Name: Northern California Drag Racing
Brand: Mr. Steve Reyes
SKU: 9781467108171
Price: 23.99 USD
Availability: InStock

Mr. Steve Reyes

Northern California Drag Racing

9781467108171

$23.99

Organized drag racing began in Northern California in 1949 thanks to World War II veterans with a “need for speed.”

Towns like Redding, Lodi, Fresno, Bakersfield, and Fremont would host their own drag events featuring homebuilt jalopies. Anyone with a driver’s license and a paid entry fee could participate, and as the cars got more sophisticated and faster, more and more spectators came to watch the local “speed demons.” By the 1960s, a metamorphosis began with the introduction of the slingshot-style dragsters. For the next 12 years, the slingshot dragster was the king of the quarter mile, and it made stars of Gary Ormsby, Frank Bradley, Dennis Baca, and James Warren. Meanwhile, in 1965, a funny new race car challenged “The King” as it gained popularity in Northern California. Leading this funny car charge was a Pennsylvania transplant named Russell James Liberman. However, the golden years of Northern California drag racing came to an end in the mid-1970s. Today, only 5 out of 17 drag strips are still open.

Photographer Steve Reyes journeyed into the world of Northern California drag racing in 1963 as a 15-year-old kid. Upon seeing an advertisement from the Oakland Tribune that read, “Come see the nitro powered 200mph slingshot dragsters,” Reyes and his father made the 23-mile trek to the Fremont drag strip. With the noise of high-powered engines filling the air, Reyes was hooked and made it his duty to capture this one-of-a-kind world on film.

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Steve Reyes

Southern California Top Fuel Dragsters

9781467161503

$24.99

Southern California front-engine top fuel dragsters were the kings of the quarter mile. Fathers and sons, friends, and next-door neighbors joined together to build and race these cars. From 1963 to 1971, considered the toughest years to complete, the top fuel dragster became faster and quicker with new innovations in the chassis design and engine building.

Southern California quickly became the place to prove top fuel racing skills as racers from all over the United States ventured to see how they matched up against those killer cars. For any top fuel racer or team to win in that era, it was truly a lifetime achievement. Many tried and failed to make their mark in Southern California.

Photographer Steve Reyes made the five-hour drive from his home in Northern California on many a weekend to capture Southern California’s top fuel teams in action at Riverside, Irwindale, Lions, and Orange County raceways. His images of these nitro warriors capture the action and feel of those bygone days of top fuel dragster racing as well as the memories of great racers and great racing in Southern California.

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Mr. Tony T. Baker

Hot Rodding in the San Fernando Valley

9781467160650

$24.99

This book chronicles the once-vibrant hot rod scene in California’s San Fernando Valley—from the iconic Bob’s Big Boy drive-in to the San Fernando drag strip. Featuring “TV” Tommy Ivo, Don “The Snake” Prudhomme, Bob “Floyde Lippencotte Jr.” Muravez, Jim Miles, and many other luminaries from the golden age of drag racing, it also tells the story of the Road Kings of Burbank car club and how its members progressed from street racing to dominating the Southern California drag-racing scene. Several members of the club went on to become major stars as they spread the sport of drag racing across the United States and abroad through showmanship and innovation. And, of course, the book has lots of cool pictures of hot rods, customs, and dragsters.

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Steve Reyes

Orange County International Raceway

9781467162296

$24.99

The Orange County International Raceway (OCIR) was a dream come true for Southern California race fans. From 1967 to 1983, the raceway featured the best of the best from the world of drag racing.

All the stars of the sport flocked to OCIR just to say they raced there. Race fans from all over the United States and beyond came to experience the comforts and innovations built into Southern California’s super raceway. For spectators, the raceway offered reserved seating, electronic scoreboards, and restaurant-style food. It was also a dream come true for racers with running water in the paved pit area; shade trees; and parking for trailers, recreational vehicles, and big rigs. But eventually the land the track was built on became too valuable as the population in the area grew, and the Orange County International Raceway closed its doors for good on October 29, 1983.

Author and photographer Steve Reyes made the 10-hour round-trip drive from his Northern California home to Southern California to attend and be a part of OCIR race coverage from 1967 to 1983. His publications with Arcadia Publishing include Southern California Top Fuel Dragsters, Northern California Drag Racing, and Southern California Funny Cars.

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"Landspeed" Louise Ann Noeth

Bonneville Salt Flats

9781467105958

$24.99

Astronaut John Glenn used Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats as a landmark from space, but on Earth, amateur motorsports devotees have used the blistering hot, flat land as a speed laboratory for more than a century. On August 22, 1949, the hot rodders joined the pageant of power with their handcrafted cars, trucks, and motorcycles for a one-time event but never stopped coming back, trying to go faster every run down the multi-mile course. All came looking for the answer to the same question: "How fast will it go?" Those efforts have made them the fastest people on the planet, reaching speeds in excess of 500 miles per hour. On the salt, people find the limits of their courage, learn what daring greatly is all about, and realize why a Bonneville Salt Flats speed record is an internationally respected pedigree. People who race on the salt flats become a family bound together by speed--a powerful force that erases ethnic, economic, political, and religious barriers. They are land speed racers. And this is their story.

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Robert Perret

Camas Prairie Railroad

9781467107709

$23.99

Incorporated in 1909, the Camas Prairie Railroad (CPRR) was a successful joint venture between two major competing companies, the Union Pacific and Northern Pacific Railroads.

Despite covering less than 300 miles total, the Camas Prairie Railroad connected the region’s largest exporters of wheat and lumber and was the last vital section of rail to directly connect the eastern United States with the Pacific Northwest. In addition to freight, the CPRR was the most reliable method of transportation for people and the postal service in this rural area, even allowing for the creation of new towns along the line. The Camas Prairie itself ranged from desert to mountainous forests, with rugged river canyons in between. Infamously known as the “Railroad on Stilts,” one subdivision alone boasts 44 bridges, many of them made from heavy timber. No longer in business, portions of the track have been removed while some remain active, carrying freight to larger markets. Trestles and tunnels still dot the landscape, giving a peek into the not-so-distant past.

Special collections librarian Robert Perret and archives manager Amy Thompson work in the Special Collections and Archives at the University of Idaho, where they are immersed in the history of the Inland Northwest.

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Andrew J. Grove

Southern Pacific's Slim Princess

9781467108782

$23.99

For 60 years, the Southern Pacific’s Slim Princess served as the lifeline to remote areas of western Nevada and eastern California.

In 1880, the financiers of the Virginia & Truckee Railroad organized the Carson & Colorado Railroad to build a narrow-gauge line from the Carson River to the Colorado River, but that dream was never fully realized. In 1900, the Southern Pacific Railroad purchased the 300-mile line, envisioning it as a shortcut from Nevada to Southern California. The northern half of the line was converted to standard gauge in 1905. The section from Mina, Nevada, to Keeler, California, remained an isolated and celebrated part of the Southern Pacific until it succumbed to the scrapper’s torch in 1960.

Author Andrew Brandon has over 30 years of extensive study in railroad history and involvement with noteworthy projects in the railroad preservation community. Since 2001, he has been involved with the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum in Nevada City, where he currently serves as the curator. Brandon also serves on board of directors for the Southern Pacific Narrow Gauge Historical Society and the Nevada–California–Oregon Railway. In 2009, he helped establish PacificNG.org—a website dedicated to researching narrow-gauge railroads around the Pacific Rim.

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Mark S. Bassett

Nevada Northern Railway

9780738574752

$24.99

The Nevada Northern Railway is the sole survivor from a grand era when railroads served mines throughout the state. Built in 1905-1906 to develop the incredible copper deposits of the Nevada Consolidated Copper Company in White Pine County, it was--and still is--a workaday railroad. Although its primary purpose was to haul ore, it eventually served the community with a daily passenger train between East Ely and Cobre until 1941. Over 4.5 million people rode the trains, and a mountain of copper ore was moved. In 1983, the Nevada Northern Railway ceased operating, and two years later the entire ore line, including the railroad's yard and shop facilities in East Ely, was donated to the White Pine Historical Railroad Foundation that now operates the railway as a museum. Instead of relics in glass cases or repainted old equipment on static display, the museum preserves a working steam railroad, delighting train enthusiasts year-round with passenger service and special seasonal excursions.

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Shawna Kelly

Aviators in Early Hollywood

9780738559025

$24.99

Hollywood's leading aviators were heroic knights of the sky on the screen as well as in real life. These leading aviators performed aerial stunt sequences and acted, plus some wrote and directed motion pictures. Directing giant Cecil B. DeMille was so enthralled with aviation that he owned three airfields. Charlie Chaplin's family airfield also doubled as a motion-picture set. Thomas H. Ince, the famous producer who invented the studio system, owned Ince Airfield, which became the hub of Hollywood aviation. Eternal legends Rudolph Valentino, Oliver Hardy, Harry Houdini, and Mary Pickford performed in aerials. Many aviators gave their lives making motion pictures; three fatalities were incurred for Howard Hughes's great air epic, Hell's Angels. Hughes himself broke records within aircraft and film production. Aviators brought their screen work to life between films through barnstorming. The roaring in 1920s Hollywood was often aviators soaring beyond limits.

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Kerry Sullivan

Southern Pacific in California

9780738582078

$24.99

The Southern Pacific Railroad is California's railroad. As the Central Pacific, it bored and blasted its way east from Sacramento, across the towering High Sierra, meeting with the Union Pacific at Promontory, Utah, completing the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, and profoundly changing the growing United States. By the early 20th century, the Southern Pacific was a rail colossus, stretching from San Francisco Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. Yet the Southern Pacific remained essentially Californian. Its rail lines gave muscle to the lovely California coast, the fertile San Joaquin and Imperial Valleys, and the timber industry of the north coast. Yet for all its might and majesty, for many Californians the Southern Pacific was a smaller, more intimate part of the fabric of their daily lives.

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Peter W. Merlin

Area 51

9780738576206

$23.99

Area 51, a top secret military installation for testing unacknowledged, or black, projects, lies in a desert valley northwest of Las Vegas. During the Cold War, CIA and Air Force officials chose this remote location to shield such efforts from foreign spies and US citizens. Although the base has been known by many names—Paradise Ranch, Watertown, and Dreamland, among others—the designation Area 51 has taken root most deeply in the public imagination. Since 1955, it has grown from a temporary camp into a national test facility supporting nearly 2,000 military and civilian workers and dozens of projects, including aircraft capable of cruising at Mach 3 and stealth airplanes that are virtually invisible to radar. Although secrecy surrounding Area 51 spawned rumors of UFOs and reverse-engineered alien spacecraft, declassified photographs provide a rare glimpse into the true nature of America's most famous secret base.

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Ph.D. Deutsch Reena

San Diego and Arizona Railway

9780738581484

$24.99

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.

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Stephen D. Mikesell

Sierra Railway

9781467115308

$24.99

The Sierra Railway is one of the most intact steam railroads in the United States. It is operated today by California State Parks to interpret and celebrate the importance of steam railroading in California history. Located in the Gold Rush town of Jamestown, in Tuolumne County, the railway began operations in 1897 and played an important role in developing the economy of Tuolumne and adjoining Calaveras County. While nearly all other steam short-line railroads in the United States were dismantled in the 1950s, the Sierra line has survived in a remarkably complete condition. The railway was a big hit among railfans, who flocked to it as early as the 1930s and in increasing numbers in the 1950s. Now operated as Railtown 1897 State Historic Park, the steam operation of the railroad is very much alive.

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Con Trumbull

Central Wyoming Railroads

9781467107006

$23.99

Starting with the great migration along the Oregon Trail in the 1840s, central Wyoming has long been a transportation corridor of the western United States. Railroad tracks first worked their way into the region in 1886 with the arrival of the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad, building westward from Douglas to Lander. In 1913, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, after successfully building through the Wind River Canyon, began construction south and east through Casper to connect with its existing line at Orin Junction. Connecting central Wyoming to the outside world brought goods and people and allowed for the development of the oil fields, agriculture, industry, and tourism.

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Dr. Jack S. Ballard

Lowry Air Force Base

9780738596648

$24.99

From 1937 to 1994, Lowry Air Force Base, located on the eastern edge of the city of Denver, served the nation and the surrounding community in many distinguished ways. The air base, primarily a technical training center, graduated more than 1.1 million enlisted members and officers in skills ranging from armament to photography, tremendously strengthening the country's war efforts in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War. In addition, from the 1980s, Lowry Air Force Base remained one of Colorado's largest employers, with approximately 10,000 military and civilian men and women, providing an economic impact approaching $1 billion annually. Thus Lowry significantly contributed to maintaining the world's largest air force and to promoting the accelerated growth of the Denver metro area and Colorado.

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Suzanne Tarbell Cooper

RMS Queen Mary

9780738580678

$24.99

Launched in an era when speed and grandeur went hand in hand, the RMS Queen Mary is the last survivor of the golden age of ocean liners. From the time of her maiden voyage in 1936, passengers crossed the North Atlantic cocooned in luxury. Movie stars, tycoons, politicians, and royalty shared a ship with everyday people, for whom this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. During World War II, the Queen Mary ferried countless soldiers safely across the sea and, at war's end, carried their brides and babies home to America. Refurbished and polished to her previous glory, the Queen Mary continued to carry passengers until her final voyage to Long Beach in 1967. The RMS Queen Mary now serves as a floating hotel and tourist attraction, a living testament to her glamorous history, a generous showcase of art, and a magnificent example of a time when oceans could be crossed in both comfort and beauty.

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Allan C. Lewis

Colorado and Southern Railway

9780738529295

$24.99

In 1860, thousands journeyed to the Colorado Territory, beckoned by reports of gold discoveries in the mountains west of Denver. In the early 1870s, W.A.H. Loveland built a railroad connecting Denver to the Clear Creek Mining District-the Colorado Central Railroad. Over the next 28 years, other lines were established, bought, sold, extended, and merged to service the mining towns of Black Hawk, Central City, Idaho Springs, and Silver Plume. In 1898, the Union Pacific, Denver & Gulf, and the Denver Leadville & Gunnison were combined to form the Colorado & Southern Railway. After more than 40 years of dedication to the Clear Creek District, the railroad was scrapped in 1941. However, tourism would revitalize the area, and in the years to come a group of enthusiasts began to rebuild a portion of the old right of way. Toady, the spirit of the C&S is alive again, and rail fans can make the same journey over The Loop that thrilled tourists a century ago.

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Idaho State University’s "Management 4499/5599" Honors Class

Garrett Freightlines

9781467116657

$24.99

Garrett Freightlines began in 1913 in Pocatello, Idaho, as the first motorized luggage transfer service for railroad passengers. Starting with the purchase of a single one-cylinder REO truck, the company expanded rapidly throughout the Intermountain West and became the fifth-largest motor freight carrier in the United States, with routes from the West Coast to the Midwest. The company introduced a number of key innovations to the interstate truck transport industry, including the early adoption of diesel engines and refrigerated trailer units, research to improve vehicle safety and efficiency, and the introduction of triple trailers. The history of Garrett Freightlines is also an account of its people. Images of America: Garrett Freightlines showcases vintage photographs that tell a success story of 20th-century transportation in the western United States and highlight Garrett's dedicated employees who helped build a family-like culture and formed the economic backbone of their community.

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Mr. Joseph T. Page II

Vandenberg Air Force Base

9781467132091

$24.99

A historical cornucopia ranging from native tribal lands and ranch living to infantry training grounds and missile launch site, the location currently known as Vandenberg Air Force Base has held an amazing legacy that continues today. Stretching over 45 miles of pristine California coastline and covering over 99,000 acres, the base has been the vanguard for the United States' space and missile program. Showcasing over 1,900 launches since 1957, Vandenberg put the world's first photoreconnaissance (spy) satellite into orbit and is the only launch location for America's operational intercontinental ballistic missile force. Within Vandenberg's lands are ancient rock drawings from the native Chumash tribe, hundreds of species of plants, insects, and animals, and untouched beaches—protected and thriving under the military's stewardship of the lands. Within these pages are stories and photographs that highlight Vandenberg Air Force Base's legacy as the free world's first missile base.

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Robert P. Palazzo

Railroads of Death Valley

9780738574790

$21.99

Railroads have played an important part in the history of Death Valley. The Pacific Coast Borax Company first used the Death Valley Railroad to transport its ore to market and then to transport Death Valley tourists to its Furnace Creek Resort. "Death Valley Scotty's" leap to national fame came as a direct result of his chartering a private train to break the Los Angeles to Chicago speed record. The Carson & Colorado Railroad on the west and the Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad on the east provided support to Death Valley's mining activity, its associated boomtowns, and early tourism.

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Katy Tahja

Logging Railroads of Humboldt and Mendocino Counties

9780738596211

$24.99

Locomotive steam whistles echo no more in the forests of the north California coast. A century ago, Humboldt and Mendocino Counties had more than 40 railroads bringing logs out of the forest to mills at the water's edge. Only one single railroad ever connected to the outside world, and it too is gone. One railroad survives as the Skunk Train in Mendocino County, and it carries tourists today instead of lumber. Redwood and tan oak bark were the two products moved by rail, and very little else was hauled other than lumberjacks and an occasional picnic excursion for loggers' families. Economic depressions and the advent of trucking saw railroads vanish like a puff of steam from the landscape.

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Dale W. Jones

The Great Northern Railway in Marias Pass

9781467125192

$29.99

Montana's Marias Pass is the lowest rail crossing through the Rocky Mountains. The tracks snake through narrow canyons, traverse the swift Middle Fork of the Flathead River, and twist through numerous snowsheds and tunnels to crest the 5,213-foot Continental Divide. James Jerome Hill was the driving force behind Great Northern Railway's mission to find the most economical route to the Pacific coast, with surveyor John F. Stevens taking a major role in locating the pass. Browning is the eastern gateway into Marias Pass as the railroad approaches the Rocky Mountain Front; continuing west from Summit, the tracks parallel Bear Creek and the Middle Fork of the Flathead River downgrade through Essex to Glacier National Park and into the Flathead Valley.

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Jeff Livingston

Oahu's Narrow-Gauge Army Rail

9781467127387

$24.99

The US Army Corps of Engineers built the first Army railroad on Oahu in 1907 to use for construction of Fort Kamehameha. Seven batteries were built between 1907 and 1920, and the temporary railroad not only remained but was expanded to become a permanent one in 1920 with the establishment of the 41st Coast Artillery (Railway). The Oahu Railway & Land Company (OR&L) provided most rail service to the Army, beginning with Fort Shafter in 1905 and Schofield Barracks in 1909. Government tracks were built at Schofield Barracks by the Army between 1922 and 1933, including an independent 60-centimeter trench railroad system. Two highly specialized railroads were built at Forts Weaver and Barrette to serve the 16-inch gun batteries. With the advent of World War II, the Army, short on equipment, continued to depend heavily on the OR&L. The OR&L abandoned its main line in December 1947, and the Army's railroads were also soon removed.

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James B. Quest

Beale Air Force Base During the Cold War

9781467130813

$24.99

KLAXON! The alarm immediately sent the aircrews at Beale Air Force Base, California, scrambling to their alert aircraft in a race to get airborne first. The KC-135 tankers were usually the quickest to taxi out, with the B-52 bombers following closely behind. Soon, the air filled with the rumble of engines as aircraft roared down the runway trailing great clouds of exhaust and disappeared into the skies of Northern California. It was a dramatic scenario practiced many times during the Cold War and one that Universal Pictures filmed at Beale AFB for its movie A Gathering of Eagles, starring Rock Hudson and Rod Taylor.

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Ben Kifle

Roaring Camp Railroads

9781467129961

$24.99

In 1963, Norman Clark officially opened Roaring Camp to the public. Since then, it has become a popular and well-known destination for tourists and rail buffs from around the world who wish to visit and ride on its 100-year-old steam trains. Isaac Graham, who constructed the first powered sawmill and the first whiskey distillery in the American West, settled the area in the 1840s. Graham was notorious for his boisterous antics, and his settlement became known as a wild and roaring camp. Clark arrived in the area in the mid-1950s with $25 in his pocket and the dream of preserving a piece of early California. Clark's dream included a plan to construct an 1880s railroad town, complete with an authentic narrow-gauge logging railway. Over the last 50 years, Clark's dream has been continued and expanded, now incorporating two railroads, one of which dates to 1875.

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JoAnn Semones

Historic Shipwrecks of Coastside California

9781467155557

$24.99

The stretch of California coast from San Francisco to Monterey has seen its share of disastrous shipwrecks with devastating losses, but there are also stories of courage, innovative rescues and unique salvage operations. Uncover the tale of the adventurous, ill-fated Sir John Franklin, now marked only by a nearly forgotten cemetery, and relive the wreck of the New York, one of the most notorious ships to ever sail. Learn about the Coastside's worst maritime tragedy, when the passenger steamship San Juan was struck by the oil tanker twice her size and sank in minutes, plunging seventy-five men, women and children into the sea.

Join author JoAnn Semones as she shares the stories of doomed ships that found their end along Coastside California.

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Paul C. Trimble

Sacramento Northern Railway

9780738530529

$24.99

The Sacramento Northern Railway was once a critical interurban link between California's northern Central Valley communities, the state capital, and the Bay Area. Running through orchards, farmland, swamps, and cities, this electric railway began its life in 1905. Service eventually ran from Chico to Oakland, but after the Bay Bridge opened in 1939, the 186-mile route started in San Francisco's Financial District, crossed the bridge on the lower deck, ran through Contra Costa County towns like Moraga, Lafayette, and Pittsburg, across the Suisun straits on the massive rail ferry Ramon (which could hold an entire train), and into Sacramento, the halfway point. From there, the train continued through rolling hills and farms on to Marysville, and finally to Chico before making its return journey. The Sacramento Northern soldiered on until World War II, but eventually the growing car culture, along with competing diesel railroads, undid this splendid line. Interurban passenger service ended in 1941, and the various lines were gradually abandoned or dieselized. Today a 22-mile segment of the route remains in operation at the Bay Area Electric Railway Museum in Solano County.

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Stephen E. Drew

Virginia & Truckee Railroad

9781467107419

$23.99

The Virginia & Truckee (V&T) was once the richest and most famous short line railroad in America. Created in 1869 to provide transportation for the Comstock Lode, the V&T transported gold and silver ore to the quartz reduction mills. On the return trip, it brought back cordwood for fuel, timbers for mining, lumber for building communities, and all the goods needed by the area’s nearly 40,000 inhabitants. The V&T also supported passenger transportation between Virginia City, Gold Hill, Carson City, and Reno. At its peak, this “bonanza railroad” ran 50 trains per day and paid stockholders more than $130,000 in monthly dividends. Over the next 80 years, operations dwindled to a trickle, and the last train ran in May 1950. Today, the V&T is immortalized in motion pictures, its locomotives and cars are exhibited in museums, and 14 miles of the V&T have been returned to operation.

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John Callahan

Hot Rods and Custom Cars of the Sacramento Delta

9781467139953

$21.99

The Sacramento Delta has produced some of the finest hot rods and custom cars ever made. The passion of the area's builders is evident in the incredible cars they created, which drew nationwide attention. Harry Westerguard, who taught George Barris bodywork, worked on the second America's Most Beautiful Roadster - a 1923 T that was a style-setter for its day. Bob Dron built his first custom when he was only fifteen and a half, and Lenny Byer created his own Candy Apple Red in Rio Vista. Detroit might have had its vision, but the Delta region built its own. Discover the stories behind the cars and their builders as author John V. Callahan takes us on a trip down memory lane.

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Mac Blewer

Wyoming's Outlaw Trail

9780738596068

$23.99

A historic and folkloric path that meandered from Canada to Mexico, the Outlaw Trail was used by outlaws such as Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, and the James brothers. Following existing Western routes such as the Oregon Trail, the highway connected towns and natural hideouts essential for bandits escaping the law. Some in Western communities were sympathetic toward the outlaws. Many, like Cassidy, were seen as Robin Hoods, fighting for common people who were under siege by economic forces, corporate encroachment, and other changes occurring in the Old West. Images of America: Wyoming's Outlaw Trail details the history, folklore, and geography behind some of Wyoming's outlaw towns and hideouts—chief among them the Hole in the Wall and Red Desert. Also highlighted are the deeds of the robbers, lawmen, and ordinary folk who rode those dusty trails during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

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Paul C. Trimble

Riverboats of Northern California

9780738574967

$24.99

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.

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Tim Stricker

Yreka Western Railroad

9780738574301

$24.99

The city of Yreka was determined to have a railroad. When the Southern Pacific Railroad decided in 1883 to bypass Yreka, the citizens constructed their own railroad known as the Yreka Railroad Company. This railroad managed to eke out a living over the next few decades. In the 1930s, the railroad was reincorporated as the Yreka Western Railroad. By the mid-1930s, the railroad went bankrupt and was forced into receivership, and a new manager was put in charge. Through perseverance of the new manager, the railroad began to grow and prosper. By the late 1970s, the railroad once again started to decline, but as in the past, it managed to hold on. In 1986, the railroad started an excursion train known as the Blue Goose, and steam locomotive No. 19 was added in 1989. Throughout all the hardships, the railroad still continues today and has been given the nickname the Little Railroad that Refuses to Die.

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Steven J. Crise

Los Angeles Railway

9781467105880

$23.99

The Los Angeles Railway's Yellow Cars, a system cobbled together from numerous horse-powered lines, cable car lines, and upstart narrow-gauge trolley companies, served downtown and its environs in some iteration from 1898 to 1963. Henry Huntington assembled this conglomerate, making it functionally effective and well patronized.

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Dr. Sandra F. Mather

Summit County's Narrow-Gauge Railroads

9781467116855

$24.99

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.

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Carina Monica Montoya Forsythe

Fillmore

9781467109185

$23.99

Fillmore is nestled at the foot of the Topatopa Mountains at the confluence of the Santa Clara River and Sespe Creek. The town was formed in 1887 and named after Jerome A. Fillmore, who was the general superintendent for the Southern Pacific Railroad at the time. The rail line enabled passenger travel and the transport of commercial agricultural products, and it put Fillmore on the map. Incorporated in 1914, Fillmore is one of the oldest incorporated towns in Ventura County and is designated as part of the county’s agricultural greenbelt. Fillmore’s history is based on it being located on some of the most productive agricultural and oil-rich lands in the country. Today, it is still a predominately agricultural town that supplies citrus, avocados, and a variety of vegetable crops around the country and abroad. It is a hidden small-town gem in Southern California, and its downtown architecture epitomizes small-town charm, making it a popular tourist destination and site for film and television productions.

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William Schoneberger

Los Angeles International Airport

9780738555829

$24.99

Growth on the flatlands along the western extents of Imperial Highway in the 1920s was once measured in beans, barley, and jackrabbits. After 2000, the site that became Los Angeles International Airport would be measured by the more than 60 million passengers and nearly two million tons of cargo passing through it each year. One of the world's busiest airports grew out of Mines Field and expanded quickly in the 1930s with the exploits of Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart, Howard Hughes and Will Rogers, Curtiss and Martin, and Boeing and Lockheed. After World War II, this large portion of coastal Los Angeles between El Segundo and Marina del Rey became the main airport for Greater Los Angeles. With the advent of the jet age in the town of the jet set, LAX became a nexus of international travel and a symbol of sophistication as the Gateway to the World, a cutting-edge center for the overlapping spheres of aviation, business, politics, and entertainment.

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Allan C. Lewis

Rails around Durango

9780738548593

$24.99

In the 1880s, the Denver & Rio Grande began building its three-foot railroad toward the San Juan Mountains alongside the Animas River and the budding community of Durango. The D&RG quickly established itself in Durango, constructing a depot as well as a 45-mile connection to the regional mining hub of Silverton. Over 60 years, the towns, the railroad, and the mines it served would weather plummeting silver values and a turbulent economy. By the end of World War II, declining freight volumes left the future of the railroad in doubt, but by the late 1940s, a growing number of train enthusiasts were journeying to Durango for one last ride. The new popularity of the Silverton Branch brought rail fans to the area in increasing numbers through the 1950s. Today the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad continues to preserve the region's railroading past and has become a unique aspect of the history of Southwestern Colorado.

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Bruce Linder

The Navy in San Diego

9780738555508

$24.99

San Diego has never been afraid to call itself a Navy Town, and the positive and inspiring link between the navy and the city knows no equal across the country. For over 150 years, beginning with the U.S. Navy's capture of the city for the United States in the opening days of the Mexican War, the navy has been an indelible part of San Diego's lifestyle, culture, and vitality. Not only has the navy formed the bedrock of the region's economy, but it has helped shape the population while endowing the city with a sense of international and cosmopolitan awareness that separates San Diego from many other cities of its size. San Diego and its navy enjoy a special relationship, one deeply rooted in historic perspective that renews itself with each
passing year.

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Emiliano Echeverria

The Key System

9780738547220

$24.99

It is difficult now to imagine San Francisco Bay without bridges, but not too long ago, a complex system of ferries and trains helped span the waters in an elegant way. The Key System was a huge portion of this network; it was part of businessman Borax Smith's method to attract San Francisco workers to live in the cities of Berkeley, Oakland, and Piedmont, where he dealt in real estate. The Southern Pacific Railroad was the Key System's fierce competitor, then later an ally, before it was vanquished. Thousands of commuters rode the system for years, until a ridership decline eventually doomed the Key when bridges finally crisscrossed the bay.

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Alison Burns

Orinda

9781467108652

$23.99

In 1835, cousins Joaquin Moraga and Juan Bernal were granted 13,326 acres in present-day Lamorinda, California, in grateful thanks to their ancestor, Lt. José Joaquin Moraga, second in command during Mexico’s 1776 Anza Expedition. By 1850, California had become America’s 31st state, and squatters were overrunning the property. Within 34 years of receiving its land grant, the family had lost everything. But the house that Moraga built still remains—the oldest surviving adobe in the county. Over the years, land was bought and sold, fortunes made and lost, and a railroad, intended to go all the way from Emeryville to Utah, ran out of steam when it reached Orinda. Families, long gone now, gave their names to familiar landmarks, but it was not until the 1920s, when E.I. de Laveaga laid down the blueprint for this jewel in the East Bay’s crown, that Orinda truly began to take shape. One hundred years later, Orinda, home to over 20,000 people within 13 square miles, has become the 299th largest city in California.

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B. Travis Wright

Rollins Pass

9781467127714

$24.99

The ribbon of dusty road on Rollins Pass has a timeless and beloved history. First known as Boulder Pass, this comparatively low saddle on the Continental Divide in Colorado has been in continuous use for millennia. First utilized as an expansive Native American game drive complex, the pass subsequently functioned as a toll wagon road in the 1860s. At the turn of the 20th century, Rollins Pass became the highest standard-gauge adhesion railroad grade in North America—an achievement still standing today. However, this overmountain route, known as Corona Pass, was inefficient and dangerous: resolute men tasked with the impossible faced high elevations with even higher risks of injury or death. A safer, permanent route came in 1928 by way of the Moffat Tunnel. The rails of Rollins Pass were then removed, freeing the automobile to tour the historic road. No matter the epoch, the legacy of Rollins Pass abides: a preeminently scenic route to the top of the world.

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Walt Vielbaum

San Francisco's Market Street Railway

9780738569598

$7.99

San Francisco's Market Street Railway boasts a rich history.

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Janet McGovern

Caltrain and the Peninsula Commute Service

9780738576220

$24.99

The rail line now called Caltrain was started in the 1860s to create a faster alternative to stagecoaches and ships between the key cities of San Francisco and San Jose. Operated by Southern Pacific for many years, the Peninsula Commute Service is the oldest continuously operating passenger railroad in the West and boasts seven depots in the National Register of Historic Places. This indomitable iron horse has filled a vital transportation role, from evacuating San Franciscans during the 1906 earthquake to getting commuters to work. With the dawn of the 21st century, Caltrain reinvented itself yet again with its innovative Baby Bullet express trains.

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Erik Ostresh

Laramie Railroads

9781467130837

$24.99

On July 1, 1862, President Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act. This act created the Union Pacific Railroad and authorized government loans and land grants to aid in the construction of the nation's first transcontinental railroad, which would connect Omaha, Nebraska, to Sacramento, California. As the Union Pacific raced west across prairies, mountains, and basins in 1867 and 1868, the Territory of Wyoming and many of its southern towns and cities were founded, including Laramie. In 1869, the Union Pacific met the Central Pacific at Promontory Summit, Utah, and the transcontinental railroad was complete. This is the story of the railroads of Laramie, a fabled place along the Union Pacific's Overland Route.

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John Schmale

Petaluma and Santa Rosa Railway

9780738559599

$24.99

With a schedule regulated by the tides and the needs of chickens, the Petaluma and Santa Rosa Railway operated for 81 years as a delightfully quirky egg-hauling enterprise. Modern electric railroad technology paired with ancient low-tech steamboats made possible the overnight shipping of fresh produce to a voracious San Francisco market. The railroad helped Petaluma earn the moniker "the egg basket of the world." Incorporated in 1903, the railroad provided efficient train service to this fertile farm region. The famous botanist Luther Burbank located his experimental farm near Sebastopol and proclaimed it is nature's "chosen spot of all the earth." The railroad survived the devastating 1906 earthquake, opposition from three larger railroads, the Great Depression, and fierce auto-truck competition. The corporation was, mercifully, abandoned in 1984, and most of the rails were removed by 1988. Happily, recent plans call for a tourist trolley to operate over a portion of surviving Petaluma tracks.

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Kevin Hecteman

Sacramento's Southern Pacific Shops

9780738580524

$24.99

In 1862, the Central Pacific Railroad was founded and began building eastward from Sacramento as part of the transcontinental railroad. This required a shop capable of keeping the railroad's equipment in running order. So in 1867, in the swamps just north of town, the Sacramento shops were born. For well more than a century, this massive complex kept the Central Pacific and its corporate successor, the Southern Pacific, operating smoothly. For many decades, the shops were the largest employer in the Sacramento area, employing carpenters, painters, draftsmen, boilermakers, electricians, clerks, upholsterers, and others. The shops' forces designed, built, and maintained locomotives, freight and passenger cars, and other railroading equipment. The complex closed in 1999. Most of the area, popularly known as the Railyards, is set for redevelopment. The California State Railroad Museum handles maintenance and restoration of its collection in two of the shops buildings and plans to develop a Railroad Technology Museum on the site.

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Dale W. Jones

Montana Rails

9781467105163

$24.99

For nearly 150 years, railroads have been transforming the Montana landscape, from Continental Divide peaks to windswept prairies. Steel rails arrived on May 9, 1880, when the narrow-gauge Utah & Northern reached Monida Pass south of Butte. At the zenith of rail line construction during the 1890s and early 20th century, all major transcontinental railroads crisscrossed Montana: the Union Pacific; Northern Pacific; Chicago, Burlington & Quincy (CB&Q); Great Northern; Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul (Milwaukee Road); and Soo Line. Through the years, many original railroads evolved into the Burlington Northern Railroad, Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF), and Montana Rail Link with unique short lines along the way. Though routes and operations have changed, the scenery of Big Sky Country remains the same. Take a journey across Montana rails, from the mountains to the prairies.

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Nicholas A. Veronico

Moffett Field

9780738531328

$24.99

The looming immensity of Moffett Field's Hangar One, built in 1933 to house the world's largest--and last--rigid-frame dirigible, is an unforgettable South Bay landmark. The lighter-than-air Macon cost 2.5 million Depression-era dollars and could hold 100 men and five Sparrowhawk biplanes, yet its silvery bulk hovered silently or sailed up to 80 miles an hour. It drew crowds as it darkened the skies around Mountain View until it broke up in a storm two years later. Other blimp squadrons, equipped with carrier pigeons instead of biplanes, succeeded the Macon. Moffett Field has at various times served the navy, army, and the air force. Now home to the world's largest wind tunnel, the NASA Ames Research Center also supports research that blazes the frontiers of supercomputing, robotics, space sciences, astrobiology, and nanotechnology.

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Crista Worthy

Idaho Aviation

9781467107563

$23.99

Since the dawn of aviation, Idahoans have employed aircraft to carry people, groceries, mail, freight, and livestock over inhospitable terrain. Idaho’s airstrips are the stuff of dreams, offering pilots, anglers, hikers, and river-rafters access to deep wilderness less than an hour from the city. Aerial firefighting was born—and is based—in Idaho. Flight instructors in Idaho prepared thousands of pilots to fight in World War II. As the birthplace of United Airlines, with its famed “friendly skies,” Idaho is one of the country’s most aviation-friendly states. Government officials, private landowners, and volunteers have worked together to create and then preserve an infrastructure of big-city, small-town, and backcountry airstrips that are the envy of pilots worldwide.

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Allan C. Lewis

Railroads of the Pike's Peak Region

9780738528823

$24.99

During the gilded age of rail travel in the late 1800s, Colorado Springs became one of the primary portals of westward expansion and a hub for both passenger and freight traffic. Over thousands of miles of tracks traveled merchants, industrialists, tourists, and fortune seekers, all bent on enjoying what Colorado had to offer either on a temporary or permanent basis. Much of the history of the Pike's Peak Region was predicated on the railroads, and the growth that the area enjoyed was dependent on the new residents and the trains that brought them.

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Stephen E. Drew

Nevada's Virginia & Truckee Railroad

9781467131056

$24.99

The Virginia & Truckee is the most famous short line railroad in American history. Brainchild of William Sharon and the Bank of California, the V&T hauled the silver and gold ore, the cordwood, and the mining timbers that made the 1870s Big Bonanza a reality. From the state capital at Carson City, V&T rails stretched 66 miles to Virginia City, Reno, and Minden, Nevada. Serving the transportation needs of the Comstock's nearly 40,000 inhabitants, the V&T remained in operation until 1950. The enormously successful railroad paid its early owners handsome dividends. The V&T's ornate locomotives and cars have starred in hundreds of Hollywood productions and are now preserved in US museums. Since 1976, fourteen miles of the railroad have been restored to operation. The Virginia & Truckee has become an enduring legend.

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Daniel L. Osborne

Alaska's Tanana Valley Railroads

9780738596679

$24.99

In a region desperate for transportation to rich, gold-bearing creeks, the narrow-gauge Tanana Mines Railroad was built over permafrost, bogs, and hills to carry miners and supplies in 1905. Reorganized as the Tanana Valley Railroad, this little line promised the survival of both gold mining and Fairbanks until Fairbanks's economic base broadened. The railroad, built with Klondike Gold Rush earnings, prospered for only a few years and was acquired by the Alaska Railroad. The narrow-gauge survived 25 years, serving as the terminus for the Alaska Railroad and ensuring the development of Interior Alaska.

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Alberto López Pulido

San Diego Lowriders

9781467137805

$21.99

San Diego's unique lowrider culture and community has a long history of low and slow. Cruising the streets from 1950 to 1985, twenty-eight lowrider car clubs made their marks in the San Diego neighborhoods of Logan Heights, Sherman Heights, National City, Old Town, San Ysidro and the adjoining border community of Tijuana, Mexico. Foundational clubs, including the Latin Lowriders, Brown Image and Chicano Brothers, helped transform marginalized youth into lowriders who modified their cars into elegant, stylized lowered vehicles with a strong Chicano influence. Despite being targeted by the police in the 1980s, club members defended their passion and succeeded in building a thriving scene of competitions and shows with a tradition of customization, close community and Chicano pride. Authors Alberto López Pulido and Rigoberto Rigo Reyes follow the birth of lowrider culture to the present day.

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Karen Jernigan

King City

9781467108041

$23.99

The town of King City came into existence in 1886, when the railroad arrived north of San Lorenzo Creek in the Salinas Valley of Central California. Named after Charles H. King, owner of this portion of the San Lorenzo Land Grant, King City has grown into a hub for the magnificent agricultural fields that surround it and support its economy. US Highway 101 and the Salinas River are unique features of the town, and Mesa Del Rey Airport was instrumental in the training of pilots during World War II. Author John Steinbeck’s novel East of Eden is set near King City.

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Kevin Hecteman

Sacramento Southern Railroad

9780738569864

$24.99

The Sacramento Southern Railroad was born into a famous railroad family and a busy railroad town in July 1903. The mighty Southern Pacific, which controlled the new line from the outset, built south from Sacramento along the eastern bank of the Sacramento River into the delta's rich farmland area. At its zenith, the line was about 31 miles long, serving the communities of Freeport, Hood, Locke, Walnut Grove, and Isleton. Trains on what became known as the Walnut Grove Branch hauled pears, sugar beets, asparagus and other products from the agricultural region's packing sheds and canneries. Competition from trucking and damage from flooding took a severe toll on the railroad, and the Southern Pacific largely abandoned it by 1978, but a portion lives on as a labor of love.

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Jim Walker

Pacific Electric Red Cars

9780738546889

$24.99

Of the rail lines created at the turn of the 20th century, in order to build interurban links through Southern California communities around metropolitan Los Angeles, the Pacific Electric grew to be the most prominent of all. The Pacific Electric Railway is synonymous with Henry Edwards Huntington, the capitalist with many decades of railroad experience, who formed the P. E. and expanded it as principal owner for nearly its first decade. Huntington sold his PE holdings to the giant Southern Pacific Railroad in 1910, and the following year the SP absorbed nearly every electric line in the fourcounty area around Los Angeles in the Great Merger into a new Pacific Electric. Founded in 1901 and terminated in 1965, Pacific Electric was known as the World's Great Interurban.

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Jeff Livingston

Oahu's Narrow-Gauge Navy Rail

9781467131971

$24.99

US Navy rail operations on Oahu began in 1908 with construction railroads used to help build the shipyard. Expansion of Pearl Harbor to include the submarine base and the naval magazine on Kuahua Island required a permanent railroad, which was begun in 1911. This construction provided industrial employment to hundreds of local men in the existing agricultural economy, and the influx of additional manpower from the mainland contributed to an increasingly skilled and diverse population. World War II brought about a dramatic increase in Navy railroad operations in support of the war effort. Success in the Pacific theater of operations depended on the Navy's railroads, equipment, and the Oahu Railway & Land Company (OR&L), which connected all the bases. The OR&L abandoned its main line in December 1947. By the mid-1950s, railroad operations at Pearl Harbor also ceased. Rail operations continued at and between Naval Magazine Lualualei and Ammunition Depot West Loch through the Korean Conflict and Vietnam era, ending in 1972.

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Allan C. Lewis

Railroads of the Pike's Peak Region:

9780738531250

$24.99

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.

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Gina Nichols

The Navy at Point Mugu

9780738575322

$24.99

Point Mugu has played a major part in naval history since 1943, when a small group of US Navy Seabees and several newly organized amphibious units headed across the Oxnard Plain to establish an advance base training facility. Toward the end of World War II, the small naval air base began testing newly developed guided missiles, pilotless aircraft, and special weapons to combat kamikaze pilots. This early testing transitioned Point Mugu from a temporary base into a pioneer in the world of science and national defense. On October 1, 1946, the Naval Air Missile Test Center Point Mugu and, later, the Pacific Missile Range were established to create, research, and test weapons systems. Point Mugu continues to support many diverse military missions, including testing weapons systems, operating space satellite systems, and providing radar and communication support to the naval aviation community.

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Ms. Sarah Langsdon Singh

Ogden

9781467107662

$23.99

Since its founding in 1850, Ogden has been home to fur trappers, Mormon pioneers, immigrants, railroad workers, and businessmen. The joining of the rails in 1869 with the completion of the transcontinental railroad forever changed the city. Ogden became known as the Crossroads of the West, and the city continued to thrive with the influx of people and industry. Ogden was known for its surrounding natural beauty and the ability to effectively accomplish anything it undertook. Ogden became home to generations of families including Charles Maccarthy and his family. Maccarthy was a railroader, by trade and a photographer by hobby. He was hardly seen without his camera. During the early 20th century, he captured the lives of Ogdenites, which included family gatherings, parades, and special events, and even stopped people on the street and asked to take their photographs.

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Thornton Waite

The Railroad at Pocatello

9780738576176

$24.99

Pocatello was founded as a station on the narrow-gauge Utah and Northern Railway in 1878, and it has been a railroad town ever since. Passenger and freight trains arrived and departed in all four directions of the compass, 24 hours a day. The Union Pacific also built extensive shops at Pocatello, where railroad equipment was serviced, maintained, and repaired. In addition, refrigerator cars were iced from a large icehouse, and railroad ties were treated with preservative at a tie plant. The advent of the automobile, improved roads, new technologies, and the introduction of the diesel-electric locomotives all combined to change the railroad industry, affecting Pocatello in many ways. Passenger trains were discontinued, the steam-locomotive-servicing facilities were closed, and shop buildings were torn down. However, the railroad in Pocatello remains a vital part of the local scene today, with freight trains continuing to run through the city day and night.

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Don Strack

Bingham Canyon Railroads

9780738584898

$24.99

Railroads and mining in Bingham Canyon have gone hand in hand since the first railroad was constructed in the canyon in late 1873. Bingham Canyon in the early years was a gold and silver mining camp, and the railroads were small operations. Copper mining took hold in the late 1890s, and the mines, mining companies, and railroads that served them expanded rapidly. Bingham Canyon soon became the largest and richest mining district in the western United States and was the source for as much as a third of the copper mined in the nation. A variety of locomotives worked in the canyon, including a small number of Shay locomotives, several large articulated steam locomotives, and the nation's largest roster of electric locomotives. The last Bingham Canyon ore train ran in late 2001. While the railroad tracks have been removed, the mine itself is very much in full production and remains the source for 25 percent of the nation's copper production.

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Stephen E. Drew

Lake Tahoe's Railroads

9781467117371

$24.99

Lake Tahoe is the majestic mountain lake that spans the boundary line of California and Nevada. The lake's clarity and scenic beauty are legendary. In the 1870s, the Nevada Comstock Lode created an insatiable appetite for Lake Tahoe's virgin pine forests. The timbers would shore up underground mining and build communities approaching 40,000 inhabitants. Railroads on three shores delivered the logs lakeside, where they were towed by steam-powered tugs to sawmills, to lumber flumes, and again by rail to their final destinations. As the mines and giant lake pines subsided, railroads pushed farther north after 1898 into new timber stands in the Lake Tahoe and Truckee River basins. Other rail lines were sold, barged across the lake, and repurposed for the burgeoning new industry of tourism. For the next 40 years, railroads marketed Lake Tahoe as their unique scenic destination.

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Alan Renga

Pacific Southwest Airlines

9780738581125

$24.99

With its low fares and friendly service, Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) was one of the most successful regional airlines in American history. Its distinctive orange, red, and white planes, complete with a beaming smile were immediately recognizable to those living on the West Coast. The airline was also known for employing beautiful and sociable flight attendants. Kenny Friedkin, the founder of PSA, started in 1949 with one leased DC-3 and expanded his fleet to serve millions of passengers each year. Although PSA is no longer in operation, its successful business model of low-priced, efficient service was copied by other airlines and today is considered the norm. In addition, former PSA employees still gather annually to relive the camaraderie they experienced as being a part of one of the most unique airlines of all time.

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Katrina Pescador

San Diego International Airport, Lindbergh Field

9780738589084

$24.99

Now formally known as San Diego International Airport, Lindbergh Field was named in honor of Charles Lindbergh and has been a center of aeronautic activity since its dedication in 1928. Many famous personalities and events have been associated with the airstrip, which quickly grew to include a Coast Guard Air Station, three airlines, two flying schools, and Ryan Aeronautical. In 1935, Consolidated Aircraft relocated to Lindbergh Field, transforming it into an aviation manufacturing center. Situated just three miles north of downtown San Diego, Lindbergh Field serves more than 50,000 travelers a day, making San Diego International Airport the busiest single-runway commercial airport today in the United States.

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Grant Ute

Alameda by Rail

9780738547060

$24.99

Across the great bay from San Francisco, the city of Alameda evolved into an island hometown of fine Victorian and Craftsman architecture and a port containing a naval air station, shipbuilding center, and the winter home of the long-gone Alaska Packers fleet of tall ships. But Alameda also was a busy railroad town. In 1864, a passenger railroad with a ferry connection created a commute to San Francisco. In 1869, the city became the first Bay Area terminus of the Transcontinental Railroad. Alameda became an island because a railroad allowed construction crews to dig a tidal canal, separating it from Oakland in 1902. Later generations rode steam, then electric, trains to a grand ferry pier where ornate watercraft guided them the 20 minutes to San Francisco. An auto tube, and later the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge, hastened the demise of ferry, then rail, operations before World War II.

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Tiane Marie

Boulder City

9781467107501

$23.99

During the midst of the Great Depression, Boulder City came to life due to the Boulder Dam project, which offered people a path of hope. This wonderful town’s heritage does not end at its buildings or sites, for they are just the icing to a richer culture. Standing in present time with images of their past will allow those in the community or newcomers a fresh view on the preservation efforts and care that Boulder City represents.

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Allan C. Lewis

Rails around Denver

9780738548029

$24.99

At the height of America's post–Civil War expansion, Colorado Territory was a land of great hope and opportunity. Forged at the confluence of commerce and geography, Colorado became a state in 1876, and Denver, the Queen City of the Plains. To address the growing need for efficient transportation throughout the state, early railroads such as the Kansas Pacific and the Denver and Rio Grande were built in
the 1870s. Serving all of these routes was the Denver Union Depot with its commodious dual-gauged tracks. These steel roads would become the region's economic lifeblood, hauling freight and passengers to the booming mountain mining towns, returning with ores for processing, and serving as the direct link for passengers and freight between the Rocky Mountains and the industrialized East.

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Emiliano Echeverria

San Francisco's Powell Street Cable Cars

9780738530475

$24.99

San Francisco's cable cars are an internationally recognized symbol of the city, but they also have a long and fractious history. There are actually three cable lines in operation today: the California Street line and the two Powell Street lines— the Powell-Mason and Powell-Hyde. The Powell Street lines have been the subject of much controversy through the years, due to a complex lineage of private and public ownership. Cable cars on Powell Street began in 1888, operating under the Ferries and Cliff House Railway Company and utilizing the same basic design pioneered by Andrew Hallidie in 1873. Among the story's twists and turns are the line's actual routes following the 1906 earthquake, which caused heavy damage and forced major repairs. Post-quake, United Railroads was able to replace many of the cable car lines with streetcars, including a part of the Powell Street system. San Francisco at one time had eight separate cable car operators. Gradually most were replaced by streetcars, buses, and trolley buses, given the complexities and expense of cable systems. The Powell lines were taken over by the city in 1944, but the mayor tried to abandon them in 1947. The public disapproved of this move, and since then the Powell Street line has only grown in stature and its importance to San Francisco.

Cover image for San Francisco's Powell Street Cable Cars, isbn: 9780738530475

Jeff Moore

Rails Around McCloud

9780738555645

$24.99

California's northeastern corner is dominated by the 14,162-foot-tall presence of Mount Shasta. On the southeastern flank of the great mountain lies the picturesque town of McCloud. The McCloud River Railroad established its operational headquarters in the town in 1897. The next seven decades saw the railroad and the affiliated McCloud River Lumber Company carve hundreds of miles of railroad into the pine forests and lava beds east of McCloud, eventually reaching as far as Lookout to the east and the Burney Basin to the south. The McCloud River Railroad eked out a living hauling lumber, diatomaceous earth, and occasional tourists until 1992, when the new McCloud Railway Company purchased the property. In 1996, the new owners launched the Shasta Sunset Dinner Train to supplement the declining freight business. Economic conditions forced the railroad to abandon the entire railway east of McCloud in 2006, but the dinner train has kept rolling, keeping the rails west of McCloud shiny.

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Pat G. Macha

Historic Aircraft Wrecks of San Bernardino County

9781626190122

$21.99

Weather, darkness and twists of fate have contributed to more than three hundred airplane crashes in San Bernardino County, California. Many of these accidents occurred in the vast Mojave Desert, others on the cloud-shrouded, snow-capped mountains of the largest county in the lower forty-eight states. Searches often were labored yet fruitless, even for the privileged: Frank Sinatra's mother perished here in a downed plane. The quest for an aircraft containing $5,000 in cash has become the stuff of legend. Tales of survival in uninhabited, rugged landscapes have been especially harrowing. Join renowned aircraft-crash search specialist G. Pat Macha for dozens of sorrowful, triumphant, touching and surprising true stories of those who lived through the ordeals of plane crashes--and others who didn't.

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Rob Stapleton

Alaska's Bush Pilots

9781467131834

$24.99

A thrilling ride alongside the daredevil aviators who first braved the unknown of Alaska's wilderness.

Bush pilots are known as rough, tough, resourceful people who fly their aircraft into tight spots in the worst of weather. Alaska's bush pilots are all of that and more. Acting as pioneers in a land with 43,000 miles of coastline and North America's largest mountains, Alaska's bush pilots were and are visionaries of a lifestyle of freedom. Flying came late to Alaska but caught on quickly. The first flight was made over a three-day exhibition at Fairbanks, July 3–5, 1913. James Martin first flew that aircraft, owned by him and his wife, Lilly, and investors Arthur Williams and R.S. McDonald. Ever since, Alaskan bush pilots have found that they were calculators of their own fate, flying in fragile aircraft over vast stretches of tundra or through towering mountain passes. This book examines the pioneer aviators and the aircraft types such as the Stearman, Stinson, and Lockheed, many of which were tested and crashed in the far north regions of Alaska.

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Paul C. Trimble

Ferries of San Francisco Bay

9780738547312

$24.99

Decades before San Francisco Bay was crisscrossed by bridges, an extensive network of ferries plied these green waters, moving passengers, vehicles, and freight between San Francisco, Alameda, Marin, Solano, Sonoma, and Contra Costa Counties. Very few of the ferries survive today, but at one time, elegant and sturdy vessels like the Santa Clara, Sacramento, Encinal, Eureka, Oakland, and Tamalpais ruled the waves and supported the critical commerce of this region. From the early days of single-enders, double-enders, stern-wheelers, and side-wheelers burning coal and crude oil, to more modern designs of diesel-powered craft, these vessels have long been an important link in Bay Area transport, along with their railway connections. Equipped with up to four decks, the ferries' cargoes included commuters, livestock, automobiles, mail, convicts, express packages, and even entire railroad trains.

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Walter E. Rice

Rails of California's Central Coast

9780738555911

$24.99

Diversity is the prime characteristic of the California Central Coast's many rail operations. Readers will be attracted by the varying scope of Central Coast—Santa Cruz, Monterey, and San Luis Obispo Counties—rail systems. They range from local horsecar services and the narrow-gauge electrified plant railroad that served the Santa Cruz Cement Company at Davenport to the Southern Pacific Railroad's Coast Line and its engineering marvel Cuesta Grade, highlighted by the world-famous horseshoe curve. Local streetcar systems and long-ceased regional railroads are part of the area's rail legacy. Rare historic images blended with contemporary photography chronicle the region's railways from times past to the present.

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Paul C. Trimble

Railways of San Francisco

9780738528878

$24.99

It may be hard to believe now, but San Francisco was once dominated by railways. Before private cars crowded this hemmed-in city, rail was the only way to get around the challenging terrain, and the rail industry rose to the task with many innovative systems. Some of these were herculean, with massive bores through rocky hills, or elaborate cable and counterweight systems to handle steep inclines. Others were simpler, horse-drawn affairs that took passengers from the downtown and waterfront areas to outlying districts. The distinct flavor of San Francisco's neighborhoods owes much to the early rails, as these cars enabled residents to form their own enclaves and still interact with the commercial heart of the city. Some rail systems presaged today's commuter lifestyle-one even ran all the way down Mission Street to far-off San Mateo. Only a few of the many rail systems that once served this city remain.

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Jim Dawson

Los Angeles's Angels Flight

9780738558127

$24.99

From 1901 to 1969, Angels Flight was America's most famous incline railway, familiar from its many appearances on postcards and in pulp fiction and film noir. It inspired the titles of five novels, including a 1999 best seller, and three films. Angels Flight's two colorful trolleys glided up and down the side of Bunker Hill in the heart of Los Angeles, carrying 100 million passengers between a downtown business district and a Victorian aerie that gradually deteriorated into a gritty slum. When the city turned Bunker Hill into an acropolis of skyscrapers, Angels Flight was packed up like a boy's electric train set and stored away for nearly 30 years. After a restoration in the mid-1990s that led to a fatal accident, Angels Flight has reopened and is now ready to claim its next chapters in Los Angeles history.

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William T. Larkins

San Francisco Bay Area Aviation

9780738547237

$24.99

From hot-air balloons to jets, no other location has a more diverse aviation history than the San Francisco Bay Area. Aside from private and commercial airline operations, the area has housed the NACA/NASA Research Center, the prestigious Boeing School of Aeronautics, and the dirigible USS Macon. It is currently the center for antique aircraft in Northern California and has been the site of numerous flight records, including the Dole Race and Amelia Earhart's circumnavigation attempts. San Francisco was also home to the pioneer Pan American Airways flying boat, which opened the Pacific Ocean to air travel.

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Kenneth E. Pauley

1910 Los Angeles International Air Meet, The

9780738571904

$24.99

America's first international air meet was held January 10-20, 1910, in Los Angeles on a mesa called Dominguez Hill, situated 13.5 miles south of the plaza at the pueblo of Los Angeles. Enthusiasm for aviation grew after the first international air meet in 1909 in Rheims, France, where American aviator Glenn H. Curtiss won three prestigious speed prizes and 36,000 francs. An even more spectacular air meet, which would also invigorate the local economy, was promoted for Los Angeles. Businessman Dick Ferris, the Los Angeles Merchants and Manufacturers Association, and the Los Angeles Examiner collaborated to make it possible. Most Americans had never seen the newfangled machines that soared in the skies. Initially skeptical, they soon were awed. So began America's love affair with aviation. The air meet influenced aviation in Southern California and transportation worldwide into the 21st century.

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Katrina Pescador

San Diego's North Island

9780738547954

$24.99

San Diego's North Island is one of the most significant venues of aviation in the world. Starting in 1911, it was the home to one of the nation's first aviation schools, founded by Glenn Curtiss, who pioneered seaplane flight. He trained the nucleus of America's future air forces there, including Lt. Theodore Ellyson, the first naval aviator. When the United States entered World War I, the government took over the island with plans to build a training center for the nation's armed forces. The new army base was named Rockwell Field, and the navy portion was named Naval Air Station San Diego. By 1937, the army had moved out, and the navy became the sole tenant. Today NAS North Island is part of the largest aerospace-industrial complex in the navy and is headquarters for the Naval Air Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet.

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Joseph Matthew Govednik

Southwest Washington Logging Railroads

9781467162777

$24.99

Admirers of the power of trains and process of logging will revel in the images included in Southwest Washington Railroads, which features the progress of railways in the northwest and the developments made by this prolific era.

Southwest Washington was famous for its old-growth trees and rich timber resources during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The logging railroad marks the era between logs being dragged out with horses or oxen and the introduction of truck and road transport. These railroads provided logging companies with greater opportunity to reach inland areas and access larger timber resources. Logging companies such as Ostrander, B.F. Brock, Doty Lumber and Shingle, and Polson Logging Company required railroads to transport harvested timber to mills or to rivers, where logs would float to mills downstream. Railroads carried the labor, equipment, and camp materials to work locations. Though most of these logging businesses are gone, many roads and place names are attributed to these companies. Over time, the farmed tree and logging truck took over. Today, stacks of these smaller farmed trees are seen near the Western Washington ports of Longview and Kalama, replacing the giant trees of the past. Images of America: Logging Railroads of Southwest Washington is filled with images of the timber harvesting past and the golden age of railroad logging.

The photographs in this book are courtesy of resources at county museums and archives that comprise Southwest Washington. Joseph Matthew Govednik is the museum director of the Cowlitz County Historical Museum in Kelso, Washington.

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Walter Rice

San Francisco's California Street Cable Cars

9780738559636

$24.99

San Francisco's internationally recognized cable cars are the symbol of the individual character of a great city. The California Street cable car line is one of only three remaining lines in the city. The California Street Railway, or Cal Cable, was developed and opened by Leland Stanford, one of the builders of the transcontinental railroad and later founder of Stanford University. Indeed, the iconic line, intimately connected with some of the West's pioneer businessmen, was sold, expanded, and reached its peak mileage just after 1890, only to be destroyed in the great earthquake and fire of 1906. As resilient as the city it served, Cal Cable was rebuilt and lasted as an independent business longer than any other private San Francisco transit operation. Cut down to its present form in 1954, that remnant and its double-ended cars survive as an integral part of today's cable car system.

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William Burg

Sacramento's Streetcars

9780738531472

$24.99

Until 1947, Sacramento's streetcars linked a bustling downtown district with residential neighborhoods, workplaces, and a growing series of suburbs. Starting with horse-drawn cars on Front Street, the streetcar system owned by the Pacific Gas and Electric Company expanded to include Midtown, Curtis Park, Land Park, Oak Park, and East Sacramento. But PG&E was not alone; two other companies ran streetcar routes downtown, along with suburban lines to West Sacramento, North Sacramento, Rio Linda, Elverta, Colonial Heights, and Colonial Acres. Sacramentans rode the cars to work, to school, to the state fair, and just about anywhere they wanted to go until the streetcars were replaced by buses owned by National City Lines.

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Rob Richardson

Railroads and Depots of Orange County

9780738580111

$24.99

Railroads have been a part of Orange County for over 130 years. The great names of American railroading--Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe; Southern Pacific; and Union Pacific--were firmly planted here by the early 1920s and linked with the largest interurban rail system in the United States, the famed Pacific Electric Railway. Thousands of people passed through Orange County's depots during the 1940s as they came to serve at the many military bases located here during World War II. The names have since changed, and yet the county's rail scene remains as dynamic as ever, with Amtrak, Metrolink, and amusement park railroads joining the Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Union Pacific. Railroad depots, new and old, are located across Orange County and continue on both as vital parts of history and the future of transportation for America's fifth most populated county.

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Edward C. Langlo

Motorcycling in Santa Barbara County

9781467117234

$24.99

Starting in the early 1900s, Santa Barbara County became home to over a dozen motorcycle racecourses. Not one of those battlegrounds survives today. Pershing Park once had a stadium, Elings Park on Las Positas Road was Veronica Springs Hill Climb Course, and before that, La Conchita was home to hill climbing and TT events. Motorcycling in Santa Barbara County will take the readers back in time to the glory days of two wheels on city streets and engage them in competition at its racetracks. Preserved in these pages are the firsthand stories of the men that competed on these courses as far back as 1924.

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Yancy D. Mailes

Gowen Field

9780738548234

$24.99

Gowen Field, located south of Boise's air terminal, is home to Idaho's adjutant general, the state's Army and Air National Guard, and to U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Marine Corps reserve units in the Boise area. Named in honor of Lt. Paul R. Gowen, a Caldwell native who died in an aircraft crash in 1938, Gowen Field was opened in the spring of 1941. Throughout World War II, the Army Air Forces used the field to train B-17 and B-24 aircrews for duty in both the European and Pacific theaters of war. Following World War II, the field was offered to the state of Idaho for use by the Air National Guard. Since that time, the Idaho Air Guard has operated numerous aircraft, including, but not limited to, the F-51, F-86, F-102, RF-4C, and the F-4G. Today the Idaho Air Guard operates the A-10 and C-130.

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Jeannine L. Pedersen

Catalina by Air

9780738559360

$24.99

For years, reaching the paradise destination of Santa Catalina Island, located miles out in the Pacific Ocean, was possible primarily by steamship. But as early as 1912, the first amphibious airplane landed in Avalon Bay, and the first air-passenger service was introduced in 1919. Seaplane service thrived on Catalina, and aircraft engine roars became a distinctive memory for many residents, along with the thrill of crossing the channel by plane and landing on the water. The "Airport in the Sky" opened in 1946, with United Airlines operating DC-3s, followed by other airlines operating land-based planes. Today helicopters carry passengers across the San Pedro Channel in less than 15 minutes. This unique photographic history covers public air transportation to and from Southern California's iconic island, featuring memories and stories from residents, visitors, and airline employees.

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Butch Noble

Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

9780738569253

$24.99

After more than 50 years, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca near Monterey is regarded as one of the most famous racetracks in the world. Mazda Raceway offers competitors challenges unlike any other with its mix of corners, which includes the Corkscrew, where drivers encounter the largest elevation change in the shortest distance of any track worldwide. The raceway also offers spectators sweeping open vistas of the track, and all within view of the Pacific Ocean.

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Jolie Anderson Gallagher

Montezuma Hills, The

9781467163507

$24.99

Sheltered between marsh and flatlands, the Montezuma Hills of Solano County are home to generations of farmers, fishermen, and folks seeking respite from cities. The community began in 1846 with a lone adobe house, built on a hillside for a future Mormon colony. The Mormons never arrived; however, many others did. Homesteaders, tradesmen, and innovators found a river of bountiful salmon, fields lush with wild oats, and opportunities to build new lives. Thriving villages sprouted along the sloughs—Collinsville, Birds Landing, and Denverton. Although these towns are nearly forgotten, the pioneers’ legacy has left an enduring imprint on the land. This book honors the community, the people who settled the area, and their descendants, whose generous contribution of time, memories, and photographs has made this book possible.

Jolie Anderson Gallagher, a fourth-generation descendant of Danish immigrants, was born and raised in the Montezuma Hills. After earning a degree in English/creative writing at the University of California, Davis, she worked as a reporter for the Dixon Tribune before launching a 35-year career in technical writing. Although now retired in the Colorado mountains, Gallagher will forever be that farm girl who ran barefoot through fields of wheat.

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Phil Frank

Houseboats of Sausalito

9780738555522

$24.99

The unique and colorful houseboat community has long been the centerpiece of life in Sausalito, and while these floating homes are well known, relatively few people know just how far back their history goes. Not a recent phenomenon, as so many assume, the houseboat community has a history stretching back to the 1880s and earlier. While houseboats once existed in nearly a dozen ports in and around San Francisco Bay--and indeed throughout the West Coast--the focus of this buoyant lifestyle is now the waters of Marin County, along the shoreline of Richardson's Bay. Over the years, a variety of forces--including the 1906 earthquake and fire, the building of bridges and the resulting decline of the ferryboat fleet, World War II, and legal pressures on waterfront property owners--helped to shape life on the water, Sausalito's houseboat community, and this fascinating tale.

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Jim Walker

Los Angeles Railway Yellow Cars

9780738547916

$24.99

Local rail-borne transit in Los Angeles began with horsecars in 1874, evolving with cable-powered and later electric-powered passenger vehicles. Yellow Cars describes the principal local transit system in and around Los Angeles in the first half of the 20th century. The canary-colored local streetcars formed the inner-neighborhood lines between a vast rail network of main lines known as the interurban system, primarily the Pacific Electric Railway Red Cars, which spiderwebbed throughout Los Angeles County and into Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties. Rail tycoon Henry Edwards Huntington consolidated several independent lines into this great interurban empire. He sold it in 1910 to the Southern Pacific Railroad, keeping the Los Angeles Railway Yellow Cars. These evocative photographs illustrate travel during decades of change, progress, economic setbacks, war, and postwar retrenchment, when streetcar service was taken over by bus lines.

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Katrina Pescador

Aviation in San Diego

9780738547596

$24.99

For nearly a century, San Diego has been a hub of aviation development, air power, and flying adventure. The city's ideal weather and protected bay allowed San Diego to have an aviation history unrivaled by any local community. From the pioneering days of Glenn Curtiss and naval aviation at North Island to the present cutting-edge aerospace technology, Aviation in San Diego captures it all. With many never-before-published photographs, Aviation in San Diego documents the people and events that made San Diego's aviation heritage unique. From Ryan to Consolidated, Curtiss to Lindbergh, and everything in between, Aviation in San Diego is the preeminent photographic record of flight in America's Finest City.

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Starley Talbott

Wyoming's Friendly Skies

9781467147637

$21.99

Boeing Air Transport, a precursor of United Air Lines, began carrying passengers in 1927 on small, uncomfortable airplanes with few amenities. Steve Stimpson, manager of Boeing’s San Francisco office, considered hiring stewards to alleviate passengers’ concerns. Ellen Church convinced him that employing women, especially nurses, as stewardesses would be a visionary solution. Eight brave young women entered Boeing’s brief training program in Cheyenne in May 1930, making them the first airline stewardesses in the world. In 1947, United Air Lines established its Stewardess Training Center in Cheyenne, operating for nearly two decades. Authors Starley Talbott and Michael Kassel celebrate the world’s first stewardesses, as well as the thousands who followed in their footsteps.

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Jeffrey Hartman

Icebreaking Alaska

9781467131087

$24.99

The Arctic is a place of great challenges and great rewards. A century ago, it was whale oil; today, it is motor oil. The increasing open water in the warmer months is attracting cruise ships to tour the Arctic. Significant offshore oil and natural gas deposits are of great interest to an oil-dependent economy. But the history of the Arctic is full of surprises for the unwary and the unprepared, despite native peoples having managed to live there for thousands of years. Oil spills or maritime emergencies can—and do—arise a long way off from assistance. Legendary Arctic storms are, if anything, becoming more intense and dangerous. All this is in an area inaccessible by roads or by sea except for icebreakers the majority of the year. It is of extreme interest to the US Coast Guard, charged with protecting seafarers, enforcing laws, and facilitating commerce.

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Chris Hunter

Ocean Shore Railroad

9780738529387

$24.99

With one of the world's most scenic backdrops as a brilliant seascape for passengers, the Ocean Shore Railroad skirted northern California's coastline to service communities south of San Francisco for the first two decades of the 20th century. As impressive as it was idealistic, the line was held prisoner by natural forces that eventually took too much of a toll to keep its striking route churning. Today's Highway 1 traces the passage once paved with tracks, and points to the few remnants of one of California's most well-known excursion lines.

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Matthew Gerald Vurek

California’s Capitol Corridor

9781467124171

$24.99

The "Capitol Corridor" is the name of the Amtrak passenger train route between California's capital, Sacramento, and San Jose, the state's first capital upon admission to the Union in 1850. The scenery between these two areas highlights vastly different land uses; examples include an industrialized shoreline covered with a forest of petroleum refineries, urban areas transitioning from industrial to residential use, and a wildlife refuge disturbed only by the passage of trains. The Capitol Corridor is now an integral part of the transportation scene in Northern California. Since 1991, its equipment and infrastructure have evolved to keep pace with technology as well as the area's dynamic economic and social environment.

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Anne Evers Hitz

San Francisco's Ferry Building

9781467126267

$24.99

For many years, visitors traveling to San Francisco came via ferry, and the Ferry Building, one of San Francisco's most famous landmarks, stood ready to welcome them. In the 1920s, the Ferry Building was the world's second-busiest transit terminal (after Charing Cross, London), with more than 50,000 people a day passing through the elegant structure, designed by architect A. Page Brown and opened in 1898. When the 1906 earthquake struck and the ensuing fire was destroying the city, the venerable waterfront icon stood above the ruins, giving residents hope that the city would recover and rise from the ashes. By 1939, with the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge both open, ferry traffic fell off. By the late 1950s, ferry service ended altogether, and the building's beautiful facade was blocked by the double-decker Embarcadero Freeway. With the freeway's demise after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, the Ferry Building was restored and reopened in 2003. It is once again a beacon of civic pride, a landmark listed in the National Register of Historic Places, and a public space that anchors the San Francisco waterfront.

Cover image for San Francisco's Ferry Building, isbn: 9781467126267

Katherine L. Weinstein

Draper

9781467109550

$23.99

Businessman George Whetman, who managed automobile dealerships in Draper, Utah, between 1931 and 1960, predicted that one day the town would become “the Beverly Hills of the state.” His prediction was remarkably accurate. Draper has been ranked as one of the most livable cities in the United States with its neighborhoods of luxury homes, a thriving high-tech business sector, cultural offerings, acclaimed schools, and unique opportunities for outdoor recreation. In Whetman’s time, however, Draper was a quiet agricultural community where one third of the working population raised chickens or worked for the local egg and feed industry. Dairy farms and fields of sugar beets and many other crops stretched out as far as the eye could see. When population growth and economic change contributed to the decline of Draper’s family-owned farms in the late 20th century, the city survived and flourished thanks to the tenacious spirit of the community and the value they placed on education.

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Bradford T. Sekigawa

Barbers Point NAS

9781467133296

$24.99

Rising from the ashes of the Pearl Harbor attack, Barbers Point Naval Air Station would become a major staging point for US Navy aircraft for the war in the Pacific, culminating with the surrender of the Empire of Japan. With the end of World War II in the Pacific and throughout the Cold War, Barbers Point would be home base for the US Navy's fleet of maritime patrol aircraft that hunted the growing threat of Soviet submarines prowling the vast Pacific. From 1942 until its closing in 1999, Barbers Point was the US Navy's only naval air station in the Pacific.