California

Name: Fair Oaks
Brand: Lee M.A. SIMPSON
SKU: 9780738530888
Price: 18.74 USD
Availability: InStock

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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Fair Oaks

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

The Wise Animal Handbook Southern California

$16.99 $12.74 Save 25%

Long Beach State:

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

The Warlord's Alarm

$16.99 $12.74 Save 25%

Napa County Police

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Long Beach Chronicles

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

Ventura

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Pioneers of Eagle Rock

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

Escondido Grape Day Festivals

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South Pasadena's Ostrich Farm

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Monterey Peninsula's Sporting Heritage

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Crescenta Valley Pioneers & Their Legacies

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

Culver City Chronicles

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

Glendora

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Orange County Pioneers

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Running Springs

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On these Promising Shores of the Pacific:

$23.99 $17.99 Save 25%

Sacramento

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

Fanny Bixby Spencer

$23.99 $17.99 Save 25%

Football in Long Beach

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Football in the South Bay

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The New Deal in Orange County, California

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Murder and Mayhem in the Napa Valley

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Around Crockett

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Fair Oaks

9780738530888

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Fair Oaks, in the gently undulating foothills along Highway 50, has something in common with its vast neighbor, Sacramento. Early land speculators, politicians, and Chicago businessmen formed a partnership to sell off one of their "Sunset Colonies," deservedly dubbed Fair Oaks, promising water systems and a suburban railroad to help colonists grow prize citrus. The farmers came, but when the investors retreated east, a railroad and water had not appeared. A later investment group did build a bridge and railroad, encouraging more farmers until, at the height of the Great Depression, nature laid a cold hand on the land, freezing all of the citrus. But other orchard crops and vineyards flourished, while more bridges and proximity to the state capital helped transform the farm town into a charming suburb, where residents can still gather at the local cafe or brave the red bluffs and rushing waters of the American River.

Long Beach State:

9781626196018

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Long Beach State grew up right along with the sprawling Southern California suburbs. Born in 1949, it swelled to accommodate the post-world war enthusiasm for education and land. The rapid expansion brought its share of growing pains. Students took classes in a cramped converted apartment with no books and playing ring-around-the-rosie for physical education. Money was scarce, and faculty at times feuded with the administration. But the new college's "let's put on a show" spirit produced a scrappiness that endures today. Read about the personalities that grew the college from Fred Bixby's bean fields into one of the largest universities in California.

Napa County Police

9780738547527

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

The story of organized law enforcement in Napa County begins with the very first meeting of the board of supervisors in 1850 and the appointment of a county sheriff and marshals for each township. The
foundations for progress and prosperity in place, Napa County grew from a remote agricultural outpost to the preeminent wine-growing region in the United States and a booming tourist destination--and policing
has kept pace. Today, in addition to the Napa Sheriff's Department, the county is protected by the California Highway Patrol and three police departments: Napa, St. Helena, and Calistoga. Specialized police agencies have also grown out of unique needs, including the Napa State Hospital Police, Railroad Police, and Community College Police.

Long Beach Chronicles

9781609495480

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

Incorporated in 1888, Long Beach was the nation's fastest-growing city for much of the early twentieth century. Tim Grobaty, columnist for two decades for the Long Beach Press-Telegram, looks back at the major events and compelling personalities that shaped the city's formative years. Early settlers such as William Willmore, Charles Rivers Drake and the Bixby family are brought into sharp focus as Grobaty recounts the city's defining moments. From the naming of city streets to early local newspaper wars, and culminating with the devastating earthquake of 1933, Long Beach Chronicles presents a fascinating collection of tales from the city's provocative past.

Ventura

9780738530338

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The city of Ventura traces its heritage back to the founding of Mission San Buenaventura in March 1782. The intervening eras have seen cattle drives down Main Street, revival tents in the marshy area now known as Pierpont, and the days when the Ventura trolley was the quickest way around town. The attractive images in this postcard tour through bygone times also include the stately Schiappapietra Mansion on Santa Clara Street, which was sadly torn down in the mid-1950s. The county seat of Ventura County, the city of Ventura retains a picture-postcard ambiance, and these images illustrate how that charm always has been a part of Ventura heritage.

Pioneers of Eagle Rock

9781609498276

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After the Rancho San Rafael was divided, Benjamin Dreyfus was awarded the hilly area north of downtown Los Angeles known as Eagle Rock Valley. By 1911, this farming community had rapidly grown into a city. The Los Angeles Railway made downtown LA a trolley ride away, and continued growth led to Eagle Rock's consolidation with the city in 1923. Today, Eagle Rock is one of LA's most distinctive neighborhoods, and a pride instilled by early settlers remains here. These inspirational settlers include soldier and ranchero Jose Maria Verdugo, diarist and historian Elena Frackelton Murdock, farmer and amateur hydrologist Mayor Cromwell Galpin and publicist Ann Hare Harrison. Join editors Eric H. Warren and Frank F. Parrello as they profile the bedrock personalities who built Eagle Rock.

Escondido Grape Day Festivals

9780738559490

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

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.

South Pasadena's Ostrich Farm

9780738555782

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Edwin Cawston courted the early-20th-century public's fascination with exotic foreign creatures when he began raising ostriches, for more than the use of their feathers in the clothing industry. When Cawston brought the enormous, flightless, African birds onto prime real estate in the Arroyo Seco of South Pasadena, Los Angeles County, more than a few observers thought that the looniest bird might be him. But Cawston was determined to showcase struthio camelus, the biggest bird in the world at 8 vertical feet and 350 pounds. The Cawston Ostrich Farm soon became one of the most popular Southern California attractions, drawing millions to watch people ride the birds bareback at a cruising speed of 35 miles per hour. Cawston supplied ostrich plumes for budget-minded consumers as well as fancy feathers for Vaudeville dancers, movie actresses, and even European queens, becoming a great promoter and showman of his time.

Monterey Peninsula's Sporting Heritage

9780738555898

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Over the first half of the 20th century, the Monterey Peninsula produced an exceptional number of outstanding athletes, a few of whom earned widespread recognition. They were the offspring of Sicilian fishermen, of contract laborers from Spain, and of Japanese abalone divers--and some were from families that had been here for generations and produced dynasties of sports figures. Behind it all lay two expanding and often conflicting peninsula industries: sardine fishing in Monterey and the recreational empire of Del Monte Properties.

Crescenta Valley Pioneers & Their Legacies

9781609495626

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

Their names run deep through local history and lore, adorning street signs, canyons, historical buildings, homes and ranches in the swath of suburbia between Pasadena and Tujunga, where the towns of La Crescenta and La Ca ada took shape, along with the unique community of Montrose. Profiled in the pages of Crescenta Valley Pioneers and Their Legacies by author Jo Anne Sadler, a researcher and frequent writer for the Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley, are such singularly important local characters as Theodor Pickens, the first permanent settler; Dr. Benjamin B. Briggs, the founder of La Crescenta; Jacob L. Lanterman and Adolphus W. Williams, the original developers of Rancho La Ca ada; and the Le Mesnager family, whose historic wine barn still stands in Deukmejian Wilderness Park.

Culver City Chronicles

9781609497774

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

Culver City has rivaled Hollywood for nearly a century as the Heart of Screenland--a center of the movie and television trades. Here, the giant Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer evolved into Sony Pictures, and the Ince and Selznick movie empires became today's Culver Studios. But the same lands along Ballona Creek had been a wilderness traversed by Native Americans and settled by hardy Spanish pioneers named Machado, Talamantes and Higuera. Union soldiers occupied the area's Civil War-era Camp Latham. By 1910, visionary Harry H. Culver saw possibilities for these ranchlands and led Culver City to incorporate in 1917. Join official city historian Julie Lugo Cerra, a descendant of early settlers, as she relates the fascinating stories of how and why Culver City grew and prospered.

Glendora

9780738558004

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Azusa Valley, before the 1850s, was a wilderness of ancient live oak trees; thick stretches of cactus, chaparral, and sagebrush; and large boulders from thousands of years of erosion. Pioneers staked claims and began to clear the land. Though many gave up and moved back East, the permanent settlers persevered, and Glendora emerged as a town around 1887. Glendora incorporated in 1911, and an immensely profitable citrus industry kept it thriving. Today it is a quaint community, proud of its citrus-trade heritage.

Orange County Pioneers

9781626197589

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

Orange County's pioneer history is filled with harrowing tales every bit as entertaining as a western novel. These stories, culled from oral histories recorded by old-timers in the 1930s as part of the Works Progress Administration, offer a rarely seen look into Orange County's frontier days. From bear hunts and bullfights to social gatherings at the home of the most famous Shakespearean actress of the day, these tales are a window into the earliest days of every corner of the county. Join editor Charles Epting for these wonderfully evocative portraits of the past recounted in the words of the eyewitnesses.

Running Springs

9780738546797

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

For centuries, the mountains and valleys that became the Running Springs area have swelled with natural resources, supplying the hunting and gathering needs of Native Americans who harvested acorns and herbs and hunted deer and other wildlife to sustain themselves through the winters in the valleys below. Nineteenthcentury gold prospectors passed through the Running Springs vicinity on their way to the Holcomb Valley. Lumbermen came to harvest the virgin timber, supplying the construction requirements of the booming population of Southern California as well as the need for "shook," the thin-shaved boards used to make packing and shipping boxes for the fast-growing citrus industries. The early days of Running Springs are detailed in this winding trip through San Bernardino County's namesake mountains in vintage photographs, which also profile the nearby settlements of Arrowbear Lake and Green Valley Lake.

On these Promising Shores of the Pacific:

9781626192768

$23.99 $17.99 Save 25%

The original fog-soaked Saint Mary's College campus in San Francisco enrolled both boys and young men and was born in 1863 from the educational vision of Archbishop Joseph Sadoc Alemany. In 1889, the campus moved to Oakland and was affectionately dubbed the Old Brickpile." Through fires, earthquakes, two world wars and bankruptcy, the college persevered and matured, eventually moving to its present location in Moraga Valley. From United States Navy cadets and "Slip" Madigan's Galloping Gaels to the Latin Question and iconic phone booth stuffing, historian and retired Saint Mary's College professor Ronald Eugene Isetti offers a detailed look at the college's legacy. Join Isetti as he chronicles the academic vision, institutional challenges and student traditions of one of California's oldest establishments of higher learning."

Sacramento

9780738594804

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

Of the state of California and its resources, much of late years has been written and printed for dissemination among people of the eastern states. Particularly has such information been published concerning the resources of the southern section of the state. As yet but little has been written of the central section—a vast, rich, but comparatively undeveloped territory—which in the very near future will as much astonish the world by the demonstration of its agricultural wealth, as did the state in 1849 by the richness of its gold mines. In the pages following, nothing but facts, capable of absolute and satisfactory demonstration, are presented. Of the section of which this work treats, the facts furnish an ample and convincing argument of its resources and capabilities. It has been the endeavor of the writers—and they are gentlemen of state-wide reputation—to present but the actual facts.

Fanny Bixby Spencer

9781609498757

$23.99 $17.99 Save 25%

The last daughter born to Jotham Bixby, the Father of Long Beach, Fanny Bixby Spencer (1879-1930) carved her own singular and eccentric path across California history. Born to wealth and power, she chose a boldly independent, egalitarian lifestyle in an age when women's lives were largely confined to domesticity. Fanny served with the Long Beach Police Department as America's first policewoman. She was a founder of the city of Costa Mesa in Orange County. Her humanitarian efforts reached across ethnicities and social standing. Yet beyond her civic accomplishments, Fanny was provocative as a poet, artist, pacifist, suffragist, child advocate, foster mother and humanitarian. Marcia Lee Harris captures this fascinating woman's remarkable life, enhanced by Fanny's own poetry and soulful reflections.

Football in Long Beach

9781609495459

$23.99 $17.99 Save 25%

The roots of football run deep in Long Beach, where Long Beach Polytechnic High School has produced more players who have played in the National Football League than any other high school in the United States. Poly's storied program has fed the NFL a wide variety of top players, including such receivers as Johnny Morris, Gene Washington, Tony Hill, Stephone Paige, Marcedes Lewis and DeSean Jackson. This authoritative citywide pigskin history by Mike Guardabascio includes the football sagas of other area high schools, as well as the legacies of Long Beach State and Long Beach City College, which have enjoyed their own brands of national recognition.

Football in the South Bay

9781626193086

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Hardly a season passes in which one or more South Bay football stars don't shine in major college or NFL play. Vince Ferragamo led the Rams to a Super Bowl, but in Wilmington, he's the pride of Banning High School. Before he was television's Hunter" or an NFL All-Pro, Fred Dryer was an El Camino College and Lawndale High star. Wesley Walker snagged deep passes for the New York Jets but honed his skills under legendary coach Gene Vollnogle for the Carson High Colts, historically the top prep team in the South Bay. From the inspirational coaches like Mira Costa's Don Morrow and San Pedro's Mike Walsh to the greatest players raised here, author Don Lechman presents the full story of South Bay gridiron glory."

The New Deal in Orange County, California

9781626194885

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

Unpredictably harsh elements wreaked havoc in Orange County during the Great Depression. The 1933 Long Beach earthquake claimed 115 lives, shattering lands eastward across the Los Angeles County line into the Orange County cities. Then 60 people perished in the devastating 1938 Santa Ana River flood, which washed out roads and buildings and much of the county's namesake citrus industry. Orange County's 130,000 people received a greater density of federal public aid than LA County's 2.2 million and San Diego County's 210,000. Join Charles Epting on this tour of the buildings, bridges, harbors, trails, libraries, highways and other infrastructure gains--many still in use--that were revitalized by the Works Progress Administration, Civilian Conservation Corps and other agencies of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal.

Murder and Mayhem in the Napa Valley

9781609495442

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

The picturesque vineyards of California's Napa Valley, one of the world's premier tourist destinations, disguise a tangled history of lawlessness, depravity and frontier justice. Some crimes were committed over debts, some for retribution and others in the name of love. Famed photographer Eadweard Muybridge killed a man for seducing his wife but was acquitted. Other criminals were not so lucky and met the gallows, like murderer William Roe, the state's final public execution. From the Pomo massacre--the first criminal case heard by the California Supreme Court--to the cold cases that continue to haunt the region, Napa Police Detective Todd Shulman decants the crimes of the Napa Valley, memorializing the victims and honoring the efforts of local law enforcement.

Around Crockett

9780738559278

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

The territory around Crockett may seem little more than a nook along the Carquinez Strait in West Contra Costa County, but it was once home to many small towns. Although independent, each town relied on the others for goods and services. Using vintage postcards, readers will take a trip through the region's past, visiting Crockett, the Selby Smelting and Refining Company, Vallejo Junction, Carquinez Bridge, Valona, C&H Sugar Factory, Scow Town, and Port Costa along the way.