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Selected from the photo collections of the Monterey Public Library, the photographs in this new volume, A Monterey Album: Life by the Bay, show the activities of everyday life. From festivals like the Santa Rosalia to family picnics, from artists to fishermen, from children's antics to civic club events, from beaches to hillside neighborhoods, and from weddings to fiestas, Monterey's residents tell their stories in work, play, and celebration. This collection of their cherished memories reveals not only customs, styles, and events, but reflects and illuminates the life of one of California's most historic places.

Completed in 1911, the Copper River Northwestern Railway allowed Alaska's mining industry to flourish. Copper and gold prospecting townships and camps spread rapidly in the following thirty years. Far-flung glacier-side bunkhouses and angling stations dotted the wild landscape, with workers coming from all around the world to seek their fortune. The sudden closing of the Kennecott copper mine in 1938 left many of these industrial and residential structures abandoned. Leaving with only what they could carry, the miners left plates on tables and sheets on beds. Preserved by their remoteness and Alaska's harsh freezing temperatures, the sites retain many of these precious artifacts. Most still lie where they were left, almost a century ago.

Photographer Paul Scannell has spent years hiking to the region's precariously perched mountain-top copper mines and remote gold mining sites with the aim of capturing America's slowly disappearing frontier history. His fascination with dereliction and its haunting beauty grows with each new adventure. Observing nature reclaim its territory, for him, holds irresistible drama. This book maps a personal journey, driven by loss and defined by discovery and healing. It is a collection of his photographs, travel notes and observations.

Somewhere between the Hollywood sign and the Pacific Ocean, underneath the palm trees and above the crowded highways, there they are. You may have seen one in your favorite movie, or walked by one a thousand times. They're the landmarks, buildings, storefronts, and vintage signs that are part of what make LA and its surroundings so iconic. Not only can you see the history of Los Angeles, you can see history. Every historic location, abandoned storefront, and vintage sign is a lesson in LA's past.

Among the flickering neon portraits are essays, anecdotes, and stories from artists, writers, actors, and musicians about their own personal LA. Take a journey to the towns, cities, and neighborhoods that define Los Angeles culture, one photo at a time.

In Southern California, settlers have long ventured into the Mojave Desert, seduced by its capacious horizons and fragile beauty, only to be abased by the intense heat, bone-dry terrain and maddening isolation. Industry, intent on extracting the land of its essence, set up operations, then walked away when there was nothing left worth taking. Civilization has always pushed into the frontier, and quite often the frontier pushes back.

Areas like the forsaken homesteads of Wonder Valley and the abandoned mining operations of Joshua Tree seem simultaneously depleted yet majestically audacious in their quiet desolation, juxtaposed against the breathtaking landscapes of the desert.

Abandoned California: The Mojave Desert is a collection of photographs and writings by Andy Willinger that capture the majesty of these forsaken buildings, vehicles and artifacts of the Mojave's once vibrant past. These sites have become meaningful, unintended statements - not only as vibrant, ephemeral artworks of minimal beauty, but as testament to the impact on nature by humanity. Undaunted, the Mojave Desert continues to brashly flaunt its skill in overcoming man's attempts to conquer it.

Throughout its rich and storied history, California has seen the rise and fall of countless individuals, industries, and empires. Men have dug deep into her rich soil in search of mineral wealth, hauling out tungsten, silver, mercury and, of course, gold. Loggers plied their trade in the dense forests of her northernmost corners, harvesting redwood, fir, and pine that would build the metropolises of San Francisco, Sacramento, and Los Angeles. Entire cities have been dreamt up, built, and then left to rot in the desert sun or salty coastal air. Along the way, untold thousands of locations have slipped through the cracks of time, seemingly forgotten in mankind's eternal quest for greater things.

Such is the nature of time that nothing lasts forever; all over the Golden State, the lost histories of California are waiting to be discovered by those intrepid, and perhaps, foolhardy enough to seek them out. From the sunbaked beaches of Los Angeles to the rugged cliffs of the Lost Coast, wherever humans have briefly tread can be found the decaying remains of the world that once was.

The Salton Sea, California's largest inland body of water, was a spectacular oasis in the desert which attracted droves of boating, fishing, and beach enthusiasts for fun in the sun. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the Salton Sea was a notorious playground for celebrities like Frank Sinatra, Jerry Lewis, and the Beach Boys, who routinely drove out from Hollywood, 175 miles away.

By the 1970s, unpredictable and poisonous agricultural runoff continually flooded the shorelines and caused many of the fish to die. After storms decimated several of the resorts and marinas, many residents were forced to abandon their homes and businesses. These once glorious seaside towns have been reduced to bleak, desolate wastelands, as the Salton Sea is now drying up. It has become the site of an ecological disaster, as toxic dust from its exposed bottom is picked up by winds, poisoning the humans, wildlife, and agriculture of the entire region.

Abandoned California: The Salton Sea is a collection of photographs and writings by Andy Willinger which capture the sublime beauty of the forsaken landscapes, buildings, and artifacts of this historic area's once vibrant past.

Abandoned Colorado is the adventurer's guide to the lost and forgotten history of the Centennial State. From the vast grasslands of the Great Plains to the towering peaks of the Rocky Mountains, explorer and photographer Evan Alderson takes readers on a pictorial journey to ghost towns, gold mines, abandoned railroads, and more. Over 140 photographs capture the derelict haunts that marked the Pikes Peak Gold Rush, the Colorado Silver Boom, the Cripple Creek Gold Rush, and the infamous labor wars that ravaged a fledgling state. This is the history of Colorado told in ruins.

Accompanying numerous photos, Alderson provides a historical narrative that delves deep into the dark and violent parts of Colorado's past. Discover the locations of major gun battles, deadly disasters, and clandestine attacks. This isn't your high school history book. Whether you leave coffee rings or mud stains on the jacket, this book is bound to take you on an unparalleled adventure.

The San Francisco East Bay is home to a large and expanding variety of graffiti artists. In this collection of cities, you can find their expressions and experimentations in secret places that hold surprising bursts of color, pattern, and texture.

This area is centered in two bustling cities: Oakland and Berkeley. These two adjacent cities hold a diverse population of over 500,000 people. But to locals, it also includes tiny Emeryville, which is pocketed in between these two cities; the quaint island city of Alameda, which is a short bridge away from Oakland; San Leandro on the outskirts of Oakland to the South; and the gritty city of Richmond to the north of Berkeley. This geographic area is lovingly called "the East Bay."

Xan Blood Walker resonates strongly with the aesthetic these artists bring to the area. Coming from a background of being a homeless, drug addicted punk rocker in the 80s, she transformed herself into a recovering psychotherapist, art therapist, and photographer. In these hidden spaces, she finds the magic and tragic beauty that was once her world.

Almost a century before Las Vegas became Nevada's glittering jewel in the desert, the state was at the center of a history-making mining stampede: first silver and then gold, two of the Earth's most sought-after precious metals. Towns and cities were established almost overnight and abandoned at lightning speed once the riches were exhausted. Miners and residents moved from one gold strike to the next, settling and then unsettling the state; some towns survived and remain as semi-inhabited time capsules of another era, while others have crumbled back into the desert.

Nevada's vast expanses of desert are home to hundreds of ghost towns, both desolate and engaging. Abandoned Nevada: All That Glittered, is a photographic exploration of well-known locations such as iconic Rhyolite with its towering ruins of the Cook Bank building, as well as the not-so-famous and more hidden towns such as Blair. All ghost towns invite us to visit, however briefly, another time. They are precious reminders of the grit and determination--and in many cases, greed--that drove the settlement of the Southwest. How much of them will remain 100 years from now? This question bears contemplation and validates the importance of visually documenting their tenuous status.