California is a U.S. state spanning the southern half of the west coast. With a population of 37 million and an area of 158,402 square miles (410,000 km2), California is the largest U.S. state in population and the third largest in area.
Adelanto Agoura Hills Alameda Alhambra Alpine Alturas American Canyon Anaheim Anderson Angels Camp Antioch Aptos Arcadia Arcata Arroyo Grande Artesia Atascadero Auburn Avalon Avila Beach Azusa Bakersfield Baldwin Park Banning Barstow Bass Lake Beaumont Bell Gardens Bellflower Belmont Ben Lomond Benicia Berkeley Beverly Hills Big Bear City Big Bear Lake Big Sur Bishop Blythe Bodega Bay Borrego Springs Boyes Hot Springs Brawley Brea Bridgeport Brisbane Buellton Buena Park Burbank Burlingame Buttonwillow Cabazon Calabasas Calexico Calimesa Calistoga Camarillo Cambria Campbell Canoga Park Canyon Lake Capistrano Beach Capitola Carlsbad Carmel Carmel Valley Carpinteria Carson Castaic Castro Valley Cathedral City Cayucos Cazadero Ceres Cerritos Chatsworth Chester Chico Chino Chino Hills Chowchilla Chula Vista Claremont Clearlake Cloverdale Clovis Coalinga Colton Commerce Compton Concord Corning Corona Coronado Corte Madera Costa Mesa Covina Crescent City Culver City Cupertino Cypress Daly City Dana Point Danville Davis Del Mar Delano Desert Hot Springs Diamond Bar Dinuba Dixon Dorris Downey Duarte Dublin Dunnigan Dunsmuir Earlimart El Cajon El Centro El Cerrito El Granada El Monte El Portal El Segundo Elk Grove Emeryville Encinitas Escondido Eureka Eureka Exeter Fairfield Fallbrook Fillmore Fish Camp Folsom Fontana Foothill Ranch Fort Bragg Fortuna Foster City Fountain Valley Fremont Fresno Fullerton Galt Garberville Garden Grove Gardena Geyserville Gilroy Glen Ellen Glendale Glendora Goleta Gorman Granada Hills Grass Valley Grass Valley Groveland Gualala Guerneville Hacienda Heights Half Moon Bay Hanford Hawthorne Hayward Healdsburg Hemet Hermosa Beach Hesperia Highland Hollister Hollywood Huntington Beach Huntington Park Idyllwild Imperial Imperial Beach Indian Wells Indio Inglewood Irvine Jackson Jamestown Jenner Joshua Tree June Lake Kenwood Kettleman City King City Kings Beach Kingsburg La Jolla La Mesa La Mirada La Palma La Quinta Lafayette Laguna Beach Laguna Hills Lake Arrowhead Lake Elsinore Lake Forest Lakeport Lakeshore Lakeside Lancaster Larkspur Lathrop Lawndale Lebec Lee Vining Lemon Grove Lemoore Lindsay Little River Livermore Lodi Loma Linda Lompoc Lone Pine Long Beach Loomis Los Alamitos Los Altos Los Angeles Los Banos Los Gatos Los Olivos Los Osos Lost Hills Lynwood Madera Malibu Mammoth Lakes Manhattan Beach Manteca Marina Mariposa Marshall Martinez Marysville Mendocino Menlo Park Merced Mill Valley Millbrae Milpitas Mission Hills Mission Viejo Modesto Mojave Monrovia Montebello Monterey Monterey Park Moreno Valley Morgan Hill Morro Bay Moss Landing Mount Shasta Mountain View Murrieta Napa National City Needles Nevada City Newark Newhall Newport Beach Nice Norco Norden North Hills North Hollywood Northridge Norwalk Novato Oak View Oakdale Oakhurst Oakland Oakley Occidental Oceanside Ojai Olympic Valley Ontario Orange Oroville Oxnard Pacific Grove Pacifica Pala Palm Desert Palm Springs Palmdale Palo Alto Paradise Pasadena Paso Robles Patterson Pebble Beach Pescadero Petaluma Phelan Pico Rivera Pinole Pismo Beach Placentia Placerville Pleasant Hill Pleasanton Point Arena Pollock Pines Pomona Port Hueneme Porterville Poway Ramona Rancho Cordova Rancho Cucamonga Rancho Mirage Rancho Santa Fe Red Bluff Redding Redlands Redondo Beach Redway Redwood City Reseda Rialto Richmond Ridgecrest Rio Vista Ripon Riverside Rocklin Rohnert Park Rosemead Roseville Rowland Heights Rutherford Sacramento Saint Helena Salida Salinas San Bernardino San Bruno San Carlos San Clemente San Diego San Dimas San Francisco San Gabriel San Jose San Juan Capistrano San Leandro San Luis Obispo San Marcos San Martin San Mateo San Pedro San Rafael San Ramon San Simeon San Ysidro Santa Ana Santa Barbara Santa Clara Santa Clarita Santa Cruz Santa Maria Santa Monica Santa Nella Santa Paula Santa Rosa Santee Saratoga Sausalito Scotts Valley Seal Beach Seaside Sebastopol Selma Sequoia National Park Shell Beach Sherman Oaks Shoshone Signal Hill Simi Valley Solana Beach Soledad Solvang Sonoma Sonora South El Monte South Gate South Lake Tahoe South San Francisco Stanton Stevenson Ranch Stockton Studio City Summerland Sun City Sunnyvale Sunset Beach Susanville Sutter Creek Sylmar Tahoe City Tahoe Vista Tarzana Tehachapi Temecula Thousand Oaks Thousand Palms Three Rivers Tiburon Torrance Tracy Trinidad Truckee Tulare Turlock Tustin Twentynine Palms Ukiah Union City Universal City Upland Upper Lake Vacaville Valencia Vallejo Van Nuys Venice Ventura Victorville Visalia Vista Walnut Walnut Creek Watsonville Weed West Covina West Hollywood West Los Angeles West Sacramento Westlake Village Westley Westminster Westmorland Whittier Williams Willits Willows Wilmington Windsor Woodland Woodland Hills Yorba Linda Yountville Yreka Yuba City Yucca Valley
Native Americans
The region was inhabited by Native Americans before European explorers started to make sporadic visitations during the 16th Century. California had the highest density and greatest diversity of indigenous peoples in what is now the United States. Spain colonized the coastal areas of the territory starting in 1769. As a result of the Mexican War of Independence, California became a part of the Mexican Republic in 1821. It was subsequently captured by the United States in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) which was concluded with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The California Gold Rush of 1848-1849 brought about 90,000 additional U.S. immigrants into the state, and California became the 31st state of the Union in 1850.
Laid Back?
Although the state's sunny climate has given it a historic reputation for being laid back compared to the East Coast, the $1.55 trillion (as of 2005) California economy is larger than all but the top 7 national economies in the world and is responsible for 13% of the United States' $13 trillion gross domestic product (GDP). The state's major predominant industries include agriculture, entertainment, light manufacturing, and tourism. California is also the home of several significant economic regions such as Hollywood (entertainment), the California Central Valley (agriculture), Silicon Valley (computers and high tech), and the Wine Country (wine).
Rich Geography
California borders the Pacific Ocean, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, and the Mexican state of Baja California. The state has strikingly beautiful natural features, including an expansive central valley, tall mountains, arid deserts, and hundreds of miles of scenic coastline. With an area of 160,000 square miles (411,000 km²) it is the third largest state in the U.S and is larger than Germany in size. Most major cities are at or near the Pacific coastline, notably Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Long Beach, Oakland, Santa Ana/Orange County, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego. However, the capital, Sacramento, is in the Central Valley. The geographic center of the state is located in North Fork, California.
California's geography is rich, complex, and varied. In the middle of the state lies the California Central Valley, a huge, fertile valley bounded by the coastal mountain ranges in the west, the granite Sierra Nevada to the east, the volcanic Cascade Range in the north and the Tehachapi Mountains in the south. Mountain-fed rivers, dams, and canals provide water to irrigate the Central Valley. The water supply for much of the state is provided by the State Water Project. The Central Valley Project supports some municipal water supplies, though it primarily provides water to irrigated agriculture.
With dredging, several rivers have become sufficiently large and deep that several inland cities (notably Stockton) are seaports. The hot, fertile Central Valley is California's agricultural heartland and grows a large portion of America's food, yet near freezing temperatures are not uncommon during winter which sometimes wipe out portions of crops. The southern part of the valley, which is part desert, is known as the San Joaquin Valley (drained by the San Joaquin River), while the northern half is known as the Sacramento Valley (drained by the Sacramento River). The Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta is a major estuary that supports a brackish ecosystem while serving as the water supply hub for much of the state's population. The Channel Islands are located in the southern part of the state, stretching from Santa Barbara to Orange County. These islands have few inhabitants, but the northernmost islands are a national park. They and the largest island, Santa Catalina Island are attractive to visitors.
Highest Peak and Yosemite National Park
In the center and east of the state are the Sierra Nevada (meaning Snowy Range in Spanish), which include the highest peak in the contiguous 48 states, Mount Whitney, at 14,505 feet (4421 m). Also located in the Sierra are the world-famous Yosemite National Park and a deep freshwater lake, Lake Tahoe, the largest lake in the state by volume. To the east of the Sierra are Owens Valley and Mono Lake, an essential seabird habitat. To the west is Clear Lake, California's largest freshwater lake by area. The Sierra Nevada reaches arctic temperatures in the winter and has several dozen small glaciers, including the most southern glacier in the United States (Palisade Glacier).
About 35% of the state's total surface area is covered by forests. California's diversity of pine species is unmatched by any other state. Though other states have a higher percentage of their land area covered by forests, in terms of total area, California contains more forestland than any other state except Alaska. Most of the forest is found in 2 areas: the northwestern part of the state and along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. Smaller forests, mainly consisting of oaks, can be found along the coast ranges of California closer to the coast, and also in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Smaller areas of pine forests can be found in the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains of Southern California and also in the mountain areas of central San Diego County. Deserts in California make up about 25% of the total surface area.
In the south lay the Transverse Ranges and a large salt lake, the Salton Sea. The south-central desert is called the Mojave. To the northeast of the Mojave lies Death Valley, which contains the lowest, hottest point in North America, Badwater Flat. The lowest point of Death Valley and the peak of Mount Whitney are less than 200 miles apart. The hiking trek between the two points has been attempted, several times, most notably by Lee Bergthold. Indeed, almost all of southeastern California is arid, hot desert, with the Coachella Valley and Imperial Valley routinely experiencing extreme high temperatures during the summer. These large deserts kept travel between California and Mexico to a bare minimum during the colonial period. The Coachella Valley in Riverside County is famous for its popular tourist destination Palm Springs, California. Other Coachella Valley communities include Bermuda Dunes, Desert Hot Springs, Indian Wells, Palm Desert, and Rancho Mirage.
Metropolitan Areas
Along the densely populated and long California coast are several major metropolitan areas, including San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, Los Angeles-Long Beach, Santa Ana-Irvine-Anaheim, Riverside-San Bernardino, California and San Diego. Climates near the Pacific Ocean are remarkably moderate compared with inland climates. Winter temperatures seldom reach freezing and summer temperatures rarely reach above the high 80's Fahrenheit (low 30's Celsius).
Earthquakes and Volcanoes
California is famous for earthquakes due to the presence of a number of faults, in particular the San Andreas Fault. While powerful earthquakes in the United States have occurred in other states such as Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and Missouri (along the New Madrid fault), people are more aware of California's earthquakes due to their frequency and tendency to strike in highly populated areas.
California is also home to several volcanoes, some active such as Mammoth Mountain. Other volcanoes include Lassen Peak, which erupted from 1914 and 1921, and Mount Shasta.
The area was inhabited by Native Americans before European explorers started to make sporadic visits during the 16th Century. Spain colonized the territory during the late 1700s before it became part of Mexico after the Mexican War of Independence (1810-21). During the outset of the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), in the town of Sonoma 40 U.S. settlers revolted and established the so-called "California Republic", which lasted about 30 days but did produce the model for the state flag. The state was captured by the U.S. Army and Navy, as the Mexican officials fled without a fight. The California Gold Rush of 1849 brought a huge population of immigrants into the area, and California became the 31st state of the United States in 1850.
Baja California
The entire region originally known as California was composed of the Mexican peninsula now known as Baja California and much of the land in the current states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and Wyoming, known as Alta California. In these early times, the boundaries of the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific coast were only partially explored and California was shown on early maps as an island. The name comes from Las sergas de Esplandián (Adventures of Splandian), a 16th century novel, by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, where there is an island paradise called California.
Pre-European California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in Native northern America. Large, settled populations lived on the West Coast and hunted sea mammals, fished for salmon, and gathered shellfish, while more mobile hunters and gathering groups in the California interior hunted terrestrial game and gathered nuts, acorns, and berries. California groups also were diverse in their political organization with bands, tribes, tribelets, and on the resource-rich coasts large chiefdoms, such as the Chumash, Pomo and Salinan. Trade, intermarriage, and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups. Except for the Mojave Indians living along the Colorado River no California Indians grew any domesticated crops.
João Rodrigues Cabrilho
The first European to explore parts of the coast was the Portuguese João Rodrigues Cabrilho in 1542 working for the Spanish Hernan Cortes. The first to explore the entire coast and claim possession of it was the English man Francis Drake in 1579. Beginning in 1769, Spanish missionaries set up California Missions along the California coast. In addition four small towns or presidos were set up. Upon Mexican independence from Spain, the chain of missions became the property of the Mexican government, and were quickly dissolved and abandoned in 1832. Friends of the Mexican government officials got most of the livestock and property.
The total Spanish speaking population in California in 1846, when the U.S. took over, was about 4000. Many of California's major cities were settled by non-Spanish immigrants around these missions and presidios. They preserved only their religious names (Los Angeles for the Virgin Mary. San Francisco for St. Francis of Assisi, San Jose for St. Joseph of Nazareth and San Diego for St. Didacus). For a quarter century after the achievement of Mexican independence in 1821, California was a remote northern province of the nation of Mexico. Cattle and horses introduced into California in the 1770's and doubled in population with minimal care about every five years. cattle ranches, or ranchos, emerged as the dominant institutions of Mexican California.
Trappers and Setters
Beginning in the 1820s, trappers and settlers from the United States and Canada began to arrive, harbingers of the great changes that would sweep California. These new arrivals used the Siskiyou Trail, California Trail, and Old Spanish Trail to cross the rugged mountains and harsh deserts surrounding California.
In this period, some nobles of Imperial Russia made brief attempts to explore and claim parts of California, particularly at Fort Ross, but these were limited by a lack of Imperial interest.
Disease
California was poorly settled until modern public health eliminated the endemic outbreaks of yellow fever, malaria and plague, caused from the area’s lack of frosts, which kills mosquitoes and fleas.
In 1846, at the outset of the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), the California Republic was founded and the Bear Flag was flown, which featured a golden bear and a star. The Republic came to a sudden end, however, when Commodore John D. Sloat of the United States Navy sailed into San Francisco Bay and claimed California for the United States. Following the war, the region was divided between Mexico and the United States. The Mexican portion, Baja (lower) California was later divided into the states of Baja California and Baja California Sur. The western part of the U.S. portion, Alta (upper) California, was to become the U.S. state of California.
California Gold Rush
In 1848, the Spanish-speaking population of distant upper California numbered around 4,000. But after gold was discovered, the population burgeoned with U.S. citizens, Europeans, and other immigrants during the great California Gold Rush. In 1850, the state was admitted to the union USA as a free state (one in which slavery was prohibited).
Transcontinental Railroad
At first, travel between the far Pacific West to the eastern population centers was time consuming and dangerous, requiring either long ocean voyages or difficult transcontinental passages by stagecoach and on foot. A more direct connection came in 1869 with the completion of the first transcontinental railroad. After this rail link was established, hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens came west, where new Californians were discovering that land in the state, if irrigated during the dry summer months, was extremely well suited to fruit cultivation and agriculture in general. Citrus was widely grown (especially in the form of oranges), and the foundation was laid for the state's prodigious agricultural production of today.
Transcontinental Highways
During the early 20th century, migration to California accelerated with the completion of major transcontinental highways like the Lincoln Highway and Route 66. In the period from 1900 to 1965 the population grew from fewer than one million to become the most populous state in the Union. From 1965 to the present, the population demographic changed radically and became one of the most diverse in the world. The state is generally liberal-leaning, technologically and culturally savvy, and a world center of engineering businesses, the film and television industry, music industry, and as mentioned above, U.S. agricultural production.
California's vast terrain is connected by an extensive system of freeways, expressways, and highways, all maintained by Caltrans and patrolled by the California Highway Patrol, except for the numbered expressways in Santa Clara County which were built and maintained by the county itself.
The main north-south arteries are U.S. Route 101, which runs close to the coast from the state's border with Oregon to downtown Los Angeles, and Interstate 5, which runs inland from the Oregon to Mexico borders, bisecting the entire state. California is known for its car culture, and its residents typically take to the roads for their commutes, errands, and vacations, giving California's cities a reputation for severe traffic congestion. Almost all California highways are non-toll roads. Notable exceptions are any major bridges.
Airports
As for air travel, Los Angeles International Airport and San Francisco International Airport are major hubs for trans-Pacific and transcontinental traffic. There are about a dozen important commercial airports and many more general aviation airports throughout the state's 58 counties.
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Seaports
California also has several important seaports. The giant seaport complex formed by the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach in Southern California is the largest in the country and responsible for handling about a fourth of all container cargo traffic in the United States. The Port of Oakland handles most of the ocean containers passing through Northern California.
Amtrak
Intercity rail travel is provided by Amtrak. Los Angeles and San Francisco both have subway networks, in addition to light rail. San Jose and Sacramento have only light rail, though portions of San Jose light rail serve as EL Trains. Metrolink commuter rail serves much of Southern California, and Caltrain commuter rail connects San Jose and Gilroy (commute hour only) to San Francisco. Altamont Commuter Express (ACE) connects Tracy, Livermore and other edge cities with San Jose. BART, an express rail service, connects San Francisco and Oakland to Millbrae in the southwest, Fremont in the southeast, Dublin and Pleasanton in the east, Richmond in the north, and Pittsburg in the northeast. Despite its name, it does not encompass the entire Bay Area; the North Bay and South Bay regions are not currently included in the system. San Diego has Trolley light rail and Coaster commuter rail services. Nearly all counties operate bus lines, and many cities operate their own bus lines as well.
Both Greyhound and Amtrak provide intercity travel services.
The rapidly growing population of the state is straining all of its transportation networks. A regularly recurring issue in California politics is whether the state should continue to aggressively expand its freeway network or concentrate on improving mass transit networks in urban areas.
The California High Speed Rail Authority was created some years back by the state to implement an extensive 700 mile (1127 km) rail system. Construction is pending approval of the voters during next November's general election, in which a $9 billion state bond would have to be approved. If built, the system would provide a TGV-style high-speed link between the state's four major cities, and would allow travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco's Transbay Terminal in two and one half hours.
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* Different regions of California have very different climates, depending on their latitude, elevation, and proximity to the coast. Most of the state has a Mediterranean climate, with rainy winters and dry summers. The influence of the ocean generally moderates temperature extremes, creating warmer winters and substantially cooler summers. The cool California Current offshore, enhanced by upwelling of cold sub-surface waters, often creates summer fog near the coast. Further inland, the climate becomes more continental with colder winters and markedly hotter summers.
The temperature gradient between immediate coast and low-lying inland valleys in the north is about 7 °F (4 °C) in winter (the coast being warmer) and in summer roughly 25 °F (14 °C) (the interior being warmer). In the south, the figures are approximately 4 °F and 23 °F (2 °C and 13 °C), respectively; however 4 °F and 35 °F (2 °C and 20 °C) between Santa Barbara and Death Valley.
Westerly winds from the ocean also bring moisture, and the northern parts of the state generally receive higher annual rainfall amounts than the south. California's mountain ranges influence the climate as well: moisture-laden air from the west cools as it ascends the mountains, dropping moisture; some of the rainiest parts of the state are west-facing mountain slopes. Northwestern California has a temperate climate with rainfall of 15–50 inches (400–1270 mm) per year.
Some areas of Coast Redwood forest receive over 100 inches of precipitation per year (2540 mm). The Central Valley has a Mediterranean climate but with greater temperature extremes than the coastal areas: parts of the valley are often filled with thick fog, similar to that found in the coastal valleys. The high mountains, including the Sierra Nevada, have a mountain climate with snow in winter and mild to moderate heat in summer.
On the east side of the mountains is a drier rain shadow. California's desert climate regions lie east of the high Sierra Nevada and Southern California's Transverse Ranges and Peninsular Ranges. The low deserts east of the southern California mountains, including the Imperial and Coachella valleys and the lower Colorado River, are part of the Sonoran Desert, with hot summers and mild winters; the higher elevation deserts of eastern California, including the Mojave Desert, Owens Valley, and the Modoc Plateau, are part of the Great Basin region, with hot summers and cold winters.
During the summer months, especially from July through early September, the region is affected by the Mexican Monsoon (also called the "southwest monsoon"), which drives moisture from the tropical Pacific, Gulf of California, and/or Gulf of Mexico into the deserts, setting off brief, but often torrential thunderstorms, particularly over mountainous terrain.
In the northern portion of the Mojave Desert on the east side of the state is Death Valley, which is the hottest spot on the Western Hemisphere. It is common in the summer for temperatures in the valley to reach 120 °F (49 °C). The highest temperature in the Western Hemisphere, 134 °F (56.6 °C), was recorded in Death Valley on July 10, 1913. Temperatures of 130 °F (54 °C) or higher have been recorded as recently as 2005. The 24-hour average July temperature in Death Valley is 101 °F (38 °C) (1961—1990 standard).
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* This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
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