About the Author
Alan Ehrgott is a conservation biologist, wilderness guide, and founder of the American River Conservancy, where he led the protection and restoration of more than 27,000 acres of riverfront and wildlife habitat in Northern California. Over a thirty-year career in land conservation, he raised more than $150 million for habitat preservation and received the National Wilderness Conservation Award for his work safeguarding forested headwaters and public lands.
In 1975, Ehrgott backpacked the entire length of Baja California, an experience that launched a lifelong study of the region’s natural and cultural history. Over the next five decades, he combined field experience, archival research, and ecological knowledge to explore how history, myth, memory, and landscape shape human identity. He lives in Coloma, California.
Alan fell in love with California history in 1974 while preparing for a six-month backpacking journey the length of Baja California. That expedition sparked a lifelong quest to uncover the intertwined histories of Native peoples, conquistadors, missionaries, and immigrants who shaped the Californias.
A historian, conservation biologist, and storyteller, Ehrgott writes to bridge myth and fact, honoring the voices of those often left out of traditional histories.