Boron, California
Boron is a census-designated place in Kern County, United States. Boron is 15 miles southwest of Red Rock Mountain at an elevation of 2,467 feet; the population was 2,253 at the 2010 census, up from 2,025 at the 2000 census. Boron is named after the element boron and is the site of the world's largest source of the boron compound boric acid. Boron is a hinterland community on the western edge of the Mojave Desert. Within a half day's drive one can view the highest and lowest points in the contiguous 48 states of the United States, the world's oldest tree, the bristlecone pine, the cities of Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Boron is home to the U. S. Borax Boron Mine, California's largest open-pit mine, the largest borax mine in the world. 35°2′34.44″N 117°40′45.41″W Boron is on the border of Kern and San Bernardino Counties along State Route 58. The coordinates are: 34°59′58″N 117°38′59″W. Boron is 65 miles north of Palmdale, 85 miles east of Bakersfield, 40 miles west of Barstow in the Antelope Valley region of California's Mojave Desert.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 13.8 square miles, over 99 percent of its land. The 2010 United States Census reported that Boron had a population of 2,253; the population density was 163.0 people per square mile. The racial makeup of Boron was 1,746 White, 162 African American, 49 Native American, 47 Asian, 4 Pacific Islander, 141 from other races, 104 from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 406 persons; the census reported that 2,253 people lived in households, zero percent lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, none were institutionalized. There were 892 households, out of which 295 had children under the age of 18 living in them, 364 were opposite-sex married couples living together, 126 had a female householder with no husband present, 61 had a male householder with no wife present. There were 67 unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, three same-sex married couples or partnerships. 294 households were made up of individuals and 112 had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older.
The average household size was 2.53. There were 551 families; the population was spread out with 621 people under the age of 18, 173 people aged 18 to 24, 472 people aged 25 to 44, 691 people aged 45 to 64, 296 people who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39.3 years. For every 100 females, there were 106.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 107.1 males. There were 1,208 housing units at an average density of 87.4 per square mile, of which 505 were owner-occupied, 387 were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 3.2 percent. 1,246 people lived in owner-occupied housing units and 1,007 people lived in rental housing units. As of the census of 2000, there were 2,025 people, 801 households, 535 families residing in the CDP; the population density was 146.2 people per square mile. There were 1,103 housing units at an average density of 79.6 per square mile. The racial makeup of the CDP was 85.04 percent White, 2.22 percent Black or African American, 2.86 percent Native American, 1.58 percent Asian, 0.10 percent Pacific Islander, 4.74 percent from other races, 3.46 percent two or more races.
Nine percent of the population were Latino of any race. There were 801 households out of which 31.2 percent had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.7 percent were married couples living together, 10.2 percent had a female householder with no husband present, 33.1 percent were non-families. 29.1 percent of all households were made up of individuals and 9.9 percent had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.53 and the average family size was 3.11. In the CDP, the age distribution of the population shows 28 percent under the age of 18, 6.7 percent 18 to 24, 25.2 percent from 25 to 44, 26.9 percent from 45 to 64, 13.2 percent who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females, there were 100.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 101.0 males. The median income for a household in the CDP was $40,625, the median income for a family was $44,674. Males had a median income of $47,045 versus $23,854 for females.
The per capita income for the CDP was $18,294. About 15.2 percent of families and 19.7 percent of the population were below the poverty line, including 32.8 percent of those under age 18 and 19.4 percent of those age 65 or over. "Dr. J. K. Suckow was drilling a well for water 4.5 miles northwest of Boron when he discovered colemanite, a borax ore, in October 1913. After his discovery, mining claims placer, were staked in the area; the Pacific Coast Borax Company, upon recommendation of its field engineer, Clarence Rasor, acquired many of these claims, including the discovery well. The company started explorations to determine the extent of the ore body. Suckow continued working prospects east of his discovery well. "In 1924, anxious to repeat his good fortune, Suckow sank a shaft 0.5 miles away from his first, he st
Kern County, California
Kern County is a county in the U. S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 839,631, its county seat is Bakersfield. Kern County comprises California Metropolitan statistical area; the county spans the southern end of the Central Valley. Covering 8,161.42 square miles, it ranges west to the southern slope of the Coast Ranges, east beyond the southern slope of the eastern Sierra Nevada into the Mojave Desert, at the city of Ridgecrest. Its northernmost city is Delano and its southern reach expands just beyond Lebec to Grapevine and the northern tip of the parallel Antelope Valley; the county's economy is linked to agriculture and to petroleum extraction. There is a strong aviation and military presence, such as Edwards Air Force Base, the China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station, the Mojave Air and Space Port, it is one of the fastest-growing areas in the United States in terms of population growth, but suffers from significant water supply issues and poor air quality. The area was claimed by the Spanish in 1769.
In 1772 Commander Don Pedro Fages became the first European to enter it, from the south by way of the Grapevine Canyon. Kern County was the site of the Battle of San Emigdio, in March 1824, between the Chumash Indians of Mission Santa Barbara who rebelled against the Mexican government's taking over mission property and ejecting the natives; this battle with Mexican forces from Monterey under the command of Carlos Carrillo took place at the canyon where San Emigdio Creek flows down San Emigdio Mountain and the Blue Ridge south of Bakersfield near today's Highway 166. It was a low-casualty encounter, with only four Indians killed, no Mexicans. In the beginning, the area that became Kern County was dominated by mining in the mountains and in the desert. In 1855 an attempt to form a county in the area was made when the California legislature took the southeastern territory of Tulare County on the west of the Sierra Nevada Mountains for Buena Vista County, but it was never organized prior to 1859, when the enabling legislation expired.
The south of Tulare County was organized as Kern County in 1866, with additions from Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties. Its first county seat was in the mining town of Havilah, in the mountains between Bakersfield and Tehachapi; the flatlands were considered inhospitable and impassable at the time due to swamps, tule reeds and diseases such as malaria. This changed when settlers started draining lands for farming and constructing canals, most dug by hand by hired Chinese laborers. Within 10 years the valley surpassed the mining areas as the economic center of the county, the county seat was moved as a result from Havilah to Bakersfield in 1874; the discovery well of the Kern River Oil Field was dug by hand in 1899. Soon the towns of Oil City, Oil Center and Oildale came into existence; the county derives its name from the Kern River, named for Edward Kern, cartographer for General John C. Frémont's 1845 expedition; the Kern River was named Rio Bravo de San Felipe by Father Francisco Garcés when he explored the area in 1776.
Severe earthquakes have struck Kern County within historical times, including the 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake. On July 21, 1952, an earthquake occurred with the epicenter about 23 miles south of Bakersfield, it killed 12 people. In addition to the deaths, it was responsible for hundreds of injuries and more than $60 million in property damage; the main shock was felt over much of California and as far away as Phoenix and Reno, Nevada. The earthquake occurred on the White Wolf Fault and was the strongest to occur in California since the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Tehachapi suffered the greatest damage and loss of life from the earthquake, though its effects were felt throughout central and southern California; the event had a significant aftershock sequence that persisted into July and August with the strongest coming on August 22, an M5.8 event with a maximum perceived intensity of VIII and resulted in two additional deaths and an additional $10 million in property damage. Repercussions of the sequence of earthquakes were still being felt in the damaged downtown area of Bakersfield well into the 1990s as city leaders attempted to improve safety of the surviving non-reinforced masonry buildings.
Following the event, a field survey was conducted along the fault zone with the goal of estimating the peak ground acceleration of the shock based on visually evaluating precarious rock formations and other indicators. Ground disturbances that were created by the earthquakes were surveyed, both in the valley and in the foothills, with both vertical and horizontal displacements present in the epicenter area; the strong motion records that were acquired from the event were significant, a reconnaissance report was recognized for its coverage of the event, how it set a standard for those types of engineering or scientific papers. Between 1983 and 1986, several ritual sex ring child abuse cases occurred in Kern County, resulting in numerous long prison sentences, all of which were overturned—some of them decades because the prosecutors had coerced false testimonies from the purported child victims; the details of these false accusations are covered extensively in the 2008 documentary Witch Hunt, narrated by Sean Penn.
Kern county is considered to be a hotbed of country music the Bakersfield sound. The Buck Owens Crystal Palace is located in Bakersfield; the 2015 Disn
North American Numbering Plan
The North American Numbering Plan is a telephone numbering plan that encompasses twenty-five distinct regions in twenty countries in North America, including the Caribbean. Some North American countries, most notably Mexico, do not participate in the NANP; the NANP was devised in the 1940s by AT&T for the Bell System and independent telephone operators in North America to unify the diverse local numbering plans, established in the preceding decades. AT&T continued to administer the numbering plan until the breakup of the Bell System, when administration was delegated to the North American Numbering Plan Administration, a service, procured from the private sector by the Federal Communications Commission in the United States; each participating country forms a regulatory authority that has plenary control over local numbering resources. The FCC serves as the U. S. regulator. Canadian numbering decisions are made by the Canadian Numbering Administration Consortium; the NANP divides the territories of its members into numbering plan areas which are encoded numerically with a three-digit telephone number prefix called the area code.
Each telephone is assigned a seven-digit telephone number unique only within its respective plan area. The telephone number consists of a four-digit station number; the combination of an area code and the telephone number serves as a destination routing address in the public switched telephone network. For international call routing, the NANP has been assigned the international calling code 1 by the International Telecommunications Union; the North American Numbering Plan conforms with ITU Recommendation E.164, which establishes an international numbering framework. From its beginnings in 1876 and throughout the first part of the 20th century, the Bell System grew from local or regional telephone systems; these systems expanded by growing their subscriber bases, as well as increasing their service areas by implementing additional local exchanges that were interconnected with tie trunks. It was the responsibility of each local administration to design telephone numbering plans that accommodated the local requirements and growth.
As a result, the Bell System as a whole developed into an unorganized system of many differing local numbering systems. The diversity impeded the efficient operation and interconnection of exchanges into a nationwide system for long-distance telephone communication. By the 1940s, the Bell System set out to unify the various numbering plans in existence and developed the North American Numbering Plan as a unified, systematic approach to efficient long-distance service that did not require the involvement of switchboard operators; the new numbering plan was accepted in October 1947, dividing most of North America into eighty-six numbering plan areas. Each NPA was assigned a numbering plan area code abbreviated as area code; these codes were first used by long-distance operators to establish long-distance calls between toll offices. The first customer-dialed direct call using area codes was made on November 10, 1951, from Englewood, New Jersey, to Alameda, California. Direct distance dialing was subsequently introduced across the country.
By the early 1960s, most areas of the Bell System had been converted and DDD had become commonplace in cities and most larger towns. In the following decades, the system expanded to include all of the United States and its territories, Canada and seventeen nations of the Caribbean. By 1967, 129 area codes had been assigned. At the request of the British Colonial Office, the numbering plan was first expanded to Bermuda and the British West Indies because of their historic telecommunications administration through Canada as parts of the British Empire and their continued associations with Canada during the years of the telegraph and the All Red Line system. Not all North American countries participate in the NANP. Exceptions include Mexico, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, the Central American countries and some Caribbean countries; the only Spanish-speaking state in the system is the Dominican Republic. Mexican participation was planned, but implementation stopped after three area codes had been assigned, Mexico opted for an international numbering format, using country code 52.
The area codes in use were subsequently withdrawn in 1991. Area code 905 for Mexico City, was reassigned to a split of area code 416 in the Greater Toronto Area. Dutch-speaking Sint Maarten joined the NANP in September 2011, receiving area code 721; the NANP is administered by the North American Numbering Plan Administration. Today, this function is overseen by the Federal Communications Commission, which assumed the responsibility upon the breakup of the Bell System; the FCC solicits private sector contracts for the role of the administrator. The service was provided by a division of Lockheed Martin. In 1997, the contract was awarded to Neustar Inc.. In 2012, the contract was renewed until 2017. In 2015, the contract beginning 2017 was granted to Ericsson; the vision and goal of the architects of the North American Numbering Plan was a system by which telephone subscribers in the United States and Canada could themselves dial and establish a telephone call to any other subscriber wi
Mojave, California
Mojave is a census-designated place in Kern County, United States. Mojave is located 50 miles east at an elevation of 2,762 feet; the town is located in the southwestern region of the Mojave Desert and east of Oak Creek Pass and the Tehachapi Mountains. The population was 4,238 at the 2010 census, up from 3,836 at the 2000 census. Telephone numbers in Mojave follow the format 824-xxxx and the area includes three postal ZIP Codes; the town of Mojave began in 1876 as a construction camp on the Southern Pacific Railroad. From 1884 to 1889, the town was the western terminus of the 165-mile, twenty-mule team borax wagon route originating at Harmony Borax Works in Death Valley, it served as headquarters for construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct. Located near Edwards Air Force Base, Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, Palmdale Regional Airport, Mojave has a rich aerospace history as well. Besides being a general-use public airport, Mojave has three main areas of activity: flight testing, space industry development, aircraft heavy maintenance and storage.
The closest airfield to the city known as the Mojave Airport, is now part of the Mojave Air and Space Port. In 1935, Kern County established the Mojave Airport 0.5 miles east of town to serve the gold and silver mining industry in the area. The airport consisted of two dirt runways, one of, oiled, but it lacked any fueling or servicing facilities. In 1941, the Civil Aeronautics Board began improvements to the airport for national defense purposes that included two 4,500 by 150 foot asphalt runways and adjacent taxiway. Kern County agreed. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the U. S. Marine Corps took over the airport and expanded it into Marine Corps Auxiliary Air Station Mojave; the two existing runways were extended and a third one added. Barracks were constructed to house 2,734 376 female military personnel. Civilian employment at the base would peak at 176; the Marines would spend more than $7 million on the base, which totaled 2,312 acres. Many of the Corps' World War II aces received their gunnery training at Mojave.
During World War II, Mojave hosted 29 aircraft squadrons, four Carrier Aircraft Service Detachments, three Air Warning Squadrons. At its peak, the air station had other aircraft. Mojave had a 75 by 156 foot swimming pool, used to train aviators in emergency water egress and for recreation; the base's 900-seat auditorium hosted several USO shows that featured Bob Hope, Frances Langford and Marilyn Maxwell. With the end of WWII, MCAAS was dis-established on February 7, 1946. S. Navy Air Station was established the same day; the Navy used the airport for drone operations for less than a year, closing it on January 1, 1947. The base remained closed for four years until the outbreak of the Korean War. Mojave was reactivated as an auxiliary landing field to MCAS El Toro; the airport was recommissioned as a MCAAS on December 31, 1953. Squadrons used Mojave for ordnance training. Marine Corps reserve units were temporarily deployed to Mojave for two week periods. MCAAS Mojave personnel peaked at 200 civilians during this period.
In 1961, after the USMC transferred operations to MCAS El Centro, Kern County obtained title to the airport. In February 1972, the East Kern Airport District was formed to administer the airport. To a great extent EKAD was the brainchild of Dan Sabovich who lobbied the state for the airport district's creation and ran EKAD until 2002. During the 1970s, Mojave Airport was served by commuter air carrier Golden West Airlines with scheduled passenger flights operated with de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter turboprops direct to Los Angeles. On November 20, 2012, the EKAD Board of Directors voted to change the name of the district to the Mojave Air and Space Port. Officials said that the spaceport name is well known around the world; the change took effect on January 1, 2013. The airport is now the home of various aerospace companies and institutions such as Scaled Composites and the civilian National Test Pilot School; the town was home to the Rutan Voyager, the first aircraft to fly around the world nonstop and unrefueled.
The airport is the first inland spaceport in the United States, was the location of the first private spaceflight, the launch of SpaceShipOne on June 21, 2004. Mojave has a Mojave Transportation Museum. Mojave is located at 35°03′09″N 118°10′26″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 58.4 square miles, over 99% of it land. Mojave has a desert climate (Köppen: BWk, cold desert for using an isotherm of mean annual temperature of less than 18 °C or hot desert for using an isotherm of less than 0 °C for the mean temperature of the coldest month, it has cool winters. Average January temperatures are a maximum of 57.8 °F and a minimum of 34.3 °F. Average July temperatures are a maximum of 97.7 °F and a minimum of 69.8 °F. There are an average of 98 days with highs of 90 °F and an average of 45.7 days with lows of 32 °F. The record high temperature was 118 °F on August 5, 1914; the record low temperature was 8 °F on December 23, 1990. Average annual rainfall is 5.96 inches.
There are an average of 22 days with measurable precipitation. The wettest year was 1983 with 15.51 inches and the driest year was 1942 with 0.85 inches. The most rainfall in one month
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major political parties in the United States. The GOP was founded in 1854 by opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which had expanded slavery into U. S. territories. The party subscribed to classical liberalism and took ideological stands that were anti-slavery and pro-economic reform. Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican president in the history of the United States; the Party was dominant over the Democrats during the Third Party System and Fourth Party System. In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt formed the Progressive Party after being rejected by the GOP and ran unsuccessfully as a third-party presidential candidate calling for social reforms. After the 1912 election, many Roosevelt supporters left the Party, the Party underwent an ideological shift to the right; the liberal Republican element in the GOP was overwhelmed by a conservative surge begun by Barry Goldwater in 1964 that continued during the Reagan Era in the 1980s. After the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the party's core base shifted, with the Southern states becoming more reliably Republican in presidential politics and the Northeastern states becoming more reliably Democratic.
White voters identified with the Republican Party after the 1960s. Following the Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, the Republican Party made opposition to abortion a key plank of its national party platform and grew its support among evangelicals. By 2000, the Republican Party was aligned with Christian conservatism; the Party's core support since the 1990s comes chiefly from the South, the Great Plains, the Mountain States and rural areas in the North. The 21st century Republican Party ideology is American conservatism, which contrasts with the Democrats' liberal platform and progressive wing; the GOP supports lower taxes, free market capitalism, a strong national defense, gun rights and restrictions on labor unions. The GOP was committed to protectionism and tariffs from its founding until the 1930s when it was based in the industrial Northeast and Midwest, but has grown more supportive of free trade since 1952. In addition to advocating for conservative economic policies, the Republican Party is conservative.
Founded in the Northern states in 1854 by abolitionists, modernizers, ex-Whigs and ex-Free Soilers, the Republican Party became the principal opposition to the dominant Democratic Party and the popular Know Nothing Party. The party grew out of opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise and opened Kansas Territory and Nebraska Territory to slavery and future admission as slave states; the Northern Republicans saw the expansion of slavery as a great evil. The first public meeting of the general anti-Nebraska movement, at which the name Republican was suggested for a new anti-slavery party, was held on March 20, 1854 in a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin; the name was chosen to pay homage to Thomas Jefferson's Republican Party. The first official party convention was held on July 1854 in Jackson, Michigan. At the 1856 Republican National Convention, the party adopted a national platform emphasizing opposition to the expansion of slavery into U. S. territories. While Republican candidate John C.
Frémont lost the 1856 United States presidential election to James Buchanan, he did win 11 of the 16 northern states. The Republican Party first came to power in the elections of 1860 when it won control of both houses of Congress and its candidate, former congressman Abraham Lincoln, was elected President. In the election of 1864, it united with War Democrats to nominate Lincoln on the National Union Party ticket. Under Republican congressional leadership, the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution—which banned slavery in the United States—passed the Senate in 1864 and the House in 1865; the party's success created factionalism within the party in the 1870s. Those who felt that Reconstruction had been accomplished, was continued to promote the large-scale corruption tolerated by President Ulysses S. Grant, ran Horace Greeley for the presidency; the Stalwart faction defended Grant and the spoils system, whereas the Half-Breeds pushed for reform of the civil service. The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act was passed in 1883.
The Republican Party supported hard money, high tariffs to promote economic growth, high wages and high profits, generous pensions for Union veterans, the annexation of Hawaii. The Republicans had strong support from pietistic Protestants, but they resisted demands for Prohibition; as the Northern postwar economy boomed with heavy and light industry, mines, fast-growing cities, prosperous agriculture, the Republicans took credit and promoted policies to sustain the fast growth. The GOP was dominant over the Democrats during the Third Party System. However, by 1890 the Republicans had agreed to the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Interstate Commerce Commission in response to complaints from owners of small businesses and farmers; the high McKinley Tariff of 1890 hurt the party and the Democrats swept to a landslide in the off-year elections defeating McKinley himself. The Democrats elected Grover Cleveland in 1884 and 1892; the election of William McKinley in 1896 was marked by a resurgence of Republican dominance that lasted until 1932.
McKinley promised that high tariffs would end the severe hardship caused by the Pa
Los Angeles
Los Angeles the City of Los Angeles and known by its initials L. A. is the most populous city in California, the second most populous city in the United States, after New York City, the third most populous city in North America. With an estimated population of four million, Los Angeles is the cultural and commercial center of Southern California; the city is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity and the entertainment industry, its sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles is the largest city on the West Coast of North America. Los Angeles is in a large basin bounded by the Pacific Ocean on one side and by mountains as high as 10,000 feet on the other; the city proper, which covers about 469 square miles, is the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the country. Los Angeles is the principal city of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second largest in the United States after that of New York City, with a population of 13.1 million. It is part of the Los Angeles-Long Beach combined statistical area the nation's second most populous area with a 2015 estimated population of 18.7 million.
Los Angeles is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States, with a diverse economy in a broad range of professional and cultural fields. Los Angeles is famous as the home of Hollywood, a major center of the world entertainment industry. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index and 9th in the Global Economic Power Index; the Los Angeles metropolitan area has a gross metropolitan product of $1.044 trillion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. Los Angeles hosted the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics and will host the event for a third time in 2028; the city hosted the Miss Universe pageant twice, in 1990 and 2006, was one of 9 American cities to host the 1994 FIFA men's soccer World Cup and one of 8 to host the 1999 FIFA women's soccer World Cup, hosting the final match for both tournaments. Home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California.
The city was founded on September 4, 1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence. In 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4, 1850, five months before California achieved statehood; the discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, delivering water from Eastern California assured the city's continued rapid growth; the Los Angeles coastal area was settled by the Chumash tribes. A Gabrieleño settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning "poison oak place". Maritime explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo claimed the area of southern California for the Spanish Empire in 1542 while on an official military exploring expedition moving north along the Pacific coast from earlier colonizing bases of New Spain in Central and South America.
Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2, 1769. In 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. On September 4, 1781, a group of forty-four settlers known as "Los Pobladores" founded the pueblo they called El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles,'The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels'; the present-day city has the largest Roman Catholic Archdiocese in the United States. Two-thirds of the Mexican or settlers were mestizo or mulatto, a mixture of African and European ancestry; the settlement remained a small ranch town for decades, but by 1820, the population had increased to about 650 residents. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the historic district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street, the oldest part of Los Angeles. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, the pueblo continued as a part of Mexico.
During Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta California's regional capital. Mexican rule ended during the Mexican–American War: Americans took control from the Californios after a series of battles, culminating with the signing of the Treaty of Cahuenga on January 13, 1847. Railroads arrived with the completion of the transcontinental Southern Pacific line to Los Angeles in 1876 and the Santa Fe Railroad in 1885. Petroleum was discovered in the city and surrounding area in 1892, by 1923, the discoveries had helped California become the country's largest oil producer, accounting for about one-quarter of the world's petroleum output. By 1900, the population had grown to more than 102,000; the completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, under the supervision of William Mulholland, assured the continued growth of the city. Due to clauses in the city's charter that prevented the City of Los Angeles from selling or providing water from the aqueduct to any area outside its borders, many adjacent city and communities became compelled to annex themselves into Los Angeles.
Los Angeles created the first municipal zoning ordinance in the United States. On September 14, 1908, the Los Angeles City Council promulgated residential and industrial land use zones; the new ordinance established three residential zones of a single type, where industrial uses were
Death Valley National Park
Death Valley National Park is an American national park that straddles the California—Nevada border, east of the Sierra Nevada. The park boundaries include Death Valley, the northern section of Panamint Valley, the southern section of Eureka Valley, most of Saline Valley; the park occupies an interface zone between the arid Great Basin and Mojave deserts, protecting the northwest corner of the Mojave Desert and its diverse environment of salt-flats, sand dunes, valleys and mountains. Death Valley is the largest national park in the lower 48 states, the hottest and lowest of all the national parks in the United States; the second-lowest point in the Western Hemisphere is in Badwater Basin, 282 feet below sea level. 91% of the park is a designated wilderness area. The park is home to many species of plants and animals that have adapted to this harsh desert environment; some examples include creosote bush, bighorn sheep and the Death Valley pupfish, a survivor from much wetter times. UNESCO included Death Valley as the principal feature of its Mojave and Colorado Deserts Biosphere Reserve in 1984.
A series of Native American groups inhabited the area from as early as 7000 BC, most the Timbisha around 1000 AD who migrated between winter camps in the valleys and summer grounds in the mountains. A group of European-Americans, trapped in the valley in 1849 while looking for a shortcut to the gold fields of California, gave the valley its name though only one of their group died there. Several short-lived boom towns sprang up during the late 19th and early 20th centuries to mine gold and silver; the only long-term profitable ore to be mined was borax, transported out of the valley with twenty-mule teams. The valley became the subject of books, radio programs, television series, movies. Tourism expanded in the 1920s when resorts were built around Furnace Creek. Death Valley National Monument was declared in 1933 and the park was expanded and became a national park in 1994; the natural environment of the area has been shaped by its geology. The valley is a graben with the oldest rocks being extensively metamorphosed and at least 1.7 billion years old.
Ancient, shallow seas deposited marine sediments until rifting opened the Pacific Ocean. Additional sedimentation occurred; the subduction created a line of volcanoes. The crust started to pull apart, creating the current Basin and Range landform. Valleys filled with sediment and, during the wet times of glacial periods, with lakes, such as Lake Manly. In 2013, Death Valley National Park was designated as a dark sky park by the International Dark-Sky Association. There are two major valleys in Death Valley and Panamint Valley. Both of these valleys were formed within the last few million years and both are bounded by north–south-trending mountain ranges; these and adjacent valleys follow the general trend of Basin and Range topography with one modification: there are parallel strike-slip faults that perpendicularly bound the central extent of Death Valley. The result of this shearing action is additional extension in the central part of Death Valley which causes a slight widening and more subsidence there.
Uplift of surrounding mountain ranges and subsidence of the valley floor are both occurring. The uplift on the Black Mountains is so fast that the alluvial fans there are small and steep compared to the huge alluvial fans coming off the Panamint Range. Fast uplift of a mountain range in an arid environment does not allow its canyons enough time to cut a classic V-shape all the way down to the stream bed. Instead, a V-shape ends at a slot canyon halfway down, forming a'wine glass canyon.' Sediment is deposited on a steep alluvial fan. At 282 feet below sea level at its lowest point, Badwater Basin on Death Valley's floor is the second-lowest depression in the Western Hemisphere, while Mount Whitney, only 85 miles to the west, rises to 14,505 feet; this topographic relief is the greatest elevation gradient in the contiguous United States and is the terminus point of the Great Basin's southwestern drainage. Although the extreme lack of water in the Great Basin makes this distinction of little current practical use, it does mean that in wetter times the lake that once filled Death Valley was the last stop for water flowing in the region, meaning the water there was saturated in dissolved materials.
Thus the salt pans in Death Valley are among the largest in the world and are rich in minerals, such as borax and various salts and hydrates. The largest salt pan in the park extends 40 miles from the Ashford Mill Site to the Salt Creek Hills, covering some 200 square miles of the valley floor; the best known playa in the park is the Racetrack, known for its moving rocks. Death Valley is the hottest and driest place in North America due to its lack of surface water and low relief, it is so the hottest spot in the United States that many tabulations of the highest daily temperatures in the country omit Death Valley as a matter of course. On the afternoon of July 10, 1913, the United States Weather Bureau recorded a high temperature of 134 °F at Greenland Ranch in Death Valley; this temperature stands as the highest ambient air temperature recorded at the surface of the Earth. Daily summer temperatures of 120 °F or greater are common, as well as below freezing nightly temperatur
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