1.
Humboldt County, California
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Humboldt County is a county in the U. S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 134,623, Humboldt County comprises the Eureka–Arcata–Fortuna, CA Micropolitan Statistical Area. It is located on the far North Coast ~270 miles north of San Francisco, Area cities and towns are known for hundreds of ornate examples of Victorian architecture. Humboldt County is a forested mountainous, and rural county with about 110 miles of coastline situated along the Pacific coast in Northern Californias rugged Coast Ranges. Andrés de Urdaneta found the coast near Cape Mendocino then followed the coast south to Acapulco in 1565, Spanish traders made unintended visits to California with the Manila Galleons on their return trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565. Humboldt County was formed in 1853 from parts of Trinity County, the first recorded entry by people of European origin was a landing by the Spanish in 1775 in Trinidad. The first recorded entry of Humboldt Bay by non-natives was an 1806 visit from a sea otter hunting party from Sitka employed by the Russian American Company, the hunting party included Captain Jonathan Winship, an American, and some Aleut hunters. The bay was not visited again by people of European origin until 1849 when Josiah Greggs party visited, the area around Humboldt Bay was once solely inhabited by the Wiyot Indian tribe. One of the largest Wiyot villages, Tolowot, was located on Indian Island in Humboldt Bay, founded around 900 BC, it contains a shell midden 6 acres in size and 14 feet deep. It was the site of the February 26,1860 massacre of the Wiyot people that was recorded by Bret Harte, then living in Union, between 60 and 200 Wiyot men, women, and children were murdered that night. Tolowot is now a site and a National Historic Landmark. They were put on two steamships and shipped to San Francisco, no-one was killed in the expulsion. Another Chinese expulsion occurred during 1906 in a cannery on the Eel River, however, some Chinese remained in the Orleans area, where some white landowners sheltered and purchased food for the Chinese mineworkers until after racial tension passed. Chinese did not return to the cities until the 1950s. The coastal zone of the county experiences very wet, cool winters and dry, in the winter, temperatures range from highs of 40–59 °F to lows of 32–49 °F. Coastal summers are cool to mild, with highs of 60–69 °F. Coastal summer temperatures range from highs of 64–70 °F to lows of 46–55 °F, in these locations summer highs are 70–75 °F. The coastal zone experiences a number of frosty nights in winter and early spring, though snowfall, coastal winters are cool and wet
2.
State park
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State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use state as a political subdivision. State parks are established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural beauty, historic interest. There are state parks under the administration of the government of each U. S. state, some of the Mexican states, the term is also used in the Australian state of Victoria. The equivalent term used in Canada, Argentina, South Africa, similar systems of local government maintained parks exist in other countries, but the terminology varies. State parks are thus similar to parks, but under state rather than federal administration. Similarly, local government entities below state level may maintain parks, in general, state parks are smaller than national parks, with a few exceptions such as the Adirondack Park in New York and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in California. As of 2014, there were 10,234 state park units in the United States, there are some 739 million annual visits to the countrys state parks. The NASPD further counts over 43,000 miles of trail,217,367 campsites, many states include designations beyond state park in their state parks systems. Other designations might be state recreation areas, state beaches, some state park systems include long-distance trails and historic sites. The title of oldest state park in the United States is claimed by Niagara Falls State Park in New York, however several public parks previously or currently maintained at the state level pre-date it. Indian Springs State Park has been operated continuously by the state of Georgia as a park since 1825. In 1864 Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove were ceded by the government to California until Yosemite National Park was proclaimed in 1890. In 1878 Wisconsin set aside a vast swath of its forests as The State Park but, needing money. The first state park with the designation of state park was Mackinac Island State Park in 1895, list of U. S. state parks National Association of State Park Directors Wilderness preservation systems in the United States Ahlgren, Carol. The Civilian Conservation Corps and Wisconsin State Park Development, the State Park Movement in America, A Critical Review excerpt and text search Larson, Zeb. Silver Falls State Park and the Early Environmental Movement, oregon Historical Quarterly 112#1 pp, 34-57 in JSTOR Newton, Norman T. When Forests Trumped Parks, The Maryland Experience, 1906-1950, Maryland Historical Magazine 101#2 pp, 203-224
3.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
4.
Old-growth forest
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Old-growth features include diverse tree-related structures that provide diverse wildlife habitat that increases the biodiversity of the forested ecosystem. The concept of tree structure includes multi-layered canopies and canopy gaps, greatly varying tree heights and diameters. Old-growth forests are valuable, and logging of these forests has been a point of contention between the logging industry and environmentalists. Old-growth forests tend to have trees and standing dead trees, multi-layered canopies with gaps that result from the deaths of individual trees. Depending on the forest, this may take anywhere from a century to several millennia, hardwood forests of the eastern United States can develop old-growth characteristics in one or two generations of trees, or 150–500 years. In British Columbia, Canada, old growth is defined as 120 to 140 years of age in the interior of the province where fire is a frequent and natural occurrence. In British Columbia’s coastal rainforests, old growth is defined as more than 250 years. In Australia, eucalypt trees rarely exceed 350 years of age due to frequent fire disturbance, Forest types have very different development patterns, natural disturbances and appearances. Levels of biodiversity may be higher or lower in old-growth forests compared to that in second-growth forests, depending on circumstances, environmental variables. Logging in old-growth forests is an issue in many parts of the world. Excessive logging reduces biodiversity, affecting not only the old-growth forest itself, a forest in old-growth stage has a mix of tree ages, due to a distinct regeneration pattern for this stage. New trees regenerate at different times from other, because each one of them has different spatial location relative to the main canopy. The mixed age of the forest is an important criterion in ensuring that the forest is a stable ecosystem in the long term. A climax stand that is uniformly aged becomes senescent and degrades within a relatively short time-period to result in a new cycle of forest succession, thus, uniformly aged stands are a less stable ecosystem. Forest canopy gaps are essential in creating and maintaining mixed-age stands, also, some herbaceous plants only become established in canopy openings, but persist beneath an understory. Openings are a result of death due to small impact disturbances such as wind, low-intensity fires. Because old-growth forest is structurally diverse it provides higher-diversity habitat than forests in other stages, thus, sometimes higher biological diversity can be sustained in old-growth forest, or at least a biodiversity that is different from other forest stages. The characteristic topography of much old-growth forest consists of pits and mounds, mounds are caused by decaying fallen trees, and pits by the roots pulled out of the ground when trees fall due to natural causes, including being pushed over by animals
5.
Sequoia sempervirens
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Sequoia sempervirens /sᵻˈkɔɪ. ə sɛmpərˈvaɪrənz/ is the sole living species of the genus Sequoia in the cypress family Cupressaceae. Common names include coast redwood, coastal redwood and California redwood and it is an evergreen, long-lived, monoecious tree living 1, 200–1,800 years or more. This species includes the tallest living trees on Earth, reaching up to 379 feet in height and these trees are also among the oldest living things on Earth. The name sequoia sometimes refers to the subfamily Sequoioideae, which includes S. sempervirens along with Sequoiadendron, here, the term redwood on its own refers to the species covered in this article, and not to the other two species. Scottish botanist David Don described the redwood as the evergreen taxodium in his colleague Aylmer Bourke Lamberts 1824 work A description of the genus Pinus, austrian botanist Stephan Endlicher erected the genus Sequoia in his 1847 work Synopsis coniferarum, giving the redwood its current binomial name of Sequoia sempervirens. The redwood is one of three living species, each in its own genus, in the subfamily Sequoioideae, molecular studies have shown the three to be each others closest relatives, generally with the redwood and giant sequoia as each others closest relatives. However, Yang and colleagues in 2010 queried the polyploid state of the redwood, further analysis strongly supported the hypothesis that Sequoia was the result of a hybridization event involving Metasequoia and Sequoiadendron. Thus, Yang and colleagues hypothesize that the inconsistent relationships among Metasequoia, Sequoia, the coast redwood can reach 115 m tall with a trunk diameter of 9 m. It has a crown, with horizontal to slightly drooping branches. The bark can be thick, up to 1-foot, and quite soft and fibrous, with a bright red-brown color when freshly exposed. The root system is composed of shallow, wide-spreading lateral roots, the leaves are variable, being 15–25 mm long and flat on young trees and shaded shoots in the lower crown of old trees. On the other hand, they are scale-like, 5–10 mm long on shoots in full sun in the crown of older trees. They are dark green above and have two blue-white stomatal bands below, leaf arrangement is spiral, but the larger shade leaves are twisted at the base to lie in a flat plane for maximum light capture. The species is monoecious, with pollen and seed cones on the same plant, the seed cones are ovoid, 15–32 millimetres long, with 15–25 spirally arranged scales, pollination is in late winter with maturation about 8–9 months after. Each cone scale bears three to seven seeds, each seed 3–4 millimetres long and 0.5 millimetres broad, the seeds are released when the cone scales dry out and open at maturity. The pollen cones are ovular and 4–6 millimetres long and its genetic makeup is unusual among conifers, being a hexaploid and possibly allopolyploid. Both the mitochondrial and chloroplast genomes of the redwood are paternally inherited, the prevailing elevation range is 98–2,460 ft above sea level, occasionally down to 0 and up to 3,000 ft. They usually grow in the mountains where precipitation from the incoming moisture off the ocean is greater, the tallest and oldest trees are found in deep valleys and gullies, where year-round streams can flow, and fog drip is regular
6.
Northern California
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Northern California, often abbreviated NorCal, is the northern portion of the U. S. state of California. The 48-county definition is not used for the Northern California Megaregion, the megaregions area is instead defined from Metropolitan Fresno north to Greater Sacramento, and from the Bay Area east across Nevada state line to encompass the entire Lake Tahoe-Reno area. The arrival of European explorers from the early 16th to the mid-18th centuries, in 1770, the Spanish mission at Monterey was the first European settlement in the area, followed by other missions along the coast—eventually extending as far north as Sonoma County. Northern California is not a geographic designation. Californias north-south midway division is around 37° latitude, near the level of San Francisco, popularly, though, Northern California usually refers to the states northernmost 48 counties. This definition coincides with the county lines at 35° 47′ 28″ north latitude, the term is also applied to the area north of Point Conception and the Tehachapi Mountains. Because of Californias large size and diverse geography, the state can be subdivided in other ways as well, the state is often considered as having an additional division north of the urban areas of the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento metropolitan areas. The coastal area north of the Bay Area is referred to as the North Coast while the region north of Sacramento is referred by locals as the Northstate. Since the events of the California Gold Rush, Northern California has been a leader on the economic, scientific. In science, advances range from being the first to isolate and name fourteen transuranic chemical elements, other examples of innovation across diverse fields range from Genentech to CrossFit as a pioneer in extreme human fitness and training. It is also Home to one of the largest Air Force Bases on the West Coast, Northern Californias largest metropolitan area is the San Francisco Bay Area which includes the cities of San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, and their many suburbs. In recent years the Bay Area has drawn more commuters from as far as Central Valley cities such as Sacramento, Stockton, Fresno, Turlock and Modesto. The 2010 U. S. Census showed that the Bay Area grew at a faster rate than the Greater Los Angeles Area while Greater Sacramento had the largest growth rate of any area in California. The states larger cities are considered part of Northern California in cases when the state is divided into two parts. The first European to explore the coast was Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, sailing for the Spanish Crown, in 1542, beginning in 1565, the Spanish Manila galleons crossed the Pacific Ocean from Mexico to the Spanish Philippines, with silver and gemstones from Mexico. The Manila galleons returned across the northern Pacific, and reached North America usually off the coast of northern California, in 1579, northern California was visited by the English explorer Sir Francis Drake who landed north of todays San Francisco and claimed the area for England. In 1602, the Spaniard Sebastián Vizcaíno explored Californias coast as far north as Monterey Bay, other Spanish explorers sailed along the coast of northern California for the next 150 years, but no settlements were established. The first European inhabitants were Spanish missionaries, who built missions along the California coast, the mission at Monterey was first established in 1770, and at San Francisco in 1776
7.
Alexander von Humboldt
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Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt was a Prussian geographer, naturalist, explorer, and influential proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher. Humboldts quantitative work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of biogeography, Humboldts advocacy of long-term systematic geophysical measurement laid the foundation for modern geomagnetic and meteorological monitoring. Between 1799 and 1804, Humboldt travelled extensively in Latin America and his description of the journey was written up and published in an enormous set of volumes over 21 years. Humboldt was one of the first people to propose that the lands bordering the Atlantic Ocean were once joined and this important work also motivated a holistic perception of the universe as one interacting entity. Alexander von Humboldt was born in Berlin in Prussia on 14 September 1769 and he was baptized as a baby in the Lutheran faith, with the Duke of Brunswick serving as godfather. At age 42, Alexander Georg was rewarded for his services in the Seven Years War with the post of Royal Chamberlain and he profited from the contract to lease state lotteries and tobacco sales. He first married the daughter of Prussian General Adjutant Schweder, in 1766, Alexander Georg married Maria Elisabeth Colomb, a well-educated woman and widow of Baron Hollwede, with whom she had a son. Alexander Georg and Maria Elisabeth had three children, a daughter, who died young, and then two sons, Wilhelm and Alexander and her first-born son, Wilhelms and Alexanders half-brother, was something of a neer do well, not often mentioned in the family history. Alexander Georg died in 1779, leaving the brothers Humboldt in the care of their emotionally distant mother, Humboldts mother expected them to become civil servants of the Prussian state. The money Baron Holwede left to Alexanders mother became, after her death, instrumental in funding Alexanders explorations, due to his youthful penchant for collecting and labeling plants, shells and insects, Alexander received the playful title of the little apothecary. On April 25,1789, he matriculated at Göttingen, then known for the lectures of C. G. Heyne and his brother Wilhelm was already a student at Göttingen, but they did not interact much since their intellectual interests were quite different. His vast and varied interests were by this time fully developed, at Göttingen he met Georg Forster, a naturalist who had been with Captain James Cook on his second voyage. Humboldt traveled with Forster in Europe, the two traveled to England, Humboldts first sea voyage, The Netherlands, and France. In England, he met Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, the scientific friendship between Banks and Humboldt lasted until Bankss death in 1820, and the two shared botanical specimens for study. Banks also mobilized his scientific contacts in later years to aid Humboldts work, Humboldts scientific excursion up the Rhine resulted in his 1790 treatise Mineralogische Beobachtungen über einige Basalte am Rhein. Humboldts passion for travel was of long standing, Humboldts talents were devoted to the purpose of preparing himself as a scientific explorer. During this period, his brother Wilhelm married, but Alexander did not attend the nuptials, Humboldt graduated from the Freiberg School of Mines in 1792 and was appointed to a Prussian government position in the Department of Mines as an inspector in Bayreuth and the Fichtel mountains
8.
U.S. Route 101 in California
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U. S. Route 101 in the state of California is one of the last remaining and longest U. S. Routes still active in the state, and the longest highway of any kind in California, US101 was also one of the original national routes established in 1926. Significant portions of US101 between the Los Angeles area and the San Francisco Bay Area follow El Camino Real, the road connecting the former Alta Californias 21 missions. US101 also has designated as the Santa Ana Freeway, Hollywood Freeway, Ventura Freeway, South Valley Freeway. This route is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System, the south terminus of US101 is in Los Angeles, about one mile east of downtown Los Angeles at the East Los Angeles Interchange, also known as the Commuters Complex. This southernmost portion is named the Santa Ana Freeway, inheriting that title as the extension of the roadway now known as I-5. From here, US101 becomes the Hollywood Freeway and it then heads to Hollywood and up through the Cahuenga Pass before reaching the San Fernando Valley. US101 then intersects with SR134 and SR170 at the known as the Hollywood Split. Here, the alignment of US101 shifts to the alignment of SR134, though confusing, the Hollywood Freeway name continues northward from this interchange on SR170, and the Ventura Freeway name continues eastward to SR134. From the Hollywood Split, US101 is an east–west highway and it meets with I-405 in Sherman Oaks, an interchange which holds claim to the most traveled intersection in the nation. Upon reaching Ventura, there is an interchange with SR126, North of Ventura, US101 switches intermittently between freeway and expressway status, but there are no traffic signals until San Francisco. From Ventura and through Santa Barbara, US101 closely follows the Pacific coastline until Gaviota State Park, at Gaviota State Park, the highway shifts back from an east–west highway to a north–south alignment. About one mile north of this point, US101 passes through the Gaviota Tunnel, a few miles north of the Gaviota Tunnel, SR1 splits from US101 and heads northwest, running along the Pacific coastline parallel and to the west of US101. US101 passes through Buellton, Los Alamos, Orcutt, Santa Maria, South of Santa Maria, US101 widens from a four-lane highway to a six-lane freeway. SR166 joins US101 for about 3 miles before splitting just north of the city limits, farther north, SR1 rejoins US101 between Pismo Beach and San Luis Obispo. Then US101 takes a route through the Salinas Valley, while Highway 1 heads northwest, running along the Pacific coastline in California, parallel. A steep segment between San Luis Obispo and Atascadero is known as the Cuesta Grade, North of Atascadero, the highway joins SR46 for about three miles through Paso Robles. From Paso Robles to Salinas, US101 is a known as the Salinas River Valley Highway
9.
Eel River (California)
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The Eel River is a major river, about 196 miles long, of northwestern California in the United States. The river and its tributaries form the third largest watershed entirely in California, the river flows generally northward through the Coast Ranges west of the Sacramento Valley, emptying into the Pacific Ocean about 10 miles downstream from Fortuna and just south of Humboldt Bay. The river provides groundwater recharge, recreation, and industrial, agricultural and municipal water supply, the Eel River system is among the most dynamic in California because of the regions unstable geology and the influence of major Pacific storms. The discharge is highly variable, average flows in January and February are over 100 times greater than in August, the river also carries the highest suspended sediment load of any river of its size in the United States, in part due to the frequent landslides in the region. The river basin was populated by Native Americans before. The region remained little traveled until 1850, when Josiah Gregg, the river was named after they traded a frying pan to a group of Wiyot fishermen in exchange for a large number of Pacific lampreys, which the explorers thought were eels. Explorers reports of the fertile and heavily timbered region attracted settlers to Humboldt Bay, starting in the late 19th century the Eel River supported a large salmon canning industry which began to decline by the 1920s due to overfishing. The Eel River basin has also been a significant source of timber since the days of early settlement, the river valley was a major rail transport corridor throughout the 20th century and also forms part of the route of Redwood Highway. Since the early 20th century, the Eel River has been dammed in its headwaters to provide water, via transfer, to parts of Mendocino. During the 1950s and 1960s, there was great interest in building much larger dams in the Eel River system, the Eel was granted federal Wild and Scenic River status in 1981, formally making it off limits to new dams. Nevertheless, logging, grazing, road-building and other human activities continue to affect the watersheds ecology. The Eel River originates on the flank of 6, 740-foot Bald Mountain, in the Upper Lake Ranger District of the Mendocino National Forest in Mendocino County. The river flows south through a canyon in Lake County before entering Lake Pillsbury. Below the dam the river flows west, re-entering Mendocino County, at the small Cape Horn Dam about 15 miles east of Willits, water is diverted from the Eel River basin through a 1-mile tunnel to the Russian River, in a scheme known as the Potter Valley Project. Below the dam the river turns north, flowing through an isolated valley, receiving Outlet Creek from the west. About 20 miles downstream, the North Fork Eel River – draining one of the most rugged, between the North and Middle Forks the Round Valley Indian Reservation lies east of the Eel River. After this confluence the Eel flows briefly through southwestern Trinity County, past Island Mountain, the river cuts from southeast to northwest across Humboldt County, past a number of small mountain communities including Fort Seward. The South Fork Eel River joins from the west, near Humboldt Redwoods State Park, below the South Fork the Eel flows through a wider agricultural valley, past Scotia and Rio Dell, before receiving the Van Duzen River from the east
10.
Avenue of the Giants
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The Avenue of the Giants is a scenic highway in Northern California, U. S. A. running through Humboldt Redwoods State Park. It is an old alignment of U. S. Route 101, the southern entrance to the Avenue is just north of Garberville, and the northern entrance is 15 miles south of Fortuna. The highway is notable for the Coast Redwoods that overshadow the road and it is from these towering trees that the Avenue of the Giants takes its name. The road winds alongside the scenic Eel River, and connects small towns such as Phillipsville, Miranda, Myers Flat, Burlington, Weott, Englewood, Redcrest. The two-lane road has a number of parking areas, picnic sites, the nearby river provides many excellent swimming locations, such as those at the Rockefeller Forest redwood grove. Being situated just off a highway, and having attained some degree of international fame. The route contains the site of the annual Avenue of the Giants Marathon, though not the oldest redwood in the forest, this large tree is over 950 years old, and is currently around 250 ft tall, though originally it was much taller. It has survived not only the ravages of time but also the 1964 flood of the area, a 1908 attempt at logging, and it is from its age and the perceived hardiness to the fates that the tree derives its name. Markers are visible on the tree, denoting the heights of where the loggers axes, situated in the northern half of the Avenue, The Immortal Tree is easy to find, and has a large gift shop and parking area in front of it. Near Weott, this grove has an easy 1/2 mile self-guided walk with informational booklets available at the beginning of the trail. This well-travelled trail is an example of old-growth redwood forest and contains a few very big trees, including the Founders Tree. Avenue of the Giants features a tree that visitors can drive through, shrine Drive-Thru Tree is near the town of Myers Flat. The tree is privately owned, the owner charges $5 or more for a car to drive through it, not a traditional tree house, this is actually a house that is, albeit partially, built within a giant redwood. Visible from the road, and with available, the front of this house is entered through the hollow trunk of a still-living tree. The front door and windows are visible to passers-by. The Eel River is the third largest river in California and it carves deep canyons down great mountains, through flat valleys, and past majestic and ancient redwood forests. The Avenue of the Giants follows the South Fork of the river, the Avenue of the Giants was part of U. S. Route 101 until a freeway bypass completed on August 27,1960, assuming the 101 designation. The Avenue was then designated as CA Route 254 by Assembly Concurrent Resolution 10, except where prefixed with a letter, postmiles were measured on the road as it was in 1964, based on the alignment that existed at the time, and do not necessarily reflect current mileage
11.
San Francisco
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San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Northern California. It is the birthplace of the United Nations, the California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time. San Francisco became a consolidated city-county in 1856, after three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II, San Francisco was a port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater. Politically, the city votes strongly along liberal Democratic Party lines, San Francisco is also the headquarters of five major banking institutions and various other companies such as Levi Strauss & Co. Dolby, Airbnb, Weebly, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Yelp, Pinterest, Twitter, Uber, Lyft, Mozilla, Wikimedia Foundation, as of 2016, San Francisco is ranked high on world liveability rankings. The earliest archaeological evidence of habitation of the territory of the city of San Francisco dates to 3000 BC. Upon independence from Spain in 1821, the became part of Mexico. Under Mexican rule, the system gradually ended, and its lands became privatized. In 1835, Englishman William Richardson erected the first independent homestead, together with Alcalde Francisco de Haro, he laid out a street plan for the expanded settlement, and the town, named Yerba Buena, began to attract American settlers. Commodore John D. Sloat claimed California for the United States on July 7,1846, during the Mexican–American War, montgomery arrived to claim Yerba Buena two days later. Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco on January 30 of the next year, despite its attractive location as a port and naval base, San Francisco was still a small settlement with inhospitable geography. The California Gold Rush brought a flood of treasure seekers, with their sourdough bread in tow, prospectors accumulated in San Francisco over rival Benicia, raising the population from 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 by December 1849. The promise of fabulous riches was so strong that crews on arriving vessels deserted and rushed off to the gold fields, leaving behind a forest of masts in San Francisco harbor. Some of these approximately 500 abandoned ships were used at times as storeships, saloons and hotels, many were left to rot, by 1851 the harbor was extended out into the bay by wharves while buildings were erected on piles among the ships. By 1870 Yerba Buena Cove had been filled to create new land, buried ships are occasionally exposed when foundations are dug for new buildings. California was quickly granted statehood in 1850 and the U. S. military built Fort Point at the Golden Gate, silver discoveries, including the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1859, further drove rapid population growth. With hordes of fortune seekers streaming through the city, lawlessness was common, and the Barbary Coast section of town gained notoriety as a haven for criminals, prostitution, entrepreneurs sought to capitalize on the wealth generated by the Gold Rush
12.
Redwood National and State Parks
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The Redwood National and State Parks are old-growth temperate rainforests located in the United States, along the coast of northern California. Comprising Redwood National Park and Californias Del Norte Coast, Jedediah Smith, and Prairie Creek Redwoods State Parks, the combined RNSP contain 139,000 acres. Located entirely within Del Norte and Humboldt Counties, the four parks, together, protect 45% of all remaining coast redwood old-growth forests and these trees are the tallest and one of the most massive tree species on Earth. In addition to the forests, the parks preserve other indigenous flora, fauna, grassland prairie, cultural resources, portions of rivers and other streams. In 1850, old-growth redwood forest covered more than 2,000,000 acres of the California coast, the northern portion of that area, originally inhabited by Native Americans, attracted many lumbermen and others turned gold miners when a minor gold rush brought them to the region. Failing in efforts to strike it rich in gold, these men turned toward harvesting the giant trees for booming development in San Francisco, after many decades of unrestricted clear-cut logging, serious efforts toward conservation began. Redwood National Park was created in 1968, by which time nearly 90% of the redwood trees had been logged. The ecosystem of the RNSP preserves a number of threatened species such as the tidewater goby, Chinook salmon, northern spotted owl. Modern day native groups such as the Yurok, Tolowa, Karok, Chilula, and Wiyot all have ties to the region. Archaeological study shows they arrived in the area as far back as 3,000 years ago, an 1852 census determined that the Yurok were the most numerous, with 55 villages and an estimated population of 2,500. They used the abundant redwood, which with its grain was easily split into planks, as a building material for boats, houses. For buildings, the planks would be erected side by side in a trench, with the upper portions bound with leather strapping. Redwood boards were used to form a sloping roof. Previous to Jedediah Smith in 1828, no other explorer of European descent is known to have investigated the inland region away from the immediate coast. The discovery of gold along the Trinity River in 1850 led to a secondary rush in California. This brought miners into the area and many stayed on at the coast after failing to strike it rich and this quickly led to conflicts wherein native peoples were placed under great strain, if not forcibly removed or massacred. By 1895, only one third of the Yurok in one group of villages remained, by 1919, the miners logged redwoods for building, when this minor gold rush ended, some of them turned again to logging, cutting down the giant redwood trees. Representative John E. Raker, of California, became the first politician to introduce legislation for the creation of a national park
