The impenetrable coast of Humboldt County has been a historic navigational conundrum for sea captains since the 16th century. The Humboldt bar crossing, the lack of safe harbors, the storms, the unpredictable seas, and the rocky shores caused tragic shipwrecks, drownings, and maritime disasters. Beginning in 1850, the Department of the Treasury funded the construction of 11 lighthouses in California, including the Humboldt Harbor Lighthouse, the first one in Humboldt County. Due to its poor location in the sand dunes, the lighthouse was abandoned in 1892. New lighthouses were built in more appropriate locations such as Table Bluff, Cape Mendocino, Trinidad, and Punta Gorda. An increase in population on the north coast resulted in the reliance on passenger schooners and freight vessels, making these lighthouses critical to Humboldt County's economic stability and success. The Trinidad Head Lighthouse is the only one in operation today, yet the lighthouses of Humboldt County and their keepers remain integral to California's maritime history.
For over 100 years, Paramount Pictures has been captivating movie and television audiences worldwide with its alluring imagery and compelling stories. Arising from the collective genius of Adolph Zukor, Jesse L. Lasky, and Cecil B. DeMille during the 1910s, Paramount Pictures is home to such enduring classics as Wings, Sunset Boulevard, The Ten Commandments, Love Story, The Godfather, the Indiana Jones series, Chinatown, Forrest Gump, Braveheart, Titanic, and Star Trek. Early Paramount Studios chronicles Paramount's origins, culminating in the creation and expansion of the lot at 5555 Melrose Avenue, the last major motion picture studio still in Hollywood.
Summit County's Narrow-Gauge Railroads
9781467116855
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Summit County's Narrow-Gauge Railroads tells the story of the two railroads that fought for dominance in Summit County, Colorado, during the late 1800s and early 1900s: the Denver, South Park & Pacific and the Denver & Rio Grande. The two railroads developed an intense rivalry as they sought to monopolize the county's economic potential. Altitude, heavy winter snow, and rugged mountainous terrain combined to provide a unique set of challenges to company management as well as to the crews as they battled to lay the tracks and provide much-needed rail service to the residents and businesses of the county. Intimately tied to the mining economy, the fortunes of the railroads plummeted when the mining economy collapsed. Although poorly financed and poorly built, the railroads changed the living conditions for county residents. Without the railroads bringing the necessary equipment and lumber, nine huge gold-dredging boats would not have scoured the county's major waterways between 1898 and 1942.
Manzanar
9780738558080
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East of the rugged Sierra Nevada in California's Owens Valley lies Manzanar. Founded in 1910 as a fruit-growing colony, it was named in Spanish for the fragrant apple orchards that once filled its spectacularly scenic landscape. Owens Valley Paiute lived there first, followed by white homesteaders and ranchers. But with the onset of World War II came a new identity as the first of 10 "relocation centers" hastily built in 1942 to house 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of them American citizens, removed from the West Coast. In the face of upheaval and loss, Manzanar's 10,000 confined residents created parks, gardens, and a functioning wartime community within the camp's barbed-wire-enclosed square mile of flimsy barracks. Today Manzanar National Historic Site commemorates this and all of Manzanar's unique communities.
San Francisco's Panama-Pacific International Exposition
9780738530093
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The 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exhibition celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal, the rebirth of San Francisco after the disastrous 1906 earthquake, and the world community in general. It was a festive time and one that transformed the swampy San Francisco waterfront into elaborate grounds for sculptures, playgrounds, fountains, and national pavilions. Some say it was the most successful world's fair ever held, bringing together disparate cultures as no other event before or since. Lasting 10 months and covering 635 acres over what is now the city's Marina District, the fair remains in evidence today at the famed Palace of Fine Arts, the only extant structure and a popular and much-photographed local landmark.
Railroads of the Pike's Peak Region:
9780738531250
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By 1900, the scenic beauty of the Pike's Peak region had become well known, making it a popular destination with visitors from across the nation. This influx of tourism along with the apex of the Cripple Creek mining boom saw El Paso and Teller Counties become a hub of freight and passenger activity. Over the next 30 years and through challenging economic times, the area would be served by 11 different railroads and an interurban line. The Midland Terminal and the Colorado Springs and Cripple Creek District Railways relied heavily on the revenue gleaned from Cripple Creek ore production, but as the output of these mines declined, so too did the coffers of the railroads that supported them. Larger railroads like the Santa Fe and the Colorado & Southern increased their regional presence through joint agreements and the expansion of local facilities. Still other roads had a more local flair, including the Manitou & Pike's Peak whose unique cog railway introduced "America's Mountain" to thousands of tourists. Mass transit also came to the region as the Colorado Springs & Interurban Railway became part of a legacy left by millionaire Winfield Scott Stratton to the people of Colorado Springs.
Alcatraz Island
9780738525280
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One of America's most notorious prisons from 1934 to 1963, Alcatraz has been a significant part of California history for over 155 years. Originally know as Isla de los Alcatraces, or Island of Pelicans, Alcatraz has also been a pivotal military installation and popular tourist attraction.
Glendale:
9780738531076
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The Second World War changed Glendale in the same way that it overhauled many cities in Southern California, with new war-related industries requiring more workers in bigger facilities. Many men and women of the armed forces decided to make Glendale their home after the war. The population stabilized in the 1960s, but a new wave of development swept through Glendale as it became surrounded by freeways, as the Galleria mall was built, and as Brand Boulevard became a center of commerce. The city's cultural composition also changed when more Latinos, Armenians, Asians, and other distinct peoples began to make Glendale home, boosting Los Angeles County's third most populous city over the 200,000 brink. The year 2006 marked the city's centennial and the bicentennial of Jose Maria Verdugo's Rancho San Rafael, from which the city grew.
San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury
9780738559940
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At the turn of the 20th century, the Haight-Ashbury first gained prominence as the gateway to Golden Gate Park; six decades later, it would anchor the worldwide cultural revolution that blossomed in the 1960s. Though synonymous with peace, love, and living outside the mainstream, its history goes back long before the Summer of Love. Starting as a dairy farm in San Francisco's Outlands, the area saw a building boom of Queen Anne country homes for well-heeled San Franciscans and served as a refuge for victims of the 1906 earthquake and fire. Through world wars, industrial and cultural revolutions, the dot-com boom, and beyond, the Haight-Ashbury has one of the most fascinating histories of any place, anywhere. Here is the story of a vibrant neighborhood that attracts throngs of visitors, while maintaining a core community of families, young people, and long-timers.
Los Angeles's Historic Ballparks
9780738580326
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Baseball's long and storied history in Los Angeles has been played at venues including the turn-of-the-century Chutes Park, which was part of an amusement park, as well as Gilmore Field, where the Hollywood Stars played, and Wrigley Field, where many movies and television shows were filmed. The 1923-vintage Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum became the Dodgers' first home in California in 1958, when they moved from Brooklyn. Greater Los Angeles also featured professional baseball at Olive Memorial Stadium in Burbank, Brookside Park in Pasadena, on Catalina Island, plus at numerous diamonds throughout Orange and Riverside Counties, where legends including Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, and Connie Mack appeared. Most fans know Dodger Stadium and Angel Stadium, but many other historic ballparks existed in Southern California. Their images are collected together here for the first time.
Rocky Mountain National Park
9780738556277
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Rocky Mountain National Park is often called "the crown jewel" of the nation's park system. Set in Colorado in the southern part of the Rocky Mountain chain, which forms the backbone of North America, the park contains 72 named peaks above 12,000 feet with the tallest of these, Longs Peak, rising to 14,259 feet. Established in 1915 as a national park, it now hosts more than two million visitors every year. Vacationers enjoy picnicking, hiking, camping, climbing, skiing, and simply admiring the beauties of the park, which include alpine plants, wildflowers, aspen, conifers, lakes, streams, waterfalls, and an abundance of birds and animals.
San Diego and Arizona Railway
9780738581484
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Surveyors called the San Diego and Arizona Railway (SD&A) "The Impossible Railroad" because of its jagged, mountainous, and brutal desert route. The financier and driving force behind building this binational 148-mile rail connection to the east from San Diego, California, was businessman John D. Spreckels. Because of his perseverance, the jinxed 1907-1919 construction overcame a series of disasters, including the Mexican Revolution, a prolonged lawsuit, floods, World War I, labor shortages, a tunnel cave-in, and a lethal pandemic. Once up and running, the line was intermittently in and out of service and later sold and renamed the San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway. While "The Impossible Railroad" still faces constant challenges and partial closures, freight and trolley service currently operate on its right-of-way, and tourist excursions are offered at its Campo, California, depot.
The California Delta
9780738547879
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Welcome to the delta--California style! Over 1,000 miles of waterways lure sportsmen, boaters, and outdoor enthusiasts to the largest estuary in the western United States, surpassed nationally only by the Mississippi River Delta. For generations, the promise of lazy summer days has beckoned travelers to cruise the mighty Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. Along with vacationers, however, agricultural users and commercial vessels from around the globe share in the California Delta's bounty. Over 23 million Californians rely on the delta watershed for drinking water, and diversions sustain the largest agricultural industry in the nation. The small towns dotting the sloughs from Collinsville to Stockton to Walnut Grove tell of a simpler time, while today's delta faces such challenges as wildlife-habitat restoration, water rights, housing development, and politics. Complicating these issues, aging levees throughout the low-lying region threaten a disaster of national proportions--and with that prospect, the very future of the California Delta.
San Francisco Art Deco
9780738547343
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The famed period of architecture, design, and style known as Art Deco began in the mid1920s and lasted for a good 20 years. The movement left an indelible stamp all around the Bay Area but nowhere more so than in styleconscious San Francisco. The city's 1925 Diamond Jubilee, coinciding with the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes in France, ushered in the Art Deco age to the city by the bay. The Roaring Twenties created a need for thousands of new commercial and residential buildings, and many of these, such as Timothy Pflueger's Pacific Telephone and Telegraph building, were Art Deco masterpieces that embodied the new "moderne" styling sweeping the country. Using a variety of building materials, including terracotta, Vitrolux, and neon, many of the city's graceful and dramatic buildings turned heads 70 years ago just as they do today.
Travis Air Force Base
9780738529417
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Soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Fairfield-Suisun Army Air Base, later to become Travis, was born on the windswept plains of Solano County. To meet the urgent need for an air gateway to the Pacific, the base soon had two runways on a 945-acre site between the twin farming communities. The gusty winds challenged the gutsy young pilots who trained here, many of whom saw the Golden Gate--their last view of the mainland--as they flew out to do battle. Expanding through the next two decades until it encompassed over 6,000 acres, Travis is now the largest base under the U.S. Air Force Mobility Command.
Avila Beach
9781467130738
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For more than 100 years, Avila Beach has represented the best of what California's Central Coast has to offer. Inhabitants of Avila have, since before its inception as a town, borne witness to the many changing faces and cultures representing the California landscape. Its earliest inhabitants were the Chumash Indians, who populated the Central Coast until the arrival of the Spanish missions. Later, the San Miguelito Rancho land grant was awarded to Don Miguel Avila, for whom the town itself was named. Avila eventually became a thoroughfare for the fishing industry. Other industries prospered as well, notably due to the ingenuity of early pioneer John Harford, who was instrumental in the development of numerous piers at Avila and at Port San Luis. The access to the sea allowed the region to benefit from the steamer ships that serviced California's coast.
Malmstrom Air Force Base
9781467105484
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Malmstrom Air Force Base is located east of Great Falls, Montana. The base was activated as an operational Second Air Force training installation in 1942, when the first B-17 landed on Great Falls Army Air Force Base. B-17 combat crew training ended in October 1943, and Lend-Lease operations were begun to provide support to Russia during World War II. The base also served as the primary C-54 training site for Berlin Airlift aircrews. In 1954, the base was named after the 407th vice wing commander, Col. Einar Axel Malmstrom, who died in a T-33 crash. From 1954 to 1991, Strategic Air Command tankers were on the base, and in 1961, the 341st Missile Wing was activated and became the nation's first Minuteman ICBM wing, which continues today with the Minuteman III, one-third of the nation's land-based missile deterrent. Today, Malmstrom Air Force base is preparing to field the new Northrop Grumman Ground Based Strategic Deterrent intercontinental ballistic missile weapon system, program to replace the decades-old Minuteman III.
Quincy
9780738528557
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Situated among the forests and lakes of northeastern California where the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges meet, the town of Quincy is both picturesque and steeped in local history-from the Maidu Native Americans who first lived in the American Valley now called Quincy to the flood of people who came in the mid-1800s searching for gold. Quincy was born when Hugh J. Bradley, who helped organized Plumas County in 1854, laid out the town and named it after his home city in Illinois. Now the county's seat of government, Quincy boasts many attractive downtown buildings that have become the focus of the community's historic preservation and restoration efforts.
San Pedro
9780738581996
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San Pedro was incorporated into the City of Los Angeles in 1909, and grew into one of the world's strategic international ports. The dredging and backfilling of berths and canals have been mirrored in town through the decades as landmarks were demolished, streets altered, and some structures steadfastly maintained.
San Francisco Giants
9780738576121
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In 1958, San Francisco welcomed its first major league baseball team when the Giants left New York and journeyed across the country to the Bay Area. Steeped in tradition, the orange-and-black team has captivated fans for decades with rosters including Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda, Juan Marichal, Gaylord Perry, Will Clark, Barry Bonds, and Tim Lincecum. This book provides a look into the team's history, highlighting the players and other notables who were instrumental in shaping the Giants organization.
Riverboats of Northern California
9780738574967
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California's mighty rivers served as the state's early superhighways. Riverboats transported countless tons of supplies, workers, and settlers from the coast to inland gold rush colonies and everywhere in between. Majestic sidewheelers and sternwheelers burning coal, wood, and oil plied the waterways of the delta, as well as the Sacramento, San Joaquin, and Napa Rivers, and the lesser-known routes of the Sonoma and Petaluma. Starting with the Sitka in 1847, boats such as the Captain Weber, Jacinto, Fort Sutter, T.C. Walker, and J.R. McDonald ruled the rivers, visiting such ports as Courtland, Stockton, Sacramento, San Francisco, Marysville, Firebaugh, Yuba City, and Rio Vista.
Railroads of Nevada County
9781467128452
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The Central Pacific Railroad was the first railroad to enter Nevada County as it constructed eastward in 1865. At the base of the eastern slope of Donner Pass, the railroad established a construction camp, now known as Truckee, before following the Truckee River to the Nevada state line. Truckee became home to expansive locomotive facilities for helper locomotives on trains westbound over Donner Pass after the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. Through the end of the 19th century, additional railroads were constructed, bringing the outside world closer to the remote corners of the county. Railroads like the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad and Nevada County Traction Company served the gold rush-era boomtowns of Grass Valley and Nevada City. Lumber companies like the Towle Brothers and the Sierra Nevada Wood & Lumber Company brought rail into the forests and filled the demand for lumber throughout the region.
Hollywood on the Santa Monica Beach
9781467160735
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Since pioneer filmmakers arrived on its shoreline in the early 20th century, the Santa Monica beach has been a popular location for the making of movies and television productions. Its enchanting beauty led studio moguls, producers, and celebrities to build beach houses there, creating what became known as "Hollywood's Playground." The sand and shore of the Santa Monica beach became a favored site for the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Marion Davies, William Randolph Hearst, and Cary Grant. It was on this beach that the Academy Awards were conceived, the movie The Wizard of Oz sprang forth, and a young Pres. John F. Kennedy stunned beachgoers with a surprise ocean swim without the protection of Secret Service agents. In 1962, the beach became the center of the universe as the site of President Kennedy's "Western White House," where the visitors included Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Marilyn Monroe, and--famously--"anyone who was anyone."
Brentwood
9781467160544
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The beautiful Brentwood area of Contra Costa County is the oldest continuously populated community in California inland from the great coastal centers. Californios eschewed this challenging portion of the Central Valley, so pioneering physician John Marsh established a permanent settlement here in 1837 at his Rancho Los Meganos. Soon, the burgeoning viniculture, wheat, orchard, and cattle operations attracted many Gold Rush miners back to their original agricultural callings, now in the California Delta. The 1860s arrival of British agribusiness concern Balfour Guthrie Investment Company soon established the largest grain-export and fruit-packing venture in the West. Brentwood Township, established in 1878 and named for Marsh's ancestral home in England, includes some of the state's most bountiful land. The region fostered the greatest wheat production west of the Mississippi River during the 19th century. Carol A. Jensen, author of Arcadia Publishing's Byron Hot Springs , The California Delta , and East Contra Costa County , presents here in vintage photography the best of Brentwood, culled from local archives and collections. Combined with Jensen's prose, these images showcase Brentwood's progression from rural beginnings as an agricultural stronghold to the modern city of houses, shops, schools, and places of worship we know today.
Houseboats of Sausalito
9780738525204
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Sausalito boasts a rich history of life afloat.
Edwards Air Force Base
9780738580906
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Edwards Air Force Base boasts a rich history.
Glacier National Park
9780738580968
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Glacier National Park boasts a rich history.
Carmel Valley
9780738580005
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The Carmel Valley boasts a rich history.
Early Reno
9780738581873
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Reno boasts a rich history.
Levi Strauss and Co.
9780738569345
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Levi Strauss & Co. boasts a rich history.
Estes Park
9780738580821
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Estes Park is a small village nestled in the north central mountains of Colorado. The earliest settlers were homesteaders who arrived to "prove up" in the 1870s and soon discovered that providing lodging and entertainment for outdoor adventurers and tourists looking for a respite from city life could provide a more reliable revenue stream than farming and ranching. By 1905, the town was platted and several hotels provided modern accommodations. When Rocky Mountain National Park was created in 1915, Estes Park became the eastern gateway and continues to be the first stop for approximately 2.5 million visitors annually. From an initial population of less than 200, the town has grown to almost 10,000 year-round residents, many of whom still make their living providing goods and services to visitors from as near as Denver and as far away as Nepal.
Sutter Creek
9780738546865
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Between 1848 and 1849, whispers of gold in California became a roar. The gold rush was on, and thousands established rough camps in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Among these camps, nestled in a small valley, was Sutter Creek. The town is named for the famous John Sutter, whose discovery of gold at Coloma started the rush. And though many gold-mining tent cities died out over time, Sutter Creek transitioned to a solid community with wide streets, two-story businesses, and beautiful homes. Blacksmiths, foundries, and other industries provided services to the ever-deepening mines, among the world's richest. Settlers used the ideal soil and climate to produce crops and livestock, gradually replacing head frames and hoist works, as the last mine finally closed in the 1950s. Thousands still journey to Sutter Creek, some for gold, but most are attracted by the rich heritage still visible along historic Main Street.
Grass Valley
9780738546971
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Grass Valley was named for its spring-fed meadows, but its history springs from deep below the soil. An immeasurable wealth of gold lay in ancient river courses, embedded in quartz, or scattered capriciously in surface gravel. Vibrantly entrepreneurial since its inception, Grass Valley echoed with the roar of stamp mills crushing gold-bearing quartz 24 hours a day, every day, for decades. Its mines produced $350 million, and millions more are thought to be buried beneath the modern city. Grass Valley's wealth drew flamboyant stars like Lola Montez and gold-camp-urchin-turned-star Lotta Crabtree. It was here that philosopher Josiah Royce was born and Cherokee writer Yellow Bird (John Rollin Ridge) lived his final days. Grass Valley was often the subject of Alonzo Delano's tales of the gold rush, and more recently, it was the setting and inspiration for Wallace Stegner's best seller Angle of Repose.
