Name: San Francisco's Potrero Hill
Brand: Peter Linenthal
SKU: 9780738529370
Price: 24.99 USD
Availability: InStock

San Francisco's Potrero Hill

9780738529370

$24.99

In the early 1800s, it was called the Potrero Nuevo, or "new pasture." Gold-rush squatters
soon put the squeeze on Mission Dolores's grazing cattle, and when the fog lifted, Potrero Hill became the first industrial zone in San Francisco, with iron-smelting plants, butcheries, and shipbuilding dominating the waterfront during the late 19th century. The Hill has been home to immigrants from Scotland, Ireland, China, Russia, Mexico, and from everywhere in between. These days, many of the factories and warehouses have been converted into housing and offices for techies. And for the record, the crookedest street in San Francisco is not Lombard--it's Vermont, between 20th and 22nd.

Yorba Linda

9780738529622

$24.99

Through the mid-20th century, Yorba Linda epitomized the Southern California pastoral experience during the advent and heyday of the citrus boom, with its vast cattle-grazing lands and fruit trees to the horizons. Among the families working this fertile Orange County land in the 1910s was that of President Richard M. Nixon, who was born in Yorba Linda in 1913. The land was named for Bernardo Yorba, son of original Californio Jose Yorba, an explorer who was awarded a 62,000-acre land grant from the king of Spain in 1809. In the 19th century, John Bixby planted orange and avocado groves and grazed cattle over much of the same area, which was incorporated as a city in 1967. An affluent community today, the city has retained its agrarian heritage through hundreds of miles of hiking and horse trails.

Hawthorne

9780738529714

$24.99

A semi-rural alternative to bustling Los Angeles early in the 20th century, Hawthorne grew through the World War I years, welcoming oil wells and eventually airplane factories. The city became home to the chart-topping Beach Boys, athlete Jim Thorpe, and the greatest glamour blondes of their times, Marilyn Monroe and Mattel's Barbie. Bisected by Hawthorne Boulevard, the main north-south thoroughfare through the South Bay region, Hawthorne's notable events ran the gamut, from the annual Kiwanis Parade--second in California prestige only to Pasadena's Tournament of Roses
Parade--to a furious 1971 police gun-battle with the desperate Charles Manson gang. Today, the city is a support community to Los Angeles International Airport and the aerospace industry.

McClellan Air Force Base

9780738547626

$24.99

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.

El Monte

9780738546520

$24.99

El Monte became an established community late in the 1850s-much earlier than most cities in what later became Los Angeles County-as the western terminus of the Santa Fe Trail. Its situation between the watersheds of the Rio Hondo and San Gabriel River made it one of early California's most fertile farming areas, with English walnut trees and dairy farms dotting the countryside. The city incorporated in 1912 and, in the ensuing decades, became the home of Gay's Lion Farm, where Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer kept the various big cats that roared on a logo announcing 1,001 movies. Crawford's store became known as the "largest country store in the world," and the car culture that enveloped Southern California in the postwar years went through significant developmental chapters in El Monte, home of such regionally famous stops as El Monte Drive-In Theatre, Legion Stadium, and the circular, iconic Stan's Drive-In diner.

Scripps Institution of Oceanography

9781467106412

$24.99

At the beginning of the 20th century, the term "oceanography" was merely a few decades old, and few investigations of the oceans, which cover nearly three-fourths of the planet's surface, had taken place. This is the story of an institution that catapulted the field into the forefront of science--first as a pioneer of marine biology, then as a source of wartime environmental intelligence, and most recently as a messenger warning of humanity's effect on nature and a source of solutions to the problem.

Angwin and Howell Mountain

9781467106252

$24.99

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.

Jewish San Francisco

9780738546834

$24.99

In San Francisco, the "instant city" of the gold rush days, Jews were pioneers among pioneers. Some came as immigrants directly from Europe, others as resettled adventurers from the East Coast, and still others as scions of southern Sephardic families. Out of this mixed multitude emerged a community with synagogues and institutions to care for the needy and the sick, along with a dignified social fabric. New immigrants following the Russian pogroms of 1883 were absorbed, and the ashen ruins from the 1906 earthquake were rebuilt. The city's cultural treasures and social needs were enriched, and the city's Jews were nurtured by civic commitments. Today's 70,000 San Francisco Jews, standing upon the shoulders of pioneering giants, continue to build and rebuild.

Silent-Era Filmmaking in Santa Barbara

9780738547305

$24.99

Between 1910 and 1921, the American Film Company was one of the fledgling movie industry's most successful studios, with production facilities in Santa Barbara and business offices in Chicago. Nicknamed for its distinctive winged "A" logo, the "Flying A" produced nearly 1,200 films, starring such favorites of the day as Mary Miles Minter, J. Warren Kerrigan, Wallace Reid, and King Baggot. The company's rather patriotic motto invited patrons to "See Americans first." The studio's films also documented the picturesque and developing Pacific seaside community of Santa Barbara and served as a training ground for some of Hollywood's greatest directors, including Allan Dwan, Henry King, Victor Fleming, Frank Borzage, George Marshall, William Desmond Taylor, and Marshall Neilan.

Garden Grove

9780738530024

$24.99

While its name connotes a pastoral vision beyond a pleasant wide place in the road, Garden Grove has expanded exponentially since pioneers founded it in 1874. Early cattle ranches gave way to walnut and citrus groves during the 20th century, as this land between the cities of Long Beach and Anaheim grew into one of Orange County's most populous municipalities, incorporating in 1956. Hotels sprang up in Garden Grove in reaction to the nearby vacation draws of Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, and the county's popular beach communities. In later decades, Garden Grove's distinctive identity was further shaped by its role as home to one of the largest Korean-American communities outside of Korea and home to televangelist Robert Schuller's famed Crystal Cathedral.

Delano Area, CA

9780738507750

$24.99

Delano's roots were firmly established in 1873 with the construction of the Southern Pacific Railroad. However, with the building of the Friant-Kern Canal System through the Southern Joaquin Valley and the promise of a continued water supply for the area's populace and crops, the city's continued growth was ensured. Dorothy Kasiner takes the reader through a photographic tour of this historic town, highlighting its achievements and pioneering spirit.

The abundance of water prompted local agriculture to erupt into a multi-million-dollar business, and the influences were felt in the towns surrounding Delano, including Richgrove, Earlimart, and Terra Bella. This collection of photographs portrays the early days of the area, including the part played by the Delano Airport in the defense of the Pacific Coast during World War II, the effects of the 1952 earthquake, and the region's most controversial agricultural labor strike.

Dinuba

9781467134262

$24.99

On May 11, 1880, tensions between central California settlers and the Southern Pacific Railroad culminated in a violent shoot-out that left seven people dead. This event, known as the Mussel Slough Tragedy, was a result of the attempted evictions of settlers from land they had already purchased and the high land prices imposed by the expanding railroad. Founded in 1890 by James Patterson and James Sibley, Dinuba was an effort for Mussel Slough farmers to peacefully resettle in the San Joaquin Valley and pursue their agricultural interests. The region's fertile soils and warm climate made the land ideal for farming and economic growth. With the development of a reliable water source and the importation of Thompson's Seedless grapes, raisins quickly became the cash crop, and Dinuba, nicknamed "The Raisin City," entered the 20th century as an established and rapidly growing community. Today, the city's unique history is preserved through the Depot Museum, maintained and operated by the Alta District Historical Society.

Davenport

9781467103381

$24.99

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.

Cover image for Davenport, isbn: 9781467103381

Sacramento's Greenhaven/Pocket Area

9780738519098

$24.99

The Greenhaven/Pocket community is located just southwest of downtown Sacramento. Geographically, its unique location is within a meandering bend of the Sacramento River, thus termed "the Pocket" because it is bounded by the Sacramento River to the north, west, and south. Captured here in over 180 vintage images are the sorrows and triumphs of the area's earliest settlers, encompassing the continents of the world and spanning over a century.

The Greenhaven/Pocket area was a rural farming community for 110 years before suburban development, with the most significant group of people contributing to the area's history and identity being Portuguese immigrants from the Azores Islands of Faial, Pico, Sao Jorge, and Terceira. They began arriving a few years after the Gold Rush and by 1880, almost half of the Portuguese population in Sacramento County was within these townships that encompassed and surrounded the Riverside/Pocket area. Pictured here is the evolution of this thriving community, from the earliest founding families and their sprawling ranches, to the Japanese settlement of World War I, and finally to the innovative Greenhaven 70 plan development in the 1960s that laid the foundation for today's community.

Filipinos in San Francisco

9780738581316

$21.99

Tens of thousands of Filipinos who have lived, worked, and raised families for over five generations in this unique city stake their rightful claim to more than a century of shared history in San Francisco. The photographs herein attest to the early arrivals, who came as merchant mariners, businesspeople, scholars, and musicians, as well as agricultural and domestic workers. But their story has often been ignored, told incompletely by others, and edited too selectively by many. The Filipino American experience both epitomizes and defies the traditional immigrant storyline, and these pictures honestly and respectfully document the fruits of their labors, the products of their perseverance, and, at times, their resistance to social exclusion and economic suppression.

Filipinos in the East Bay

9780738558325

$24.99

Filipinos are a community nearly 2.5-million strong in the United States in 2007. At the turn of the 20th century, the first wave of Filipino migration began, continuing until the start of World War II. During this time span, sponsored students, veterans of the Philippine-American War and their families, and young men recruited in the Philippines to serve in the U.S. military or work in California and Hawaii's expanding agricultural industries would all arrive in the United States. On the San Francisco Bay Area's eastern shore, Filipino presence in the labor force transitioned with the region's economic and social evolution from mainly farm and service laborers to industrial workers to professional, administrative, and service workers. Today the East Bay is a vibrant center of the Filipino community's deeply rooted and rich cultural, political, and economic life.

Cover image for Filipinos in the East Bay, isbn: 9780738558325

Yuba Feather Hills

9780738531021

$24.99

The Yuba and Feather Rivers flank a rugged portion of the Sierra Nevada as they rush south. Gold in creeks and streams here attracted thousands of treasure hunters who panned, dug, or scoured the hills with hydraulic jets of water. At the height of the rush, mule teams loaded with supplies and stagecoaches filled with miners passed through every few minutes, heading from Marysville or Oroville to the high Sierra camps. Thriving towns sprang up along the way, one boasting five hotels and seven saloons. Later others came to log the massive pine and fir or make their home in a land they valued for its beauty. Ten towns survive today: Brownsville, Challenge, Clipper Mills, Dobbins, Forbestown, La Porte, Oregon House, Rackerby, Strawberry Valley, and Woodleaf. Although siblings at birth, over the last 150 years, each has developed a unique character and charm.

Cover image for Yuba Feather Hills, isbn: 9780738531021

Anaheim

9780738547435

$24.99

After the developments that the World War II era brought to the small agricultural community of Anaheim, the major transformation arrived in 1955. Anaheim changed forever from a sleepy and proud little town into the center for entertainment and tourism in Southern California with the arrival of Disneyland. Other national and regional businesses and franchises arrived in and around this Orange County anchor city--including the California Angels baseball club, the Anaheim Convention Center, and such aerospace giants as Boeing and Rockwell International--and Anaheim grew exponentially. This collection of more than 200 vintage and contemporary images depict the results of Anaheim's far-sighted elected and business leaders, who nurtured the city from its agrarian roots and made it into one of the nation's fastest growing cities in the 1960s.

Point Reyes Peninsula

9780738558486

$24.99

The Point Reyes Peninsula has a rich history encompassing thriving Native American settlements, visits by Francis Drake and Spanish explorers, dramatic shipwrecks, Mexican rancheros, famous dairy farms, railroads, and one of the country's most spectacular lighthouses. These historical facets spawned the three small towns of Olema, Point Reyes Station, and Inverness; each is unique with its own distinctive foundations. Most of the land is now within Point Reyes National Seashore, a refuge created during the Kennedy administration and now one of the more popular destinations on the California coast. The unique geography of the forest, bay, and ocean environments and the abundant wildlife in Point Reyes offers fine scenery, diverse recreational opportunities, and good food and lodging, while the towns retain their old-time character.

Cemeteries of the Western Sierra

9781467134965

$24.99

Cemeteries are more than final resting places for the dead; they are gateways to an area's shared history. Every hand-carved granite or marble monument, every faded wooden marker, holds a clue. Western Sierra populations boomed with the discovery of gold and often dwindled as gold fever waned. Cemeteries of the Western Sierra uses the lens of the cemetery to glimpse a rich and disappearing history. Displaced indigenous populations, miners, dueling newspaper magnates, Chinese pioneers: all are part of the mosaic of history represented in a historical cemetery. From solitary graves in the forest to almost forgotten graveyards near the center of a town, cemeteries tell a story not just of who may have died but also of who lived and what was meaningful in their time.

Maritime Contra Costa County

9780738599939

$24.99

San Francisco's "opposite shore" is showcased for its maritime role in securing the city's financial preeminence. Located minutes from San Francisco by ferry or automobile, Contra Costa County provided deepwater ports for shipping agricultural, mineral, and manufactured goods around the world. Pacific commodity traders made use of these ports to ship products, ensuring California's unique global economic role. Immense wealth was created from goods shipped from maritime Contra Costa County, securing a vibrant economy from the Gaslight Era to the days of Haight-Ashbury.

Carmel-by-the-Sea

9780738531229

$24.99

A local poet once described Carmel-by-the-Sea, with its haunting pines, fog, and white sand, as "our inevitable place." The area had been inhabited for more than 3,000 years when Fr. Junipero Serra chose the site for his mission
headquarters in 1771. The romantic name, Carmel-by-the-Sea, was the gift of a group of women real estate developers, later used in advertising lots for "brain workers at in-door employment." Many Stanford and UC Berkeley professors, artists, writers, and musicians left a lasting legacy here in their art and in their rejection of largescale commercial development. Although impoverished artists may no longer afford to live here, many residents and millions of sojourners still consider the lovely village packed with galleries and eateries their "inevitable place."

Jungleland

9780738574448

$24.99

In 1926, animal attendant Louis Goebel bought five lots at $10 apiece as a home for his seven African lions along old Ventura Boulevard in a remote, sparsely populated portion of Ventura County just over the Los Angeles County line--where the city of Thousand Oaks eventually grew. Not surprisingly, the big predators became a roadside attraction. By 1929, Goebel added exotic birds and other animals. Premier woman tiger trainer Mabel Stark arrived as Goebel's Lion Farm accrued regional fame, and Capt. Frank Phillips trained Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's famous Leo the Lion after the name changed to World Jungle Compound. The park maintained Hollywood ties, renting animals and hosting scenes for dozens of movies and television shows. Jungleland became the zoo's lasting moniker after name and ownership changes. The enthusiastic opening of Disneyland in 1955 on the other side of Los Angeles inspired big plans for the Ventura County attraction, including a monorail. These plans fizzled, however, and Goebel resumed ownership in 1961. The park closed eight years later, and 1,800 animals were sold at auction. After four decades, the distinctive Conejo Valley lion roars were silenced.

Fairfax

9780738530901

$24.99

Fairfax is surrounded by oak-draped glens that have enchanted many, including its early owner and namesake, Lord Charles Snowden Fairfax. The hereditary baron, whose family once owned much of Virginia, entertained guests in grand Southern style on his lovely estate known as Bird's Nest Glen. Later the home became Pastori's, the beloved local landmark hotel and restaurant visited by famous guests like Irving Berlin, who once serenaded diners from a piano perched on a tree house. The 1906 earthquake chased refugees from San Francisco across the bay, and new Fairfax subdivisions appeared, along with the Fairfax Incline Railway, built to help sell hillside lots. In the same era, its meadows, hay fields, and dairy ranches provided the setting for early silent movie Westerns. Today Bird's Nest Glen is known as the Marin Town and Country Club property, and the city boasts a thriving business district and prosperous residential areas. But it has never lost its rustic charm and hospitality.

Tustin

9780738570372

$24.99

Tustin's big early loss was in many ways its salvation. Founding father Columbus Tustin's real estate venture in 1868 found few takers, leading to his fervent campaign to make his town the southern terminus for the Southern Pacific Railroad. The depot duel was won by rival settlement Santa Ana, and Tustin City became just another backwater. Columbus Tustin died embittered, but his namesake, which dropped "City" in 1899, prospered as a pretty place with charming homes. Many early homes and downtown commercial buildings still survive, and where apricot, walnut, and orange trees once grew at mid century, comfortable tract homes and residential innovations such as Tustin Meadows and Enderle Gardens maintain the distinct small-town feel through Orange County's postwar freeway sprawl and identity loss. Tustin's past also included a wild and ramshackle quicksilver mine at Red Hill and two of the world's largest wooden structures--the Lighter-Than-Air (LTA or blimp) hangars--at Marine Corps Air Station Tustin.

Seal Beach

9780738529806

$24.99

Situated along the Pacific Coast Highway, Seal Beach is the coastal portal between Los Angeles and Orange Counties. This vacation spot and largely residential community separates the City of Long Beach from the broad, open, southerly beaches of the OC--Sunset, Bolsa Chica, Huntington, Newport, Laguna, and beyond. The regional fame of Anaheim Landing and Anaheim Bay preceded the founding of Bay City, which became Seal Beach after too much mail intended for Bay City found its way to the "City by the Bay," San Francisco. In the early 20th century, the popular Joy Zone was a huge beachside amusement park in Seal Beach enjoyed by thousands of vacationers brought south by the Pacific Electric Red Car Line. This entertaining retrospective documents these landmarks, as well as local residents, events, Seal Beach Pier, the nearby U.S. Naval Weapons Station, and other points of interest.

Early Pomona

9780738547763

$24.99

The first settlers to carve the Pomona Valley out of the California wilderness were Ricardo Vejar and Ygnacio Palomares, who received land grants in 1837 for fighting for Mexico's independence. Nearly three decades after California was ceded to the United States, Southerners escaping the aftermath of the Civil War migrated to the area, and the city was incorporated in 1888. Pomona's landscape evolved from vast Mexican ranchos into prosperous vineyards and orchards, and later into one of Los Angeles's major suburbs. Pomona today is home to the world's largest county fair, the Los Angeles County Fair, as well as to California Polytechnic University and Western University of Health Sciences. The city boasts a thriving art colony, three historic districts, and a unique mix of architecture, including Victorian, Craftsman, transitional, and Spanish-style homes. The more than 150,000 Pomona residents pride themselves on a neighborly small-town flavor that belies the city's large population.

Mariposa County

9780738529493

$24.99

One of the original 27 counties of California, Mariposa County, located on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada and containing more than 900,000 acres, once covered one-fifth of the state and was considered the "Mother of California Counties." First inhabited by several Native American tribes, the land that became Mariposa County saw a flood of miners and other white settlers to the area with the discovery of gold in 1849. The county produced not only $48 million in gold, but also millions in copper, lead, zinc, and chromite, among other minerals. Now home to more than 20,000 residents, as well as most of the famous Yosemite National Park, Mariposa County takes pride in the history that lives in the Gold Rush buildings lining downtown Mariposa and Coulterville's main streets and still standing in early mining towns like Hornitos and Bear Valley.

Dixon

9780738529721

$24.99

The charming town of Dixon lies on the pastoral plains of Solano County. Its history stretches back to the 1850s and a settlement called Silveyville, where Elijah Silvey guided in pony express riders and stagecoaches with a red lantern swung from the porch of his hotel. When the California Pacific Railroad bypassed their young town to build a depot on Thomas Dickson's ranch, the cooperative citizens of Silveyville opted to move their buildings four miles to the station on log rollers, pulled by gangs of men and 40-mule teams. Legend has it that the first train schedules arrived with the name misspelled as "Dixon," but Thomas Dickson agreeably went along with the change. Now a town of almost 18,000, it is home to the Dixon May Fair, the oldest fair in the state, and the Lambtown, U.S.A. Festival. It remains, as it has throughout its history, the same cooperative, close-knit community.

Big Meadows and Lake Almanor

9781467132299

$24.99

Few among the thousands of vacationers who recreate on and around Lake Almanor each summer realize that beneath its waters lie the remains of a vanished way of life. This tiny Atlantis, Big Meadows, was a microcosm of the cultural forces and conflicts that racked the West in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Rich in natural resources, the Meadows sustained the lives of the native Maidu and the hundreds of encroaching whites who followed on the heels of the Lassen Trail immigrant parties. White men came seeking to exploit those precious resources for gold mining, stock raising, dairying, tourism, timber, and later, hydroelectric power. In the tumult of cultural and industrial change, a pastoral way of life was lost and a native culture vanquished.

Hermosa Beach

9780738529745

$24.99

Hermosa Beach has been one of Los Angeles County's most eclectic summertime destinations for vacationing families, surfers, sunbathers, fishermen, volleyball players, and other beachgoers. They ranged from students in search of one crazy summer to their spiritual forefathers and mothers who came, saw, and stayed year-round. The city grew through the 20th century from a train stop into a vital mix of residential housing with businesses strung along Pacific Coast Highway. The city has been homey enough to accommodate statesman William Jennings Bryant and television's iconic Ozzie and Harriet Nelson. Its nationally recognized nightclubs and other venues included the Biltmore Hotel; the Comedy & Magic Club; and the legendary Lighthouse, home of West Coast jazz.

Hercules

9780738574400

$24.99

The history of explosives manufacturing in Hercules began in 1879, when the California Powder Works acquired a site on San Pablo Bay, 20 miles northeast of San Francisco. The powder works, subsequently owned by Dupont and the Hercules Powder Company, produced one of the first internationally branded products: Hercules dynamite. It became the world's leading producer of TNT during World War I. The town of Hercules was incorporated in 1900, and for nearly 75 years its population remained under 300. The company-owned village had no retail district, but its employee clubhouse was the anchor for the city's social life. After the explosives plant closed, buildings comprising a small historic district were restored, while a diverse residential suburb grew rapidly around it. Hercules chronicles the city's industrial past and a vanishing way of life.

Filipinos in Ventura County

9780738574738

$24.99

Filipino immigrants came to Ventura County in the 1920s, beginning American lives mostly as farm laborers in work camps, notably the Arneill Ranch and Springville Ranch in Camarillo. They organized early societies like the Filipino Brotherhood Association of Ventura County, the Jordan Lodge 604 Legionarios del Trabajo, the Caballeros de Dimas Alang, the Filipino Optimist Club, and the Filipino Community of Ventura County. During World War II, Filipinos served in the 1st and 2nd Filipino Infantry Regiments of the U.S. Army. The omnipresence of the U.S. Navy in coastal Ventura prodded many second- and third-generation Filipinos to serve their country in Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, and the Persian Gulf. Today the same spirit of community engagement is illustrated in the 26 local Filipino organizations all under the umbrella of the Filipino American Council, which celebrates history, community, and culture.

Sam's Castle

9780738574868

$24.99

With romance, elegant parties, and dashing, uniformed gentlemen, this charming castle story is almost what one might expect. But add in dramatic police raids and rumors of bodies buried in the garden, and it becomes the very unique tale of Sam's Castle. Built in 1908 as a haven for the earthquake-rattled Henry Harrison McCloskey (grandfather of former congressman Pete McCloskey), the castle served as a home, speakeasy, rum-runner signaling station, abortion clinic, and U.S. Coast Guard lookout during World War II. Despite its turbulent history, however, this castle story has a happy ending. In the care of the Sam Mazza Foundation, the magnificent estate will remain a treasured Pacifica landmark for all to enjoy.

The Pomo of Lake County

9780738556048

$24.99

Secure in their isolated valley until the arrival of the white man, the Native Americans of Lake County and their ancestors lived for more than 12,000 years in this temperate Eden of abundance. The anthropologist who labeled them all by one name was mistaken though; the Pomo were actually 72 independent villages, or tribelets, that spoke at least seven distinct and mutually unintelligible languages. Theirs was a culture without war, without tyranny, without greed--until the Gold Rush. Like native plant seeds, they have blown and been carried and have taken root again and again. Though their history far predates the camera, the artifacts, stories, and historical images collected from this region and its inhabitants can portray, in part, their joy and pain and their powerful ability to change and endure.