182 - John Langellier: Bastion by the Bay: The Many Lives of the Presidio of San Francisco

Founded in 1776, the Presidio of San Francisco has served three nations, guarded the "harbor of harbors" for nearly 250 years, and evolved from a modest Spanish adobe fort into a Cold War missile site before becoming one of the country's most successful national parks. Historian John Langellier — former curator of the Presidio Army Museum and author of more than fifty books on the American West — joins Jordan to trace that remarkable arc, drawn from his new book Bastion by the Bay: The Presidio of San Francisco, from Outpost of Empire to Magnificent Park (University of North Texas Press, 2026).

Along the way, John and Jordan get into a lot more than fortifications: what it's like to consult on Hollywood Westerns and the films that actually get history right; whether museums exist to comfort us or to make us a little uncomfortable; the debate over expert authority and community voice in public history; and the Autry Museum and Gene Autry himself. Then they dig into the Presidio's story proper — the Ohlone who lived on the peninsula first, the complexity of the California mission system, the geopolitical paranoia over Russian, French, and British encroachment, the farcical 1876 "sham battle" staged to reassure taxpayers, the Endicott-era coastal buildup, Nike missiles in the Cold War, and the irony that this heavily armed outpost may have mattered most as a place of refuge and rescue.

John also shares how to spend an afternoon in the Presidio (start at Fort Point), reflects on fifty years on the trail of the Buffalo Soldiers, offers his California reading list, and previews what he's working on next.

A rich, wide-ranging conversation about memory, myth-making, and the strange afterlives of the places we build to defend ourselves.

Books mentioned include works by Herbert Eugene Bolton, Hubert Howe Bancroft, and Kevin Starr, plus Langellier's own El Presidio de San Francisco.