Just a few miles east of St. Helena, Howell Mountain overlooks the Napa Valley. The mountain's mild Mediterranean climate and extensive forests have drawn people for thousands of years. From the Wappo people to Spanish explorers and Mexican Californios, the region has a rich history. In the 1880s, the mountain was a popular place to establish health resorts like the Rural Health Retreat, which later became St. Helena Hospital. Cornish immigrant Edwin Angwin also opened a resort that hosted visitors such as author Ambrose Bierce. When Angwin retired in 1909, he sold his land to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. That year, Pacific Union College opened on the old resort grounds; the college has been the hub of the tiny town of Angwin ever since. Today, Howell Mountain is one of the most prized wine appellations in the world, and Angwin remains a quiet, rural village in the midst of wine country. It is surrounded by conservation easements and Land Trust of Napa County preserves, making it a unique community in this setting.
Architects Who Built Southern California
9781467141833
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In the early 1900s, the population of Southern California exploded, and the cities grew at such a rapid pace that builders could hardly keep up. Among those who settled in the area were ten architects looking to make their marks on the world. Claud Beelman, a man who never received a college degree, would go on to design the Elks Lodge in Los Angeles. Albert C. Martin, architect of Grauman's Million Dollar Theater, founded a company that is still going strong more than one hundred years later, and Julia Morgan, the first woman architect licensed in California, was hired by William Randolph Hearst to design the Examiner Building. Join author Antonio Gonzalez as he tells the stories of the people behind some of Southern California's most iconic buildings.
Around Boron
9780738569437
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In the late 1920s, this high desert area with little water and unproductive soil held no attraction for most people, but the small community of Amargo provided a grocery store, gas station, and of course a saloon for the convenience of tenacious gold and borax prospectors. In 1938, after the large deposit of borax was discovered and mining had begun, a town hall meeting was called and Le Roy Osborne, supervisor of Pacific Coast Borax Company, suggested changing the name from Amargo to Boron. Boron is the fifth element on the periodic table and combines with other nonmetallic minerals to form a family of related minerals called borates; after this was explained to those gathered at the town hall meeting, Boron was unanimously chosen as its new name and the community was forever linked to the borax mining industry.
Around Crockett
9780738559278
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The territory around Crockett may seem little more than a nook along the Carquinez Strait in West Contra Costa County, but it was once home to many small towns. Although independent, each town relied on the others for goods and services. Using vintage postcards, readers will take a trip through the region's past, visiting Crockett, the Selby Smelting and Refining Company, Vallejo Junction, Carquinez Bridge, Valona, C&H Sugar Factory, Scow Town, and Port Costa along the way.
Arvin, Lamont, and Weedpatch
9781467103909
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At the southernmost end of California's Central Valley lie Arvin, Lamont, and Weedpatch. Although each is distinct, their histories are intertwined. The Yokuts were in the area for thousands of years, followed by Spanish, Mexican, and US settlers. The first seeds of Arvin, Lamont, and Weedpatch were planted in the late 1800s. Over the years, agriculture became a central part of the economy and attracted people from all walks of life. The Dust Bowl and Mexican migrations left an impact on the area that is visible to this day. The Dust Bowl Festival immerses attendees in nostalgic memories of a life that was, and businesses and social, religious, and educational centers celebrate the vibrant Latino cultures that thrive in these communities.
California Vines, Wines and Pioneers
9781609498849
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Grab your glass and take to the wine trail with food genealogist Sherry Monahan as she traces the roots of California's Vines, Wines & Pioneers." While cowboys and early settlers were writing the oft-told history of the Wild West, California's wine pioneers were cultivating a delicious industry. The story begins when Franciscan missionaries planted the first grapes in Southern California in 1769. Almost a century later, news of gold drew thirsty prospectors and European immigrants to California's promise of wealth. From Old World vines sprang a robust and varied tradition of wine cultivation that overcame threats of pests and Prohibition to win global prestige. Journey with Monahan as she uncorks this vintage history and savors the stories of California's historic wineries and vineyards."
Camarillo
9781467104289
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Located in the heart of Ventura County, Camarillo, named after Adolfo Camarillo, sits on the northern edge of the Oxnard Plain. Adolfo Camarillo inherited and operated the 10,000-acre Rancho Calleguas, one of the last Mexican land grants, helping Ventura County become the world's top lima bean producer. Camarillo's excellent climate and rich topsoil brought farmers to the area, but as time passed, farmland was sold to land developers and patchwork housing tracks sprang up in addition to light industry and small businesses.
Carlsbad
9780738569925
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Once a small coastal community known for avocados and flower fields, Carlsbad has grown into a sprawling suburban city, with a small beach-town feel that still maintains ties to its roots. The discovery of its mineral wells in 1885, and the subsequent naming of the city after the famed European spa in Karlsbad, Bohemia, put Carlsbad on the map as a world-class resort destination. Miles of beautiful beaches, and three lagoons located within its boundaries, have shaped Carlsbad into a recreational destination as well. The Flower Fields, with vibrant rows of colorful ranunculus, now serves as a reminder of the past and a link to the future, as shopping and businesses have grown up around them, helping Carlsbad evolve into the diverse, progressive city it is today.
Catalina A to Z:
9781609497743
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$19.99
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Santa Catalina Island is one of the West Coast's great nearby escapes, an hour's boat ride from Los Angeles and Long Beach for one million annual tourists. The island's seventy-six square miles contain two communities--Avalon and Two Harbors--and extremely rugged seashores and interior wild lands. Here, the history has been carved by pirates, smugglers, prospectors and squatters and set down by seafaring scribes and Hollywood fabricators. The facts have been massaged by the ebb and flow of time and scattered like sun-baked rocks from a beachcomber's kick. Co-authors Patricia Maxwell, Bob Rhein and Jerry Roberts have collected Catalina's basic facts and lore into a quick reference that's as easily accessible as the most charming of California's Channel Islands.
Chico:
9780738524467
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In what has emerged as one of the most desirable places to live at the turn of this new century, the journey of Chico since its inception is one of growth as well as remembrance. A rich cultural heritage is as responsible for development of this diverse community as its fertile soils were in creating an economic stronghold. From the traditions and teachings of the Mechoopda Indians to its present day reputation as an educational bastion, Chico serves as a backbone of the budding Central Valley.
Classic San Francisco
9781467141604
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$24.99
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San Francisco has always been a city of transformation. From the nostalgic days of downtown shopping and grand movie palaces to newer buildings on the skyline and stunning neighborhood transformations, change has been a constant factor since the early days of European settlement in the late 1700s. Evidence of early San Francisco is still visible in the revitalized Ferry Building, repurposed as an artisan marketplace; in the celebrated neighborhood street fairs; and even in the enduring edifices of commerce and industry. The city of the future has its roots firmly planted in a much-loved past. City native and local history author Frank Dunnigan showcases the old city as well as the new one gradually emerging.
Community Hospital of San Bernardino
9780738570228
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Dr. William Henry Mills, fellow in the Royal College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Physicians in London, arrived in San Bernardino, California in February 1903. Recruited by Dr. George Rowell as a medical partner, Dr. Mills quickly realized that surgical facilities in San Bernardino were woefully inadequate. Determined to improve medical care, in 1906 Mills converted an old wooden residence at the corner of Fourth and F Streets into the Marlborough Hospital. In 1909, with the need for additional space acute, Dr. Mills approached his friend, attorney Ralph Swing, for funding to purchase land at the site of an old adobe saloon located at the corner of Fourth Street and Arrowhead Avenue. In March of 1909, Swing and Mills purchased the land and began construction of a two-story stucco hospital building with beds for 42 patients and a modern operating room. Ramona Hospital, later renamed Community Hospital, opened its doors in February 1910 and has operated continuously, providing state-of-the-art medical care for area residents.
Crescenta Valley Pioneers & Their Legacies
9781609495626
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Their names run deep through local history and lore, adorning street signs, canyons, historical buildings, homes and ranches in the swath of suburbia between Pasadena and Tujunga, where the towns of La Crescenta and La Ca ada took shape, along with the unique community of Montrose. Profiled in the pages of Crescenta Valley Pioneers and Their Legacies by author Jo Anne Sadler, a researcher and frequent writer for the Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley, are such singularly important local characters as Theodor Pickens, the first permanent settler; Dr. Benjamin B. Briggs, the founder of La Crescenta; Jacob L. Lanterman and Adolphus W. Williams, the original developers of Rancho La Ca ada; and the Le Mesnager family, whose historic wine barn still stands in Deukmejian Wilderness Park.
Crestline
9780738530833
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Before the word "resort" was applied to them, all the communities of the San Bernardino Mountains boasted a wild and woolly lumberjack lifestyle. But soon, efforts to take advantage of the clean air, alpine vistas, and winter snows of this region--just a few hours away from Los Angeles--led to a new kind of development. The town of Crestline, while possessing striking scenery, was also essential in the creation of Lake Arrowhead as the staging area for cement and supplies arriving to build Lake Arrowhead's dam. An outpost in the heart of the San Bernardino National Forest, today's Crestline is a year-round resort and residential community near the popular Lake Gregory, built during the Depression and now part of a county regional park.
Crestline Chronicles
9781609495848
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Situated in the beautiful San Bernardino Range, Crestline is the gateway community to the famous mountain resorts of Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear Lake. Historically, the area was known for timber-cutting, hunting and fishing, fruit and nut harvesting and, later on, skiing and other winter sports. The first visitors to the area were Native Americans escaping the Mojave Desert summers; followed in the 1850s by Mormon lumberjacks who built San Bernardino Town at the base of the mountains; and then successors who bought the sawmills and settled into mountain living. In these stories of Crestline's formative times, historian Rhea-Frances Tetley recalls some of the more intrepid and colorful characters to have trekked through the western San Bernardinos.
Culver City Chronicles
9781609497774
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Culver City has rivaled Hollywood for nearly a century as the "Heart of Screenland"--a center of the movie and television trades. Here, the giant Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer evolved into Sony Pictures, and the Ince and Selznick movie empires became today's Culver Studios. But the same lands along Ballona Creek had been a wilderness traversed by Native Americans and settled by hardy Spanish pioneers named Machado, Talamantes and Higuera. Union soldiers occupied the area's Civil War-era Camp Latham. By 1910, visionary Harry H. Culver saw possibilities for these ranchlands and led Culver City to incorporate in 1917. Join official city historian Julie Lugo Cerra, a descendant of early settlers, as she relates the fascinating stories of how and why Culver City grew and prospered.
Davenport
9781467103381
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Davenport is perched on cliffs approximately 90 feet above sea level and 10 miles north of the city of Santa Cruz. The Swiss Italian dairymen who settled on the north coast of Santa Cruz County in the 1860s quickly adapted to raising cattle and farming in the surrounding fields. This thriving agricultural area began with dairies and then quickly expanded to include niche crops like artichokes and brussels sprouts. Surrounded by rich lime deposits, Davenport was, at one time, the largest cement producer in the nation. This book is an excursion through the history of this intriguing area of California.
Davis
9780738524641
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Placed on the map by the California Pacific Railroad in 1868, Davis has been radically different things over its thirteen-some decades: wheat-growing village, almond cultivation center, university farm locale, urbanizing town, exploding suburb, progressive community, and university city. Yet throughout these changes Davis remained the same in many ways, among them its efforts to retain a small town character and a vital downtown.
Duarte Chronicles
9781609498825
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Andres Duarte was a Mexican army veteran who was awarded a 6,595-acre grant south of the San Gabriel Mountains in 1841. Parceled out to settlers and farmers, the Rancho Azusa de Duarte began thriving when rail lines were built to access the citrus crops. Duarte was home to the City of Hope, a tuberculosis clinic that became a world-class cancer research and treatment center. The old U.S. Route 66 brought thousands of new Californians through the residential melting pot from points east. Residents have included such notables as big-band leader Glenn Miller and playwright Sam Shepard. Join coauthors Claudia and Alan Heller as they recall the people, institutions, events and natural elements that have made Duarte a unique Los Angeles County city.
Early Los Angeles County Attractions
9780738559285
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With the arrival of affordable transcontinental rail travel in the late 1880s, hundreds of thousands of tourists and transplants began making the trip to Los Angeles. Quickly becoming a haven for Easterners escaping cold winters and crowded cities, Los Angeles and neighboring communities, such as Pasadena and Santa Monica, boasted a sunny Mediterranean climate and the unique situation of both nearby mountain resorts and seaside amusements. The city also developed a bustling shopping and entertainment district downtown. More than 200 vintage postcard images illustrate a greatly diverse range of popular early attractions, including Mount Lowe, Eastlake Park, Hollywood, the Wilshire district, Griffith Park, Cawston's Ostrich Farm, the downtown shopping and theater district, and the expansive beaches, ranging from the turn of the 19th century up until World War II.
Early Universal City
9780738570235
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Known as much today for its theme park, Universal City is also the largest and the longest continuously operating movie studio in "Hollywood." The Universal Film Manufacturing Company was formed by a dozen independent producers in 1912, and Universal City was designed to provide a single facility in which to make their films. Since its official opening on March 15, 1915, Universal City has served as a training ground for great directors such as John Ford, William Wyler, and James Whale and as home to stars like Hoot Gibson, Deanna Durbin, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Sr. and Jr., and Tom Mix. This evocative volume explores the studio that brought The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), The Phantom of the Opera (1925), All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), Dracula (1930), Frankenstein (1931), and 100 Men and a Girl (1936) to the screen.
Encino
9780738569918
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The San Fernando Valley area that became the modern city of Encino has gone through a surprisingly international sequence of ownership, beginning with Native American tribes, then the Spanish and Californios, followed by the French, Basques, and Americans. In the post-World War II boom, Encino became an affluent enclave of those who portrayed all of the above on the screen: Hollywood movie and television stars. Encino originated around an artesian spring that served for several thousand years as the gathering place of three tribes: the Fernandeño, Tongva, and Chumash. This spring, which was documented in Fr. Juan Crespi's diary during the Portola Expedition in 1769, today still provides water within the grounds of Los Encinos State Historic Park. El encino is Spanish for "the oak," and the area was so named for the vast panorama of oak groves covering it.
Eureka
9780738596761
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Tucked away behind the "redwood curtain" on the northwestern coast of California lies the historic city of Eureka. The location of the city directly alongside Humboldt Bay combined with the abundance of redwood attracted miners, loggers, and fishermen, and the city grew and prospered quickly. Using a comparison of historic images gathered from several historical archives matched with current photographs taken by the author, this book shows Eureka's transformation from a wild logging and fishing town into the modern city it has become today.
Evergreen Cemetery of Santa Cruz
9781467143868
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Created in 1858, the Evergreen Cemetery provided a final resting place for a multitude of Santa Cruz’s adventurers, entrepreneurs and artists. The land was a gift from the Imus family, who’d narrowly escaped the fate of the Donner Party more than a decade earlier and had already buried two of their own. Alongside these pioneers, the community buried many other notables, including London Nelson, an emancipated slave turned farmer who left his land to the city schools, and journalist Belle Dormer, who covered a visit by President Benjamin Harrison and the women’s suffrage movement. Join Traci Bliss and Randall Brown as they bring to life the tragedies and triumphs of the diverse men and women interred at Evergreen Cemetery.
Farallon Islands
9781467103978
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The Farallon Islands lie almost 30 miles outside the entrance to San Francisco Bay and are comprised of over 20 islands, islets, sea stacks, and rocks, which span a seven-mile stretch of the Pacific Ocean. Nineteenth-century sailors called them "the Devil's Teeth," in reference to their extreme hazard to navigation, and hundreds of shipwrecks, disasters, drownings, and deaths have occurred here. The sixth lighthouse on the West Coast was lit on Southeast Farallon Island in 1855. Only Southeast Farallon supports historic structures, several of which are maintained for management purposes. Southeast Farallon once served as home to keepers from the Bureau of Lighthouses (1853-1939), the US Coast Guard (1939-1972), and at various times the US Navy. Today, the islands are home to millions of seabirds and five species of pinnipeds. Because of their biological importance, the islands are not open to the public. They are managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in collaboration with Point Blue Conservation Science. Visitors can explore the islands by boat, at speeds of five miles per hour and from a distance the length of a football field for excellent viewing of globally significant wildlife populations.
Football in the South Bay
9781626193086
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$23.99
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Hardly a season passes in which one or more South Bay football stars don't shine in major college or NFL play. Vince Ferragamo led the Rams to a Super Bowl, but in Wilmington, he's the pride of Banning High School. Before he was television's Hunter" or an NFL All-Pro, Fred Dryer was an El Camino College and Lawndale High star. Wesley Walker snagged deep passes for the New York Jets but honed his skills under legendary coach Gene Vollnogle for the Carson High Colts, historically the top prep team in the South Bay. From the inspirational coaches like Mira Costa's Don Morrow and San Pedro's Mike Walsh to the greatest players raised here, author Don Lechman presents the full story of South Bay gridiron glory."
Fort MacArthur
9780738530857
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Fort MacArthur, in San Pedro, became the Army's major regional induction center after Pearl Harbor, processing over three-quarters of a million soldiers into World War II. Named for Lt. Gen. Arthur MacArthur, a Civil War hero, military visionary, and father of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, "Fort Mac" began as a remote military reservation in 1888, was a full-fledged Coast Defense fort by 1923, a blur of GI activity as a portal to all theaters during World War II, a reserve base in 1946, a Nike missile installation in 1954, and again a military reserve base in 1976 following the Vietnam War. The base also played an important role in transforming San Pedro into the Port of Los Angeles, in implementing changes in military technology, in racial integration of the Army in the late 1930s, and in labor history as its soldiers became strikebreakers in the tense early days of the Second World War. The fort's museum, comprising 20 acres above the harbor, is a lasting reminder of the 20th century's vital West Coast national defense facilities.
Fremont Older and the 1916 San Francisco Bombing:
9781626192676
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$21.99
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On Saturday, July 22, 1916, as Preparedness Day" parade units assembled south of San Francisco's Market Street, a terrorist bomb exploded, killing ten people and wounding forty. San Francisco was outraged. Instead of searching for the perpetrators, however, the district attorney used the bombing as an excuse to arrest, try and convict two obscure labor figures without evidence. Author John C. Ralston chronicles the dramatic events following the initial tragedy as newspaper editor Fremont Older discovers the case is based on blatant perjury and exposes the secondary crime to the public. What became known as the "American Dreyfus Case" led to an international outcry, finally resulting in one defendant's pardon and the other's parole--but only after both men had been imprisoned for twenty-three years.."
Fresno Pacific University
9781467104593
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$23.99
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Fresno Pacific University (FPU) is the only accredited Christian university in California's Central Valley. Founded in 1944, FPU offers more than 100 areas of study to about 4,000 traditional undergraduate, adult degree completion, graduate, and seminary students at its main campus in Southeast Fresno and throughout the Central Valley at regional campuses in North Fresno, Visalia, Bakersfield, and Merced, as well as online. FPU students chase big ideas and explore deep faith through five schools: the School of Business; the School of Natural Sciences; the School of Humanities, Religion, and Social Sciences; the School of Education; and Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary. The university also reaches about 10,000 students through professional development studies. Innovative programs encourage academic and professional excellence, peacemaking, social justice, ethical leadership, holistic wellness, and spiritual vitality. Its graduates have gone on to perform important leadership and service roles around the world.
Frontier Days in Crescenta Valley:
9781626195080
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Modern Crescenta Valley practically defines the notion of quiet suburbia with its lovely homes and tree-lined streets. Yet the communities that lie north of Los Angeles between the Verdugo and San Gabriel Mountains once formed a vast, isolated, treeless, windstorm-swept dell. The settlers who stayed in this valley found day-to-day subsistence challenging. They farmed, hunted, tried bee ranching, gathered greasewood, cultivated vineyards and dodged rattlesnakes. As settlement in the area continued to develop, such refinements as literature and photography flourished. Join author Jo Anne Sadler as she brings the Valley's frontier days to life, recounting such quirks as a visit from a rainmaker" and the reasons behind the construction of the gaudy local landmark the Gould Castle."
Fullerton
9780738547886
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This remarkable collection of over 200 vintage postcards, which date from 1891, visually document Fullerton's growth from an agricultural settlement into a city of 130,000 residents. Unique and rare postcards of all types--advertising, greeting, historical, photographic, and novelty--provide glimpses down through the years of Fullerton's hopes and possibilities, successes and accomplishments, as one of Orange County's most wealthy and important communities. Fullerton and Orange County have a rich social history, and the pictures and messages stored on the fronts and backs of these postcards showcase the people, places, and events that were the most important to residents over the decades.
Galt
9781467104142
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Those who have not been back to Galt in years might be surprised to find beloved places like the old Galt High School, Galt Frostie, and the Galt Pharmacy on Fourth Street are all gone. An agricultural community at its inception, Galt has maintained its small-town charm and remains a stopping off point for those traveling State Highway 99.