California Trivia & Tidbits - Page 18

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

A visit to the Roy Rogers/Dale Evans Museum in Victorville gives visitors a look at mementos of the famous cowboy and cowgirl films and television shows. One of the legendary displays is of Roy’s beloved horse, Trigger—mounted and rearing up on his hind legs.

first appeared: 9/9/2001

Domingo Ghirardelli came to California in 1849 seeking his fortune in the gold fields but wound up making his mark manufacturing chocolate instead. As a young teen, Ghirardelli apprenticed under his father, an expert Italian chocolatier. When gold prospecting didn’t pan out, he opened a store near Sacramento to supply chocolate and other goods to the miners. In 1852, he moved to San Francisco, which has been the home of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Co. ever since.

first appeared: 9/2/2001

Dr. Frederick Emmons Terman deserves much credit for the development of Silicon Valley. Beginning in the 1930s, Terman encouraged his Stanford University radio-engineering students to start their own electronics companies locally instead of flocking to established companies in the East.

first appeared: 8/26/2001

One of the largest sierra redwood trees—the General Grant tree in Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park—stands more than 268 feet tall and more than 107 feet in circumference.

first appeared: 8/19/2001

Oakland is the largest city in the state with a non-Spanish name.

first appeared: 8/19/2001

The Weaverville Drug Store in Weaverville (pop. 3,554) is the oldest operating pharmacy in California (since 1851). A novel collection of antique pharmaceutical equipment and devices is on display at the store.

first appeared: 8/12/2001

Tecopa (pop. 99) is an active oasis in Death Valley. The town’s natural hot springs are open to those desiring a steamy dip in the desert.

first appeared: 8/12/2001

Want to know more about those classic little Pez candy dispensers? The Museum of Pez Memorabilia in Burlingame (pop. 26,801) in the San Francisco Bay area offers an in-depth look at the candy invented in 1927 by Austrian candy executive Eduard Haas. The original candies were peppermint, and Pez is a shorthand version of the German word for peppermint—pfefferminz.

first appeared: 8/5/2001

More than 45 percent of the bird species in North America have been sighted at Point Reyes National Seashore north of San Francisco. Nearly 20 percent of California’s flowering plant species also are found on the peninsula.

first appeared: 8/5/2001

More than 200,000 people—some seeking gold, others land to farm—traveled a system of trails leading to California during the 1840s and ’50s. The California Trail stretches for more than 5,500 miles, winding through nine states from Missouri to California. Trail ruts can still be seen in the undeveloped lands between Casper, Wyo., and the West Coast.

first appeared: 7/29/2001

More than 30 million Lego blocks were used to build the 5,000 structures in Carlsbad’s Legoland theme park. Among the attractions: Lego reproductions of New York City, New Orleans, and Washington, D.C.

first appeared: 7/22/2001

When James Marshall discovered gold while inspecting a sawmill he was building for John Sutter on Jan. 24, 1848, California’s non-American Indian population was approximately 14,000. By the end of 1849, after the discovery sparked the Gold Rush, the population had soared to almost 100,000. By 1852, the number escalated to 250,000.

first appeared: 7/22/2001

California’s Silicon Valley got its start decades before the valley reached its high-tech heyday. A garage at 367 Addison Ave. in Palo Alto is California Registered Historical Landmark #976, where William R. Hewlett and David Packard began developing their first business-machine products in 1938.

first appeared: 7/15/2001

Rising from the wilderness 35 miles southwest of Needles (pop. 5,191) is the granite monolith called Old Woman Peak, named for its resemblance to an old woman. The mountain range topped by Old Woman Peak (elevation 5,300 feet) is home to bighorn sheep, desert tortoises, and many raptors.

first appeared: 7/8/2001

Artichoke industry leaders scored a coup when they tapped Marilyn Monroe as Artichoke Queen in 1948. It wasn’t long before the vegetable became a star in the world of cuisine. Castroville (pop. 5,272) is billed as the “Artichoke Center of the World.”

first appeared: 7/8/2001

Big Morongo Canyon Preserve, near Palm Springs (pop. 40,181), provides a large cottonwood and willow riverside habitat for birds and other wildlife. Located among the Little San Bernardino Mountains, water draining from the Morongo Basin flows as Big Morongo Creek before disappearing into sandy soil downstream, creating both a stream and marsh habitat.

first appeared: 7/1/2001

California’s wine country can thank Agoston Haraszthy de Mokcsa, a Hungarian-born immigrant who introduced grape cultivation in the region. He planted a large vineyard in the Sonoma Valley, near Buena Vista (pop. 100), in 1858. In 1861, he traveled to grape-producing regions in Europe, returning with about 300 different types of vines to grow in California.

first appeared: 7/1/2001

Every year, thousands of people go looking for the famous giant sequoia tree with a tunnel and road going through it. But the Wawona Tunnel Tree, which once stood in the Mariposa Grove of Yosemite National Park, fell during the winter of 1968-69.

first appeared: 6/24/2001

California is a long way from Copenhagen, but the town of Solvang (pop. 4,741) boasts a proud Danish heritage. Founded in 1911 by educators wanting to establish a Danish folk school, the community played host to the future king and queen of Denmark at its 25th anniversary celebration in 1936.

first appeared: 6/24/2001

Petaluma Adobe State Historic Park at Petaluma (pop. 43,184) hearkens back to the era of ranchos in California during its days as a Mexican Province. In the 1830s and ’40s, Rancho Petaluma was a 66,000-acre agricultural operation that included cattle, sheep, horses, various crops, and a hide and tallow business.

first appeared: 6/17/2001

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