Introduction

Virtually every kind of climate, land form, vegetation, and animal life that can be found anywhere else in the United States can be found in California, the Golden State. The third largest state stretches for more than 800 miles (1,290 kilometers) along the Pacific coast. It meets the sea with sandy beaches and rugged cliffs. Inland, past wooded coastal mountains, lie verdant valleys and arid deserts. Along the eastern border the towering Sierra Nevada thrusts jagged peaks far beyond the timberline. Among the mountains are the awesome forest habitats of the largest, the tallest, and the oldest living things on Earth.

Above the varied surface of the land, climates range from mountain to marine, and below the surface lie mineral resources in seldom-rivaled wealth. Early settlers were drawn by its minerals--most notably the gold discovered in the mid-1800s--and by the wealth of its forests, farmlands, and petroleum fields.

With the development of natural resources came a huge expansion in many kinds of manufacturing. This remarkable diversity of industry provides the bulk of the state's income. California gained worldwide fame as the center of American filmmaking, and by the 1960s it had become the heart of the television industry as well. California's Silicon Valley is the hub of innovations in the nation's computer and consumer electronics industries.

First colonized by Spain, California became a state in 1850. Since then, the appeal of its varied riches has made it the most populous state in the Union. With the people have come the ills of urbanization. California's cities were scarred by the violence of the 1960s--ghetto rioting and student demonstrations and civil rights protests. Pollutants of increasing toxicity continue to threaten the quality of life as they contaminate the air and water. Population centers gnaw steadily at the state's natural beauty and strain the financial resources of its government.

The name California was used officially in Spanish documents as early as 1542. It is believed to come from the description of a fabled island called California in a 16th-century Spanish novel, 'The Exploits of Esplandian', by Garcia Ordonez de Montalvo. This origin of the name was determined by the historian Edward Everett Hale. The nickname Golden State comes from its golden poppies, the state flower, as well as the gold discovered there in 1848.

People of California

The Native Americans who roamed the region were called Seed Gatherers. Their chief foods were roots and seeds. The Shasta, Pomo, Miwok, and Chumash Indian tribes lived along the coast, the Mojave in the southeast, and the Yokuts in the Central Valley.

After a series of conflicts with European settlers, the Native Americans in California were brought under control when the Modoc War ended in 1873. Today only about 10 percent of the state's American Indian population live on reservations. The counties with the largest American Indian populations are Los Angeles, San Diego, San Bernardino, and Orange--all in the southern part of the state.

Before the discovery of gold in 1848 the region was occupied by about 15,000 Spanish settlers. Their leisurely, rural civilization was quickly swept aside by a throng of Yankee Forty-niners. As the population continued to grow, California was settled by people from every state in the Union and from Mexico, Canada, Europe, and Asia--particularly Japanese and Chinese. Today the state leads in the number of inhabitants born in other states. Eight percent of its people are African Americans. The largest foreign-born groups have come from Mexico, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Asian immigration to California resurged in the 1980s--principally Filipinos, Indo-Chinese refugees, and South Koreans.

The heaviest concentration of population is in southern California. This section, made up of only five counties, has more people than the other 53 counties combined. It is also the fastest-growing part of the state.

Exploration and Settlement

The exploration of California began in 1542 when Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo anchored his ship in San Diego Bay and claimed the land for Spain. In 1579 Sir Francis Drake sailed his ship the Golden Hind up the coast beyond San Francisco Bay and claimed the land for England.

Spain's claim to California was strengthened in 1602 by Sebastian Vizcaino, who charted the coast. He gave many places their present names--San Diego, Santa Catalina, Santa Barbara, Monterey, and Carmel. Until the late 1700s Upper (Alta) California lay isolated behind its mountains and deserts. Then Spain began to send parties of colonists northward from Mexico to establish its claim to all of the Southwest and to block America's expansion westward. At the same time, the Russians were threatening to push south from Alaska. The pioneers who carried out the Spanish plan were Gaspar de Portola, a resourceful soldier, and Father Junipero Serra, a disabled Franciscan monk. In July 1769 they founded Mission San Diego de Alcala at the present site of San Diego.

During the next half-century 20 missions more were established up the coast along El Camino Real--each a day's journey from the next. The last to be built, and the one farthest north, was San Francisco de Solano at Sonoma in 1823. The chain of missions became the backbone of the social, agricultural, and industrial life of Spanish California. Pueblos (civilian towns) grew up around them. Great ranchos with herds of cattle and sheep were staked out nearby. Much of the work on the ranches and in the missions was done by Native Americans whom the Spaniards had Christianized.

From Mexican to American Rule

Soon after Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821 the work of the Franciscans was halted. The missions were secularized--that is, the church lands were seized by the state--and the fields were left untended. During this time the American influence in California increased steadily. Yankee sea captains were stopping at coastal harbors to trade. Inland, Jedediah Smith and Joseph Walker blazed trails from the East for fur traders and trappers.

The Russians built Fort Ross near the Russian River north of San Francisco. They collected supplies for their Alaskan settlement until 1841, when the fort was sold to a resourceful American pioneer, Capt. John A. Sutter. At this time Sutter ruled like a feudal lord over 97,000 acres (39,000 hectares) of land in the Sacramento Valley. Many Americans rested there after the difficult journey overland into California. In 1847 Sutter's guides helped to rescue 45 survivors of the original 87 members of the Donner party, which was trapped in the snows of the Sierra Nevada.

Much of the work of separating California from Mexico was done by John C. Fremont. In 1845 Fremont led his second military expedition to the Pacific coast, and the next year American settlers at Sonoma revolted against Mexican rule. They raised the Bear Flag as the banner of the California Republic and joined the United States war against Mexico. An invading army under Gen. Stephen Watts Kearny helped win control of California. By the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo California was included in the territory ceded to the United States. Two years later it became the 31st state as part of the Compromise of 1850.

Statehood

Even before California became a state, its rapid growth was assured. On Jan. 24, 1848, James Wilson Marshall found gold at Sutter's sawmill along the American River near Coloma. This started the famous California gold rush of '49. Americans swarmed to the coast overland by prairie schooner, around South America's Cape Horn by ship, and by way of the Isthmus of Panama.

San Francisco's population soared from 800 in 1848 to 25,000 in 1850. Stores, saloons, dance halls, and gambling dens sprang up overnight to serve the thousands of miners from the goldfields. Other newcomers turned to homesteading and settled as squatters on former Spanish and Mexican ranches.

The opening of the first transcontinental railroad encouraged immigration on a still larger scale after 1869. There was a depression in the 1870s, but people continued to pour into the state. Much of the population increase was due to the development of irrigated farming. The first trainload of oranges was shipped from Los Angeles to Eastern markets in 1886.

During the first half of the 20th century California suffered several setbacks--the disastrous earthquake and fire in San Francisco in 1906; a series of immigration and labor conflicts; a flood of homeless farm families from the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression of the 1930s; and the senseless internment of Japanese American families during World War II. The 1960s were marked by race riots in the Watts ghetto of Los Angeles; free-speech demonstrations at Berkeley; and attempts by Native Americans to reclaim Alcatraz Island. Nevertheless the state continued to grow in a spectacular manner.

The increase in population each decade since 1900 has far surpassed the growth during the gold rush era. From 1970 to 1980 the population increased by 3,715,428 for 18.6 percent--a growth greater than that of any state in numbers and 18th in percentage of increase. Between 1980 and 1990 the growth rate was even higher as the population increased by 26 percent.

Some of the newcomers were trying to escape harsh winter climates and dead-end jobs. Others wanted to experience first hand the vaunted California life-style of a casual culture and conspicuous consumption. Whatever they were looking for, they have found one of the country's worst housing shortages and an overpriced standard of living. Still, the population growth continued.

Some Notable Events in California History

1542. Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo enters San Diego Bay.

1579. Sir Francis Drake claims New Albion for England.

1602. Sebastian Vizcaino maps coast.

1697. Jesuits found mission at Loreto in Baja California.

1701. Father Eusebio Kino crosses Colorado River; works with Indians of Alta California.

1767. Spain's King Charles III orders Jesuits out of California; assigns missionary work to Franciscans.

1769. Father Junipero Serra and Don Gaspar de Portola found mission at San Diego, first of 21 missions built by 1823; expedition sights San Francisco Bay.

1776. Juan Bautista de Anza settles at San Francisco.

1777. San Jose is first town established in California.

1812. Russians build Fort Ross.

1822. California declares its independence from Spain.

1825. Mexico claims California as a territory.

1839. Capt. John Sutter settles at present Sacramento.

1841. John Bidwell and John Bartleson lead first organized party of United States settlers into California. Commercial orange grove planted; introduction of navel orange at Riverside in 1873 spurs industry.

1845. John C. Fremont leads second military expedition to California.

1846. American settlers seize Sonoma; raise Bear Flag of California Republic. Comdr. John D. Sloat claims California for United States.

1847. Americans win last battle of rebellion at La Mesa.

1848. Mexico cedes California to United States. Gold found at Sutter's sawmill; gold rush starts in 1849.

1850. California becomes 31st state, September 9; governor, Peter H. Burnett; Sacramento made capital in 1854; constitution adopted in 1879.

1861. Telegraph links California with East coast.

1863. Work on Central Pacific Railroad begins.

1868. University of California founded at Berkeley.

1874. Present State Capitol completed.

1890. Yosemite National Park created.

1906. Earthquake and fire ruin San Francisco.

1907. Japanese immigration limited.

1908. California's first commercial motion picture filmed in Los Angeles; first in Hollywood, in 1911.

1913. Webb act bans aliens from owning farmland. Owens River Aqueduct completed; Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, in 1931; Colorado River Aqueduct, in 1941.

1929. Herbert Hoover of Palo Alto becomes 31st president of United States.

1932. Los Angeles is site of Olympics.

1936. San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge completed.

1937. Golden Gate Bridge opened.

1942. Japanese submarine shells coast near Ellwood.

1945. United Nations Charter drawn up at San Francisco. Shasta Dam completed.

1951. Japanese Peace Conference held in San Francisco.

1953. Gov. Earl Warren appointed chief justice of United States.

1957. Richmond-San Rafael Bridge completed.

1960. Winter Olympic Games held at Squaw Valley.

1965. Student demonstrations for free speech on Berkeley campus attract nationwide attention. Racial violence erupts in Watts section of Los Angeles.

1967. San Mateo-Hayward Bridge opens. Dams completed: Oroville (Feather River) and Exchequer and San Luis (Merced River).

1968. Redwood National Park dedicated.

1969. Richard M. Nixon, born 1913 in Yorba Linda, becomes 37th president of United States; reelected 1972; resigns 1974. American Indians occupy Alcatraz island.

1971. Los Angeles hit by earthquake.

1976. Legislature passes nation's first right-to-die law.

1978. Voters approve Proposition 13, mandating a cut in property taxes and limits on tax increases.

1984. Summer Olympic Games held in Los Angeles.

1988. California condor egg, a product of captive mating, hatches successfully at San Diego Wild Animal Park. Worst skyscraper fire in history of Los Angeles causes one death and $450 million in damage to First Interstate Bank building.

1989. Northern region--including San Francisco, Oakland, Santa Cruz, and San Jose--hit by earthquake; $7 billion in damages.

1990. United States Fish and Wildlife Service classifies the Northern spotted owl as a threatened species forcing possible cutbacks in logging operations in Pacific Northwest.

1991. One of the costliest fires in United States history causes 24 deaths and more than $1.5 billion in damages in hills above Berkeley-Oakland.

1992. Violent riots erupt in south-central Los Angeles after acquittal of four white city policemen on brutality charges; $1 billion in damages. Two severe earthquakes (7.5 and 6.6 on the Richter scale) and more than 50 aftershocks in San Bernardino mountains cause $16 million in damages and one death.

State Symbols

FLAG. California's state flag was adopted on Feb. 3, 1911. It is based upon the Bear Flag that flew over the California Republic from June 14 to July 9, 1846. The original flag, designed by William Todd, was first raised at Sonoma. Both flags show the brown California grizzly as a symbol of strength. The red of the star and bar symbolizes courage, and the star itself represents sovereignty. A white background was used to suggest purity.

SEAL. The great seal is the fourth version of a design adopted in 1849, the year before California became a state. The semicircle of 31 stars represents the number of states in the Union after California's admission. Details include the state motto; the Roman goddess Minerva; a grizzly bear, which is the state animal; a gold miner; and ships in a mountain-rimmed harbor.

TREE. California Redwood

FLOWER. Golden Poppy

BIRD. California Valley Quail

MAMMAL. California Grizzly Bear

MARINE MAMMAL. California Gray Whale

REPTILE. California Desert Tortoise

FISH. Golden Trout

INSECT. California Dog-face Butterfly

FOSSIL. Saber-toothed Cat

MINERAL. Native Gold

ROCK. Serpentine