massive migration and settlement was particularly encouraged by President Thomas Jefferson following the Louisiana Purchase , giving rise to the expansionist attitude known as " manifest destiny " and historians' " Frontier Thesis ". The legends, historical events and folklore of
19448-632: The early 1980s, including the opening of Horton Plaza , the revival of the Gaslamp Quarter, and the construction of the San Diego Convention Center ; Petco Park opened in 2004. Outside of downtown, San Diego annexed large swaths of land and for suburban expansion to the north and control of the San Ysidro Port of Entry . As the Cold War ended, the military shrank and so did defense spending. San Diego has since become
19635-517: The east of the city, and beyond the mountains are desert areas. The Cleveland National Forest is a half-hour drive from downtown San Diego. Numerous farms are found in the valleys northeast and southeast of the city. Under the Köppen–Geiger climate classification system , the San Diego area has been variously categorized as having either a hot semi-arid climate ( BSh in the original classification and BSkn in modified Köppen classification with
19822-692: The end of the gathering season, the trappers would "rendezvous" and turn in their goods for pay at river ports along the Green River , Upper Missouri, and the Upper Mississippi. St. Louis was the largest of the rendezvous towns. By 1830, however, fashions changed and beaver hats were replaced by silk hats, ending the demand for expensive American furs. Thus ended the era of the mountain men , trappers, and scouts such as Jedediah Smith , Hugh Glass , Davy Crockett , Jack Omohundro , and others. The trade in beaver fur virtually ceased by 1845. There
20009-448: The ensuing Battle of San Pasqual , fought in the San Pasqual Valley which is now part of the city of San Diego, the Americans suffered their worst losses in the campaign. Subsequently, a column led by Lieutenant Gray arrived from San Diego, rescuing Kearny's battered and blockaded command. Stockton and Kearny went on to recover Los Angeles and force the capitulation of Alta California with the " Treaty of Cahuenga " on January 13, 1847. As
20196-536: The entire day. Even in the absence of June gloom, inland areas experience much more significant temperature variations than coastal areas, where the ocean serves as a moderating influence. Thus, for example, downtown San Diego averages January lows of 50 °F (10 °C) and August highs of 78 °F (26 °C). The city of El Cajon , just 12 miles (19 km) inland from downtown San Diego, averages January lows of 42 °F (6 °C) and August highs of 88 °F (31 °C). The average surface temperature of
20383-512: The entire range of American literature , only Moby-Dick bears comparison to Blood Meridian. Both are epic in scope, cosmically resonant, obsessed with open space and with language, exploring vast uncharted distances with a fanatically patient minuteness. Both manifest a sublime visionary power that is matched only by still more ferocious irony . Both savagely explode the American dream of manifest destiny of racial domination and endless imperial expansion. But if anything, McCarthy writes with
20570-412: The establishment of law and order, the building of farms, ranches, and towns, the marking of trails and digging of mines, combined with successive waves of immigrants moving into the region, the United States expanded from coast to coast, fulfilling the ideology of Manifest Destiny. In his "Frontier Thesis" (1893), Turner theorized that the frontier was a process that transformed Europeans into a new people,
20757-400: The expansion, but Jeffersonians hailed the opportunity to create millions of new farms to expand the domain of land-owning yeomen ; the ownership would strengthen the ideal republican society, based on agriculture (not commerce), governed lightly, and promoting self-reliance and virtue, as well as form the political base for Jeffersonian Democracy . France was paid for its sovereignty over
20944-400: The fact that McCarthy does not use violence for "jury-rigged, symbolic plot resolutions ... In McCarthy's work, violence tends to be just that; it is not a sign or symbol of something else." In her aforementioned review, Caryn James noted that McCarthy depicts characters of all backgrounds as evil, in contrast to contemporary "revisionist theories that make white men the villains and Indians
21131-552: The fire, smoke resulted in a significant increase in emergency room visits due to asthma, respiratory problems, eye irritation, and smoke inhalation; the poor air quality caused San Diego County schools to close for a week. The October 2007 California wildfires destroyed some areas, particularly within Rancho Bernardo , as well as the nearby communities of Rancho Santa Fe and Ramona . The City of San Diego recognizes 52 individual areas as Community Planning Areas. Within
21318-575: The first controlled flights by an American in a heavier-than-air unpowered glider just south of San Diego at Otay Mesa, helping to pioneer a new science of aerodynamics. In 1912, San Diego was the site of a free speech fight between the Industrial Workers of the World and the city government who passed an ordinance forbidding the freedom of speech along an area of "Soapbox Row" that led to civil disobedience, vigilantism , police violence ,
21505-858: The first permanent American settlement in the Northwest Territory . In 1775, Daniel Boone blazed a trail for the Transylvania Company from Virginia through the Cumberland Gap into central Kentucky. It was later lengthened to reach the Falls of the Ohio at Louisville . The Wilderness Road was steep and rough, and it could only be traversed on foot or horseback, but it was the best route for thousands of settlers moving into Kentucky . In some areas they had to face Native attacks. In 1784 alone, Natives killed over 100 travelers on
21692-456: The first time. One of the largest and most famous camp meetings took place at Cane Ridge, Kentucky , in 1801. San Diego, California San Diego ( / ˌ s æ n d i ˈ eɪ ɡ oʊ / SAN dee- AY -goh , Spanish: [san ˈdjeɣo] ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California , immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border . With
21879-426: The first two decades of the 20th century, taking up more acreage than homestead grants in the entirety of the 19th century, is cited to have significantly reduced open land. A frontier is a zone of contact at the edge of a line of settlement. Theorist Frederick Jackson Turner went deeper, arguing that the frontier was the scene of a defining process of American civilization: "The frontier," he asserted, "promoted
22066-591: The flag of Castile , but possibly born in Portugal . Sailing his flagship San Salvador from Navidad , New Spain, Cabrillo claimed the bay for the Spanish Empire in 1542, and named the site "San Miguel". In November 1602, Sebastián Vizcaíno was sent to map the California coast. Arriving on his flagship San Diego , Vizcaíno surveyed the harbor and what are now Mission Bay and Point Loma and named
22253-428: The formation of a composite nationality for the American people." He theorized it was a process of development: "This perennial rebirth, this fluidity of American life, this expansion westward...furnish[es] the forces dominating American character." Turner's ideas since 1893 have inspired generations of historians (and critics) to explore multiple individual American frontiers, but the popular folk frontier concentrates on
22440-569: The formation of states." They explain, "It is a tale of conquest, but also one of survival, persistence, and the merging of peoples and cultures that gave birth and continuing life to America." Turner himself repeatedly emphasized how the availability of "free land" to start new farms attracted pioneering Americans: "The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward, explain American development." Through treaties with foreign nations and native tribes , political compromise, military conquest,
22627-564: The good land, and worked it with slaves. The area was no longer "frontier". It had a stratified society comprising a powerful upper-class white landowning gentry, a small middle-class, a fairly large group of landless or tenant white farmers, and a growing slave population at the bottom of the social pyramid. Unlike the North, where small towns and even cities were common, the South was overwhelmingly rural. The seaboard colonial settlements gave priority to land ownership for individual farmers, and as
22814-424: The higher areas can receive 11–15 inches (280–380 mm) per year. Variability from year to year can be dramatic: in the wettest years of 1883/1884 and 1940/1941, more than 24 inches (610 mm) fell, whilst in the driest years there was as little as 3.2 inches (80 mm). The wettest month on record is December 1921 with 9.21 inches (234 mm). Snow in the city is rare, having been observed only six times in
23001-430: The historic period and presumably earlier as well, the river has shifted its flow back and forth between San Diego Bay and Mission Bay, and its fresh water was the focus of the earliest Spanish explorers. Miguel Costansó , a cartographer, wrote in 1769, "When asked by signs where the watering-place was, the Indians pointed to a grove which could be seen at a considerable distance to the northeast, giving to understand that
23188-465: The importance of its neighborhoods when it organized its 2008 General Plan around the concept of a "City of Villages". San Diego was originally centered on the Old Town district, but by the late 1860s the focus had shifted to the bayfront, in the belief that this new location would increase trade. As the "New Town" – present-day Downtown – waterfront location quickly developed, it eclipsed Old Town as
23375-449: The interpretation of the novel. Americanist Dana Phillips said that the work "seems designed to elude interpretation". One scholar has described Blood Meridian as: Lyrical at times, at others simply archaic and recondite, at still others barely literate: the dissociative style of Blood Meridian defies accommodation to conventional assumptions. And that's the point. Nonetheless, academics and critics have suggested that Blood Meridian
23562-786: The land. By the 20th century, Washington bureaucracies managed the federal lands such as the United States General Land Office in the Interior Department, and after 1891, the Forest Service in the Department of Agriculture. After 1900, dam building and flood control became major concerns. Transportation was a key issue and the Army (especially the Army Corps of Engineers) was given full responsibility for facilitating navigation on
23749-425: The majority of San Diego's current area was originally occupied on the west by coastal sage scrub and on the east by chaparral , plant communities made up mostly of drought-resistant shrubs. The steep and varied topography and proximity to the ocean create a number of different habitats within the city limits, including tidal marsh and canyons . The chaparral and coastal sage scrub habitats in low elevations along
23936-419: The man "the last of the true", and the pair talk. Holden declares that the man has arrived at the saloon for "the dance" – the dance of violence, war, and bloodshed that the judge had so often praised. The man disputes Holden's ideas and, noting the performing bear at the saloon, states that "even a dumb animal can dance". When the man goes to an outhouse under another meteor shower shortly afterwards, he runs into
24123-425: The median is 9.6 inches (240 mm). The months of December through March supply most of the rain, with February the only month averaging 2 inches (51 mm) or more. The months of May through September tend to be almost completely dry. Although there are few wet days per month during the rainy period, rainfall can be heavy when it does fall. Rainfall is usually greater in the higher elevations of San Diego; some of
24310-413: The mesas, while leaving the urban canyons relatively wild. Thus, the canyons give parts of the city a segmented feel, creating gaps between otherwise proximate neighborhoods and contributing to a low-density, car-centered environment. The San Diego River runs through the middle of San Diego from east to west, creating a river valley that serves to divide the city into northern and southern segments. During
24497-510: The mid-1970s. In a letter sent around 1979 he said that he had not touched Blood Meridian in six months out of frustration. Nonetheless, significant parts of the final book were written in one go, "including the astonishing 'legion of horribles' passage". A legion of horribles, hundreds in number, half naked or clad in costumes attic or biblical or wardrobed out of a fevered dream with the skins of animals and silk finery [...]. Cormac McCarthy , Blood Meridian , IV. McCarthy worked on
24684-623: The mission proper. Mission San Diego was the southern anchor in Alta California of the historic mission trail El Camino Real . Both the Presidio and the Mission are National Historic Landmarks . In 1821, Mexico won its independence from Spain , and San Diego became part of the Mexican territory of Alta California . In 1822, Mexico began its attempt to extend its authority over the coastal territory of Alta California. The fort on Presidio Hill
24871-408: The most horrifying book of this [20th] century, at least [in] fiction." Time magazine included Blood Meridian in its "Time 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005". In 2010 The New York Times conducted a poll of writers and critics regarding the most important works in American fiction from the previous 25 years, and Blood Meridian was a runner-up. There has been no consensus in
25058-465: The mountains for the proposed transcontinental railroad, but his expedition ended in near-disaster when it became lost and was trapped by heavy snow. His reports mixed narrative of exciting adventure with scientific data and detailed practical information for travelers. It caught the public imagination and inspired many to head west. Goetzman says it was "monumental in its breadth, a classic of exploring literature". While colleges were springing up across
25245-559: The n denoting summer fog) or a hot-summer Mediterranean climate ( Csa ). San Diego's climate is characterized by warm, dry summers and mild winters, with most of the annual precipitation falling between December and March. The city has a mild climate year-round, with an average of 201 days above 70 °F (21 °C) and low rainfall (9–13 inches [230–330 mm] annually). The climate in San Diego, like most of Southern California, often varies significantly over short geographical distances, resulting in microclimates . In San Diego, this
25432-401: The naked Holden, who holds him to his chest and shuts the door. Later, two men open the door to the outhouse and gaze in awe and horror at what they see. The last paragraph finds the judge back in the saloon, dancing and playing the fiddle, saying that he never sleeps and will never die. In the epilogue, a man is augering lines of holes across the prairie, perhaps for fence posts. The man sparks
25619-467: The new Republican Party in 1856. He led a series of expeditions in the 1840s which answered many of the outstanding geographic questions about the little-known region. He crossed through the Rocky Mountains by five different routes and mapped parts of Oregon and California. In 1846–1847, he played a role in conquering California. In 1848–1849, Frémont was assigned to locate a central route through
25806-520: The north constitute one of only two locations where the rare species of Torrey Pine, Pinus torreyana , is found. Due to the steep topography that prevents or discourages building, along with some efforts for preservation, there are also a large number of canyons within the city limits that serve as nature preserves, including Switzer Canyon , Tecolote Canyon Natural Park, and Marian Bear Memorial Park in San Clemente Canyon , as well as
25993-416: The north lies Mission Valley and Interstate 8 . The communities north of the valley and freeway, and south of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar , include Clairemont , Kearny Mesa , Tierrasanta , and Navajo . Stretching north from Miramar are the northern suburbs of Mira Mesa , Scripps Ranch , Rancho Peñasquitos , and Rancho Bernardo . The far northeast portion of the city encompasses Lake Hodges and
26180-449: The novel as a "rare coupling of Gnostic 'ideology' with the 'affect' of Hellenic tragedy by means of depicting how power works in the making and erasing of culture, and of what the human condition amounts to when a person opposes that power and thence gets introduced to fate ." Daugherty sees Holden as an archon and the kid as a "failed pneuma ." He says that the kid feels a "spark of the alien divine." Daugherty further contends that
26367-650: The novel while living on the money he received from his MacArthur Fellows grant in 1981. It was his first attempt at a western and his first novel set in the Southwestern United States , a change from the Appalachian settings of his earlier work. In 1974, McCarthy moved from his native Tennessee to El Paso, Texas , to immerse himself in the culture and geography of the American Southwest. He taught himself Spanish , which many of
26554-399: The novel's violence was a "slap in the face" to modern readers cut off from brutality. Terrence Morgan thought the effect of the violence initially shocking but then waned until the reader was desensitized. Billy J. Stratton of Arizona Quarterly contends that the brutality is the primary mechanism through which McCarthy challenges the "oppositional structure" of the conventional narrative of
26741-414: The novel, Daugherty's arguments are "ultimately unsuccessful," because Daugherty fails to adequately address the pervasive violence and because he overstates the kid's goodness. Douglas Canfield asserts that theodicy is the central theme of Blood Meridian . James Wood took a similar position, recognizing as a recurrent theme in the novel the issue of the general justification of metaphysical goodness in
26928-474: The novel, Franco shot 25 minutes of test footage starring Scott Glenn , Mark Pellegrino , Luke Perry , and Dave Franco . For undisclosed reasons, Rudin denied further production of the film. On May 5, 2016, Variety revealed that Franco was negotiating with Rudin to write and direct an adaptation to be brought to the Marché du Film , starring Russell Crowe , Tye Sheridan , and Vincent D'Onofrio . However, it
27115-635: The number of bird species observed in the annual Christmas Bird Count , sponsored by the Audubon Society , and it is known as one of the "birdiest" areas in the United States. San Diego and its backcountry suffer from periodic wildfires. In October 2003, San Diego was the site of the Cedar Fire , at that time the largest wildfire in California over the past century. The fire burned 280,000 acres (1,100 km ), killed 15 people, and destroyed more than 2,200 homes. In addition to damage caused by
27302-707: The opportunity and expanded fur trading operations into the Pacific Northwest . Astor's " Fort Astoria " (later Fort George), at the mouth of the Columbia River, became the first permanent white settlement in that area, although it was not profitable for Astor. He set up the American Fur Company in an attempt to break the hold that the Hudson's Bay Company monopoly had over the region. By 1820, Astor had taken over independent traders to create
27489-432: The opportunity for commercial agriculture was low. These areas remained primarily in subsistence agriculture, and as a result, by the 1760s these societies were highly egalitarian , as explained by historian Jackson Turner Main: The typical frontier society, therefore, was one in which class distinctions were minimized. The wealthy speculator, if one was involved, usually remained at home, so that ordinarily no one of wealth
27676-401: The original façades to retain the architectural style. The menagerie of exotic animals featured at the 1915 exposition provided the basis for the San Diego Zoo . During the 1950s there was a citywide festival called Fiesta del Pacifico highlighting the area's Spanish and Mexican past. In the 2010s there was a proposal for a large-scale celebration of the 100th anniversary of Balboa Park, but
27863-520: The plans were abandoned when the organization tasked with putting on the celebration went out of business. The southern portion of the Point Loma peninsula was set aside for military purposes as early as 1852. Over the next several decades the Army set up a series of coastal artillery batteries and named the area Fort Rosecrans . Significant U.S. Navy presence began in 1901 with the establishment of
28050-553: The population grew they pushed westward for fresh farmland. Unlike Britain, where a small number of landlords owned most of the land, ownership in America was cheap, easy and widespread. Land ownership brought a degree of independence as well as a vote for local and provincial offices. The typical New England settlements were quite compact and small, under a square mile. Conflict with the Native Americans arose out of political issues, namely who would rule. Early frontier areas east of
28237-447: The population was Hispanic or Latino (of any race); 24.9% of the total population was of Mexican heritage, 1.4% Spanish and 0.6% Puerto Rican . The median age of Hispanic residents was 27.5 years, compared to 35.1 years overall and 41.6 years among non-Hispanic whites; Hispanic San Diegans were the largest group under the age of 18, while non-Hispanic whites constituted 63.1% of population 55 and older. As of January 2019 ,
28424-414: The possession of lands more than they can cultivate, and more than adequate to their subsistence, comfort, and enjoyment, by cultivation. If this is a spirit of aggrandizement, the undersigned are prepared to admit, in that sense, its existence; but they must deny that it affords the slightest proof of an intention not to respect the boundaries between them and European nations, or of a desire to encroach upon
28611-423: The presence of evil. Chris Dacus expressed his preference for discussing the theme of theodicy in its eschatological terms in comparison to the theological scene of the last judgment. [1] This preference for reading theodicy as an eschatological theme was further affirmed by Harold Bloom in his recurrent phrase of referring to the novel as "The Authentic Apocalyptic Novel." McCarthy began writing Blood Meridian in
28798-597: The presence of so many military installations and defense manufacturers. The city's population grew rapidly during and after World War II, more than doubling between 1930 (147,995) and 1950 (333,865). During the final months of the war, the Japanese had a plan to target multiple U.S. cities for biological attack , starting with San Diego. The plan was called " Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night " and called for kamikaze planes filled with fleas infected with plague ( Yersinia pestis ) to crash into civilian population centers in
28985-587: The president of the Confederacy. Most frontiersmen showed little commitment to religion until traveling evangelists began to appear and to produce "revivals". The local pioneers responded enthusiastically to these events and, in effect, evolved their populist religions, especially during the Second Great Awakening (1790–1840), which featured outdoor camp meetings lasting a week or more and which introduced many people to organized religion for
29172-431: The president. Then when the population reached 100,000 the territory applied for statehood. Frontiersmen typically dropped the legalistic formalities and restrictive franchise favored by eastern upper classes and adopting more democracy and more egalitarianism. In 1810, the western frontier had reached the Mississippi River . St. Louis, Missouri , was the largest town on the frontier, the gateway for travel westward, and
29359-487: The region getting a bad reputation as the "Great American Desert", which discouraged settlement in that area for several decades. In 1811, naturalists Thomas Nuttall (1786–1859) and John Bradbury (1768–1823) traveled up the Missouri River documenting and drawing plant and animal life. Artist George Catlin (1796–1872) painted accurate paintings of Native American culture. Swiss artist Karl Bodmer made compelling landscapes and portraits. John James Audubon (1785–1851)
29546-424: The region, including the village of Kosa'aay which was the Kumeyaay village that the future settlement of San Diego would stem from in today's Old Town . The village of Kosa'aay was made up of thirty to forty families living in pyramid-shaped housing structures and was supported by a freshwater spring from the hillsides. The first European to visit the region was explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo , sailing under
29733-441: The removal and assimilation of natives, consolidation of property to large corporations and government, vigilantism, and the attempted enforcement of laws upon outlaws. In 1890, the Superintendent of the Census, William Rush Merriam stated: "Up to and including 1880 the country had a frontier of settlement, but at present the unsettled area has been so broken into by isolated bodies of settlement that there can hardly be said to be
29920-609: The rivers. The steamboat, first used on the Ohio River in 1811, made possible inexpensive travel using the river systems, especially the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and their tributaries. Army expeditions up the Missouri River in 1818–1825 allowed engineers to improve the technology. For example, the Army's steamboat " Western Engineer " of 1819 combined a very shallow draft with one of the earliest stern wheels. In 1819–1825, Colonel Henry Atkinson developed keelboats with hand-powered paddle wheels. The federal postal system played
30107-459: The romance, anarchy, and chaotic violence of the period for greater dramatic effect. This inspired the Western genre of film, along with television shows , novels , comic books , video games , children's toys, and costumes. As defined by Hine and Faragher, "frontier history tells the story of the creation and defense of communities, the use of the land, the development of crops and hotels, and
30294-544: The scalps of Indians to turn in for money whilst looting and massacring the Mexican forces. According to the kid's new companion Ben Tobin, an "ex-priest", the Glanton gang first met Judge Holden while fleeing for their lives from a much larger Apache group. In the middle of a blasted desert, they found Holden sitting on an enormous boulder, where he seemingly was waiting for and expecting the gang. They agreed to follow his leadership, and he took them to an extinct volcano where he instructed them on how to manufacture gunpowder with
30481-639: The south was led by the soldier Fernando Rivera and included the Franciscan missionary, explorer, and chronicler Juan Crespí , followed by a second party led by the designated governor Gaspar de Portolà and including the mission president (and now saint) Junípero Serra . In May 1769, Portolà established the Presidio of San Diego on a hill near the San Diego River above the Kumeyaay village of Cosoy, which would later become incorporated into
30668-421: The state of nature, and to bring into cultivation every portion of the territory contained within their acknowledged boundaries. In thus providing for the support of millions of civilized beings, they will not violate any dictate of justice or humanity; for they will not only give to the few thousand savages scattered over that territory an ample equivalent for any right they may surrender, but will always leave them
30855-400: The support of settlers and the general public who preferred that the military remain as close as possible. The frontier area was vast and even Davis conceded that "concentration would have exposed portions of the frontier to Native hostilities without any protection." Government and private enterprise sent many explorers to the West. In 1805–1806, Army lieutenant Zebulon Pike (1779–1813) led
31042-473: The survivors who flee into the desert, though the kid takes an arrow in the leg. The kid and Tobin head west, and come across Holden, who first negotiates, then threatens them for their gun and possessions. Holden shoots Tobin in the neck, and the wounded pair hide among bones by a desert creek. Tobin repeatedly urges the kid to fire upon Holden. The kid does so, but misses his mark. The survivors continue their travels, ending up in San Diego, California . The kid
31229-406: The territories of Great Britain. [...] They will not suppose that that Government will avow, as the basis of their policy towards the United States a system of arresting their natural growth within their territories, for the sake of preserving a perpetual desert for savages. As settlers poured in, the frontier districts first became territories, with an elected legislature and a governor appointed by
31416-407: The territory in terms of international law. Between 1803 and the 1870s, the federal government purchased the land from the Native tribes then in possession of it. 20th-century accountants and courts have calculated the value of the payments made to the Natives, which included future payments of cash, food, horses, cattle, supplies, buildings, schooling, and medical care. In cash terms, the total paid to
31603-412: The threat of legal consequences appears to have played a role in the reduction. In 2000 there were 451,126 households, out of which 30.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 44.6% were married couples living together, 11.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.8% were non-families. Households made up of individuals account for 28.0%, and 7.4% had someone living alone who
31790-501: The town every night. The Californios drove cattle away from the pueblo hoping to starve the Americans and their Californio supporters out. On December 1, the American garrison learned that the dragoons of General Stephen W. Kearney were at Warner's Ranch . Commodore Robert F. Stockton sent a mounted force of fifty under Captain Archibald Gillespie to march north to meet him. Their joint command of 150 men, returning to San Diego, encountered about 93 Californios under Andrés Pico . In
31977-443: The tribes in the area of the Louisiana Purchase amounted to about $ 2.6 billion, or nearly $ 9 billion in 2016 dollars. Additional sums were paid to the Natives living east of the Mississippi for their lands, as well as payments to Natives living in parts of the west outside the Louisiana Purchase. Even before the purchase, Jefferson was planning expeditions to explore and map the lands. He charged Lewis and Clark to "explore
32164-408: The urban core. According to data from the Downtown San Diego Partnership, the number of individuals living outside or in vehicles has reached a two-year low, standing at approximately 1,200 as of last month. The decrease is attributed to the implementation of the city's camping ban and the concerted efforts to establish new shelters. While enforcement has led to relatively few individuals being punished,
32351-472: The very life of the darkness. No specific conclusions have been reached about its interpretation nor relevance to the novel. Critics agree that there are Gnostic elements in Blood Meridian , but they disagree on the precise meaning and implication of those elements. Leo Daugherty argues that "Gnostic thought is central to Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian ", (Daugherty, 122) specifically the Persian - Zoroastrian - Manichean branch of Gnosticism. He describes
32538-429: The victims." "You can find meanness in the least of creatures, but when God made man the Devil was at his elbow. A creature that can do anything" The Old Hermit, pg. 19 Three epigraphs open the book: quotations from French writer Paul Valéry , from German Christian mystic Jakob Böhme , and a 1982 news clipping from the Yuma Sun reporting the claim of members of an Ethiopian archeological excavation that
32725-515: The violence of the novel can best be understood through a Gnostic lens. " Evil " as defined by the Gnostics was a far larger, more pervasive presence in human life than the rather tame and "domesticated" Satan of Christianity. As Daugherty writes, "For [Gnostics], evil was simply everything that is , with the exception of bits of spirit imprisoned here. And what they saw is what we see in the world of Blood Meridian ." However, Barcley Owens argues that while there are undoubtedly Gnostic qualities to
32912-460: The vote. Beyond the town, Mexican land grants expanded the number of California ranchos that modestly added to the local economy. (See, List of pre-statehood mayors of San Diego .) However, San Diego had been losing population throughout the 1830s, due to increasing tension between the settlers and the indigenous Kumeyaay and in 1838 the town lost its pueblo status because its size dropped to an estimated 100 to 150 residents. The ranchos in
33099-423: The water at Scripps Pier in the California Current has increased by almost 3 °F (1.7 °C) since 1950, according to scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography . Additionally, the mean minimum is now above 40 °F (4 °C), putting San Diego in hardiness zone 11, with the last freeze having occurred many decades ago. Annual rainfall along the coast averages 10.65 inches (271 mm) and
33286-487: The west was of high priority for settlers and politicians. The American frontier began when Jamestown , Virginia, was settled by the English in 1607. In the earliest days of European settlement on the Atlantic coast, until about 1680, the frontier was essentially any part of the interior of the continent beyond the fringe of existing settlements along the Atlantic coast. English , French , Spanish , and Dutch patterns of expansion and settlement were quite different. Only
33473-432: Was a resident. The class of landless poor was small. The great majority were landowners, most of whom were also poor because they were starting with little property and had not yet cleared much land nor had they acquired the farm tools and animals which would one day make them prosperous. Few artisans settled on the frontier except for those who practiced a trade to supplement their primary occupation of farming. There might be
33660-410: Was completed in 1991. The downtown skyline contains no supertall buildings due to a regulation put in place by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the 1970s, which set a 500 feet (152 m) limit on the height of buildings within a one-mile (1.6 km) radius of San Diego International Airport . An iconic description of the skyline includes its skyscrapers being compared to the tools of
33847-424: Was developed. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 abolished slavery in the area north of the Ohio River and promised statehood when a territory reached a threshold population, as Ohio did in 1803 . The first major movement west of the Appalachian mountains originated in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina as soon as the Revolutionary War ended in 1781. Pioneers housed themselves in a rough lean-to or at most
34034-448: Was elected the first mayor. Two years later the city was bankrupt; the California legislature revoked the city's charter and placed it under control of a board of trustees, where it remained until 1889. A city charter was reestablished in 1889, and today's city charter was adopted in 1931. The original town of San Diego was located at the foot of Presidio Hill, in the area which is now Old Town San Diego State Historic Park . The location
34221-410: Was gradually abandoned, while the town of San Diego grew up on the level land below Presidio Hill. The Mission was secularized by the Mexican government in 1834 , and most of the Mission lands were granted to former soldiers. The 432 residents of the town petitioned the governor to form a pueblo , and Juan María Osuna was elected the first alcalde ("municipal magistrate"), defeating Pío Pico in
34408-440: Was not ideal, being several miles away from navigable water at its port at La Playa . In 1850, William Heath Davis promoted a new development by the bay shore called "New San Diego", several miles south of the original settlement; however, for several decades the new development consisted only of a pier, a few houses and an Army depot for the support of Fort Yuma . After 1854, the fort became supplied by sea and by steamboats on
34595-411: Was reported later that day that the project dissolved due to issues with the film rights. In 2023, Deadline reported that New Regency is adapting Blood Meridian as a feature film. John Hillcoat , who previously directed an adaptation of McCarthy's novel The Road , is set to direct. Alongside his son John Francis, McCarthy was set to serve as an executive producer on the film; he will retain
34782-438: Was the outer boundary of European-American settlement into this land. Beginning with the first permanent European settlements on the East Coast , it has moved steadily westward from the 1600s to the 1900s (decades) with occasional movements north into Maine and New Hampshire, south into Florida, and east from California into Nevada. Pockets of settlements would also appear far past the established frontier line, particularly on
34969-425: Was wide agreement on the need to settle the new territories quickly, but the debate polarized over the price the government should charge. The conservatives and Whigs, typified by the president John Quincy Adams , wanted a moderated pace that charged the newcomers enough to pay the costs of the federal government. The Democrats, however, tolerated a wild scramble for land at very low prices. The final resolution came in
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