1.
Clovis, California
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Clovis is a city in Fresno County, California, United States. The 2014 population was estimated to be 102,189, Clovis is located 6.5 miles northeast of downtown Fresno, at an elevation of 361 feet. The city of Clovis began as a stop along the San Joaquin Valley Railroad. Organized on January 15,1890, by Fresno businessmen Thomas E. Hughes, Fulton Berry, Gilbert R. Osmun, colson, John D. Gray, and William M. The railroad purchased right-of-way from both farmers, half from each – the east side from Cole and the west side from Owen –, the railroad agreed to establish a station on the west side of the tracks and to call it Clovis. The Clovis station, after which the town was named, was positioned on the Owen side of the track, Cole and Owen later sold land to Marcus Pollasky for development of a townsite. Fresno civil engineer Ingvart Tielman mapped the townsite on behalf of Pollasky on December 29,1891, the original townsite featured streets named for the officers and principal investors of the railroad, Woodworth, Pollasky, Fulton, Hughes, Osmun, and Baron. The townsite, named Clovis by Pollasky, was out on what was originally Owens land. The railroad was completed as far as the town of Hamptonville on the banks of the San Joaquin River, at the time, Hamptonville was called Pollasky. A celebration of the completion of track-laying was held at the Pollasky terminus on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving of 1891 with a reported 3,000 Fresnans attending, the railroad began official operation in January 1892. The first year of operation of the railroad coincided with the beginnings of a national economic decline. Farmers were unable to get profitable return on their crops, banks, the SJVRR was unable to generate sufficient revenues to pay its debt, was leased to the Southern Pacific Railroad and subsequently bought by SPRR in 1893. By reducing the railroads schedule of operation and trimming costs, the Southern Pacific was able to turn a profit in the first years after its acquisition. At the same time that the railroad was being planned, a group of Michigan lumbermen began acquiring thousands of acres of timber in the Sierra Nevada about 75 miles northeast of Fresno. A dam was built across Stevenson Creek to create a lake that would enable them to move freshly cut timber to a mill beside the lake and they then constructed a 42-mile, 25-foot-high, V-shaped flume that started at the foot of the dam. As lumber was rough-cut at the mill, it was loaded into the flume, the lumber mill and yard had its own network of rails to move lumber around the yard and to connect with the SJVRR just south of Clovis station. The completion in 1894 of the flume and commencement of mill operations provided the impetus for further development of the area around the Clovis Station. The town began to shape as lumber yard employees built homes close to their employment
2.
San Joaquin Valley
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Although a majority of the valley is rural, it does contain urban cities such as Fresno, Bakersfield, Stockton, Modesto, Turlock, Porterville, Visalia, Merced, and Hanford. Unlike the Sacramento Valley, the system for which the San Joaquin Valley is named does not extend very far along the valley. Most of the south of Fresno, instead, drains into Tulare Lake. The valleys primary river is the San Joaquin, which drains north through half of the valley into the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta. The Kings and Kern Rivers are in the endorheic basin of the valley. The San Joaquin Valley began to form about 66 million years ago during the early Paleocene era, broad fluctuations in the sea level caused various areas of the valley to be flooded with ocean water for the next 60 million years. About 5 million years ago, the outlets began to close due to uplift of the coastal ranges. Starting 2 million years ago, a series of glacial episodes periodically caused much of the valley to become a fresh water lake, Lake Corcoran was the last widespread lake to fill the valley about 700,000 years ago. At the beginning of the Holocene there were three major lakes remaining in the part of the Valley, Tulare Lake, Buena Vista Lake. In the late 19th and in the 20th century, agricultural diversion of the Kern River eventually dried out these lakes and its rainy season normally runs from November through April, but since 2011 when a drought became evident it generally received minimal to no rain at all. The drought was still extant by mid-August 2014 with scientists saying it would continue indefinitely. Research from NASA shows that parts of the San Joaquin Valley sank as much as 8 inches in a four-month period, the sinking has destroyed thousands of groundwater well casings and has the potential to damage aqueducts, roads, bridges, and flood-control structures. In the long term, the caused by extracting groundwater could irreversibly reduce the underground aquifers water storage capacity. The National Weather Service Forecast Office for the San Joaquin Valley is located in Hanford, Weather forecasts and climatological information for the San Joaquin Valley are available from its official website. The total population of the eight counties comprising the San Joaquin Valley at the time of the 2010 U. S. Census was 3,971,659. Grapes—table, raisin, and to a lesser extent wine—are perhaps the valleys highest-profile product, but equally important are cotton, nuts, citrus, and vegetables. Though it has been called The food basket of the World, walnuts, oranges, peaches, garlic, tangerines, tomatoes, kiwis, hay, alfalfa and numerous other crops have been harvested with great success. DeRuosi Nut, a large processing plant in Escalon, has been in the valley since 1947
3.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
4.
Madera County, California
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Madera County, officially the County of Madera, is a county at the geographic center of the U. S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 150,865, Madera County comprises the Madera, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Fresno-Madera, CA Combined Statistical Area. It is located in the eastern San Joaquin Valley and the central Sierra Nevada, the southeasternmost part of Yosemite National Park is located in the countys northeast. Madera County was formed in 1893 from the part of Mariposa County during a special election held on May 16,1893. Citizens residing in the area that was to become Madera County voted 1,179 to 358 for establishment of the new county, Madera is the Spanish term for wood. The county derives its name from the town of Madera, named when the California Lumber Company built a log flume to carry lumber to the Central Pacific Railroad there in 1876. The Madera County Sheriffs Department employed the first woman in California to die in the line of duty as a law enforcement officer—Tulare native Lucille Helm. For 15 years, the Madera housewife and mother of four worked on call as a matron assisting with female transfers. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 2,153 square miles. Madera County is part of the Madera AVA wine region, devils Postpile National Monument Inyo National Forest Sierra National Forest Yosemite National Park The 2010 United States Census reported that Madera County had a population of 150,865. The racial makeup of Madera County was 94,456 White,5,629 African American,4,136 Native American,2,802 Asian,162 Pacific Islander,37,380 from other races, Hispanic or Latino of any race were 80,992 persons. As of the census of 2000, there are 123,109 people in the county, organized into 36,155 households, the population density is 58 people per square mile. There are 40,387 housing units at a density of 19 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county is 62. 2% White,4. 1% Black or African American,2. 6% Native American,1. 3% Asian,0. 2% Pacific Islander,24. 4% from other races, and 5. 2% from two or more races. 44. 3% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race,8. 0% were of German,5. 9% English,5. 4% American and 5. 3% Irish ancestry according to Census 2000. 63. 6% spoke English and 33. 7% Spanish as their first language,16. 5% of all households are made up of individuals and 7. 7% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 3.18 and the family size is 3.52. In the county, the population is out with 29. 6% under the age of 18,9. 9% from 18 to 24,29. 1% from 25 to 44,20. 4% from 45 to 64
5.
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
6.
Sacramento metropolitan area
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The metropolitan area experienced a growth of nearly 20% in the last decade. In the 2000 census, the Sacramento MSA had a population of 1,930,857 and it lies in the Central Valley and Sierra Nevada regions of California as well as a small region of Western Nevada. Greater Sacramento also contains sites of natural beauty including Lake Tahoe and it is also located in one of the worlds most important agricultural areas. The regions eastern counties are located in Gold Country, site of the California Gold Rush, the Greater Sacramento area is composed of eight counties, two metropolitan areas and two micropolitan areas. Sutter and Yuba counties comprise the Yuba City Metropolitan Statistical Area, Nevada County comprises the Truckee-Grass Valley Micropolitan Area, and Douglas County comprises the Gardnerville Ranchos micropolitan area. An increasing phenomenon taking shape in Greater Sacramento is growth of urban sprawl as Sacramento, local and state governments are trying to prevent destruction of forests and open land and curbing the spread before Sacramento faces an urban sprawl crisis as the Greater Los Angeles Area has. It is the only interstate MSA/CSA in California, Sacramento is the largest city in the metropolitan area, home to nearly 470,000, making it the sixth largest city in California and the 35th largest in the United States. It has been the capital of California since 1851 and has played an important role in the history of California. When gold was discovered in nearby Sutters Mill in Coloma, Sacramento became a boom town luring in migrants making their way from San Francisco to the fields of the Sierras. Sacramento today continues to be one of the largest rail hubs in North America, in 2002, Time Magazine featured an article recognizing Sacramento as the most diverse and integrated city in America. Government jobs are still the largest sector of employment in the city, the remainder of Sacramento County is suburban in general with most of the working population commuting to Downtown Sacramento and with a smaller proportion commuting all the way to the Bay Area. El Dorado and Placer Counties form the remainder of the core of Greater Sacramento and are composed of the Sierra foothills. Placer County has been an important mining area not only for gold, the Yuba-Sutter Area consists of Yuba and Sutter counties and is a primarily agricultural area, although the southern area is more suburban in character. It is home to Sunsweet Growers, which owns the worlds largest dried fruit plant in Yuba City. The Donner Memorial State Park is located in the county, where the ill-fated Donner Party was trapped in winter storms in 1846–47 while attempting to make it to California on an organized trip. Douglas County, is the county in Nevada in the Greater Sacramento area and is the only non-Californian county to be located in a California metropolitan region. The addition of Douglas County is recent, as Greater Sacramento continues to grow beyond its region, Western Nevada continues to be influenced by Sacramento and California. Douglas County is home of Tahoe resorts and casinos as well as suburban outskirts of Sacramento, the western half of Greater Sacramento is centered on the Central Valley, one of the most vital agricultural areas in the country
7.
Central Valley (California)
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Californias Central Valley is a large, flat valley that dominates the geographical center of the U. S. state of California. It is 40 to 60 miles wide and stretches approximately 450 miles from north-northwest to south-southeast, inland from and it covers approximately 18,000 square miles, about 11% of Californias total land area. More than 7 million acres of the valley are irrigated via a system of reservoirs. The valley also has many cities, including the state capital Sacramento, as well as Redding, Stockton, Modesto, Fresno. The Central Valley watershed comprises 60,000 square miles, or over a third of California, the delta empties into the San Francisco Bay, and then ultimately flows into the Pacific. The Central Valley is commonly known to simply as the Valley. Older names include the Great Valley, a name often seen in scientific references, and Golden Empire. The Central Valley is outlined by the Cascade, Sierra Nevada, and Tehachapi mountain ranges on the east, the broad valley floor is carpeted by vast agricultural regions, and dotted with numerous population centers. While there are many large and small between these cities, these four cities act as hubs for regional commerce and transportation. About 6.5 million people live in the Central Valley today, there are 12 Metropolitan Statistical Areas and 1 Micropolitan Statistical Area in the Central Valley. Below, they are listed by MSA and μSA population, the largest city is Fresno, followed by the state capital, Sacramento. The valley is thought to have originated below sea level as an offshore area depressed by subduction of the Farallon Plate into a trench further offshore, the San Joaquin Fault is a notable seismic feature of the Central Valley. The valley was later enclosed by the uplift of the Coast Ranges, faulting moved the Coast Ranges, and a new outlet developed near what is now San Francisco Bay. The one notable exception to the valley floor is Sutter Buttes. Another significant geologic feature of the Central Valley lies hidden beneath the delta, the Stockton Arch is an upwarping of the crust beneath the valley sediments which extends southwest to northeast across the valley. However, much of the Central Valley environment has been removed or altered by human activity including the introduction of exotic plants, the oak woodlands and chaparral that fringe the valley have been categorized as the California interior chaparral and woodlands ecoregion. The wetlands have been the target of operations to restore areas nearly destroyed by agriculture. The dominant grass of the valley was Nassella pulchra mixed with other species, grassland flowers include California poppy, lupins, and purple owls clover which can still be seen, especially in Antelope Valley in the Tehachapi hills
8.
Greater Los Angeles Area
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Throughout the 20th century, it was one of the fastest-growing regions in the United States, although growth has slowed since 2000. As of the 2010 U. S. Census, the Los Angeles Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of nearly 13 million residents. Meanwhile, the metropolitan regions population at the 2010 census was estimated to be over 17.8 million residents. Either definition makes it the second largest metropolitan region in the country, behind the New York metropolitan area, the agglomeration of the urbanized Greater Los Angeles area surrounds the urban core of Los Angeles County. However, this Census definition includes large, sparsely populated and primarily desert swaths of Los Angeles, San Bernardino, according to the U. S. However, more than half of this area lies in the sparsely populated eastern areas of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Los Angeles has a reputation for sprawl. For comparison, the New York–Newark Urbanized Area as a whole had a density of 5,309 per square mile. Los Angeles sprawl may originate in the decentralized structure. Its major commercial, financial, and cultural institutions are geographically dispersed rather than being concentrated in a single downtown or central area. Also, the density of Los Angeles proper is low when compared to some other large American cities such as New York, San Francisco, Boston. This is misleading though, since unlike other cities the boundary of Los Angeles incorporates mountain areas with almost no people, when the actually built up area is considered, urban Los Angeles has density in excess of 10,000 people per square mile. Densities are particularly high within a 5-mile radius of downtown, where some neighborhoods exceed 20,000 people per square mile. Also, what gives the entire Los Angeles metro region a high density is the fact many of the citys suburbs. Within its urbanized areas, Los Angeles is noted for having small lot sizes, buildings in the area are low when compared to other large cities, mainly due to zoning regulations. Los Angeles became a city just as the Pacific Electric Railway spread population to smaller cities much as interurbans did in East Coast cities. In the first decades of the century, the area was marked by a network of fairly dense. The ascendance of the automobile helped fill in the gaps between these towns with lower-density settlements. Many working class whites migrated to this area during the 1960s and 1970s out of East, as a result, there was a large growth in population into the Conejo Valley and into Ventura County through the US101 corridor
9.
Yosemite National Park
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Yosemite National Park is a national park spanning portions of Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera counties in Northern California. The park, which is managed by the National Park Service, on average, about 4 million people visit Yosemite each year, and most spend the majority of their time in the seven square miles of Yosemite Valley. The park set a record in 2016, surpassing 5 million visitors for the first time in its history. Almost 95% of the park is designated wilderness, Yosemite was central to the development of the national park idea. First, Galen Clark and others lobbied to protect Yosemite Valley from development, Yosemite is one of the largest and least fragmented habitat blocks in the Sierra Nevada, and the park supports a diversity of plants and animals. The park has a range from 2,127 to 13,114 feet and contains five major vegetation zones, chaparral/oak woodland, lower montane forest, upper montane forest, subalpine zone. Of Californias 7,000 plant species, about 50% occur in the Sierra Nevada, there is suitable habitat for more than 160 rare plants in the park, with rare local geologic formations and unique soils characterizing the restricted ranges many of these plants occupy. The geology of the Yosemite area is characterized by granitic rocks, about 10 million years ago, the Sierra Nevada was uplifted and then tilted to form its relatively gentle western slopes and the more dramatic eastern slopes. The uplift increased the steepness of stream and river beds, resulting in formation of deep, about one million years ago, snow and ice accumulated, forming glaciers at the higher alpine meadows that moved down the river valleys. Ice thickness in Yosemite Valley may have reached 4,000 feet during the early glacial episode, the downslope movement of the ice masses cut and sculpted the U-shaped valley that attracts so many visitors to its scenic vistas today. The name Yosemite originally referred to the name of a tribe which was driven out of the area by the Mariposa Battalion. Before then the area was called Ahwahnee by indigenous people, as revealed by archeological finds, the Yosemite Valley has been inhabited for nearly 3,000 years, though humans may have first visited the area as long as 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. The indigenous natives called themselves the Ahwahneechee, meaning dwellers in Ahwahnee and they are related to the Northern Paiute and Mono tribes. Many tribes visited the area to trade, including nearby Central Sierra Miwoks, a major trading route went over Mono Pass and through Bloody Canyon to Mono Lake, just to the east of the Yosemite area. Vegetation and game in the region were similar to that present today, acorns were a staple to their diet, as well as seeds and plants, salmon. In 1851 as part of the Mariposa Wars intended to suppress Native American resistance and he was pursuing forces of around 200 Ahwahneechee led by Chief Tenaya. Accounts from this battalion were the first well-documented reports of ethnic Europeans entering Yosemite Valley, attached to Savages unit was Dr. Lafayette Bunnell, the company physician, who later wrote about his awestruck impressions of the valley in The Discovery of the Yosemite. Bunnell is credited with naming Yosemite Valley, based on his interviews with Chief Tenaya, Bunnell wrote that Chief Tenaya was the founder of the Pai-Ute Colony of Ah-wah-nee
10.
Kings Canyon National Park
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Kings Canyon National Park is a national park in the southern Sierra Nevada, east of Fresno, California. The park was established in 1940 and covers 461,901 acres and it incorporated General Grant National Park, established in 1890 to protect the General Grant Grove of giant sequoias. The park is north of and contiguous with Sequoia National Park and they were designated the UNESCO Sequoia-Kings Canyon Biosphere Reserve in 1976. Humans have inhabited the area for thousands of years, the first Native Americans in the area were Paiute peoples, who moved into the region from their ancestral home east of Mono Lake. The Paiute Nation people used deer and other animals for food. They created trade routes that extended down the slope of the Sierra into the Owens Valley. Kings Canyon had been known to white settlers since the mid-19th century, then United States Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes fought to create the Kings Canyon National Park. He hired Ansel Adams to photograph and document this among other parks, the bill combined the General Grant Grove with the backcountry beyond Zumwalt Meadow. Kings Canyons future was in doubt for nearly fifty years, some wanted to build a dam at the western end of the valley, while others wanted to preserve it as a park. The debate was settled in 1965, when the valley, along with Tehipite Valley, was added to the park, Kings Canyon National Park consists of two sections. The parks Giant Sequoia forests are part of 202,430 acres of old-growth forests shared by Sequoia and this section of the park is mostly mixed conifer forest, and is readily accessible via paved highways. Both the South and Middle Forks of the Kings Rivers have extensive glacial canyons, one portion of the South Fork canyon, known as the Kings Canyon, gives the entire park its name. Kings Canyon, with a depth of 8,200 feet, is one of the deepest canyons in the United States. The canyon was carved by glaciers out of granite, the Kings Canyon, and its developed area, Cedar Grove, is the only portion of the main part of the park that is accessible by motor vehicle. Both the Kings Canyon and its Middle Fork twin, Tehipite Valley, are deeply incised, U-shaped glacial gorges with relatively flat floors and towering granite cliffs thousands of feet high. In addition, the canyon has several systems, one of which is Boyden Cave. To the east of the canyons are the peaks of the Sierra Crest, which attain an elevation of 14,248 feet NAVD88 at the summit of North Palisade. This is classic high Sierra country, barren ridges and glacially scoured lake-filled basins
11.
Sequoia National Park
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Sequoia National Park is a national park in the southern Sierra Nevada east of Visalia, California, in the United States. It was established on September 25,1890, the park is south of and contiguous with Kings Canyon National Park, the two are administered by the National Park Service together as the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. They were designated the UNESCO Sequoia-Kings Canyon Biosphere Reserve in 1976, the park is famous 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 five out of the ten largest trees in the world. The Giant Forest is connected by the Generals Highway to Kings Canyon National Parks General Grant Grove, the parks giant sequoia forests are part of 202,430 acres of old-growth forests shared by Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Indeed, the preserve a landscape that still resembles the southern Sierra Nevada before Euro-American settlement. Many park visitors enter Sequoia National Park through its entrance near the town of Three Rivers at Ash Mountain at 1,700 ft elevation. 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, sugar, 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, spring and summer snowmelts sometimes fan out to form lush, though delicate, meadows. In this region, visitors often see deer, Douglas squirrels, and American black bears. There are plans to reintroduce the bighorn sheep to this park, the vast majority of the park is roadless wilderness, no road crosses the Sierra Nevada within the parks boundaries. 84 percent of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks is designated wilderness and is only by foot or by horseback. Sequoias 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 the floor of 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, in the summertime, Native Americans would travel over the high mountain passes to trade with tribes to the East. By the time the first European settlers arrived in the area, smallpox had spread to the region. The first European settler to homestead in the area was Hale Tharp, 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
12.
144th Fighter Wing
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The 144th Fighter Wing is a unit of the California Air National Guard, stationed at Fresno Air National Guard Base, California. As part of the Air Reserve Component of the United States Air Force, in its state mission under Title 32 USC, the 144th also supports the nations Counter Drug Program and responds to state emergencies when requested by the Governor of California. The wing previously flew the F-16C and F-16D Fighting Falcon, having transferred the last F-16C aircraft to the Arizona Air National Guard in November 2013, the wing also operates one C-26A transport. The 144th Fighter Wing is composed of the units, 144th Operations Group 194th Fighter Squadron 144th Maintenance Group 144th Mission Support Group 144th Medical Group. Activated in October 1943 as the 372d Fighter Group at Hamilton Field, during World War II, the squadron was an Operational Training Unit, equipped with second-line P-39 Airacobras and P-40 Warhawks. Its mission was to newly graduated pilots from Training Command in combat tactics. Initially assigned to IV Fighter Command, then transferred to III Fighter Command in 1944 and it took part in air-ground maneuvers and demonstrations, participating in the Louisiana Maneuvers in the summer of 1944 and in similar activities in the US until after V-J Day. The wartime 372d Fighter Group was re-activated and re-designated as the 144th Fighter Group and it was organized at Naval Air Station Alameda, California, and was extended federal recognition on 2 June 1948 by the National Guard Bureau. The 144th Fighter Group was bestowed the lineage, history, honors, the Group was assigned to the California ANGs 61st Fighter Wing. All were initially equipped with F-51D Mustangs, with a mission of air defense of their respective states, in 1949, the 144th and its assigned 194th Fighter Squadron moved from NAS Alameda to the former Hayward Army Airfield, designated as Hayward Air National Guard Base. At the end of October 1950, the Air National Guard converted to the wing-base organization, as a result, the 61st Fighter Wing was withdrawn from the California ANG and inactivated on 31 October 1950. The 144th Fighter Group was assigned to the new wing as its group with the three fighter squadrons. The squadrons of the 144th Fighter Group were retained by the Air National Guard and not deployed, the F-51Ds were exchanged for F-51H Mustangs in 1951, as the D model of the Mustang was needed for close air support missions in Korea. The F-51H was a Very Long Range version of the Mustang, which was developed to escort B-29 Superfortress bombers to Japan, the increased range, however, was well-suited for air defense interceptor alert flights. During its years with the P-51H, the unit earned prominence as one of the Air Forces most respected aerial gunnery competitors, in June 1953, while still flying the Mustang, the unit qualified for the first all-jet, worldwide gunnery meet. At the same time, the 194th relocated to Fresno Air Terminal, on 7 July 1955, the 144th was re-designated as the 194th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, a designation kept by the squadron for the next 37 years. The 194th continued to fly the F-86A until 31 March 1958, on 1 April 1958, the transition was made to the F-86L Sabre Interceptor, which was designed from the onset as an interceptor, had all-weather capability and was able to be used in all weather. In addition, the F-86L could be controlled and directed by the SAGE computer-controlled Ground Control Interceptor sites which would vector the aircraft to the target for interception
