California

Plan all your California getaways with our Golden State catalog. Whip up the coast on the PCH to old San Francisco, where Gold Rush fever is slow to fade. Leave some flowers for Cecil B. DeMille and Johnny Ramone at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Get a progress report on the receding waters of the Salton Sea and the expanding minds in Northridge. From the fertile fields of Nevada County to the Venice Beach Boardwalk, experience the largesse and diversity of California's history with our California history books. [View all California books]

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Camp Roberts

$16.99

The Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games

$16.99

Missions of Los Angeles

Lighthouses of the Ventura Coast

$16.99

Lighthouses of Greater Los Angeles

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

World War I Army Training by San Francisco Bay

$16.99

Missions of Los Angeles

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

Presidio of Monterey

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

Camp San Luis Obispo

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

The Humboldt Wagon Road

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

Alameda County Fair

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

Point Arena Lighthouse

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

Historic Stage Routes of San Diego County

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

The Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

Resorts of Lake County

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

Boneyard

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Indio's Date Festival

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

Lake Arrowhead Chronicles

$19.99 $15.39 Save 23%

World War I Army Training by San Francisco Bay:

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

Resorts of Riverside County

$19.99 $17.49 Save 13%

Escondido Grape Day Festivals

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

Missions of Monterey

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

Missions of San Francisco Bay

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

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Missions of Los Angeles

9780738596815

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

After establishing the settlement of San Francisco, visionary mission president Fr. Junipero Serra journeyed south to found Mission San Juan Capistrano, Alta California's seventh, on November 1, 1776. By order of King Carlos III of Spain, El Pueblo de la Reina de los Ángeles (the Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels) was founded on September 4, 1781, following the recommendation of the first California governor, Felipe de Neve. At nearby Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, de Neve gathered a group of 11 men, 11 women, and 22 children, soldiers, mission priests, and a few Indians and traveled nine miles to the banks of the Los Angeles River, blessing the new site. By 1800, the city of Los Angeles had a population of 300 with a meeting hall, guardhouse, army barracks, and granary. Built a day's journey apart on El Camino Real, the Mission San Fernando Rey de España was dedicated on September 8, 1797, and completed the lineage of California's monumental landmark missions near Los Angeles.

Presidio of Monterey

9780738528700

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

The Presidio of Monterey is best known as the home of the post-World War II Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, the Department of Defense's acknowledged leader in foreign language training. It has, however, a much longer and rich history. After the United States seized Monterey in 1846, the U.S. Army began constructing Fort Mervine, which served a number of purposes until it was abandoned in 1866. In 1902-1903, a modern cantonment was built in the area. In 1904, the new post was officially renamed the Presidio of Monterey after a nearby Spanish fort established in 1770 that had fallen into disuse. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, the post was home to infantry and cavalry regiments, as well as an inductee reception center. The Military Intelligence Service Language School was moved to the Presidio of Monterey in 1946 and renamed the Army Language School in 1947; this evolved into the present-day Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center.

Camp San Luis Obispo

9780738529158

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

Camp San Luis Obispo, founded in 1928 amid the starkly beautiful rolling hills north of San Luis Obispo, has an ideal central California location. It is the original home of the California National Guard and remains today the Guard's principal training facility. In 1941 the U.S. Army commandeered the post, enlarging it to over 10,000 acres for the training of half a million soldiers and 42 infantry divisions. Salinas Dam, 20 miles away, was built to provide a dependable source of water for the troops. Reverting to the state after major conflicts, the camp is also the headquarters for the U.S. Army Reserve, California Specialized Training Institute, and a host of agencies and academies. It remains on the frontline for modernizing the military into the 21st century.

The Humboldt Wagon Road

9780738576435

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

This book offers readers an opportunity to ride the historic Humboldt Wagon Road from Chico to Susanville through images that have been collected since the 1860s. Many never-before-published photographs and oral histories tell a story of people who established what has been called this "small corner of the West." In the 1850s, John Bidwell, a California pioneer, agriculturist, businessman, and politician, envisioned a freight and passenger route that would connect San Francisco, the Sacramento River, and his newly established community of Chico. He wanted it to cross the mountains to the gold and silver mines in Idaho and Nevada. Bidwell financed, constructed, and opened the road for horses, wagons, stagecoaches, and eventually trucks and automobiles. From the Civil War era until the present, the road has carried everything from lumber to tourists.

Alameda County Fair

9780738581934

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

What began as a ranching family's Sunday pastime of horse racing, with cheering crowds and thundering hooves on dusty roads, would give way to the Alameda County Fair that we know today. The Bernal family built the original racetrack in 1859 on their 52,000-acre ranch, which was part of the Northern California land grant, Rancho Valle de San Jose. Looking to turn his newly acquired racetrack into profit, businessman Rodney G. MacKenzie approached a group of county businessmen and ranchers with a proposal to hold a county fair on his property. The first Alameda County Fair ran from October 23 to October 27, 1912. Local leaders sought to form a modern fair, and in 1939 the Alameda County Fair Association was established. Once considered a racing fair, the Alameda County Fair now boasts livestock and agriculture. For young and old alike, the thrilling carnival rides, beautiful quilt exhibits, baking contests, fast-paced horse racing, or just a corn dog and cotton candy provide something for everyone, as the Alameda County Fair now prepares to celebrate its 100th year.

Point Arena Lighthouse

9780738599663

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

The low rumbles of the fog signal and flashing beam of light from the powerful lens have guided mariners away from the perilous waters surrounding Point Arena Lighthouse since 1870. After the great earthquake in 1906 and the rebuilding of the tower in 1908, Point Arena's navigational aids continued to warn ships away from the peninsula off Northern California's Pacific coastline. The original tower was replaced with a concrete cylindrical tower that rises 115 feet from the headland. This became the first lighthouse tower in the United States constructed with materials found to be superior to the stone and masonry lighthouse structures of the past. The new tower, crowned with a nearly 13,000-pound first-order Fresnel lens, sent a beam of light 20 miles out to sea and continued alerting ships of the dangers just offshore.

Historic Stage Routes of San Diego County

9780738574684

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

Stagecoaches and the routes they traveled capture our imagination because of the romance, excitement, danger, and new experiences they represent. San Diego was part of one of the most significant stagecoach lines in history. The San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line was the first to provide fast and reliable mail service to and from the east. This was followed by the Butterfield Overland Mail. Many other stage lines crisscrossed the county. Stage stations were built to provide food, water, and a safe haven for people, plus water and feed for the animals. Thousands of emigrants, adventurers, and the military followed the stage routes. This is the story of the stage lines, stage stations, stage drivers, and the people who were born, married, and died along these routes.

The Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games

9781467130370

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

The Games of the XXIII Olympiad, Los Angeles 1984, reimagined the Olympic Games and reinvigorated a troubled Olympic movement. Its innovations included the following: a nationwide torch relay that yielded millions for children's charities; an arts festival that surpassed any prior efforts; the first Opening Ceremony featuring a professional theatrical extravaganza; new sports disciplines, such as distance races for women, windsurfing, synchronized swimming, heptathlon, and rhythmic gymnastics; an army of volunteers; vast increases in sponsorship and television revenue while avoiding commercialization and keeping expenses low using existing facilities; and a financial surplus of over $232 million, which has endowed sports for youngsters in the Los Angeles area to this day--all through a privately financed organizing committee without government contributions.

Resorts of Lake County

9780738547985

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

Beginning in the 1860s, the first vestiges of the resorts of Lake County appeared around the sparkling pools of the region's many hot springs and upon the shores of Clear Lake. Lured by the supposed medicinal qualities of the water, people flocked to rustic campgrounds and cabins to "take the cure" for their ailments, drink, and bathe, staying for long periods each summer. Within a few years, ambitious
entrepreneurs bottled the springs' mineral waters and built more luxurious accommodations and amenities. Although the claims of curative waters lost sway over time, resorts equipped with extensive
recreational facilities, dance floors, live music, bountiful food, hunting, fishing, and children's entertainment continued to draw visitors in droves. Families filled the resorts in summers, and by the 1940s, large group and society meetings as well as conventions began to utilize the resorts on spring and fall weekends. Though few original resorts remain, today, in 2007, the region's business directory lists 51 Lake County resorts.

Boneyard

9781634991360

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Boneyard: SoCal's Aircraft Graveyards at Night is a nocturnal love letter to the rarely seen aviation junkyards and derelict aircraft of the Southern California desert. Follow the author as he haunts these secretive places, painting the scenes with light during lengthy time-exposures. Let his essays shed even more light on the experience as you quietly drift through these legendary sites like a ghost in the night. Lose yourself amongst these fallen monuments to human achievement, these broken-winged angels of the Mojave. Whether you're a fan of aviation history, or creative photography, or are simply trying to understand humanity's place in the cosmos, riding to the Boneyard with Troy will be an unforgettably mind-bending journey.

Indio's Date Festival

9781467134255

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

Since the turn of the 20th century, Southern California's Coachella Valley has embraced a unique crop: the date. As success with the fruit grew, so too did regional celebrations of it. Beginning in 1921, the City of Indio hosted a Festival of Dates, an event that became the annual National Date Festival in 1947. The area linked itself to the date's birthplace, the Greater Middle East, in multiple ways, but the festival drew national attention to Indio's use of these Arabian fantasies. Attendees celebrated the fair's camel races, Arabian Nights musical pageant, Middle Eastern architecture, Queen Scheherazade pageant, and the costumes worn by boosters and visitors alike. While the United States' political and pop-cultural relationship to the region changed over time, the Eastern Coachella Valley continued to embrace fantasies of the Middle East at its fair.

Lake Arrowhead Chronicles

9781626195165

$19.99 $15.39 Save 23%

Nestled in the magnificent San Bernardino Range, Southern California's premier mountain resort, Lake Arrowhead, annually plays host to four million visitors. Winter sports enthusiasts, as well as hikers and city folks seeking summer relief, enjoy the alpine atmosphere. Completed in the 1920s, Lake Arrowhead Village was constructed on precipitous lands once trod by Paiute and Serrano tribes and left vacant by a failed 1890s irrigation project. The picturesque community drew Hollywood's cameras, as well as its leisure-seeking stars. When the lake's dam was declared unsafe following a 1971 earthquake, residents rallied to fund the downstream Papoose Lake, preserving the historic reservoir. Author Rhea-Frances Tetley recollects the people and events that made Lake Arrowhead a premier high-country resort.

World War I Army Training by San Francisco Bay:

9781467118910

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

In 1917, Stanford University leased a portion of its land to allow the creation of Camp Fremont, headquartered in present-day Menlo Park. That brought the war into the Bay Area's backyard. Soldiers received a welcome reception, and locals embraced the potential economic opportunities. However, the military presence also revealed the conflict Americans felt over the war. Residents threatened conscientious objectors within their community, while the government mollified fears of the vice that often followed troops in training. Armistice came earlier than expected, and many soldiers trained for combat they never saw. But all contributed to the growth and change that arrived with the modern era. Author Barbara Wilcox tells Camp Fremont's story of adaptability, bravery and extraordinary accomplishment during the Great War.

Resorts of Riverside County

9780738530789

$19.99 $17.49 Save 13%

For all the faults attributed to the San Andreas, its one very soothing aspect has been an enormous spiderweb of cracks spreading throughout the geologic formations of what became Riverside County. These fissures yielded springs and grottos of warm waters to which thankful pioneers and snake-oil salesmen alike attributed curative powers. In the 20th century, vacationers seeking relaxation, together with those afflicted with a myriad of maladies, came to Palm Springs, Desert Hot Springs, Glen Ivy, Murrieta Hot Springs, and a dozen other wide places in the road to bathe in the balmy waters beneath desert breezes.

Escondido Grape Day Festivals

9780738559490

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

Escondido is the lilting Spanish name meaning "hidden" and was given to an irregular-shaped inland Southern California valley where an investment group planted 100 acres of grapes in the early 1880s. The dry-farmed grapes grew unusually large and sweet, which prompted business leaders to envision an attraction similar to Pasadena's Tournament of Roses. The first Grape Day Festival in 1908 commemorated an auspicious occasion in Escondido's water history and celebrated the grape as a symbol of the agricultural abundance of the region. The event attracted thousands of guests who could view the valley, farm displays, a grand parade, and entertainment while eating their fill of free grapes. But by mid-century, Grape Day disappeared along with the grape in Escondido. With the memory of the grape remaining clear, the Escondido Historical Society began the revival of the celebration in the 1970s. The centennial Grape Day Festival took place September 6, 2008.

Missions of Monterey

9780738596822

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

The storm-tossed caravel ship San Salvador passed the coastline of Point Pinos in 1542 and propelled Portuguese shipwright and sailor Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo into history with the discovery of Alta California for the Spanish crown. An enduring legacy followed with Fr. Junipero Serra's landing in San Diego and the founding of his first mission in 1769. Into Alta California entered explorers, soldiers, and Franciscan missionaries bringing their culture, faith, and intent to colonize the New World. Father Serra's 1770 journey to Monterey, carefully planned in Mexico City, involved the arrival of a few hundred intrepid travelers over land and sea to secure Alta California's new capital. A small group consecrated Mission San Carlos de Borromeo in the pine-forested flat of New Spain's presidio. The momentum of the missions over the next 80 years resulted in California's statehood and in the raising of the American flag in Monterey by 1850.

Missions of San Francisco Bay

9780738596846

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

Legendary explorer Lt. Col. Juan Bautista de Anza completed a 1,000-mile journey from Sonora, Mexico, crossing the Mojave Desert with the first settlers, to San Francisco's pristine harbor. Fr. Francisco Palóu celebrated the dedication of Mission San Francisco de Asís on June 29, 1776. First established to protect Spain's interests in Alta California from foreign ships, California's landmark buildings are featured here with newly discovered photography depicting a romantic era of colorful Spanish conquistadors, Franciscan padres, and mission Indian neophytes from 1769 to 1823. Explore the heritage of California pioneers' first communities and the 21 California Spanish missions of adobe, stone, and tile that are considered architectural wonders that have captured the imagination of visitors and historians over centuries.