Carol A. Jensen

Carol A. Jensen is the author of Contra Costa Maritime History (Arcadia Publishing, 2014).  San Francisco’s “opposite shore” is showcased for its maritime role in securing the City’s financial preeminence.  Located minutes from San Francisco by ferry or automobile, Contra Costa County provided deep water ports for shipping agricultural, mineral, and manufactured goods around the world.  Pacific commodity traders made use of these ports to ship products, ensuring California’s unique global economic role. Immense wealth was created from goods shipped from maritime Contra Costa County, securing a vibrant economy from the Gaslight era to the days of Haight-Ashbury.

In these pages, Carol A. Jensen presents the vibrant history of maritime Contra Costa County.  Herein we experience in vintage photographs this region’s impact on significant California events.  Wines to challenge French viticultural supremacy were shipped, grains destined to make Guinness beer great set sail, and soldiers embarked for the World War II Pacific Theatre from these piers. Maritime Contra Costa provides a fresh perspective on the intertwined histories of San Francisco and its “other coast.”

Carol has been fascinated with local history since the early 1960s.  A native of eastern Contra Costa County, Carol is a history graduate of UC Santa Barbara.  She delights in discovering cultural ephemera and documenting the cultural history of the area in which people lived, visited, or worked in California.  The fruits of her historical search can be found at the East Contra Costa County Historical Society, Brentwood.

She is also the author of Lake of the Sky Images: The Photographs of Harold A. Parker (2017), Mystery History Postcards from the California Delta (2012), and John Marsh, Pioneer:  The Life Story of a Trail-Blazer on Six Frontiers (2012) (all Byron Hot Springs Publishing); and Byron Hot Springs (2006), Brentwood (2008), East Contra Costa County in Postcards  (2007), The California Delta (2007), and Lake Tahoe’s West Shore (2011) (all Arcadia Publishing); and Lake Tahoe Through Time (2015) (Fonthill Media).