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Name: Pacific Coast Highway in California
Brand: Carina Monica Montoya Forsythe
SKU: 9781467127516
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Pacific Coast Highway in California

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San Francisco's Panama-Pacific International Exposition

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Death Valley Gold Rush

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The Space Shuttle Endeavour

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Camarillo State Hospital

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The Bay Bridge

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California's Citrus Heritage

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Sebastopol's Gravenstein Apple Industry

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Mount Tamalpais and the Marin Municipal Water District

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Onizuka Air Force Base

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Mining in Yuba County

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Inyo National Forest

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San Francisco's Midwinter Exposition

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The Building of the Oroville Dam

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Space Launch Complex 10

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Plymouth and Northwestern Amador County

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Book cover with a sepia logging scene in a forest showing workers and horses.

Logging in Plumas County

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Covina Valley Citrus Industry

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City of Industry

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The Dams of Western San Diego County

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Balboa Park and the 1915 Exposition

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Bay Area Iron Master Al Zampa

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Quicksilver Mining in Sonoma County

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Bridges of Downtown Los Angeles

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The Benicia State Capitol

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Clearing the Air in Los Angeles

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Oxnard Sugar Beets

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Sacramento's K Street

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Sacramento's Moon Rockets

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Pacific Coast Highway in California

9781467127516

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More commonly known as Pacific Coast Highway, State Route 1 ribbons along or near the Pacific Ocean from Northern California at Leggett in Mendocino down to Southern California at San Juan Capistrano in Orange County. Its construction began in 1913 and was done incrementally, largely because of funding issues, shortage of labor, legal challenges, deep canyons, steep mountains, solid rock, and unstable earth. A true modern marvel, its unique and extraordinary construction allows easy access to some of the country's most famous and historical places and picturesque sights. Thousands of pounds of dynamite were used to blast through granite, marble, and sandstone to build a highway following near or along the coastline. Among the 33 bridges along the route is the remarkable Bixby (Rainbow) Bridge at Big Sur. The highway wends its way through some of the most magnificent and scenic landscapes and historical places found between Ventura and Humboldt Counties, making it more than just a road. It is a destination.

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.

Death Valley Gold Rush

9781467108485

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From the mid-19th century to the 1930s, no place in America was more feared or mysterious than the stretch of desert on the California–Nevada border known as Death Valley.

While today Death Valley National Park is seen as a place of natural beauty and scenic wonders, there were once rumors of vaporous gases so toxic that birds flying overhead would drop dead instantly. One of the first Americans to encounter this dreaded land was William Lewis Manly, who left his Wisconsin home for California’s 1849 Gold Rush and who heroically saved those lost pioneers who would give Death Valley its name. Other pioneers in the early 20th century were Frank “Shorty” Harris, who made Death Valley’s biggest gold strike; the Hoyt brothers, who, in 1908, struck it rich in a place called Skidoo; and in the 1920s, a con man named C.C. Julian, who used the valley’s reputation to scam naive investors. There was a time when the entire country seemed to be consumed with news and tales of the Death Valley Gold Rush.

Ted Faye is a documentary filmmaker, exhibit curator, and historical researcher on stories and people of the Death Valley region. Faye has worked with tourism boards on both the state and local levels to develop materials that tell the stories of their communities. He was a historian at US Borax, and many images from this book are from the Borax collection at Death Valley National Park.

Camarillo State Hospital

9781467103329

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Camarillo State Hospital, affectionately known as Cam, officially opened its doors in 1936, during a time when the California State Commission in Lunacy oversaw the treatment and care of those deemed mentally ill. A pioneering research institution in autism and schizophrenia, Cam achieved notoriety as one of two state institutions that accommodated children and as the first state hospital to receive certification for treatment of the developmentally disabled. Although it was an independent body, retaining its own dairy, farm, residences, and even a bowling alley, Cam also developed creative relationships with volunteers, educators, and businesspeople for the betterment of its patients. Enhancing Innovation Through Independence became Cam's final ambition and, in the end, its ultimate achievement.

The Bay Bridge

9780738529707

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The Bay Bridge combines suspension, cantilever, tunnel, and truss constructions in an astonishing 8.4-mile-long structure. Envisioned first in 1872 by the legendary Emperor Norton, the project finally coalesced in the 1920s, although initial studies concluded that the bridge could not be built due to the bay's deep muddy waters and the area's strong earthquakes. President Herbert Hoover, who was also an engineer, took up the cause, and the $80.8-million project began in 1933. It would replace an extensive set of ferries and forever alter the landscape and commerce of the Bay Area. Over the next three years and four months, the underwater and above-water construction continued day and night, with 152,000 tons of steel, a million cubic yards of concrete, more than 70,000 miles of cable strands, and 200,000 gallons of paint. Roughly 6,500 workers built this amazing bridge, and 12 lost their lives in the process.

California's Citrus Heritage

9781467107679

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Since the first appearance of oranges at the Franciscan missions in the early 19th century, citrus agriculture has been an inextricable part of California's heritage. From the 1870s to the 1960s, oranges and lemons were dominant features of the Southern California landscape. The Washington navel orange, introduced by homesteader Eliza Tibbets at Riverside in the 1870s, precipitated the rise of a citrus belt stretching from Pasadena (in the San Gabriel Valley) to Redlands (in San Bernardino County). Valencia oranges dominated Orange County south of Los Angeles, while lemons thrived in coastal settlements such as Santa Paula. With the arrival of transcontinental railroads in the citrus heartland by the 1880s, Californians had access to markets across the United States. This was followed by the subsequent establishment of an impressive central organization in the form of the California Fruit Growers Exchange, and oranges became the state's most lucrative crop. Observers did not exaggerate when they dubbed the southern portion of the Golden State an orange empire.

Sebastopol's Gravenstein Apple Industry

9780738581736

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The Gravenstein apple has been etched into the identity of Sebastopol, California, which is one of the few places on earth to have extensively grown this elusive apple. The Gravenstein is an early apple whose only failing is perishability, but it is celebrated for its superior flavor. Yet Luther Burbank attempted to improve on the Gravenstein, producing the Winterstein and the Bonita for home gardeners. During the last 127 years, the Gravenstein has added millions of dollars to the local economy. It has provided a reason for celebrations, from the 1910 Apple Show to today's Apple Blossom Festival and Gravenstein Apple Fair. This is the Gravenstein's story, from its European roots to small-town homage, and the part this special apple has played in one community—and the reason the current decline in apple acreage is mourned.

Mount Tamalpais and the Marin Municipal Water District

9780738593173

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Mount Tamalpais rose from the land that has become Marin County. As the crown jewel of the Marin Municipal Water District, the mountain and adjoining watersheds total 22,000 acres. These properties sit adjacent to county open space as well as holdings of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Mount Tamalpais State Park. Together, the land provides an unparalleled world-class recreation and wilderness area only 30 minutes from the city of San Francisco. Amidst the upheaval of the Progressive Era, the Water District was chartered in 1912 by citizens of Marin County to create a public water system and to fulfill the promise of a park. Rich with possibility, the land had remained surprisingly undeveloped throughout the 19th century. Surviving the Gold Rush, a notorious period of wanton greed for natural resources, the mountain needed protection. Armed with the power of eminent domain, the Water District started the conversion of the vast watershed areas from private to community ownership, a process that ultimately saved the mountain and left in its formidable shadow the beloved and beautifully preserved natural land of the Mount Tamalpais Watershed.

Onizuka Air Force Base

9781467104067

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For nearly five decades, some of the United States military’s most secretive operations were conducted out of a collection of nondescript buildings at the intersection of State Route 237 and Mathilda Avenue in Sunnyvale, California. The installation was known by a variety of names in its early years: Satellite Test Center, Air Force Satellite Control Facility, the “Blue Cube,” and Sunnyvale Air Force Station. In July 1986, the facility was renamed Onizuka Air Force Base after Col. Ellison S. Onizuka, the first Asian American astronaut, who was killed during the space shuttle Challenger accident. The location was selected due to its proximity to Lockheed Missiles and Space Company’s Sunnyvale facilities and supported early satellite reconnaissance programs such as Corona, Gambit, and Hexagon. As the nation’s nucleus for satellite command and control, workers at Onizuka Air Force Base directed efforts for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), US military, and NASA’s space shuttle program until the closure of the base in 2010.

Mining in Yuba County

9781467132909

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Mining in Yuba County illustrates the story of how this geologically unique part of California drew multitudes of people from around the world during the early days of the Gold Rush. It depicts the region's evolution from anarchy to civilization. It gives faces to the individuals who were instrumental in creating society in Yuba. It elaborates on incidents in which Yuba influenced the nation, on matters as historically significant as California entering the Union as a free state and affecting the outcome of the Civil War. Mining in Yuba fostered technological advancement precipitated by the depletion of surface gold and the necessity to get to the obscured gold. Conflicts between miners and agriculturists over hydraulic mining were litigated, and landmark legal decisions regarding the regulation of hydraulic mining all but ended the practice and were the beginnings of environmental protectionism and water rights issues in California. Finally, it reveals that despite heavy regulations that exist today, there is still mining in Yuba County.

Inyo National Forest

9780738593050

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The great eastern front of California's Sierra Nevada and the parallel, similarly high White and Inyo Mountains; these are the lands of the Inyo, one of the most spectacular and popular national forests in America. Established at the dawn of the 20th century to secure more water for Los Angeles, the forest now spans 165 miles and two million acres. From the Kern Plateau south of Mount Whitney to the peaks above Yosemite, plus Mono Lake, the mountains, lake basins, and canyons here have become some of America's favorite places for fishing, hiking, climbing, and skiing. The Inyo National Forest is also America's refuge for Sierra bighorn, golden trout, and bristlecone pines, the world's oldest living trees.

San Francisco's Midwinter Exposition

9780738520889

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On January 27, 1894, as the rest of the country bundled up against the winter weather, the people of San Francisco opened the California Midwinter International Exposition and invited the world to enjoy "The Land of Sunshine, Fruit and Flowers." The San Francisco Fair, held in the burgeoning city's Golden Gate Park, was the first U.S. hosted Exposition west of the Mississippi River. When the Fair closed in June of 1894, more than two million people had seen its incredible exhibits as well as this promising new land. The Fair celebrated a city that less than 50 years before had been a village of fewer than 250 people, a city that now was the commercial, financial, and social capital of the West. In San Francisco's Midwinter Exposition 1894, author William Lipsky presents the history, creation, and people of the Fair in over 200 vintage images. From the exotic exhibits on the Fair's midway, to the structures and architectural wonders presented at the Fair, Dr. Lipsky presents a striking visual history of this influential moment in San Francisco and California history.

The Building of the Oroville Dam

9781467130790

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In the early 1960s, thousands of construction workers and their families came to Oroville, in Northern California, to help build the largest earth-fill dam in the world. Located nine miles northeast of town, the Oroville Dam would be the cornerstone of the California State Water Project, which would provide flood control, electric power, recreation, and water to California residents. The project was so massive that it would reinvent the look of much of the area; require the building of roads, bridges, and railroads; inundate much of the area's history under hundreds of feet of water; and greatly effect the lives of the residents of Oroville. The successful completion of the project came at a price—34 construction workers died.

Space Launch Complex 10

9781467136310

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Inside the historic Cold War landmark at Vandenberg Space Force base—its technology, its people, and its military importance. Includes photos.

Situated in the sand dunes of California’s Central Coast, Space Launch Complex Ten, often called SLC-10 or “Slick Ten,” is a National Historic Landmark that commemorates a powerful Cold War legacy. Home to Vandenberg’s Space and Missile Technology Center, or SAMTEC, the facility contains the rich technological heritage of the U.S. Air Force’s space and missile launch systems.

As the only remaining Thor intermediate-range ballistic missile launch site in the world, SLC-10’s noteworthy achievements span the globe. The complex trained British Royal Air Force missileers for Project EMILY, assisted during nuclear atmospheric tests in the Pacific, and launched military weather satellites in support of the covert National Reconnaissance Program.

Former air force space and missile officer Joseph T. Page II recounts amazing stories of dedicated men and women who led the American military effort to explore space.

Plymouth and Northwestern Amador County

9781467108775

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In Plymouth and Northwestern Amador County mother and daughter authors Deborah Coleen Cook and Amy Elizabeth Champ present a look into the chronological past of the region from the native Miwok people to the 21st century with photographs gleaned from local families and historic repositories.

Situated near the Sierra Nevada foothills in the northwestern region of Amador County is the small town of Plymouth. This hamlet, and other surrounding towns such as Drytown, Fiddletown, and River Pines, have been home to farmers, ranchers, and merchants since the early days of the California Gold Rush. Plymouth, known to be the gateway to the world-famous Shenandoah Valley wine country, is a thriving community with a hometown feel. History lives here, from the aged buildings along Main Street to the ruins of the Plymouth-Consolidated Mine, one of the largest gold producers in California.

Cook, a retired historic archaeologist and former Amador County archivist, spent much of her professional career studying the history of Amador County and is a former longtime resident of Plymouth. Champ has been a resident of Plymouth since obtaining her doctoral degree at the University of California at Davis. She currently teaches in Amador County.

Logging in Plumas County

9780738559292

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Located within the northern Sierra Nevada mountain range, the forests of Plumas County were once seen as a source of endless timber. Lumber was needed during the Gold Rush for water flumes, mine timbers, and an array of buildings. While timber was abundant, the abilities of the early settlers to harvest, transport, and mill the logs were often very limited. Markets remained relatively local throughout the second half of the 19th century until the completion of the Western Pacific Railroad in 1909. This sparked a new rush of industry into the region. Vast tracts of untapped Plumas County timber were bought up by speculators, and many sawmills were erected. Logging in the western United States moved from animal power to steam engines to internal combustion in the space of about 50 years. While Plumas County's lumber industry was reflective of these developments, it also found its own identity as a timber-producing region that was nearly unequaled.

Covina Valley Citrus Industry

9780738574424

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Drawn by the California dream of golden sunshine and promise, many settlers came to the Covina Valley, where, after clearing the rocks, sagebrush, and cactus, they found rich alluvial soil. With the addition of water, everything grew in abundance. Citrus gradually became the best cash crop. This is the story of the men and women who made the citrus industry work in and around Covina, how they founded towns and eventually planted 25,000 acres of oranges, lemons, limes, and grapefruits. They endured droughts, floods, freezes, insect invasions, and unscrupulous buyers who almost ruined them financially. Together they developed water resources and the first stockholder-owned citrus cooperative, and brought railroads, transforming the Covina Valley into a major citrus producing and processing center.

City of Industry

9781467107785

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Incorporated on June 18, 1957, the City of Industry is located 20 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. The city’s founding was based on providing a dedicated area for industrial employment in between two major railroad lines. Starting with about 50 businesses, this young municipality grew rapidly and had a national reputation for attracting large manufacturers like Mattel, Inc., Schwinn Bicycle Company, and Libbey, Inc., within its boundaries. The city is known as the “Economic Engine” of the San Gabriel Valley, and currently, it provides 68,000 jobs for the valley’s population of 1.7 million people. In the 1970s, the city developed the internationally renowned Industry Hills Resort and Conference Center and the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum. As the last portions of Industry’s 12 square miles are being developed, this dynamic economic base is continuing its dedication to businesses and to its neighboring residents by way of charitable giving, public/private partnerships, and innovative community programs.

The Dams of Western San Diego County

9781467127219

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The unreliability of the San Diego River compelled the Franciscan fathers to construct the area's first dam in 1813 to conserve drinking and irrigation water for the Mission San Diego de Alcalá. This water-driven circumstance continued and expanded in the ensuing American era. Lacking a reliable water source at the turn of the 20th century, San Diego County was destined to experience modest growth. The region's semiarid conditions, cyclical droughts, and existing river systems determined that the only effective way to maintain a ready water supply was to conserve runoff and river floodwaters behind dam-created reservoirs. Between 1888 and 1934, private and municipal interests constructed a series of massive structures that made San Diego County the dam-building center of the world. The county featured some of America's first multiple arch dams and earliest hydraulic fill dams. Into the mid-1940s, dammed reservoirs remained the principle water source for county consumers and made the municipal expansion of the city of San Diego possible.

Balboa Park and the 1915 Exposition

9781626193451

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The Panama-California Exposition of 1915 established San Diego as a focal point of cultural activity in California. The Spanish Colonial Revival exposition buildings, along with those from a second exposition in Balboa, house several of the great museums of San Diego. This 1,200-acre park in the central portion of the city contains the world-famous San Diego Zoo, fifteen museums, the Old Globe Theatre, sports and recreation facilities, hiking trails and some of America's most elaborate gardens. The late Richard W. Amero, longtime Balboa Park historian, wrote extensively about the park and its two expositions. His chapters on the creation of the first exposition have been edited into this essential volume on city history by Michael Kelly, president of the Committee of One Hundred. .

Bay Area Iron Master Al Zampa

9781467119139

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Alfred Zampa didn't know what he was getting into when he took a construction job in 1925 on the Carquinez Bridge, one of the first to cross San Francisco Bay. Despite the risk, Zampa relished the challenge and embarked on an illustrious career that made him a local legend. His impressive feats of iron craft are evident in numerous spans, including the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate, as well as others across the country. He was one of the first to survive a fall from the Golden Gate Bridge, making him a founding member of the Halfway to Hell Club in 1936. The Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge, named to honor the man after his death, replaced the first bridge he had worked on nearly eighty years earlier. This remarkable story of skill, grit and enduring spirit is told through oral histories collected by John Robinson and Isabelle Maynard.

Quicksilver Mining in Sonoma County

9781626194724

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In the 1870s, a quicksilver mining boom took hold of Sonoma County, California. Claims were staked, and a rowdy camp took shape in Pine Flat as farmers traded plows for picks and miners answered the siren call of cinnabar. In this compelling account, historian Joe Pelanconi relates the development of the twenty-mile Cinnabar Mining District. Pelanconi shares intriguing stories like those of the Donner Party survivor, Chinese laborers who worked the mines in danger of mercury poisoning and the two brothers who were leading citizens of the district and purported victims of murder. Delve into Sonoma County's heritage and a lost era when eccentrics and dreamers sought shining flasks of riches in the Mayacamas Mountains above today's wine country.

Bridges of Downtown Los Angeles

9781467133531

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The Los Angeles River was tamed years ago. The river, by nature wanting to be violent and random, doses now in a concrete bed through downtown Los Angeles. In the city's core, there are over a dozen bridges that connect Los Angeles across the river—and these bridges are architectural marvels! These bridges were built in the first decades of the 1900s, and their history continues. The largest and longest bridge, the Sixth Street Viaduct, is in the process of being replaced. Others have been upgraded and enlarged; Spring Street is underway now. Many of the bridges were designed by one man, Merrill Butler, who made each bridge different, yet matching. In this volume, the reader will explore the necessity of the bridges, how they came to be, and where they are going in the future. The time is ripe for a reexamination of these jewels of downtown Los Angeles.

The Benicia State Capitol

9781467143844

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In February 1853, Benicia was chosen as the third capital of the new state of California. Along with San Jose, Vallejo and Sacramento, Benicia had been vying for the honor of hosting the legislature, and competition was fierce. Benicia was not the first choice, nor did it have what many politicians considered critical amenities, but it had something the others didn’t: a beautiful, Greek-style capitol building available for use. Political rivalries and land disputes would eventually cause Sacramento to be awarded the capital, but for nearly thirteen months, Benicia held that distinction. Author James E. Lessenger provides an inside look at the politics at play in the fledgling Golden State and their effect on the ambitions of Benicia.

Clearing the Air in Los Angeles

9781467156745

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Solving the mystery of California’s most persistent smog.Once known as the Smog Capital of the World, Los Angeles has changed “air you can see” into “air you can breathe.” While the fight to eliminate pollution in the city continues, modern smog is not the thick, oppressive, silver-blue haze that drove people to move out of Los Angeles altogether during the mid-twentieth century. Professor Arie Haagen-Smit became a key leader in the fight against smog after making a crucial discovery—what caused it.

Join author Carl R. Oliver as he delves into the sixty-year battle to clear the air in Los Angeles.

Oxnard Sugar Beets

9781467136792

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In the early 1890s, farmers Albert Maulhardt and John Edward Borchard discovered Ventura County's favorable conditions for a highly profitable new cash crop: the sugar beet. Not long after inviting sugar mogul Henry T. Oxnard to the area, construction began on a $2 million sugar factory capable of processing two thousand tons of beets daily. The facility brought jobs, wealth and the Southern Pacific rail line. It became one of the country's largest producers of sugar, and just like that, a town was born. Despite the industry's demise, the city of Oxnard still owes its name to the man who delivered prosperity. A fifth-generation descendant, local author and historian Jeffrey Wayne Maulhardt details the rise and fall of a powerful enterprise and the entrepreneurial laborers who helped create a city.

Sacramento's K Street

9781609494254

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From its founding, K Street mirrored the entrepreneurial development of California's capital city. Initially the storefront for gold seekers trampling a path between the Sacramento River and Sutter's Fort, K Street soon became the hub of California's first stagecoach, railroad and riverboat networks. Over the years, K Street boasted saloons and vaudeville houses, the neon buzz of jazz clubs and movie theaters, as well as the finest hotels and department stores. For the postwar generation, K Street was synonymous with Christmas shopping and teenage cruising. From the Golden Eagle and Buddy Baer's to Weinstock's and the Alhambra Theatre, join historian William Burg as he chronicles the legacy of Sacramento's K Street, once a boulevard of aspirations and bustling commerce and now home to a spirit of renewal.

Sacramento's Moon Rockets

9781467133890

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On July 16, 1969, a Saturn V rocket launched the Apollo spacecraft carrying American astronauts to the surface of the moon, where Neil Armstrong would take his famous first steps and fulfill Pres. John F. Kennedy's goal of a successful lunar landing by the end of the decade. This event marks one of the greatest achievements in human history and is in large part due to the years of rocket testing that took place at the Douglas Aircraft Company's Sacramento testing facility (SACTO). The SACTO facility played one of the most important roles in the success of the Apollo 11 lunar mission and is where the Saturn rocket's S-IVB stage was developed and tested—making this historic accomplishment possible.