Pinnacles National Park
Pinnacles National Park is an American national park protecting a mountainous area located east of the Salinas Valley in Central California, about five miles east of Soledad and 80 miles southeast of San Jose. The park's namesakes are the eroded leftovers of the western half of an extinct volcano that has moved 200 miles from its original location on the San Andreas Fault, embedded in a portion of the California Pacific Coast Ranges. Pinnacles is managed by the National Park Service and the majority of the park is protected as wilderness; the national park is divided by the rock formations into East and West Divisions, connected by foot trails. The east side has shade and water, the west has high walls; the rock formations provide for spectacular pinnacles. The park features unusual talus caves. Pinnacles is most visited in spring or fall because of the intense heat during the summer. Park lands are prime habitat for prairie falcons, are a release site for California condors that have been hatched in captivity.
Pinnacles was established as a national monument in 1908 by President Theodore Roosevelt, was redesignated as a national park by Congressional legislation in 2012, signed into law by President Barack Obama on January 10, 2013. Native Americans in the Pinnacles region comprised the Chalon and Mutsun groups of the Ohlone people, who left stone artifacts in the park; these native people declined with the arrival of the Spanish in the 18th century, who brought novel diseases and changes to the natives' way of life. The establishment of a Spanish mission at Soledad hastened the area's native depopulation through disease and dispersion. Archaeological surveys have found 13 sites inhabited by Native Americans, 12 of which antedate the establishment of the missions. One site is believed to be about 2000 years old; the last Chalon had died or departed from the area by 1810. From 1810 to 1865, when the first Anglo-American settlers arrived, the Pinnacles region was a wilderness without human use or habitation.
By the 1880s the Pinnacles known as the Palisades, were visited by picnickers from the surrounding communities who would explore the caves and camp. The first account of the Pinnacles region appeared in print in 1881. Between 1889 and 1891, newspaper articles shifted from describing excursions to the "Palisades" to calling them the "Pinnacles". Interest in the area rose to the point that the Hollister Free Lance sent a reporter to the Pinnacles, followed two months by a party of local officials. Investors came from San Francisco to consider placing a resort hotel there, but the speculation came to nothing. In 1894, a post office was established in Bear Valley. Schuyler Hain was the postmaster. Since at least one other Bear Valley was in California, the post office was named "Cook" after Mrs. Hain's maiden name. In 1924, the post office was renamed "Pinnacles". Schuyler Hain was a homesteader who arrived in the Pinnacles area in 1891 from Michigan, following his parents and eight siblings to Bear Valley.
His cousin, A. W. White, was a student at Stanford University, White brought G. K. Gilbert, one of his professors, to see the Pinnacles in 1893. Dr. Gilbert was impressed by the scenery, his comments inspired Hain to publicize the region. Hain led tours through the caves, advocating the preservation of the Pinnacles. Hain's efforts resulted in a 1904 visit by Stanford president David Starr Jordan, who contacted Fresno Congressman James C. Needham. Jordan and Needham, in turn, influenced Gifford Pinchot to advocate the establishment of the Pinnacles Forest Reserve to President Theodore Roosevelt, who proclaimed the establishment on July 8, 1906. Pinchot, interested in the management of forests for productive use rather than for preservation, advocated the use of the passed Antiquities Act to designate the scenic core of the area as Pinnacles National Monument, done by Roosevelt on January 16, 1908; this designation nominally passed control of the Pinnacles from the Department of Agriculture to the Department of the Interior, but the U.
S. Forest Service retained effective control of the area until circa 1911. In his efforts to promote the Pinnacles, Hain became convinced that the Pinnacles were an "extraordinary mountain" described by Captain George Vancouver and pictured by John Sykes in his book Voyage of Discovery, which documented the Vancouver Expedition. Hain began to refer to the mountain as "Vancouver's Pinnacles", a term, picked up by Sunset in a 1903 article. References to "Vancouver's Pinnacles" persisted until 1955, when analysis of the Sykes picture indicated that the mountain described by Vancouver was located near Fort Ord, within easy reach of the day trip described by Vancouver. First set aside as part of the Pinnacles Forest Reserve in 1906, Pinnacles has had several different federal management agencies, ranging from the U. S. Forest Service to the General Land Office and to the National Park Service. In 1908 President Theodore Roosevelt created Pinnacles National Monument with the power given him in the Antiquities Act of 1906.
The initial area designated under the Antiquities Act was 2,080 acres. The Forest Service relinquished control of the monument circa 1911, but no operating agency yet existed to receive it. No drivable roads existed into the park from communities like Hollister. Hollister boosters campaigned for federal funds for road-building. Congressman Everis A. Hayes made a trip into the Pinnacles in 1913 as part of the campaign for road funds. By 1914, primitive roads extended to Bear Valley; the National Park Service was fina
Sequoia National Park
Sequoia National Park is an American national park in the southern Sierra Nevada east of Visalia, California. The park was established on September 25, 1890 to protect 404,064 acres of forested mountainous terrain. Encompassing a vertical relief of nearly 13,000 feet, the park contains the highest point in the contiguous United States, Mount Whitney, at 14,505 feet above sea level; the park is south of, contiguous with, Kings Canyon National Park. UNESCO designated the areas as Sequoia-Kings Canyon Biosphere Reserve in 1976; the park is notable for its giant sequoia trees, including the General Sherman tree, the largest tree on Earth. The General Sherman tree grows in the Giant Forest, which contains five of the ten largest trees in the world; the Giant Forest is connected by the Generals Highway to Kings Canyon National Park's General Grant Grove, home of the General Grant tree among other giant sequoias. The park's giant sequoia forests are part of 202,430 acres of old-growth forests shared by Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.
The parks preserve a landscape that still resembles the southern Sierra Nevada before Euro-American settlement. Many park visitors enter Sequoia National Park through its southern entrance near the town of Three Rivers at Ash Mountain at 1,700 ft elevation; the lower elevations around Ash Mountain contain the only National Park Service-protected California Foothills ecosystem, consisting of blue oak woodlands, foothills chaparral, yucca plants, steep, mild river valleys. The region is home to abundant wildlife: bobcats, ground squirrels and mule deer are seen in this area, more reclusive mountain lions and the Pacific fisher are seen as well; the last California grizzly was killed in this park in 1922. The California Black Oak is a key transition species between the chaparral and higher elevation conifer forest. At higher elevations in the front country, between 5,500 and 9,000 feet in elevation, the landscape becomes montane forest-dominated coniferous belt. Found here are Ponderosa, Jeffrey and lodgepole pine trees, as well as abundant white and red fir.
Found here too are the giant sequoia trees, the most massive living single-stem trees on earth. Between the trees and summer snowmelts sometimes fan out to form lush, though delicate, meadows. In this region, visitors see mule deer, Douglas squirrels, American black bears, which sometimes break into unattended cars to eat food left by careless visitors. There are plans to reintroduce the bighorn sheep to this park; the vast majority of the park is roadless wilderness. 84 percent of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks is designated wilderness and is accessible only by foot or by horseback. Sequoia's backcountry offers a vast expanse of high-alpine wonders. Covering the highest-elevation region of the High Sierra, the backcountry includes Mount Whitney on the eastern border of the park, accessible from the Giant Forest via the High Sierra Trail. On a traveler's path along this 35-mile backcountry trail, one passes through about 10 miles of montane forest before reaching the backcountry resort of Bearpaw Meadow, just short of the Great Western Divide.
Continuing along the High Sierra Trail over the Great Western Divide via Kaweah Gap, one passes from the Kaweah River Drainage, with its characteristic V-shaped river valleys, into the Kern River drainage, where an ancient fault line has aided glaciers in the last ice age to create a U-shaped canyon, perfectly straight for nearly 20 miles. On the floor of this canyon, at least two days hike from the nearest road, is the Kern Canyon hot spring, a popular resting point for weary backpackers. From the floor of Kern Canyon, the trail ascends again over 8,000 ft to the summit of Mount Whitney. At Mount Whitney, the High Sierra Trail meets with the John Muir Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail, which continue northward along the Sierra crest and into the backcountry of Kings Canyon National Park; the area which now comprises Sequoia National Park was first home to "Monachee" Native Americans, who resided in the Kaweah River drainage in the Foothills region of the park, though evidence of seasonal habitation exists as high as the Giant Forest.
In the summertime, Native Americans would travel over the high mountain passes to trade with tribes to the East. To this day, pictographs can be found at several sites within the park, notably at Hospital Rock and Potwisha, as well as bedrock mortars used to process acorns, a staple food for the Monachee people. By the time the first European settlers arrived in the area, smallpox had spread to the region, decimating Native American populations; the first European settler to homestead in the area was Hale Tharp, who famously built a home out of a hollowed-out fallen giant sequoia log in the Giant Forest next to Log Meadow. Tharp allowed his cattle to graze the meadow, but at the same time had a respect for the grandeur of the forest and led early battles against logging in the area. From time to time, Tharp received visits from John Muir. Tharp's Log can still be visited today in its original location in the Giant Forest. However, Tharp's attempts to conserve the giant sequoias were at first met with only limited success.
In the 1880s, white settlers seeking to create a utopian society founded the Kaweah Colony, which sought economic success in trading Sequoia timber. However, Giant Sequoia trees, unlike
Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park
Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park is a United States national historical park located in Richmond, near San Francisco. The park preserves and interprets the legacy of the United States home front during World War II, including the Kaiser Richmond Shipyards, the Victory ship SS Red Oak Victory, a tank factory, housing developments and other facilities built to support America's entry into World War II. In particular, the role of women and African-Americans in war industries is explored and honored; the park is a "partnership park", meaning that no land or buildings are owned by the National Park Service, which only administers the park. This new National Park was established in 2000 and is still under development. Bus tours of the park began in 2007; the park has a visitor center in the restored Ford Building, with a number of permanent and temporary exhibits about the history of Richmond's wartime industries and workers. A film illustrates the home-front battle.
Rangers are available to answer questions, lead guided tours and conduct other interpretive programs. A self-guided auto tour with optional walking tour is available for downloading. In the summer of 2007, preliminary bus tours were begun with a new guideless model, which instead filled half of the bus with residents who spoke of their experiences from the time to put what are otherwise everyday streets for residents into a greater historical perspective; the Rosie the Riveter Memorial in Marina Bay Park is open year-round, dawn to dusk, as are the other Richmond city parks within the National Park's boundaries. The park's creation was spurred by the construction of a Rosie the Riveter memorial in a city shoreline park, to honor the "Rosies", women who made up much of the workforce at the shipyards; the four Richmond shipyards, with their combined 27 shipways, produced 747 ships, more than any other shipyard complex in the country. Richmond was home to 56 different war industries, more than any other city of its size in the United States.
The city grew nearly overnight from 24,000 people to 100,000 people, overwhelming the available housing stock, schools and community services. The effort behind the memorial was initiated by then-Councilwoman Donna Powers, it grew under Project Director Donna Graves to become the first national tribute to home front American women. The memorial is located at Marina Bay Park, the site of former Kaiser Richmond Shipyard #2, it is the length of a Liberty ship with a form of the ship being built. The simple metal pier represents the stern at the water's edge, a simple cylinder frame is the smoke stack, the bow is made of prefabricated parts similar to those assembled by the shipyard workers. A timeline of World War II is placed along the walkway running the length of the memorial. Interpretive panels within the structures present information on women's history, labor history, the home front; the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant was the largest assembly plant. One of only three tank depots in the entire country 49,000 jeeps were assembled and 91,000 other military vehicles were processed here.
Ford employed thousands of workers at the site during World War II, many of them women who were entering the work force for the first time. "Rosie the Riveter" was a period song representing these women. In mobilizing the wartime production effort to its full potential, Federal military authorities and private industry began to work together on a scale never seen before in American history; this laid the groundwork for what became known as the "military-industrial complex" during the Cold War years. Noted architect Albert Kahn is credited with the design of the Ford plant in Richmond. After World War II, Ford moved its Northern California factory to Milpitas, where it became known as the San Jose Assembly Plant; the plant building has been restored and now houses a variety of private businesses along with the NPS visitor center. The four Richmond Shipyards were part of the Kaiser Shipyards; the construction of 747 ships during the war here is a feat not equaled anywhere else in the world, before or since.
The park's Rosie memorial is located on the former grounds of Shipyard No. 2. Shipyard No. 3 is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Both Liberty and Victory ships were constructed here; these ships were completed in two-thirds the amount of time and at a quarter of the cost of the average of all other shipyards. The SS Robert E. Peary was assembled in less than five days as a part of a special competition among shipyards; the SS Red Oak Victory is a Victory ship preserved as a museum ship. It was one of 414 Victories built during World War II, but one of only a few of these ships to be transferred from the Merchant Marine to the U. S. Navy; the vessel issued cargo and munitions to various ships in the fleet throughout 1945. During a hazardous tour of duty in the Pacific, SS Red Oak Victory handled many tons of ammunition, supplying the fleet without a single casualty; the huge explosion of workers coming to live in cities like Richmond, caused intense strain on city infrastructure.
One of these strains was the severe lack of housing. Workers arriving in these expanding urban centers were forced to find what they could, they shared "hot beds", or just camped out. Atchison Village Housing Project is an example of the local-Federal collaboration that provided much needed housing and domesti
Point Reyes National Seashore
Point Reyes National Seashore is a 71,028-acre park preserve located on the Point Reyes Peninsula in Marin County, California. As a national seashore, it is maintained by the US National Park Service as an important nature preserve; some existing agricultural uses are allowed to continue within the park. Clem Miller, a US Congressman from Marin County wrote and introduced the bill for the establishment of Point Reyes National Seashore in 1962 to protect the peninsula from development, proposed at the time for the slopes above Drake's Bay. All of the park's beaches were listed as the cleanest in the state in 2010; the Point Reyes peninsula is a well defined area, geologically separated from the rest of Marin County and all of the continental United States by a rift zone of the San Andreas Fault, about half of, sunk below sea level and forms Tomales Bay. The fact that the peninsula is on a different tectonic plate than the east shore of Tomales Bay produces a difference in soils and therefore to some extent a noticeable difference in vegetation.
The small town of Point Reyes Station, although not located on the peninsula provides most services to it, though some services are available at Inverness on the west shore of Tomales Bay. The smaller town of Olema, about 3 miles south of Point Reyes Station, serves as the gateway to the Seashore and its visitor center, located on Bear Valley Road; the peninsula includes wild coastal beaches and headlands and uplands. Although parts of the Seashore are commercially farmed, parts are under the jurisdiction of other conservation authorities, the National Park Service provides signage and seeks to manage visitor impact on the entire peninsula and all of Tomales Bay; the Seashore administers the parts of the Golden Gate National Recreation area, such as the Olema Valley, that are adjacent to the Seashore. The northernmost part of the peninsula is maintained as a reserve for tule elk, which are seen there; the preserve is very rich in raptors and shorebirds. The Point Reyes Lighthouse attracts whale-watchers looking for the gray whale migrating south in mid-January and north in mid-March.
The Point Reyes Lifeboat Station is a National Historic Landmark. It is the last remaining example of a rail launched lifeboat station, common on the Pacific coast. Nova Albion, Francis Drake's 1579 campsite; this encompasses 5,965 acres along the coast of Drakes Bay. Kule Loklo, a recreated Coast Miwok village, is a short walk from the visitor center. More than 30,000 acres of the Point Reyes National Seashore are designated as the Phillip Burton Wilderness, named in honor of California Congressman Phillip Burton, who wrote the legislation creating the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and was instrumental in helping to pass the California Wilderness Act of 1984; the Point Reyes National Seashore attracts 2.5 million visitors annually. Hostelling International USA maintains a 45-bed youth hostel at the Seashore. Point Reyes National Seashore Association, formed in 1964, collaborates with the Seashore on maintenance and educational projects. Point Reyes State Marine Reserve & Point Reyes State Marine Conservation Area, Estero de Limantour State Marine Reserve & Drakes Estero State Marine Conservation Area and Duxbury Reef State Marine Conservation Area adjoin Point Reyes National Seashore.
Like underwater parks, these marine protected areas help conserve ocean wildlife and marine ecosystems. A large shellfish farm raising Japanese oysters, Crassostrea gigas, was located in Drakes Estero until, under court order, it closed down at end of 2014. Court appeals to keep the operation in place were dropped in December, 2014; the farm was purchased by the National Park Service in 1972, the agency issued a permit to allow the previous owner to continue operations for 40 years. The business was sold to a new owner in 2004, the Drakes Bay Oyster Company, informed by the NPS at the time of purchase that their permit to operate would not be renewed beyond the November 30, 2012 expiration date. A federal law enacted in 2009 authorized, but did not require, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to renew the permit; the NPS and conservation groups viewed the farm as an inappropriate and environmentally-insensitive use of the estero, designated a "potential wilderness area" by Congress. The farm's supporters argued that it was not ecologically harmful and was important to the local economy.
On November 29, 2012, Salazar announced that he would not renew the permit, citing the original intent of the Point Reyes Wilderness Act to designate the area as wilderness upon the removal of the oyster farm. Salazar visited the farm the previous week and personally phoned the farm's owner to give him the news; the oyster farm closure was challenged in U. S. District Court on January 25, 2013; the challenge was rejected by a federal court judge, who ruled that the law gave Salazar unfettered discretion to approve or deny a renewal of the permit. The California Coastal Commission voted on February 7, 2013 to unanimously approve cease and desist and restoration orders for violations of the California Coastal Act; the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected an appeal of the district court's decision, ruling on Sept. 3, 2013 that the oyster farm's owner had not shown a likelihood of success on the merits because Salazar had acted within his discretion in denying the permit.
An attempt to have the appeals court rehear the case was rejected on January 14, 2014 and a petition to the U
Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, California. As of 2013 the U. S. Census Bureau estimated Santa Cruz's population at 62,864. Situated on the northern edge of Monterey Bay, about 32 mi south of San Jose and 75 mi south of San Francisco, the city is part of the 12-county San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland Combined Statistical Area. Santa Cruz is known for its moderate climate, natural environment, redwood forests, alternative community lifestyles, liberal leanings, it is home to the University of California, Santa Cruz, a premier research institution and educational hub, as well as the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, an oceanfront amusement park operating continuously since 1907. The present-day site of Santa Cruz was the location of Spanish settlement beginning in 1791, including Mission Santa Cruz and the pueblo of Branciforte; the City of Santa Cruz was incorporated in 1866 and chartered in April 1876. Important early industries included lumber, gunpowder and agriculture.
Late in the 19th century, Santa Cruz established itself as a beach resort community. Prior to the arrival of Spanish soldiers and colonists in the late 18th century, Santa Cruz County was home to the Awaswas Natives; the misnomer Ohlone, while used to describe the native people of the Santa Cruz area, is a generalized name for the many diverse groups that lived in the region stretching from San Francisco to the Monterey Bay. The diverse and numerous tribes of this region were earlier referred to by the Spanish as Coastanoan; the term "Ohlone" has been used in place of "Costanoan" since the 1970s by some descendant groups and by most ethnographers and writers of popular literature. Awaswa was one of the eight Costanoan languages and made up a tribe of Native Americas living in Western Santa Cruz County, stretching north of Davenport to Rio Del Mar; the Awaswas tribe was made up of no more than one thousand people and their language is now extinct. The only remnants of their spoken language are three local place names: Aptos and Zayante.
The majority of Ohlone or Coastanoan tribes had no written language, lived in small villages scattered around the Monterey Bay and San Francisco Bay regions. Within fifty years of the Spaniards' arrival, the Ohlone or Coastanoan culture and way of life had disappeared in the Bay area. Today, two of the Coastanoan tribes, the Awaswa people'missionized' in Santa Cruz and the Mutsun people'missionized' at San Juan Bautista, have joined together as the Amah Mutsan Tribal Band in an effort to protect and maintain the authentic and distinct cultural history and practices; the first European land exploration of Alta California, the Spanish Portolà expedition led by Gaspar de Portolà, passed through the area on its way north, still searching for the "port of Monterey" described by Sebastian Vizcaino in 1602. The party forded the river and camped nearby on October 17, 1769. Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, traveling with the expedition, noted in his diary that, "This river was named San Lorenzo.".
Next morning, the expedition set out again, Crespi noted that, "Five hundred steps after we started we crossed a good arroyo of running water which descends from some high hills where it rises. It was named "El Arroyo de la Santisima Cruz, which translates as "The Stream of the Most Holy Cross"). In 1791, Father Fermín Lasuén continued the use of Crespi's name when he declared the establishment of La Misión de la Exaltación de la Santa Cruz for the conversion of the Awaswas of Chatu-Mu and surrounding Ohlone villages. Santa Cruz was the twelfth mission to be founded in California; the creek, however lost the name, is known today as Laurel Creek because it parallels Laurel Street. It is the main feeder of Neary Lagoon. In 1797, Governor Diego de Borica, by order of the Viceroy of New Spain, Miguel de la Grúa Talamanca y Branciforte, marqués de Branciforte, established the Villa de Branciforte, a town named in honor of the Viceroy. One of only three civilian towns established in California during the Spanish colonial period, the Villa was located across the San Lorenzo River, less than a mile from the Mission.
Its original main street is now North Branciforte Avenue. Villa de Branciforte lost its civic status, in 1905 the area was annexed into the City of Santa Cruz. In the 1820s, newly independent Mexico assumed control of the area. Following the secularization of the Mission in 1834, the government attempted to rename the community that had grown up around the Mission, to Pueblo de Figueroa; the pueblo designation was never made official, however. The new name didn't catch on and Santa Cruz remained Santa Cruz. Mission farming and grazing lands, which once extended from the San Lorenzo River north along the coast to today's Santa Cruz County border, were taken away and broken up into large land grants called ranchos; the grants were made by several different governors between 1834 and 1845. Only two ranchos were within the boundaries of today's city of Santa Cruz. Rancho Potrero Y Rincon de San Pedro Regalado consisted of flat, river-bottom pasture land north of Mission Hill. Rancho Tres Ojos de Agua was on the west side.
Three other rancho boundaries became part of the modern city limits: Rancho Refugio on the west. Rancho Carbonera on the north, Rancho Arroyo del Rodeo on the east. After secularization put most California land into private hands, immigran
Santa Cruz County, California
Santa Cruz County, California the County of Santa Cruz, is a county on the Pacific coast of the U. S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 262,382; the county seat is Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz County comprises the Santa Cruz–Watsonville, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area, included in the San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area; the county is on the California Central Coast, south of the San Francisco Bay Area region. The county forms the northern coast of the Monterey Bay, with Monterey County forming the southern coast. Santa Cruz County was one of the original counties of California, created in 1850 at the time of statehood. In the original act, the county was given the name of "Branciforte" after the Spanish pueblo founded there in 1797. A major watercourse in the county, Branciforte Creek, still bears this name. Less than two months on April 5, 1850, the name was changed to "Santa Cruz". Mission Santa Cruz, established in 1791 and completed in 1794, was destroyed by the 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake, but a smaller-scale replica was erected in 1931.
According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 607 square miles, of which 445 square miles is land and 162 square miles is water, it is the second-smallest county in California by land third-smallest by total area. Of California's counties, only San Francisco is physically smaller; the county is situated on a wide coastline with over 29 miles of beaches. It is a strip of about 10 miles wide between the coast and the crest of the Santa Cruz Mountains at the northern end of the Monterey Bay, it can be divided into four regions: the rugged "north coast". Agriculture is concentrated in the coastal lowlands of the county's southern ends. Most of the coastline is flanked by cliffs. Santa Cruz County is home to the following threatened or endangered species: California clapper rail – endangered California red-legged frog – threatened California tiger salamander – Central California DPS, threatened Coho salmon – Central California Coast ESU is endangered Marbled murrelet – threatened Mount Hermon June beetle – endangered Ohlone tiger beetle – endangered San Francisco garter snake – endangered Santa Cruz long-toed salamander – endangered Santa Cruz tarweed – threatened Smith's blue butterfly – endangered Southern sea otter – threatened Steelhead – Central California Coast DPS is threatened Tidewater goby – endangered Western snowy plover – threatened Yellow-billed cuckoo – threatened Zayante band-winged grasshopper – endangered Año Nuevo State Marine Conservation Area, Greyhound Rock State Marine Conservation Area and Natural Bridges State Marine Reserve are marine protected areas off the coast of Santa Cruz County.
Like underwater parks, these marine protected areas help conserve ocean wildlife and marine ecosystems. The county of Santa Cruz has experienced demographic fluctuations in recent history. Between 1990 and 2000, population increased 11.3%. This is not because of immigration or migration, but because of new births. In 1980, Santa Cruz county was 21% Latino, which rose to 28% in 1990 and 39% in 2000; the area between Watsonville in south Santa Cruz County and Salinas Valley of northern Monterey County is Latino. The 2010 United States Census reported Santa Cruz County had a population of 262,382; the racial makeup of Santa Cruz County was 190,208 White, 2,766 African American, 2,253 Native American, 11,112 Asian, 349 Pacific Islander, 43,376 from other races, 12,318 from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 84,092 persons; as of the census of 2000, there were 255,602 people, 91,139 households, 57,144 families residing in the county. The population density was 574 people per square mile.
There were 98,873 housing units at an average density of 222 per square mile. There were 91,139 households out of which 31.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.0% were married couples living together, 10.2% had a female householder with no husband present, 37.3% were non-families. 25.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.2% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.71 and the average family size was 3.25. In the county, the population was spread out with 23.8% under the age of 18, 11.9% from 18 to 24, 30.8% from 25 to 44, 23.5% from 45 to 64, 10.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 99.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.8 males. The median income for a household in the county was $53,998, the median income for a family was $61,941. Males had a median income of $46,291 versus $33,514 for females; the per capita income for the county was $26,396.
About 6.7% of families and 11.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 12.50% of those under age 18 and 6.30% of those age 65 or over. Santa Cruz county residents tend to be well-educated. 38.3% of residents age 25 and older hold a bachelor's degree at least higher than the national average of 27.2% and the state average of 29.5%. Santa Cruz County was a Republican stronghold for most of the 20th centuries.
San Mateo County, California
San Mateo County the County of San Mateo, is a county located in the U. S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 718,451; the county seat is Redwood City. San Mateo County is included in the San Calif.. Metropolitan Statistical Area, is part of the San Francisco Bay Area, the nine counties bordering San Francisco Bay, it covers most of the San Francisco Peninsula. San Francisco International Airport is located at the northern end of the county, Silicon Valley begins at the southern end; the county's built-up areas are suburban with some areas being urban, are home to several corporate campuses. San Mateo County was formed in 1856 after San Francisco County, one of the state's 18 original counties since California's statehood in 1850, was split apart; until 1856, San Francisco's city limits extended west to Divisadero Street and Castro Street, south to 20th Street. In response to the lawlessness and vigilantism that escalated between 1855 and 1856, the California government decided to divide the county.
A straight line was drawn across the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula just north of San Bruno Mountain. Everything south of the line became the new San Mateo County while everything north of the line became the new consolidated City and County of San Francisco, to date the only consolidated city-county in California; the consolidated city-county of San Francisco was formed by a bill introduced by Horace Hawes, signed by the governor on 19 April 1856. San Mateo County was organized on 18 April 1857 under a bill introduced by Senator T. G. Phelps; the 1857 bill defined the southern boundary of San Mateo County as following the south branch of San Francisquito Creek to its source in the Santa Cruz Mountains and thence due west to the Pacific Ocean, named Redwood City as the county seat. San Mateo County annexed part of northern Santa Cruz County in March 1868, including Pescadero and Pigeon Point. Although the forming bill named Redwood City the county seat, a May 1856 election marked by "unblushing frauds... perpetuated on an unorganized and wholly unprotected community by thugs and ballot stuffers from San Francisco" named Belmont the county seat.
The election results were declared illegal and the county government was moved to Redwood City, with land being donated from the original Pulgas Grant for the county government on 27 February 1858. Redwood City's status as county seat was upheld in two succeeding elections in May 1861 and 9 December 1873, defeating San Mateo and Belmont. Another election in May 1874 named San Mateo the county seat, but the state supreme court overturned that election on 24 February 1875 and the county seat has been in Redwood City since. San Mateo County bears the Spanish name for Saint Matthew; as a place name, San Mateo appears as early as 1776 in the diaries of Font. Several local geographic features were designated San Mateo on early maps including variously: a settlement, an arroyo, a headland jutting into the Pacific, a large land holding; until about 1850, the name appeared as San Matheo. The Japanese first arrived in San Mateo county and were part of a group guided by Ambassador Tomomi Iwakura back in 1872.
There were a number of all male Japanese students who came to San Mateo to learn English and many other helpful skills to bring back to Japan. These students were some of the first Japanese to join American students in the Belmont school for boys; these students had to work for their housing and food in the evenings. Many of the first Japanese immigrants were able to find jobs as gardeners and landscapers In San Mateo. Most of them had good educational background from their homelands, but their lack of knowing the English language made it difficult for them to find other jobs in the beginning. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 741 square miles, of which 448 square miles is land and 293 square miles is water, it is the third-smallest county in California by land area. A number of bayside watercourses drain the eastern part of the county including San Bruno Creek and Colma Creek. Streams draining the western county include Frenchmans Creek, Pilarcitos Creek, Naples Creek, Arroyo de en Medio, Denniston Creek.
These streams originate along the northern spur of the Santa Cruz Mountains that run through the county. The northern and north-east parts of the county are heavy densely populated with urban and suburban areas, with many of its cities as edge-cities for the Bay Area, whilst the deep south and the west central parts of the county are less heavy densely populated with more rural environment and coastal beaches areas. San Mateo County straddles the San Francisco Peninsula, with the Santa Cruz Mountains running its entire length; the county encompasses a variety of habitats including estuarine, oak woodland, redwood forest, coastal scrub and oak savannah. There are numerous species of wildlife present along the San Francisco Bay estuarine shoreline, San Bruno Mountain, Fitzgerald Marine Reserve and the forests on the Montara Mountain block. Several creeks discharge to the San Francisco Bay including San Mateo Creek and Laurel Creek and several coastal streams discharge to the Pacific Ocean such as Frenchmans Creek and San Vicente Creek.
Año Nuevo State Marine Conservation Area and Greyhound Rock State Marine Conservation Area are two adjoining marine protected areas off the coast of San Mateo County. Like underwater parks, these marine protected areas help conserve ocean wildlife and marine ecosystems; the county is home to several endangered species including the San Francisco garter snake and the San Bruno elfin butterfly, b
