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
South Fork Eel River
The South Fork Eel River is the largest tributary of the Eel River in north-central California in the United States. The river flows 105 miles north from Laytonville to Dyerville/Founders' Grove where it joins the Eel River; the South Fork drains a long and narrow portion of the Coast Range of California in parts of Mendocino and Humboldt counties. U. S. Route 101 follows the river for much of its length; the Kai Pomo Indians, a branch of the Pomo Indians group, once lived in the upper portion of the watershed. Before industrial development in the 1800s, many native tribes relied on the river's abundant runs of salmon and steelhead. In the 1920s, a private company built the Benbow Dam, blocking fish migration to a large area of the basin; the South Fork is designated as a National Wild and Scenic River from the confluence of Section Four Creek to the mouth. The South Fork Eel River begins near Iron Mountain in western Mendocino County, at an elevation of 2,500 feet, its headwaters are near that of the Ten Mile River to the south.
Dropping off the high plateau where it begins, the South Fork winds north and bends southwest through a steep and narrow canyon. Longvale, California is a few miles to the east of the headwaters, while Laytonville, California is closer, only about 1-mile to the north, it is not long after its headwaters that Branscomb Road drops into the South Fork Eel's canyon from the north, paralleling the river. 1-mile past this point, it receives its first significant tributary, Section Four Creek, on the left bank. Although it is not a large creek, only about 2.5 miles long, it denotes the start of the National Wild and Scenic River section of the South Fork. The river turns west-northwest, passing Branscomb, California. Near the city, it receives Redwood Creek on the left; these two stream names are a common occurrence throughout the South Fork's watershed. Afterwards, it receives Tenmile Creek, on the right bank. Tenmile Creek begins in another section of the Coast Range, separated from the South Fork Eel River by two sub-ranges.
The creek begins in the easternmost of these two sub-ranges. It flows west, cutting a water gap through the western subrange, spills into the South Fork; the creek is about 21 miles long, despite the name. After the confluence with Tenmile Creek, the South Fork flows north, turning west where it receives another major tributary, 11-mile Rattlesnake Creek on the right; this point is significant because it is where it begins to parallel U. S. Highway 101 and California State Route 271. Both roads come in from the east and at this point are on the river's right bank; the river turns northwest, receiving Big Dann Creek and another large 9-mile tributary, Cedar Creek, on the right bank. Cedar Creek flows west and turns south-southwest, flowing in a steep, undeveloped gorge. Shortly past Cedar Creek, the South Fork Eel meets Hollow Tree Creek. Hollow Tree Creek flows east, turns north turns east again to meet the South Fork, fed by several smaller creeks; the South Fork turns west again, flowing through the Standish Hickey State Recreational Area.
It meanders north into Richardson Grove State Park on an wide valley floor, receiving Red Mountain Creek on the right bank. The river reaches Benbow Lake, inside the Benbow Lake State Recreational Area and next to the town of Benbow, California. Benbow Lake was a seasonal reservoir, formed by a dam at its western end; the dam was only raised in the summer, only when water flow is sufficient for impoundment. Since about 2009, the lake no longer gets built, good for the ecology of the river. At Benbow Lake the South Fork meets the East Branch South Fork Eel River; the East Branch, formed by the confluence of two small creeks, Cruso Cabin and Elkhorn Creeks, south of Bell Springs Mountain, flows through a rugged, narrow gorge in a northwest direction for about 20 miles. After passing through the Benbow Dam, non-functional during the winter months, the South Fork Eel receives another tributary called Redwood Creek on the left bank, as it bends north and west around the community of Redway, located on a plateau east of the river.
The river passes through another rugged canyon, flowing northeast passes the towns of Phillipsville and Miranda which are to the east of the river. West of Miranda, the river receives another medium-sized tributary, Salmon Creek, from the left bank; the South Fork flows north to a point where it turns around a ridge and flows due south turns back north again. At this point, it is paralleled by Highway 101 on the left bank and by California State Route 254 on the right bank. U. S. 101 crosses the South Fork, paralleling CA-254. The village of Myers Flat is located on a low slice of terrain north of the river; the South Fork, nearing its mouth, passes Burlington on the right bank, Weott, California on the right bank. Several hundred yards upstream from its confluence, it receives its last major tributary, Bull Creek, on the left bank. Bull Creek, whose watershed is contained inside Humboldt Redwoods State Park, begins south of Grasshopper Mountain and flows northwest makes a great bend to the west and joins the South Fork.
Its length is 8 miles. After receiving Bull Creek, the South Fork Eel curves halfway around 325-foot high Duckett Bluff, receives its last named tributary, Cabin Creek, on the left bank. Meandering through a downcut channel between U. S. 101 and SR 254 and California State R
San Francisco
San Francisco the City and County of San Francisco, is the cultural and financial center of Northern California. San Francisco is the 13th-most populous city in the United States, the fourth-most populous in California, with 884,363 residents as of 2017, it covers an area of about 46.89 square miles at the north end of the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area, making it the second-most densely populated large US city, the fifth-most densely populated U. S. county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs. San Francisco is part of the fifth-most populous primary statistical area in the United States, the San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area; as of 2017, it was the seventh-highest income county in the United States, with a per capita personal income of $119,868. As of 2015, San Francisco proper had a GDP of $154.2 billion, a GDP per capita of $177,968. The San Francisco CSA was the country's third-largest urban economy as of 2017, with a GDP of $907 billion.
Of the 500+ primary statistical areas in the US, the San Francisco CSA had among the highest GDP per capita in 2017, at $93,938. San Francisco was ranked 14th in the world and third in the United States on the Global Financial Centres Index as of September 2018. San Francisco was founded on June 29, 1776, when colonists from Spain established Presidio of San Francisco at the Golden Gate and Mission San Francisco de Asís a few miles away, all named for St. Francis of Assisi; 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. San Francisco's status as the West Coast's largest city peaked between 1870 and 1900, when around 25% of California's population resided in the city proper. After three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II, San Francisco was a major port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater.
It became the birthplace of the United Nations in 1945. After the war, the confluence of returning servicemen, significant immigration, liberalizing attitudes, along with the rise of the "hippie" counterculture, the Sexual Revolution, the Peace Movement growing from opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, other factors led to the Summer of Love and the gay rights movement, cementing San Francisco as a center of liberal activism in the United States. Politically, the city votes along liberal Democratic Party lines. A popular tourist destination, San Francisco is known for its cool summers, steep rolling hills, eclectic mix of architecture, landmarks, including the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, the former Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, Fisherman's Wharf, its Chinatown district. San Francisco is the headquarters of five major banking institutions and various other companies such as Levi Strauss & Co. Gap Inc. Fitbit, Salesforce.com, Reddit, Inc. Dolby, Weebly, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Pinterest, Uber, Mozilla, Wikimedia Foundation and Weather Underground.
It is home to a number of educational and cultural institutions, such as the University of San Francisco, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco State University, the De Young Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the California Academy of Sciences. As of 2019, San Francisco is the highest rated American city on world liveability rankings; the earliest archaeological evidence of human habitation of the territory of the city of San Francisco dates to 3000 BC. The Yelamu group of the Ohlone people resided in a few small villages when an overland Spanish exploration party, led by Don Gaspar de Portolà, arrived on November 2, 1769, the first documented European visit to San Francisco Bay. Seven years on March 28, 1776, the Spanish established the Presidio of San Francisco, followed by a mission, Mission San Francisco de Asís, established by the Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza. Upon independence from Spain in 1821, the area became part of Mexico. Under Mexican rule, the mission system ended, its lands became privatized.
In 1835, Englishman William Richardson erected the first independent homestead, near a boat anchorage around what is today Portsmouth Square. Together with Alcalde Francisco de Haro, he laid out a street plan for the expanded settlement, 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, Captain John B. Montgomery arrived to claim Yerba Buena two days later. Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco on January 30 of the next year, Mexico ceded the territory to the United States at the end of the war. 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 great wealth 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 500 abandoned ships were used at times as storeships and hotels.
Avenue of the Giants
The Avenue of the Giants is a scenic highway in Northern California, United States, running through Humboldt Redwoods State Park. It is an former alignment of U. S. Route 101, continues to be maintained by the state as State Route 254; the southern entrance to the Avenue is just north of Garberville, the northern entrance is 15 miles south of Fortuna. The highway is notable for the Coast Redwoods that surround the area, it is from these towering trees. The road winds alongside the scenic Eel River, connects several small towns such as Phillipsville, Myers Flat, Weott, Englewood and Pepperwood; the two-lane road has a number of parking areas, picnic sites, attractions for visitors. The nearby river provides many swimming locations, such as those at the Rockefeller Forest redwood grove; the route contains the site of the annual "Avenue of the Giants Marathon". SR 254 is not part of the National Highway System, a network of highways that are considered essential to the country's economy and mobility by the Federal Highway Administration.
SR 254 is eligible to be included in the State Scenic Highway System, but it is not designated as a scenic highway by the California Department of Transportation. Though not the oldest redwood in the forest, this large tree is over 950 years old, is around 250 ft tall, though it was much taller, it has survived not only the ravages of time but the 1964 flood of the area, a 1908 attempt at logging, a direct lightning strike which removed the top 45 feet of the tree. It is from 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 and the floodwaters struck the tree. Situated in the northern half of the Avenue, The Immortal Tree is easy to find, 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 a good example of old-growth redwood forest and contains a few big trees, including the Founder's Tree and the Dyerville Giant which fell down in 1991.
Avenue of the Giants features a tree. Shrine Drive-Thru Tree is near the town of Myers Flat; the tree is owned. Not a traditional tree house, this is a house that is, albeit built within a giant redwood. Visible from the road, with tours 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 rest of the house adjoins the rear of the tree in a more traditional style. The Eel River is the third largest river in California, it carves deep canyons down great mountains, through flat valleys, past majestic and ancient redwood forests. The Avenue of the Giants follows the South Fork of the river, but features the branching of the South and Main forks to its north; the Avenue of the Giants was part of U. S. Route 101 until a freeway bypass completed on August 1960, assuming the 101 designation; the Avenue was 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, do not reflect current mileage.
R reflects a realignment in the route since M indicates a second realignment, L refers an overlap due to a correction or change, T indicates postmiles classified as temporary. Segments that remain unconstructed or have been relinquished to local control may be omitted; the entire route is in Humboldt County. California Roads portal Chandelier Tree California @ AARoads.com - State Route 254 Caltrans: Route 254 highway conditions California Highways: SR 254 The world-famous scenic drive is a 31-mile portion of old Highway 101. Photos of the Avenue
State park
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, or recreational potential. There are state parks under the administration of the government of each U. S. state, some of the Mexican states, in Brazil. The term is used in the Australian state of Victoria; the equivalent term used in Canada, South Africa and Belgium, is provincial park. Similar systems of local government maintained parks exist in other countries, but the terminology varies. State parks are thus similar under state rather than federal administration. Local government entities below state level may maintain parks, e.g. regional parks or county 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, according to the National Association of State Park Directors.
There are some 739 million annual visits to the country's state parks. The NASPD further counts over 43,000 miles of trail, 217,367 campsites, 8,277 cabins and lodges across U. S. state parks. The largest state park system in the United States is Alaska State Parks, with over 100 sites encompassing 3.3 million acres. Many states include designations beyond "state park" in their state parks systems. Other designations might be state recreation areas, state beaches, state nature reserves; some state park systems include historic sites. The title of oldest state park in the United States is claimed by Niagara Falls State Park in New York, established in 1885; however several public parks or maintained at the state level pre-date it. Indian Springs State Park has been operated continuously by the state of Georgia as a public park since 1825, although it did not gain the title "State Park" until 1931. In 1864 Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove were ceded by the federal government to California until Yosemite National Park was proclaimed in 1890.
In 1878 Wisconsin set aside a vast swath of its northern forests as "The State Park" but, needing money, sold most of it to lumber companies within 20 years. The first state park with the designation of "state park" was Mackinac Island State Park in 1895, first a national park before being transferred to the state of Michigan. Many state park systems date to the 1930s, when around 800 state parks across the country were developed with assistance from federal job creation programs like the Civilian Conservation Corps and Works Progress Administration. List of U. S. state parks Wilderness preservation systems in Carol. "The Civilian Conservation Corps and Wisconsin State Park Development." Wisconsin Magazine of History: 184-204. In JSTOR Landrum, Ney C; 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. "The State Park Movement: 1864-1933.
"When Forests Trumped Parks: The Maryland Experience, 1906-1950." Maryland Historical Magazine 101#2 pp: 203-224
Kings Canyon National Park
Kings Canyon National Park is an American national park in the southern Sierra Nevada, in Fresno and Tulare Counties, California. Established in 1890 as General Grant National Park, the park was expanded and renamed to Kings Canyon National Park on March 4, 1940; the park's namesake, Kings Canyon, is a rugged glacier-carved valley more than a mile deep. Other natural features include multiple 14,000-foot peaks, high mountain meadows, swift-flowing rivers, some of the world's largest stands of giant sequoia trees. Kings Canyon is north of and contiguous with Sequoia National Park, the two are jointly administered by the National Park Service as the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks; the majority of the 461,901-acre park, drained by the Middle and South Forks of the Kings River and many smaller streams, is designated wilderness. Tourist facilities are concentrated in two areas: Grant Grove, home to General Grant and Cedar Grove, located in the heart of Kings Canyon. Overnight hiking is required to access most of the park's backcountry, or high country, which for much of the year is covered in deep snow.
The combined Pacific Crest Trail/John Muir Trail, a backpacking route, traverses the entire length of the park from north to south. General Grant National Park was created to protect a small area of giant sequoias from logging. Although John Muir's visits brought public attention to the huge wilderness area to the east, it took more than fifty years for the rest of Kings Canyon to be designated a national park. Environmental groups, park visitors and many local politicians wanted to see the area preserved. After President Franklin D. Roosevelt expanded the park in 1940, the fight continued until 1965, when the Cedar Grove and Tehipite Valley dam sites were annexed into the park; as visitation rose post–World War II, further debate took place over whether the park should be developed as a tourist resort, or retained as a more natural environment restricted to simpler recreation such as hiking and camping. The preservation lobby prevailed and today, the park has only limited services and lodgings despite its size.
Due to this and the lack of road access to most of the park, Kings Canyon remains the least visited of the major Sierra parks, with just under 700,000 visitors in 2017 compared to 1.3 million visitors at Sequoia and over 4 million at Yosemite. Kings Canyon National Park, located on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada to the east of the San Joaquin Valley, is divided into two distinct sections; the smaller and older western section centers around Grant Grove – home of many of the park's sequoias – and has most of the visitor facilities. The larger eastern section, which accounts for the majority of the park's area, is entirely wilderness, contains the deep canyons of the Middle and South Forks of the Kings River. Cedar Grove, located at the bottom of the Kings Canyon, is the only part of the park's vast eastern portion accessible by road. Although most of the park is forested, much of the eastern section consists of alpine regions above the tree line. Snow free only from late June until late October, the high country is accessible via foot and horse trails.
The Sequoia-Kings Canyon Wilderness encompasses over 768,000 acres in Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks, or nearly 90 percent of their combined area. In addition to Sequoia National Park on the south, Kings Canyon is surrounded by multiple national forests and wilderness areas; the Sierra National Forest, Sequoia National Forest and Inyo National Forest border it on the northwest and east, respectively. The John Muir Wilderness wraps around much of the northern half of the park, the Monarch Wilderness preserves much of the area between the park's two sections. Kings Canyon is characterized by some of the steepest vertical relief in North America, with numerous peaks over 14,000 feet on the Sierra Crest along the park's eastern border, falling to 4,500 feet in the valley floor of Cedar Grove just ten miles to the west; the Sierran crest forms the eastern boundary of the park, from Mount Goethe in the north, down to Junction Peak, at the boundary with Sequoia National Park. Several passes cross the crest into the park, including Bishop Pass, Taboose Pass, Sawmill Pass, Kearsarge Pass.
All of these passes are above 11,000 feet in elevation. There are several prominent subranges of the Sierra around the park; the Palisades, along the park's eastern boundary, have four peaks over 14,000 feet including the highest point in the park, 14,248 feet NAVD 88 at the summit of North Palisade. The Great Western Divide extends through the south-central part of the park and has many peaks over 13,000 feet, including Mount Brewer; the Monarch Divide, stretching between the lower Middle and South Forks of the Kings, has some of the most inaccessible terrain in the entire park. In the northwest section of the park are other steep and rugged ranges such as the Goddard Divide, LeConte Divide and Black Divide, all of which are dotted with high mountain lakes and separated by deep chasms. Most of the mountains and canyons, as in other parts of the Sierra Nevada, are formed in igneous intrusive rocks such as granite and monzonite, formed at least 100 million years ago due to subduction along the North American–Pacific Plate boundary.
However, the Sierra itself is a young mountain range, no more than 10 million years old. Huge tectonic forces along the western edge of the Great Basin forced the local crustal block to tilt and uplift, crea
California
California is a state in the Pacific Region of the United States. With 39.6 million residents, California is the most populous U. S. the third-largest by area. The state capital is Sacramento; the Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second and fifth most populous urban regions, with 18.7 million and 9.7 million residents respectively. Los Angeles is California's most populous city, the country's second most populous, after New York City. California has the nation's most populous county, Los Angeles County, its largest county by area, San Bernardino County; the City and County of San Francisco is both the country's second-most densely populated major city after New York City and the fifth-most densely populated county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs. California's $3.0 trillion economy is larger than that of any other state, larger than those of Texas and Florida combined, the largest sub-national economy in the world. If it were a country, California would be the 5th largest economy in the world, the 36th most populous as of 2017.
The Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second- and third-largest urban economies, after the New York metropolitan area. The San Francisco Bay Area PSA had the nation's highest GDP per capita in 2017 among large PSAs, is home to three of the world's ten largest companies by market capitalization and four of the world's ten richest people. California is considered a global trendsetter in popular culture, innovation and politics, it is considered the origin of the American film industry, the hippie counterculture, fast food, the Internet, the personal computer, among others. The San Francisco Bay Area and the Greater Los Angeles Area are seen as global centers of the technology and entertainment industries, respectively. California has a diverse economy: 58% of the state's economy is centered on finance, real estate services and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5% of the state's economy, California's agriculture industry has the highest output of any U.
S. state. California is bordered by Oregon to the north and Arizona to the east, the Mexican state of Baja California to the south; the state's diverse geography ranges from the Pacific Coast in the west to the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the east, from the redwood–Douglas fir forests in the northwest to the Mojave Desert in the southeast. The Central Valley, a major agricultural area, dominates the state's center. Although California is well-known for its warm Mediterranean climate, the large size of the state results in climates that vary from moist temperate rainforest in the north to arid desert in the interior, as well as snowy alpine in the mountains. Over time and wildfires have become more pervasive features. What is now California was first settled by various Native Californian tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries; the Spanish Empire claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its successful war for independence but was ceded to the United States in 1848 after the Mexican–American War.
The western portion of Alta California was organized and admitted as the 31st state on September 9, 1850. 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; the word California referred to the Baja California Peninsula of Mexico. The name derived from the mythical island California in the fictional story of Queen Calafia, as recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo; this work was the fifth in a popular Spanish chivalric romance series that began with Amadis de Gaula. Queen Calafia's kingdom was said to be a remote land rich in gold and pearls, inhabited by beautiful black women who wore gold armor and lived like Amazons, as well as griffins and other strange beasts. In the fictional paradise, the ruler Queen Calafia fought alongside Muslims and her name may have been chosen to echo the title of a Muslim leader, the Caliph. It's possible.
Know ye that at the right hand of the Indies there is an island called California close to that part of the Terrestrial Paradise, inhabited by black women without a single man among them, they lived in the manner of Amazons. They were robust of body with great virtue; the island itself is one of the wildest in the world on account of the craggy rocks. Shortened forms of the state's name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America. 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 were diverse in their political organization with bands, villages, on the resource-rich coasts, large chiefdoms, such as the Chumash and Salinan.
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