Established by real estate developers Tracy E. Shoults and S. H. Woodruff in 1923, Hollywoodland was one of the first hillside developments built in Hollywood. Touting its class and sophistication, the neighborhood promoted a European influence, featuring such unique elements as stone retaining walls and stairways, along with elegant Spanish, Mediterranean, French Normandy, and English Tudor styled homes thoughtfully placed onto the hillsides. The community contains one of the world's most recognizable landmarks, the Hollywood sign, originally constructed as a giant billboard for the development and reading "Hollywoodland." The book illustrates the development of the upper section of Beachwood Canyon known as Hollywoodland with historic photographs from Hollywood Heritage's S. H. Woodruff Collection as well as from other archives, institutions, and individuals.
Cerro Gordo
9780738595207
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High in the Inyo Mountains, between Owens Valley and Death Valley National Park, lies the ghost town of Cerro Gordo. Discovered in 1865, this silver town boomed to a population of 3,000 people in the hands of savvy entrepreneurs during the 1870s. As the silver played out and the town faded, a few hung on to the dream. By the early 1900s, Louis D. Gordon wandered up the Yellow Grade Road where freight wagons once traversed with silver and supplies and took a closer look at the zinc ore that had been tossed aside by early miners. The Fat Hill lived again, primarily as a small company town. By the last quarter of the 20th century, Jody Stewart and Mike Patterson found themselves owners of the rough and tumble camp that helped Los Angeles turn into a thriving metropolis because of silver and commercial trade. Cerro Gordo found new life, second to Bodie, as California's best-preserved ghost town.
Ghost Towns of Death Valley
9781467132275
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Although the Death Valley area is sparsely populated, it once was home to a good many towns, some of which not only have disappeared from the desert but also from history. Even though the name "Death Valley" itself evokes dark and foreboding images devoid of life, there was a surprising number of towns that did exist in or near the 3.4 million acres that comprise Death Valley National Park. Many had the amenities of larger cities, and some thrived before being deserted and melting back into the desert. The visual record of many of these towns and their occupants is featured in this book.
Bodie
9780738559865
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Nestled amongst the sage-covered, windswept hills of California's Eastern Sierra is the site of one of the most notorious mining towns of the Old West. In 1859, gold was discovered in the treeless hills northeast of Mono Lake. By 1879, Bodie was a metropolis of nearly 10,000 souls and was briefly the third-largest city in California. Excitement was short-lived, however, and word soon spread that the mines had reached peak production. An exodus began, but contrary to popular belief, Bodie was never totally abandoned. People continued living in this curious and beautiful place throughout the 1950s, and in 1962, the California State Parks system purchased the town site. Now stabilized against the elements, Bodie is today known as the largest unrestored ghost town in the West.
San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury
9780738559940
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At the turn of the 20th century, the Haight-Ashbury first gained prominence as the gateway to Golden Gate Park; six decades later, it would anchor the worldwide cultural revolution that blossomed in the 1960s. Though synonymous with peace, love, and living outside the mainstream, its history goes back long before the Summer of Love. Starting as a dairy farm in San Francisco's Outlands, the area saw a building boom of Queen Anne country homes for well-heeled San Franciscans and served as a refuge for victims of the 1906 earthquake and fire. Through world wars, industrial and cultural revolutions, the dot-com boom, and beyond, the Haight-Ashbury has one of the most fascinating histories of any place, anywhere. Here is the story of a vibrant neighborhood that attracts throngs of visitors, while maintaining a core community of families, young people, and long-timers.
San Francisco Landmarks
9780738595801
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San Francisco is one of the most recognized and beloved cities in the United States, brilliantly illustrated through a visual history of 493 designated local, state, and national landmarks. San Francisco's attributes speak to us through stunning topography, the arts, and a unique array of architectural styles. The city inherited the imprint left by the Spanish with Mission Dolores, by the Gold Rush with Jackson Square, and by 20th-century entrepreneurs with the Bank of Italy. The period from the 1920s to 1950s brought a growing cosmopolitan metropolis with such landmarks as the Mark Hopkins Hotel and the Golden Gate Bridge. Residents and visitors want to know why there is a monument in the neighborhood park and why the delightful Victorians next door have a historic plaque by their front steps. Each landmark embodies the characteristics of the surrounding community and the history of the "City by the Bay."
Huntington Beach, California
9780738518787
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Incorporated in 1909, Huntington Beach remained a sleepy seaside town until the city's legendary oil boom in the 1920s. Wells sprang up overnight, and in less than a month, the city's population more than doubled. As the area developed culturally through the decades, the once tiny farming community increased its size with 25 miles of annexations to become one of Southern California's major tourist destinations. Pictured here in nearly 200 vintage photographs is the evolution of this small seaside village into a classic, Southern California beach city, known as Surf City to nearly a million tourists a year. Showcased here are images acquired from city records, including shots of the famous Huntington Beach Pier as it evolved over the century, rare amateur photos of one of the largest gushers in city history, vintage beach scenes, rarely seen historic aerial views, images of the turn of the century "Tent City," the infamous flood of 1938, and nostalgic shots of the Saltwater Plunge.
Los Angeles, California
9780738508122
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Los Angeles was founded in 1781 as one of the two original Spanish pueblos in California. At the time of statehood in 1851, Los Angeles began to reconsider its "cow town" condition, and gradually transformed an American city into the magnificent metropolis we know today. Drawn from the collections of the University of Southern California, the Los Angeles Public Library, and the Los Angeles City Archives, Jeffrey Samudio and Portia Lee record the history of a community that established itself culturally as it grew exponentially. By 1945, the small town that had begun with 28 square miles in the late 19th century had grown to 450 square miles through almost 100 annexations. Businessmen constructed a downtown streetscape whose architecture elicited envy in other cities, hotels catered to visitors with such enthusiasm that guests eventually returned with ambitious schemes of their own, and the construction of an elaborate freeway system suddenly made Los Angeles a drive-in city.
The Twenty Mule Team of Death Valley
9780738595092
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The image of 20 mules hauling a train of wagons was once as popular as the golden arches are today. Everyone knew what it meant. It was the trademark of Pacific Coast Borax's most famous product, a laundry additive called Twenty Mule Team Borax. The company's advertising was dependent on one important fact: the connection between the Twenty Mule Team and America's most notorious desert, Death Valley. From 1883 to 1888, teams of mules and wagons hauled borax out of the famed valley on the California-Nevada border. During those years, the teams were not famous; they were just a common means of transportation. After all, it was not the first time 20 mules hauled borax and it was not the longest or the most treacherous path. So what happened? How did this common form of transportation (the big-rig truck of its day) become transformed into an American icon? That is the story of this book.
San Francisco's North Beach and Telegraph Hill
9780738581583
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North Beach and Telegraph Hill are among San Francisco's most charming and historic districts. In the early years, Mexican and Spanish settlements dotted the beach and the hill, but the area was heavily developed during California's Gold Rush as gold seekers flooded the city. Later, European immigrants added many layers of unique character. North Beach was home to A. P. Giannini, founder of the Bank of Italy (later the Bank of America), and in the 1950s, the Beat Generation evolved from the creative character of this artistic neighborhood. Charming cottages and architectural gems, such as famed landmark Coit Tower, decorate the slopes down to the bay, delighting residents and tourists alike. Many cafés and restaurants offer delicious foods, while the breathtaking views provide food for the soul.
Monterey Peninsula
9780738520803
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From the building of Hotel Del Monte in 1880 to the completion of the Pacific Coast Highway in 1937, connecting the peninsula to the redwood forests of Big Sur and San Simeon beyond, the history of the Monterey Peninsula is the story of the development of a collection of coastal communities-each with its own unique character. Captured here in over 200 vintage images is the heritage of these seaside communities and their role in the peninsula's history. The Monterey Peninsula is home to some of the most famous (and most photographed) shoreline in the world. Pictured in this book is the peninsula's golden era, explored through images that document the growth of Carmel, Pacific Grove, Monterey, Pebble Beach, Point Lobos, and Big Sur. Here you will find rare photographs of Cannery Row, the mission at Carmel, the bathhouse at Lover's Point, the bridges of the Pacific Coast Highway, the cottages of Carmel, the adobes of Monterey, and the cypress trees of Pebble Beach. Included in these pages are images from the author's collection as well as from the Monterey Public Library and Carmel's Harrison Memorial Library. Many of these have never been published.
Sacramento's Boulevard Park
9780738529554
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Perhaps more than any other Central Valley community, Sacramento is changing so rapidly as to become almost unrecognizable. New housing projects and ongoing redevelopment efforts have led to a decline in the original, elegant homes in this city. Thankfully, this is not the case in Boulevard Park! Preservationists and architectural historians have prevailed in this neighborhood to keep the Colonial Revival and Craftsman homes intact for the most part, even as the city around them grows as never before. Boulevard Park sits on the site of the old Union Park racetrack, where Edweard Muybridge's early experiments in motion picture technology (photographing Occidental, Leland Stanford's horse) were pioneered in the 1870s; the street signs here have a horse-and-carriage motif to honor those equine origins.
Gold Rush Towns of Nevada County
9780738546926
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Nevada County is webbed with some of the richest veins of goldbearing quartz in the world. First discovered in 1849 as placer gold washed into creek beds, hydraulic miners later used massive jets of water to melt mountains and free the precious metal. Rich lodegold districts such as Grass Valley and Nevada City were the most productive in California, and innovations such as hydraulic mining began here and spread throughout the nation. Whimsical names like You Bet, Red Dog, Rough and Ready, French Corral, and Blue Tent hint at the colorful beginnings of dozens of camps that grew from wild and chaotic tent towns to bustling young communities, complete with schools, churches, and businesses. Boomtowns North San Juan, North Bloomfield, and Columbia propelled Nevada County to the head of the state's economy by 1900 and hundreds of miles of gold-bearing quartz veins continued to be tapped in underground tunnels for another 50 years or more.
The California Delta
9780738547879
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Welcome to the delta--California style! Over 1,000 miles of waterways lure sportsmen, boaters, and outdoor enthusiasts to the largest estuary in the western United States, surpassed nationally only by the Mississippi River Delta. For generations, the promise of lazy summer days has beckoned travelers to cruise the mighty Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. Along with vacationers, however, agricultural users and commercial vessels from around the globe share in the California Delta's bounty. Over 23 million Californians rely on the delta watershed for drinking water, and diversions sustain the largest agricultural industry in the nation. The small towns dotting the sloughs from Collinsville to Stockton to Walnut Grove tell of a simpler time, while today's delta faces such challenges as wildlife-habitat restoration, water rights, housing development, and politics. Complicating these issues, aging levees throughout the low-lying region threaten a disaster of national proportions--and with that prospect, the very future of the California Delta.
Bishop
9780738581835
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Located in the stark landscape of Eastern California's Owens Valley, Bishop is situated between two of the highest mountain ranges of the contiguous United States. Native Americans had been in the region since antiquity, and white settlers began to filter in after many battles with the Paiutes and Shoshones. Bishop was named after Sam Bishop, who drove cattle into the area and settled along Bishop Creek. Many more farmers and ranchers followed. To the south, Los Angeles was growing too, tapping the Owens River for a gravity-fed aqueduct for its residents; thus began the Los Angeles-Owens Valley Water Conflict.
Coronado
9780738581309
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During the 1880s, a great land boom was sweeping California. Two visionary entrepreneurs, Elisha Babcock and H. L. Story, imagined Coronado as a resort and brought their dream to reality by luring the wealthy and famous to their exclusive red-roofed hotel on the beach. John D. Spreckels continued to build upon that dream, leaving a legacy through his many gifts to the city. The U.S. Navy has played a prominent role in Coronado's development, with North Island officially known as the birthplace of naval aviation, and later, with U.S. Navy SEALs stationed at Naval Amphibious Base. Coronado and North Island are surrounded by water and only accessible by the peninsular Silver Strand and the iconic Coronado-San Diego Bay Bridge. This creates a small town atmosphere with a unique combination of cosmopolitan beach resort and navy town, rich in history.
Griffith Park
9780738588834
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Carved from the former Spanish land grant known as Rancho Los Feliz, Griffith Park, a rugged, 4,300-acre wilderness located in the heart of Los Angeles, has been the principal playground for Angelenos for over a century. Since 1896, when the land was donated to the city by controversial philanthropist Col. Griffith J. Griffith, generations of weekenders have picnicked, camped, golfed, ridden horses, hiked, bicycled, and played ball in the park. To this day, visitors still climb aboard its mini-train and merry-go-round and explore its zoo, museums, amphitheater, and world-famous observatory. The park, which lies in the shadow of the Hollywood sign, has been a frequent filming site for legendary movies like Back to the Future, Birth of a Nation, and Rebel Without a Cause.
Marysville
9780738547374
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Known as the "Gateway to the Goldfields," Marysville was once one of California's largest and most prosperous cities during the gold rush era; millions of dollars in gold were shipped from Marysville to the U.S. Mint in San Francisco. The community began in 1842 when Theodor Cordua purchased land for a livestock ranch near the junction of the Yuba River and the Feather River, the major waterway from Sacramento. By 1851, the city of 10,000 was incorporated and named after Mary Murphy, a survivor of the ill-fated Donner Party and wife of Charles Covillaud, one of the city founders. The citizens of Marysville prospered during those days and built magnificent homes in Gothic Victorian, Queen Anne, Greek Revival, Edwardian, Italianate, and Eastlake styles, as well as brick commercial buildings, mills, ironworks, machine shops, and factories. Although many have now been lost to fire, flood, and redevelopment, the city still retains much of its early charm.
Riverboats of Northern California
9780738574967
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California's mighty rivers served as the state's early superhighways. Riverboats transported countless tons of supplies, workers, and settlers from the coast to inland gold rush colonies and everywhere in between. Majestic sidewheelers and sternwheelers burning coal, wood, and oil plied the waterways of the delta, as well as the Sacramento, San Joaquin, and Napa Rivers, and the lesser-known routes of the Sonoma and Petaluma. Starting with the Sitka in 1847, boats such as the Captain Weber, Jacinto, Fort Sutter, T.C. Walker, and J.R. McDonald ruled the rivers, visiting such ports as Courtland, Stockton, Sacramento, San Francisco, Marysville, Firebaugh, Yuba City, and Rio Vista.
Manzanar
9780738558080
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East of the rugged Sierra Nevada in California's Owens Valley lies Manzanar. Founded in 1910 as a fruit-growing colony, it was named in Spanish for the fragrant apple orchards that once filled its spectacularly scenic landscape. Owens Valley Paiute lived there first, followed by white homesteaders and ranchers. But with the onset of World War II came a new identity as the first of 10 "relocation centers" hastily built in 1942 to house 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of them American citizens, removed from the West Coast. In the face of upheaval and loss, Manzanar's 10,000 confined residents created parks, gardens, and a functioning wartime community within the camp's barbed-wire-enclosed square mile of flimsy barracks. Today Manzanar National Historic Site commemorates this and all of Manzanar's unique communities.
The Springs: Resort Towns of Sonoma Valley
9781467124300
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The Springs area of Sonoma Valley has a fascinating history going back to Spanish colonization of California, continuing through the Mexican period with Vallejo and the mid-19th-century sojourns of Hooker and Leavenworth, and moving into the flowering of the geothermal resort era in the 1880s. Eventually, the unincorporated towns of Boyes Hot Springs, Fetters Hot Springs, Agua Caliente, and El Verano became collectively known as The Springs, which were thriving resort communities from the 1880s through the 1960s. Sharing an illustrious history with the adjacent city of Sonoma, they continue to thrive in new ways into the 21st century. In this volume, the story of the valley is well documented in postcards, snapshots, and newspaper photographs and articles.
San Francisco's Bernal Heights
9780738547411
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San Francisco's Bernal Heights is a hilltop village tucked away in the southern part of the city. Freeways and urban thoroughfares now bound the neighborhood, once defined by the swamps and creeks of the original Mexican land grant. The legacy of Potrero Viejo, or "old pasture," and the farms of the 19th and 20th centuries have developed into today's passion for the preservation of open space. From the 1860s legend of Widow O'Brien's cow to the 1970s fight that saved the hill's crest from development, Bernal residents have tirelessly guarded their environment. An unofficial coyote mascot reigns over one of San Francisco's few remaining wild areas.
Orange
9780738559056
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Located in the heart of Orange County, the City of Orange has a rich history in the citrus industry and beyond. Founded in 1871 as an agricultural community, the town flourished with the growth of orange and lemon trees in the early 1900s. Downtown Orange grew up around the iconic plaza, with its distinctive circular park and classic fountain. The surrounding neighborhoods filled with homes that reflected architectural styles from the 1880s to the 1940s. As late as 1950, Orange was still just a little town of 10,000 people. Despite the enormous postwar residential growth throughout the county and a tenfold population explosion in the city itself, the community has retained much of the small-town feel of yesteryear.
Arcadia
9780738558066
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Santa Anita Rancho's famously ambitious and colorful owner, Elias Jackson "Lucky" Baldwin, had established a popular tourist attraction on his productive working ranch by the late 1800s. Baldwin planned to incorporate the section of his ranch known as Arcadia, but opponents feared that he would turn such a city into a "gambling hell and booze pleasure park." However, the vote for city-hood was virtually unanimous, and Baldwin took over as mayor on July 27, 1903. Arcadia flourished as alcohol sales were approved, saloons and gambling halls remained open 24 hours a day, and Baldwin's ranch, racetrack, and Oakwood Hotel became popular with society's elite. After Baldwin's death in 1909, Arcadia's new leaders prohibited the sale of alcohol and steered the city in a less controversial direction. Agriculture, poultry farms, dairies, and land development became staples of the economy, and Arcadia gradually lost its rural simplicity, growing into a sophisticated, bustling city.
Malibu
9780738576145
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Malibu offers the best in Southern California living. This small town is situated close to Los Angeles and Hollywood, but far enough away from the traffic and stress of big-city life. All the clichés of Southern California come true in Malibu: the swimming pools, movie stars, paparazzi, and fancy cars. It's the land of champagne wishes and caviar dreams. But Malibu is also a beautiful, quiet, and surprisingly rural beachfront community. In a desirable location going back to the time of the Chumash Indians, the peace and environment of Malibu have been protected by city fathers with a vision. This is the California Riviera, a thin slice of la dolce vita located between the Santa Monica Mountains and the deep blue sea.
South Pasadena
9780738547480
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South Pasadena is a small city among giants, sandwiched between the great metropolis of Los Angeles and its nationally famous namesake neighbor, Pasadena. Described as a modernday Mayberry and a Norman Rockwell painting come to life, South Pasadena thoroughly represents the very idea of "Main Street America." The city's 40year fight against the I710 Freeway extension is legendary in suburban efforts to maintain cultural identity. "South Pas," as residents know it, was named five times on the National Historic Register's top10 list of "Most Endangered Places." The city's resistance to outside forces threatening to erode the rich heritage captured in these evocative images has made this "little guy" municipality a giant in the historicpreservation battle.
Avila Beach
9781467130738
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For more than 100 years, Avila Beach has represented the best of what California's Central Coast has to offer. Inhabitants of Avila have, since before its inception as a town, borne witness to the many changing faces and cultures representing the California landscape. Its earliest inhabitants were the Chumash Indians, who populated the Central Coast until the arrival of the Spanish missions. Later, the San Miguelito Rancho land grant was awarded to Don Miguel Avila, for whom the town itself was named. Avila eventually became a thoroughfare for the fishing industry. Other industries prospered as well, notably due to the ingenuity of early pioneer John Harford, who was instrumental in the development of numerous piers at Avila and at Port San Luis. The access to the sea allowed the region to benefit from the steamer ships that serviced California's coast.
Quincy
9780738528557
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Situated among the forests and lakes of northeastern California where the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges meet, the town of Quincy is both picturesque and steeped in local history-from the Maidu Native Americans who first lived in the American Valley now called Quincy to the flood of people who came in the mid-1800s searching for gold. Quincy was born when Hugh J. Bradley, who helped organized Plumas County in 1854, laid out the town and named it after his home city in Illinois. Now the county's seat of government, Quincy boasts many attractive downtown buildings that have become the focus of the community's historic preservation and restoration efforts.
Early Hollywood
9780738547923
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The image of Hollywood often translates as some otherworldly dreamscape filled with fantastic lives and fantasy fulfillment. The real deal was carved from the Southern California desert as an outpost northwest of Los Angeles. The movie industry arrived when tumbleweeds were not simply props and actual horsepower pulled the loads. Everyday workers, civic management, and Main Street conventionalities nurtured Hollywood's growth, as did a balmy climate that facilitated outdoor photography and shooting schedules for filmmakers. Splendid vintage photographs from the renowned collections of the Hollywood Heritage Museum and Bison Archives illustrate Hollywood's businesses, homes, and residents during the silent-film era and immediately after, as the Great Depression led up to World War II. These images celebrate Hollywood before and after its annexation into the city of Los Angeles in 1910 and its subsequent ascension as the world's greatest filmmaking center.
Grass Valley
9780738546971
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Grass Valley was named for its spring-fed meadows, but its history springs from deep below the soil. An immeasurable wealth of gold lay in ancient river courses, embedded in quartz, or scattered capriciously in surface gravel. Vibrantly entrepreneurial since its inception, Grass Valley echoed with the roar of stamp mills crushing gold-bearing quartz 24 hours a day, every day, for decades. Its mines produced $350 million, and millions more are thought to be buried beneath the modern city. Grass Valley's wealth drew flamboyant stars like Lola Montez and gold-camp-urchin-turned-star Lotta Crabtree. It was here that philosopher Josiah Royce was born and Cherokee writer Yellow Bird (John Rollin Ridge) lived his final days. Grass Valley was often the subject of Alonzo Delano's tales of the gold rush, and more recently, it was the setting and inspiration for Wallace Stegner's best seller Angle of Repose.
Compton
9780738595399
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Compton is a city of myth and misunderstandings. Today, it is known as the city of "hip-hop dreams and gangsta fantasies." Its history, however, is not as well known. Compton was originally part of the Rancho San Pedro Spanish land grant. The area was deeded as a wedding gift, lost in foreclosure, then sold to F.P.F. Temple and F.W. Gibson at a sheriff's sale. Ultimately, it was settled in 1867 by former forty-niners from Stockton. Given its location halfway between the harbor and Los Angeles, the "Hub City" has seen many pivotal events: the dawn of flight at the 1910 international air meet, the 1933 earthquake, floods, white flight, factory shut-downs, decline, and now a new beginning at the start of the 21st century.
Downtown Stockton
9780738529424
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Between 1850 and 1950, Stockton grew from gold rush depot to booming California metropolis. Capitalizing on its abundance of water and rich soils, Mediterranean-like climate, hard-working population, and efficient transportation system, Stockton quickly became an epicenter of "the breadbasket of the world." The historic downtown skyline reflects the abundance and adversity of California's Central Valley over the years, and Stockton's ever-changing, ever-expanding role as a modern city.
Healdsburg
9780738530604
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Healdsburg was founded in 1857, when Harmon Heald, gold seeker and pioneer merchant, laid out a central plaza among the trees to serve as the heart of one of California's early communities. As Healdsburg evolved from rough farm town to wine-country destination, the plaza has drawn residents and visitors together to shop, socialize, and celebrate. The Western Wappo and Southern Pomo people lived on the bounty of this generous land and created the finest woven baskets in the world. The American settlers in the 1860s found these rich valleys could grow virtually any crop. In 1871, the railroad opened up new markets for farm produce and established Healdsburg as the center of a prosperous agricultural district.
Lava Beds National Monument
9781467134071
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The region in far northeastern California encompassed by Lava Beds National Monument is often called the "Land of Burnt Out Fires." The name reflects a landscape created by fiery volcanic forces, including cataclysmic events that created more than 700 lava tube caves and an aboveground landscape shaped and fractured by lava flows and other geologic turmoil. Despite its tortured landscape, the region has also been a place of human habitation for thousands of years. Early natives traveled through the lava beds as part of their seasonal travels for food and shelter. The Modoc Indians' knowledge of that landscape, a natural lava fortress now known as Captain Jack's Stronghold, was used during the Modoc War of 1872 and 1873. Modocs, settlers, and others who followed--sheep ranchers, homesteaders, cave discoverers, tourists, spelunkers, and US Forest Service and National Park Service managers--have played prominent roles in creating the region's, and Lava Beds National Monument's, always evolving human history.
Monterey County's North Coast and Coastal Valleys
9780738546773
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Fog billows gently across Monterey County's north coast, a white blanket tucked up against the hills of Aromas. Beneath its protective shroud, fishing boats gently rock, artichokes thrive, and shorebirds build nests along Elkhorn Slough. In this muffled landscape of fertile loam crisscrossed by sloughs, settlers built four distinct communities. Juan B. Castro subdivided his family's rancho to found Castroville, now known as the artichoke capital of the world. Captain Moss and Cato Vierra opened a port, a sea gate to a premier agricultural area. Moss Landing later hosted whalers, a salt works, canneries, and a power generation plant. John Porter's ranch was a safe haven for Chinese immigrants. Their apple-drying businesses spearheaded Pajaro's development as a central rail-shipping point with several produce-packing companies. Aromas pioneers judged their valley well suited for growing apricots. Drifts of white blossoms buried Aromas in spring, while summer's vistas were golden with trays of drying apricots.
