California Trivia & Tidbits - Page 17

Looking for California trivia? Try our list California little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

The California State Capitol Museum includes exhibits showing how certain government offices looked during important times in the state’s history. Offices re-created are those of the governor, secretary of state, attorney general, and treasurer.

first appeared: 1/13/2002

Sacramento’s Leland Stanford Mansion was built in 1856-57 as the home of merchant Shelton Fogus. In 1861, Leland Stanford, president of the Central Pacific Railroad, purchased it shortly before becoming California’s eighth governor. He expanded it from two to four stories to better serve as his executive residence. His son, Leland Stanford Jr., in whose memory Stanford University was established, was born in the home in 1868.

first appeared: 1/6/2002

The Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve near Lancaster in Southern California covers 1,745 acres of high desert that bloom with colorful poppies and other wildflowers each spring. Trails are maintained through the park to provide visitors with spectacular views of the brilliant and fragrant fields.

first appeared: 1/6/2002

The 1927 Ahwahnee luxury hotel in Yosemite Valley takes its name from an American Indian word meaning deep, grassy meadow. The building’s design was inspired by its natural surroundings. Its masonry piers match the color of nearby cliffs, and what resembles wood siding is actually concrete, shaped and stained to look like redwood siding and milled timbers.

first appeared: 12/30/2001

The people who named the weathered hills around Lone Pine in the Eastern Sierra were a long way from the Old South, but they had Alabama on their minds. Confederate sympathizers prospecting in the area named the Alabama Hills after a Confederate ship that disrupted northern shipping during the Civil War. Much later the dramatic landscape became the backdrop for movies such as Gunga Din, Springfield Rifle, and How the West Was Won.

first appeared: 12/23/2001

Border Field State Park south of San Diego is where boundary offices from both the United States and Mexico established the international border after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was executed Feb. 2, 1848, ending war with Mexico. The park is now an important wildlife habitat, with salt and freshwater marshes.

first appeared: 12/16/2001

The marmots of the Mineral King area of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks apparently have acquired a taste for such auto parts accessories as radiator hoses and car wiring. The short, stout, bushy-tailed rodents—hungry and not particularly discriminating—have been known to disable cars in the area’s parking lots with their gnawing habits.

first appeared: 12/9/2001

Bale Grist Mill State Historic Park near St. Helena (pop. 5,950) provides visitors a glimpse of life in the last half of the 19th century. The water-powered gristmill was built in 1846 and remained in use through the early 1900s. The mill, including a 36-foot water wheel, is a state historic landmark. The mill and granary were built of Douglas fir and redwood timber, the foundation of native stone.

first appeared: 12/2/2001

The Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove (pop. 15,522) were established in 1913 as the West’s national camp and conference grounds for the Young Women’s Christian Association. The complex, recognized as a National Historic Landmark, is an important work of California architect Julia Morgan, one of the first American women to become a prominent architect.

first appeared: 11/25/2001

Yosemite Falls in Yosemite National Park is the tallest waterfall in the United States and the fifth-tallest in the world. The Upper Fall (Middle Cascades) and Lower Fall combine for a 2,425-foot drop. Angel Falls in Venezuela, the tallest waterfall in the world, plummets 3,312 feet. Other falls of near-record height can be found in South Africa and Norway.

first appeared: 11/18/2001

More than 4,000 windmills dot the San Gorgonio Pass in the San Bernardino Mountains, producing enough electricity to power Palm Springs and the rest of the Coachella Valley. The largest of the windmills stands 150 feet tall.

first appeared: 11/11/2001

December and January are good months to observe migrating gray whales from the beach at the end of Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park’s Overlook Trail. The whales, heading south to their breeding grounds off Baja, pass close to shore at the park located near Big Sur.

first appeared: 11/4/2001

Route 66, the famous road that spans the American Midwest and Southwest, linking Chicago and Los Angeles, marks its 75th anniversary this month. The Route 66 “Mother Road” Museum located in the Casa del Desierto in Barstow (pop. 21,119) displays photographs and artifacts related to the highway as well as the other Mojave Desert communities it passes through.

first appeared: 10/28/2001

Palomar Mountain State Park north of San Diego has coniferous forests, grand views, and areas for picnicking, camping, and hiking—as well as good fishing in Doane Pond. The well-known Mt. Palomar Observatory is just east of the park.

first appeared: 10/21/2001

Castle Crags State Park, just north of the Sacramento Valley, takes its name from the spires of granite called the Crags. The Crags are a scenic backdrop for the park’s hiking trails, and the park also offers outstanding views of 14,162-foot Mount Shasta.

first appeared: 10/14/2001

John McDougall, California’s second governor (1849-51), first served as lieutenant governor. When nominated for the governor’s job, he reportedly said, “I reckon I’ll take that. I don’t believe anyone else will have it.”

first appeared: 10/7/2001

The largest animal on earth, the blue whale, is one of more than 2,000 species of animals and plants found within Channel Islands National Park off the coast of Southern California. The park is made up of five islands—San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Anacapa, and Santa Barbara—and includes 249,354 acres, half of which are covered by ocean.

first appeared: 9/30/2001

Perhaps the finest example of unusual columnar basalt rock is found at Devils Postpile National Monument in the Sierra Nevada near Mammoth Lakes (pop. 7,093). “The Postpile” formation consists of pillars of volcanic rock with four to seven sides.

first appeared: 9/30/2001

Napa County was created in 1850 as one of the original 27 counties in the state (it now has 58). The word Napa is of American Indian derivation and has been translated into a wide range of meanings: “grizzly bear,” “house,” “motherland,” or “fish.”

first appeared: 9/23/2001

The Joshua tree, for which Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California is named, is most often found in the Mojave Desert between 2,000 and 6,000 feet elevation. These slow-growing trees have trunks made of thousands of small fibers and produce no annual growth rings, making their age difficult to determine.

first appeared: 9/16/2001

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