California Trivia & Tidbits - Page 2

The ground beneath San Francisco is a graveyard of ships, many of them abandoned by gold-seeking crews during the gold rush beginning in 1849. One, the whaler Candace, built in Boston in 1818, was discovered 20 feet below Folsom Street in 2005. Hundreds of abandoned ships rotted at the wharfs and were buried when the city’s old waterfront was later landfilled.

—Radio station KRML, based in Carmel-by-the-Sea (pop. 4,081), was established in 1957, but gained fame after it provided the setting for the 1971 movie Play Misty for Me, which was Clint Eastwood’s debut as a director. He also starred in the movie as jazz radio disc jockey Dave Garver, who must deal with an obsessive fan. KRML broadcasts jazz 24 hours a day.

—In September, Xanterra Parks & Resorts, which operates many accommodation and dining facilities in national parks, received a National Park Service Environmental Achievement Award for its exceptional sustainable energy practices in Death Valley National Park. Xanterra’s 1-megawatt solar photovoltaic system will generate more than one-third of the annual electricity needs for its Death Valley operations, including its resort at Furnace Creek (pop. 31).

—Richard Branson, of Virgin Galactic, unveiled the WhiteKnightTwo mothership in Mojave (pop. 3,836) in July, hoping to use the 100 percent carbon-composite aircraft to send passengers into space by 2010. Named “Eve” after Branson’s mother, the ship will contain a smaller spacecraft to be released at an altitude of 50,000 feet, to take six passengers some 65 miles above Earth.

The Sea Life Aquarium opened at the Legoland resort in Carlsbad in August, incorporating 72 Lego models, including an 11-foot-long submarine. The 36,000-square-foot, two-story aquarium features more than 200 species, including sharks, rays and seahorses, along with a 35-foot-long acrylic ocean “tunnel” that allows people to walk through the Lost City of Atlantis tank without getting wet, and a 10-foot-tall statue of Poseidon.

—Actress Jeanne Cooper won a Daytime Emmy award this year as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama for her portrayal of Katherine Chancellor in the daytime drama The Young and the Restless. Born in Taft (pop. 6,400) in 1928, Cooper—whose son Corbin Bernsen also is an actor—has played Chancellor, one of the key matriarchs of the fictional Genoa City, since 1973.

—More than 40 California law enforcement agencies contribute confiscated firearms each year to Project Isaiah, in which TAMCO Steel in Rancho Cucamonga melts down the weapons to produce metal bars for reinforcing concrete in building and freeway construction. Launched in 1993, the program—named for the Biblical reference to beating swords into plowshares—has destroyed tens of thousands of pounds of weapons.

One of the most successful American swimmers in Olympic history, Matt Biondi, who grew up in Moraga (pop. 16,290), earned 11 medals in individual and relay freestyle events of various lengths. He won gold at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics; five golds, one silver and one bronze at the 1988 Seoul Olympics; and two golds and a silver at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

—Long distance swimmer Janet Evans first hit the pool as a toddler growing up in Placentia (pop. 46,488). Her agility in the water helped her win three gold medals at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea, in the 400-meter individual medley, the 400-meter freestyle and the 800-meter freestyle, and another gold in the 800-meter race at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.

—Lawyer-turned-writer Erle Stanley Gardner, the creator of the Perry Mason murder mysteries, lived in Temecula (pop. 57,716) from 1937 until his death in 1970, on a property that he called “Rancho del Paisano.” Gardner introduced Mason—also a lawyer—in 1933 in his first novel, The Case of the Velvet Claws, subsequently sparking movies, television shows and more books.

—Parlier (pop. 11,145), located in the San Joaquin Valley, is named for the Parlier family, who moved to the site in 1876 from Illinois and established a general store, trading post and post office that became the town’s center. Agriculture was the region’s original industry, with wheat being the first major crop, followed by grapes and raisins. Parlier was incorporated in 1921.

—Established in 1988, Thornton Winery in Temecula (pop. 57,716) originally produced only sparkling wine. In 1993, however, the French chateau-style winery added non-sparkling, “still” wines, which now include cabernet sauvignon, merlot, syrah, zinfandel, chardonnay, moscato, sauvignon blanc and viognier, to its award-winning bubbly production.

—Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area in Oceano (pop. 7,260) includes 3,600 acres of coastal sand dune ecology, with 2,100 acres set aside as a preserve. The threatened snowy plover and the endangered California least tern both nest within the area during the breeding season from March 1 to Sept. 30.

Oso Flaco Lake, located at the south end of Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area, gained its name from the first European explorers to travel through the dunes area. They were members of Don Gaspar de Portola’s overland expedition of 1769. In September, the expedition’s diaries recorded camping near a lake where the men killed a skinny bear: an oso flaco in Spanish.

—In 1999, Bob Schumacher set a land-sailing speed record of 116.7 mph on Ivanpah Dry Lake, near Nipton, close to the border with Nevada. When he set the record, Schumacher was piloting the Iron Duck, a land “yacht” with a solid wing and three wheels. Ivanpah Dry Lake is managed by the Bureau of Land Management office in Needles (pop. 4,830).

—The National Trust for Historic Preservation has selected San Juan Bautista (pop. 1,549) as one of its Dozen Distinctive Destinations for 2008. Founded in 1797 and known as the “City of History,” San Juan Bautista was named to the list for its unparalleled collection of Spanish colonial architecture, including its Mission, which offers an authentic look at Old California.

The Mission in San Juan Bautista was founded in 1797, and its church has been in continuous use since 1812. The church’s architecture includes a cat door that was carved into a chapel door to allow mice-catching felines inside, and animal tracks set into the floor tiles when the clay tiles were left outside to dry.

—One of the few towns in the nation built by and for Chinese immigrants, Locke was founded in 1915 after a fire in nearby Walnut Grove (pop. 669) prompted a group of Chinese merchants—led by Lee Bing—to ask George Locke, a local landowner, for permission to build on his land. The town’s peak population was 600, and today numbers about 80.

—When Sicilian immigrant Baldassare Forestiere realized in 1906 that his land in Fresno couldn’t be used for agriculture, he began building an underground home to escape the summer heat. Inspired by the Roman arches of his native land, he worked for 40 years, carving out more than 10 acres, creating sky-lit rooms, tunnels and patios in what’s now the Forestiere Underground Gardens.

—Former Hollywood animal trainer Pat Derby and her partner, Ed Stewart, founded the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) in 1984, to rescue and protect performing and exotic animals from maltreatment. PAWS now has three sanctuaries: a 30-acre sanctuary in Galt (pop. 19,472), the 100-acre Amanda Blake Memorial Wildlife Refuge in Herald, and Ark 2000, a 2,300-acre natural habitat sanctuary in San Andreas (pop. 2,615). Pat Derby met Amanda Blake when they both worked on the television show Gunsmoke. Blake, who played saloon owner “Miss Kitty,” left her entire estate to PAWS when she died in 1989. In her honor, Derby created the Amanda Blake Memorial Wildlife Refuge, which is home to animals such as ostrich, emu, rhea, eland and oryx.