Name: Alameda County Fair
Brand: Victoria Christian
SKU: 9780738581934
Price: 17.49 USD
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Alameda County Fair

9780738581934

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What began as a ranching family's Sunday pastime of horse racing, with cheering crowds and thundering hooves on dusty roads, would give way to the Alameda County Fair that we know today. The Bernal family built the original racetrack in 1859 on their 52,000-acre ranch, which was part of the Northern California land grant, Rancho Valle de San Jose. Looking to turn his newly acquired racetrack into profit, businessman Rodney G. MacKenzie approached a group of county businessmen and ranchers with a proposal to hold a county fair on his property. The first Alameda County Fair ran from October 23 to October 27, 1912. Local leaders sought to form a modern fair, and in 1939 the Alameda County Fair Association was established. Once considered a racing fair, the Alameda County Fair now boasts livestock and agriculture. For young and old alike, the thrilling carnival rides, beautiful quilt exhibits, baking contests, fast-paced horse racing, or just a corn dog and cotton candy provide something for everyone, as the Alameda County Fair now prepares to celebrate its 100th year.

California Lighthouse Life in the 1920s and 1930s

9780738508832

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Like giant sentinels standing guard, California's lighthouses keep silent vigils over the turbulent waters of the Pacific. In 1850, Congress appropriated funds to build eight lighthouses on the West Coast, and three years later, construction began on the project. The first lighthouse to become operational on the West Coast was that on Alcatraz Island on June 1, 1854. While the other seven were being completed, Congress authorized funds to construct a second set of eight lighthouses, and by 1930, California boasted 40 light stations. This new photographic history contains over 200 rare and beautiful images featuring lighthouses of the South Coast, San Francisco Bay, and the North Coast, as well as lightships and support facilities.

California Lighthouse Life in the 1920s and 1930s

California State Fair

9780738580890

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Starting in San Francisco in 1854, the California State Fair and Exposition began as a vehicle to showcase, encourage, and expand California's agricultural industry. It quickly became an attraction for thousands of residents, both local and from across the state. By 1884, it occupied the largest exhibit hall in the United States. Within 100 years, it became the largest fair in the country by adding horse racing, elaborate exhibits from every county in the state and from around the world, thrill rides, top-flight entertainment, and, of course, the best food. The original goal of the fair was met some 50 years ago, as California remains the nation's top producer of agricultural products.

California's Highway 99

9781467132138

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The portion of California's Highway 99 between Modesto and Bakersfield presents a fascinating and nostalgic environment. The highway has a unique charm and character that are significant to California natives, visitors, and those who have moved to the California Central Valley over the past century. This roadway has never been upscale or presumptuous but is truly egalitarian. This book is a pictorial and textual history of the highway itself, the cities and towns along the highway, and other locations in Northern California that evoke the same nostalgic feelings. Presented here are images taken in the region before Highway 99 was officially established. It includes images that were captured over the past century of Giant Orange juice stands, vintage signs, historical buildings, and other attractions that are part of the heritage. The author's hope is to entertain, provoke thought, and provide glimpses into obscure slivers of history.

Cover image for California's Highway 99, isbn: 9781467132138

Camp Pendleton

9780738529820

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Camp Pendleton was established in 1942 by the Navy Department as the West Coast training facility for the United States Marine Corps. Located in rugged northwest San Diego County, Camp Pendleton quickly became one of the largest training centers for infantry, aviation, and amphibious units and has long been the threshold for Marines embarking to participate in armed conflicts in the Far East and around the globe. From World War II to Operation Iraqi Freedom, Camp Pendleton has served as the backdrop and staging ground for troops, artillery, tanks, and infantry. Named for Maj. Gen. Joseph H. Pendleton, who pioneered Marine activity in San Diego, Camp Pendleton is situated on approximately 250,000 acres on the California coast and its access to land, sea, and air has been instrumental in cross-training Marines. Thousands of Marines have called "CamPen" home since its inception, including the oldest and most decorated Marine unit, the 1st Marine Division.

Camp Roberts

9780738530550

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Camp Roberts, in the Salinas Valley, is one of California's largest military training camps. Named for a heroic World War I tank driver, it took the threat of global war in 1940 to kick-start its construction. Soon Camp Roberts had a capacity to house and train 23,000 men. During the war, almost half a million men trained here. Row upon row of wooden buildings, replete with churches, stores, a hospital, and an amphitheater where A-list stars performed, made it a mobilized city of 45,000 at its peak. In 1946, it became a ghost town overnight. Revived during the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, it passed into National Guard control in 1971. However, all branches of the military continue to train here, and the camp has renewed relevance for troops bound for the Middle East.

Camp San Luis Obispo

9780738529158

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Camp San Luis Obispo, founded in 1928 amid the starkly beautiful rolling hills north of San Luis Obispo, has an ideal central California location. It is the original home of the California National Guard and remains today the Guard's principal training facility. In 1941 the U.S. Army commandeered the post, enlarging it to over 10,000 acres for the training of half a million soldiers and 42 infantry divisions. Salinas Dam, 20 miles away, was built to provide a dependable source of water for the troops. Reverting to the state after major conflicts, the camp is also the headquarters for the U.S. Army Reserve, California Specialized Training Institute, and a host of agencies and academies. It remains on the frontline for modernizing the military into the 21st century.

Escondido Grape Day Festivals

9780738559490

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Escondido is the lilting Spanish name meaning "hidden" and was given to an irregular-shaped inland Southern California valley where an investment group planted 100 acres of grapes in the early 1880s. The dry-farmed grapes grew unusually large and sweet, which prompted business leaders to envision an attraction similar to Pasadena's Tournament of Roses. The first Grape Day Festival in 1908 commemorated an auspicious occasion in Escondido's water history and celebrated the grape as a symbol of the agricultural abundance of the region. The event attracted thousands of guests who could view the valley, farm displays, a grand parade, and entertainment while eating their fill of free grapes. But by mid-century, Grape Day disappeared along with the grape in Escondido. With the memory of the grape remaining clear, the Escondido Historical Society began the revival of the celebration in the 1970s. The centennial Grape Day Festival took place September 6, 2008.

Fort Bragg

9781467130851

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In 1857, Fort Bragg was an Army post on the Mendocino Indian Reservation. Coastal California north of San Francisco had been home to the Pomo and Yuki people for thousands of years. In the early 1800s, that area was visited by Russian, English, and French fur trappers. In 1850, an opium trader carrying goods from the Orient to gold-rush San Francisco shipwrecked near Fort Bragg. Would-be salvagers discovered giant redwood trees, and lumber mills soon sprang up at the mouth of every stream. "Dog-hole schooners" transported lumber, passengers, and supplies, and the world-wide Dollar Shipping Lines started here. Former reservation lands were acquired by lumber interests, and the city of Fort Bragg sprang up around them, all while photographers, artists, and writers documented the "far West." Today, the former California Western logging railroad transports tourists through the redwood forests. Hollywood movies continue to be set in the New England-style towns along the rocky Mendocino Coast, and Paul Bunyan Days celebrates old-time logging skills. The area's colorful past permeates and enriches local culture.

Fort Ord

9780738528694

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From its establishment during World War I to its closure at the end of the Cold War, the Army installation best known as Fort Ord made a significant contribution to our national defense. Founded as a training area for Presidio of Monterey troops in 1917, Fort Ord covered more than 28,000 acres near the city of Monterey in its heyday. The local topography made it ideal as an infantry training center, and this was its primary mission throughout much of the 20th century. Most recently, Fort Ord was home to the 7th Infantry Division (Light), which was inactivated in 1993. In September 1994, Fort Ord closed its gates and became a part of military history.

Hamilton Field

9780738559087

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In response to the growing need for military air defense in the 1920s, a parcel of Novato farmland on the San Pablo Bay was chosen as the future site for Hamilton Field. Constructed in the early 1930s and dedicated in 1935, Hamilton was originally established as a bombardment base of the 1st Wing of the air force. The base played a pivotal role during World War II as a flight-training facility and was an official point of departure for bombardment groups heading to the Pacific. Renamed the Hamilton Air Force Base in 1947, the base is also known for its well-planned community layout and landscaping, as well as its architecturally cohesive design in the Spanish Eclectic style. Decommissioned and vacated by 1975, the former base now serves as a planned housing, business, and civic park. Hamilton remains an important historical and community asset of Novato and Marin County.

Historic Hotels of Los Angeles and Hollywood

9780738559063

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This volume presents a pictorial history of Los Angeles hotels downtown, in Hollywood, and along the Wilshire Boulevard corridor from the late 19th through the mid-20th centuries. By the early 1900s, many hotels, including luxury ones, had been established in downtown Los Angeles to cater to business travelers and tourists. In the late 19th century, after the arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad, hotels were built to encourage tourism and sell real estate in the agricultural Hollywood area. And with the growth of the motion picture studios in the early decades of the 20th century, grander hotels were erected to accommodate the new industry. As the city expanded westward, luxury and residential hotels were also placed in the Westlake District and along the fashionable Wilshire Boulevard corridor connecting to Beverly Hills.

Historic Hotels of Los Angeles and Hollywood

Historic Stage Routes of San Diego County

9780738574684

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Stagecoaches and the routes they traveled capture our imagination because of the romance, excitement, danger, and new experiences they represent. San Diego was part of one of the most significant stagecoach lines in history. The San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line was the first to provide fast and reliable mail service to and from the east. This was followed by the Butterfield Overland Mail. Many other stage lines crisscrossed the county. Stage stations were built to provide food, water, and a safe haven for people, plus water and feed for the animals. Thousands of emigrants, adventurers, and the military followed the stage routes. This is the story of the stage lines, stage stations, stage drivers, and the people who were born, married, and died along these routes.

Historic Stage Routes of San Diego County

Indio's Date Festival

9781467134255

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Since the turn of the 20th century, Southern California's Coachella Valley has embraced a unique crop: the date. As success with the fruit grew, so too did regional celebrations of it. Beginning in 1921, the City of Indio hosted a Festival of Dates, an event that became the annual National Date Festival in 1947. The area linked itself to the date's birthplace, the Greater Middle East, in multiple ways, but the festival drew national attention to Indio's use of these Arabian fantasies. Attendees celebrated the fair's camel races, Arabian Nights musical pageant, Middle Eastern architecture, Queen Scheherazade pageant, and the costumes worn by boosters and visitors alike. While the United States' political and pop-cultural relationship to the region changed over time, the Eastern Coachella Valley continued to embrace fantasies of the Middle East at its fair.

Lighthouses of San Diego

9780738558417

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As his ship rounded the high point off Point Loma, San Diego, in 1859, Richard Henry Dana wrote, "We were greeted by the cheering presence of a light-house." In reality, beams from San Diego's first lighthouse were repeatedly lost in cloud and fog, and all too soon came agitation for a more effective light at a lower elevation. By 1891, two new lighthouses were constructed to achieve what one could not--a major light on the low tip of Point Loma and a secondary light at Ballast Point. Although abandonment of the first lighthouse structure was nearly catastrophic, it still survives today to charm millions of visitors. Now, and long overdue, are new glimpses of the famous and lesser-known lighthouses of San Diego thanks to the memories and photographs belonging to families of the men who kept the lights burning.

Lighthouses of the Bay Area

9780738559438

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The 1848 discovery of gold in the hills of California brought prospectors and adventurers west; many came across the country on the treacherous western trails, while others came by sea. The rugged coast of California and the dangers of the San Francisco Bay waters claimed many ships and their passengers. The loss of these ships and the ever-increasing number of vessels converging in the San Francisco Bay made it evident that navigational aids were desperately needed. To enhance maritime safety in the region, the San Francisco Bay's first light, located on Alcatraz Island, began construction in 1852. Light stations soon followed at Fort Point, Point Bonita, and the Farallon Islands. An additional 15 lights later served the bay, and two lightships were stationed outside the Golden Gate.

Lighthouses of the Ventura Coast

9780738581866

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The Ventura County coast has been illuminated for more than a century by three distinctive lighthouses, united in their mission of warning mariners of coastal hazards and guiding ships to safe passage. Port Hueneme's original 1874 Victorian Stick Style lighthouse stood sentry until it was replaced in 1940 by the still-standing art moderne structure, which guards the only deepwater port on the California coast between San Francisco and San Pedro. The Anacapa Island Light, a cylindrical brick structure in the Channel Islands lit in 1932, was the last new lighthouse on the West Coast. Ventura, originally dubbed San Buenaventura by Fr. Junipero Serra in 1782, extends its "good fortune" to the steamers, warships, tankers, and other craft guided to safety by these navigation beacons.

Marine Corps Air Station Miramar

9780738530581

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The U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Miramar is an essential component of America's homeland security, as aircraft from this base patrols the country's border with Mexico as well as the international waters of the open Pacific. The Marines operated part of the base during World War II, when their island-hopping campaign was crucial to Allied victory in the Far East. The Navy took over operations on the base after the war and until 1997, when the Marines regained control and established both jet and helicopter squadrons there--the aviation combat units of the 3rd Marine Air Wing and the reserves of the 4th Marine Air Wing. During the Navy years, the popular 1986 Tom Cruise movie Top Gun was filmed on the base, which is the largest singular piece of dedicated land on the City of San Diego map.

Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego

9780738588780

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Located northwest of downtown San Diego, the Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD) is rich in the history and traditions of the US Marine Corps. The base was born in part of the perseverance of Col. Joseph H. Pendleton and the efforts of Congressman William Kettner. MCRD San Diego was commissioned in 1921 and officially designated as the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in 1948. It is the oldest operational Marine Corps base on the West Coast and graduates over 20,000 new Marines every year. MCRD San Diego is one of only two Marine Corps recruit-training bases in the United States and is responsible for the basic training of all male recruits west of the Mississippi River. Every Marine begins his career by participating in a 13-week training period that isolates him from the civilian world. Basic training at MCRD San Diego emphasizes physical fitness and adaption to the Marine Corps lifestyle.

McClellan Air Force Base

9780738547626

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McClellan Air Force Base has been a part of California's military and aviation history since the mid-1930s. Originally named Pacific Air Depot in 1935, the base's name was changed to the Sacramento Air Depot in 1938, and it became a repair facility for such fighter planes as the P-38 and P-39. During World War II, the base saw significant use in outfitting and supplying munitions for various fighters, including the B-17. Many armed-services personnel departed from McClellan for the Pacific theater, including in part Jimmy Doolittle's famed detail of B-25s, which attacked Tokyo in 1942. After the war, the base stored many types of aircraft, including the B-29 bomber series, and in 1948, changed its name to McClellan Air Force Base, continuing its mission of overhauling and retrofitting planes throughout the cold war.

Missions of Central California

9780738596808

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After the discovery of Alta California, the Spanish Crown charged the first Franciscan friars to enter into the New World through Lower Baja, with a succession of conquistadors, explorers, and soldiers, on a trail called El Camino Real or "The Royal Road." The settlement began in 1769 at Mission San Diego de Alcalá, a new port and military presidio with buildings of mud, brushwood, and tule grass. Fr. Junípero Serra, the legendary mission presidente and founding father of nine missions, traveled along a worn path lined today by symbolic bell markers leading to many remarkable, modern cities. After 1772, settlements were spread to California's central coast region, filling with native neophytes who became the residents and builders of all mission settlements. The Spanish missions had brought dramatic changes to California's landscape and forged the underpinnings of its earliest history, founded serendipitously with the American Revolution and birth of the United States.

Missions of Los Angeles

9780738596815

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After establishing the settlement of San Francisco, visionary mission president Fr. Junipero Serra journeyed south to found Mission San Juan Capistrano, Alta California's seventh, on November 1, 1776. By order of King Carlos III of Spain, El Pueblo de la Reina de los Ángeles (the Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels) was founded on September 4, 1781, following the recommendation of the first California governor, Felipe de Neve. At nearby Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, de Neve gathered a group of 11 men, 11 women, and 22 children, soldiers, mission priests, and a few Indians and traveled nine miles to the banks of the Los Angeles River, blessing the new site. By 1800, the city of Los Angeles had a population of 300 with a meeting hall, guardhouse, army barracks, and granary. Built a day's journey apart on El Camino Real, the Mission San Fernando Rey de España was dedicated on September 8, 1797, and completed the lineage of California's monumental landmark missions near Los Angeles.

Missions of Monterey

9780738596822

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The storm-tossed caravel ship San Salvador passed the coastline of Point Pinos in 1542 and propelled Portuguese shipwright and sailor Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo into history with the discovery of Alta California for the Spanish crown. An enduring legacy followed with Fr. Junipero Serra's landing in San Diego and the founding of his first mission in 1769. Into Alta California entered explorers, soldiers, and Franciscan missionaries bringing their culture, faith, and intent to colonize the New World. Father Serra's 1770 journey to Monterey, carefully planned in Mexico City, involved the arrival of a few hundred intrepid travelers over land and sea to secure Alta California's new capital. A small group consecrated Mission San Carlos de Borromeo in the pine-forested flat of New Spain's presidio. The momentum of the missions over the next 80 years resulted in California's statehood and in the raising of the American flag in Monterey by 1850.

Missions of San Diego

9780738596839

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California's first settlement began on a trail called El Camino Real, or "The Royal Road," that was traveled by missionary pathfinders, soldiers, and conquistadors on a dramatic journey into a mysterious land. Monterey was discovered in 1603, leading to the quest. Explorers Don Gaspar de Portolá and Juan Bautista de Anza, along with ambitious Franciscan missionaries, founded 21 monumental Spanish missions and several asistencias and chapels for native neophytes, travelers, and visitors to Alta California. Following the initial landing in 1769 at San Diego's seaport, Fr. Junípero Serra founded Mission San Diego de Alcalá, California's first landmark, at the original presidio site. The mission stands today exactly where it was moved, rebuilt, and completed in 1813. The native populations of California witnessed years of change from a sleepy province to the status of US statehood. The Spanish missions forged the powerful underpinnings of the Golden State's earliest settlements 80 years prior to the world's largest migration to California, the 1849 Gold Rush.

Missions of San Francisco Bay

9780738596846

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Legendary explorer Lt. Col. Juan Bautista de Anza completed a 1,000-mile journey from Sonora, Mexico, crossing the Mojave Desert with the first settlers, to San Francisco's pristine harbor. Fr. Francisco Palóu celebrated the dedication of Mission San Francisco de Asís on June 29, 1776. First established to protect Spain's interests in Alta California from foreign ships, California's landmark buildings are featured here with newly discovered photography depicting a romantic era of colorful Spanish conquistadors, Franciscan padres, and mission Indian neophytes from 1769 to 1823. Explore the heritage of California pioneers' first communities and the 21 California Spanish missions of adobe, stone, and tile that are considered architectural wonders that have captured the imagination of visitors and historians over centuries.

Point Arena Lighthouse

9780738599663

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The low rumbles of the fog signal and flashing beam of light from the powerful lens have guided mariners away from the perilous waters surrounding Point Arena Lighthouse since 1870. After the great earthquake in 1906 and the rebuilding of the tower in 1908, Point Arena's navigational aids continued to warn ships away from the peninsula off Northern California's Pacific coastline. The original tower was replaced with a concrete cylindrical tower that rises 115 feet from the headland. This became the first lighthouse tower in the United States constructed with materials found to be superior to the stone and masonry lighthouse structures of the past. The new tower, crowned with a nearly 13,000-pound first-order Fresnel lens, sent a beam of light 20 miles out to sea and continued alerting ships of the dangers just offshore.

Point Cabrillo Light Station

9780738559506

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Point Cabrillo Lighthouse, on the rugged coast of Mendocino County in Northern California, was first lit as an aid to navigation on June 10, 1909. The light station continues to serve mariners and is regarded as one of the crown jewels of lighthouses on the West Coast. In July 1850, just north of the future site of the lighthouse, the clipper brig Frolic wrecked in its journey from China to Gold Rush-era San Francisco. European settlers in search of salvage from the cargo found instead Mendocino's vast strands of virgin redwood timber stretching inland from the coast. Getting this valuable lumber to market in the mid-19th century required ships, and ships needed lighthouses to guide them. In 1909, the light known today as Point Cabrillo was built on a windswept promontory two miles north of the village of Mendocino.

Point Piedras Blancas

9780738558196

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For thousands of years, Point Piedras Blancas, located along the central coast of California, has attracted people to its rocky, windswept shores. In ancient times, it was used by Native American cultures. Since 1875, it has been the site of a First Order Lighthouse, warning ships to steer clear of its rocky shoals, a duty it continues to fulfill. Although the years have not been kind to this stunning area nor to the lighthouse, new life is being breathed into it by a partnership of enthusiastic community volunteers and government agencies. Their common goal is to restore this magnificent site to its original state while reintroducing the natural environment that was almost obliterated during the past four decades.

Presidio of Monterey

9780738528700

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The Presidio of Monterey is best known as the home of the post-World War II Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, the Department of Defense's acknowledged leader in foreign language training. It has, however, a much longer and rich history. After the United States seized Monterey in 1846, the U.S. Army began constructing Fort Mervine, which served a number of purposes until it was abandoned in 1866. In 1902-1903, a modern cantonment was built in the area. In 1904, the new post was officially renamed the Presidio of Monterey after a nearby Spanish fort established in 1770 that had fallen into disuse. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, the post was home to infantry and cavalry regiments, as well as an inductee reception center. The Military Intelligence Service Language School was moved to the Presidio of Monterey in 1946 and renamed the Army Language School in 1947; this evolved into the present-day Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center.

Resorts of Lake County

9780738547985

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Beginning in the 1860s, the first vestiges of the resorts of Lake County appeared around the sparkling pools of the region's many hot springs and upon the shores of Clear Lake. Lured by the supposed medicinal qualities of the water, people flocked to rustic campgrounds and cabins to "take the cure" for their ailments, drink, and bathe, staying for long periods each summer. Within a few years, ambitious
entrepreneurs bottled the springs' mineral waters and built more luxurious accommodations and amenities. Although the claims of curative waters lost sway over time, resorts equipped with extensive
recreational facilities, dance floors, live music, bountiful food, hunting, fishing, and children's entertainment continued to draw visitors in droves. Families filled the resorts in summers, and by the 1940s, large group and society meetings as well as conventions began to utilize the resorts on spring and fall weekends. Though few original resorts remain, today, in 2007, the region's business directory lists 51 Lake County resorts.

Rim of the World Drive

9780738547701

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On July 18, 1915, the Rim of the World Drive was dedicated as politicians, businessmen, and local luminaries looked on. What followed is the incredible story of how a road changed the lives of San Bernardino Mountain visitors and residents alike. In a single generation, the slow 19th-century lifestyle that moved at the pace of horses was transformed into the streamlined and fast-paced 20th-century age of the automobile. By the 1930s, a realigned high-gear route led up the hill from San Bernardino to Crestline, then along the crest to Lake Arrowhead, Running Springs, and Big Bear, and finally down the hill to Redlands. This fascinating evolution of Southern California's landmark Rim of the World Drive--from Native American trail to state highway--is showcased here in a meticulously researched presentation of rare photographs, many never before published.

Route 66 in California

9780738530376

$23.99 $16.79 Save 30%

The "Mother Road" hauled it all, traversing the American West from Chicago to Santa Monica Beach, the last 350 miles through Southern California. For settlers, Depression-era "Okies" and "Arkies," and post-World War II families bound for suburbia, Route 66 was a migration funnel for generations. Wending through the mountains and badlands of San Bernardino County into Los Angeles County, Route 66 became a state of mind and a catchphrase for travelers everywhere, especially after singer Bobby Troupe popularized the hit song "(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66" and actors Martin Milner and George Maharis hit the road with the ragtop down and the shades on in the namesake television series that seemed to go anywhere every week. The shield of the Route 66 sign has become iconography for the growth of Southern California's economy, population, popularity, and folklore.

San Diego's Naval Training Center

9780738559582

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San Diego's Naval Training Center (NTC) was commissioned on June 1, 1923, and for 70 years served as a young recruit's introduction to a naval career, beginning with nine weeks of basic orientation and organization training (BOOT) camp. Originally consisting of 135 acres adjacent to San Diego Bay, NTC eventually expanded to almost 550 acres with 300 buildings, landscaped promenades, parade grounds, and a concrete training "non-ship," the USS Recruit (a.k.a. USS Neversail), where recruits learned their first duties of seamanship. Advanced training schools were later added for military personnel learning specialized duties. After training hundreds of thousands of recruits, NTC was officially closed on April 30, 1997, and has since been transformed into San Diego's new and vibrant cultural center, Liberty Station.

St. George Reef Lighthouse

9781467133173

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Situated at the end of a reef six miles offshore of Crescent City, California, stands St. George Reef Lighthouse. Constructed after the wreck of the coastal steamer Brother Jonathan in 1865, the beacon warned mariners of the dreaded "Dragon Rocks" of St. George Reef for nearly a century. This book chronicles the loss of the Jonathan, decades of efforts to make the light a reality, the 10-year construction period, manning of the station by keepers of the US Lighthouse Service and Coast Guard, and the struggles and accomplishments of dedicated volunteers to restore what many lighthouse historians refer to as "America's greatest lighthouse."

The Humboldt Wagon Road

9780738576435

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This book offers readers an opportunity to ride the historic Humboldt Wagon Road from Chico to Susanville through images that have been collected since the 1860s. Many never-before-published photographs and oral histories tell a story of people who established what has been called this "small corner of the West." In the 1850s, John Bidwell, a California pioneer, agriculturist, businessman, and politician, envisioned a freight and passenger route that would connect San Francisco, the Sacramento River, and his newly established community of Chico. He wanted it to cross the mountains to the gold and silver mines in Idaho and Nevada. Bidwell financed, constructed, and opened the road for horses, wagons, stagecoaches, and eventually trucks and automobiles. From the Civil War era until the present, the road has carried everything from lumber to tourists.