> managed to hit SF, LA, and San Diego [...] but seeing anything older than a mission would've taken ten hours of driving — one way — to get to Mesa Verde.
You’re right though that most indigenous peoples’ dwellings in California were made of wood or mud, and have not survived the past 500 years. The artifacts recovered from archeological digs can be seen in museums, but there aren’t really any grand monuments.
It’s a tragedy, as there once was an incredible diversity of cultures in California. For instance, I’ve heard that linguistically, the pre-Columbian languages in California had more diversity than all the languages in Eurasia. Now almost all of those are extinct or headed for extinction.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Archaeological_sites_... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Archaeological_sites_...
You’re right though that most indigenous peoples’ dwellings in California were made of wood or mud, and have not survived the past 500 years. The artifacts recovered from archeological digs can be seen in museums, but there aren’t really any grand monuments.
It’s a tragedy, as there once was an incredible diversity of cultures in California. For instance, I’ve heard that linguistically, the pre-Columbian languages in California had more diversity than all the languages in Eurasia. Now almost all of those are extinct or headed for extinction.