California

By the 1500s, there were about 300,000 Natives living in CA; by 1900, only about 16,000 remained, the result of colonization by Mexico, Spain and the US.

Transportation eventually connected CA with the rest of the country: in 1869, the 1st transcontinental railroad was completed; in 1913, the 1st transcontinental highway was completed; in 1926, Route 66 opened up the western US.

In the 1940s, school districts drew lines discriminating against Hispanics.  Gonzalo and Felicita Mendez sued an Orange County school district over segregation and won, setting the stage for Brown v. Board of Education in the 1950s.

Death Valley sand dunes

Death Valley is North America's hottest, lowest and driest place, and includes Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America.

Various mountain ranges run the length of CA, catching the ocean influence in the west, where some of the world's largest trees grow, but creating deserts in the rain shadow of the eastern side.


CA is home to: (1) the world's oldest living thing - a 4,800-year-old bristlecone pine named Methuselah in the Inyo National Forest; (2) the world's tallest living tree - a 379' redwood named Hyperion in the Redwood National Park; (3) the world's largest tree - a 103'-diameter sequoia named General Sherman in the Sequoia National Park.

Hyperion

General Sherman

Methuselah

The San Andreas Fault (where 2 tectonic plates meet) is CA's longest, running about 800 miles from northern CA to Mexico.
Los Angeles County beats 42 of the US states in population.

Beginning in 2010, for the 1st time since the CA gold rush, CA-born residents are a majority of CA's population.  And by 2011, more than twice as many of CA's immigrants come from Asia as from Latin America.  CA has the US's highest percentage of Chinese and Vietnamese speakers and the 2nd highest percentage of Korean speakers.

CA has no majority ethnic group - all are less than 50% of the population.

Lombard Street in San Francisco is the world's crookedest street.

Lombard Street

Beach Boardwalk in Santa Cruz is CA's oldest amusement park; it includes a 1924 roller coaster and a 1911 Looff Carousel.

San Francisco was the birthplace of Ansel Adams, Clint Eastwood, Dian Fossey, Robert Frost, William Randolph Hearst, Steve Jobs, and Jack London - a wide array of talent.