A growling California grizzly bear crossing railroad tracks was the emblem for the Overland Monthly magazine that appeared 1 July 1868 on San Francisco's newsstands. The editor, Bret Harte , had added the railroad tracks to the California state symbol to depict the conflict between California's savage vigor and encroaching civilization. Selection of this symbol was ironic. The Overland Monthly was to be a western alternative to the highly successful Atlantic Monthly and bore a striking physical resemblance to its East Coast counterpart. The goals of the Overland Monthly were to promote California, to make San Francisco the cultural center for the West, and to attract immigrants. The railroads played an important role in this, but when the East Coast and the West Coast became connected by a pair of steel rails, eastern culture-and eastern magazines--spread west on the heels of the immigrants. Bret Harte 's emblem for his new magazine...