California Trivia & Tidbits - Page 4

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

—Two California communities also made the National Trust’s list of distinctive destinations in 2006. Monterey (pop. 29,674) earned a place for its stunning coastal setting and attractions, such as historic canneries and American Indian, Spanish-Colonial and Mexican heritage sites. Desert getaway Palm Springs (pop. 42,807), meanwhile, was selected for its array of buildings designed in the Modern style.

first appeared: 8/26/2007

—Each year, the San Francisco-based Goldman Environmental Prize is awarded to one individual from each of the world’s six inhabited continents. Richard and Rhoda Goldman established the prize—worth $125,000 for each recipient—in 1990 to honor grassroots environmental efforts. Winners have been involved with causes such as dolphin-safe tuna fishing, wildlife refuge and waterway protection, and sustainable development.

first appeared: 8/12/2007

—Winemaker Daryl Sattui spent more than a decade creating an Italian-style castle near Calistoga (pop. 5,190) that opened this spring. The Castello di Amorosa—home to a winery that shares its name—features a dry moat, drawbridge, dungeon, guard towers with battlements, and a grand hall decorated with frescoes. The building contains more than 120,000 square feet, spread over 107 rooms and seven levels.

first appeared: 7/29/2007

—At 770 feet high, Oroville Dam is the nation’s tallest earthen dam. Located near Oroville (pop. 13,004), the dam on the Feather River was built in the 1960s from about 80 million cubic yards of clay, sand and gravel. At more than a mile across, the dam created the state’s second-largest reservoir—Lake Oroville, with 167 miles of shoreline.

first appeared: 7/15/2007

Based in Torrance, artist Donovan Fell turns vintage aircraft parts into limited-edition sculptures and furniture pieces. Fell began his new career in 1998, when he created sculptures out of B-17 airplane propellers. Today, Fell’s company, MotoArt, also makes desks from DC-9 wings and chairs from airplane ejection seats.

first appeared: 7/15/2007

—Jacques-Andres Istel founded Felicity—named for his wife and located near Winterhaven (pop. 529)—in the mid-1980s, designating it “the center of the world” in a children’s book that he wrote about a good dragon named Coe who lived there. Imperial County since has agreed, and a bronze plaque inside the community’s 21-foot-high pink marble pyramid now marks the “Official Center of the World.”

first appeared: 7/1/2007

—The Art Honors Life gallery opened in Graton (pop. 1,815) last January, specializing in contemporary cremation urns and memorial art. The gallery follows the success of Funeria, an Internet-based company that offers artists’ original cremation urns, made from materials such as terra-cotta, redwood, glass and even paper. One design, the “Urn-A-Matic,” is a vintage vacuum cleaner that plays a home movie.

first appeared: 6/17/2007

—Richard Krieger, 61, of Whittier, set a record in January when he took his 20,000th ride on the Xcelerator roller coaster, which travels up to 82 mph and reaches a height of 205 feet at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park. Krieger has been riding the coaster for about four years, with a personal best of 124 rides in a single day.

first appeared: 6/3/2007

The 1934 movie Treasure Island was filmed at Point Lobos State Reserve, a landscape that reportedly inspired author Robert Louis Stevenson when he wrote the original book, published in 1883. Located near Carmel-by-the-Sea (pop. 4,081), the reserve was established in 1933 and named after the sea lions, known in Spanish as “lobos marinos,” or sea wolves, that inhabit the park’s rocky point and coastal islands.

first appeared: 6/3/2007

—Wilma Melville of Ojai (pop. 7,862) founded the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation in 1995, after she and her search-and-rescue dog—a black Labrador named Murphy—helped look for victims buried in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City. Melville contributed $44,000 of her own money to launch the foundation, which since has trained 53 canine-handler teams certified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help with disaster response.

first appeared: 5/28/2007

—Winter and spring rains can trigger beautiful wildflower blooms in Death Valley’s usually arid landscape. From mid-February to mid-April, flowers often can be seen on Jubilee Pass; along Highway 190 near Furnace Creek Inn; and at the base of Daylight Pass. Between April and May, the bloom occurs in the Panamint Mountains between 2,000 and 4,000 feet, moving above 4,000 feet between late April and early June.

first appeared: 5/6/2007

—When Mount Woodson Castle was being built near Ramona (pop. 15,691) between 1916 and 1921, construction materials included wood from the property’s own eucalyptus trees and granite boulders from nearby Mount Woodson. Built by San Diego dressmaker Amy Strong, today the 12,000-square-foot, 27-room castle can be rented for weddings and other private functions.

first appeared: 4/22/2007

—Waterfowl hunters and visitors to federal wildlife refuges will sign their name on the work of artist Sherrie Russell Meline when they activate this year’s $15 Federal Duck Stamp, which funds the purchase of waterfowl habitat nationwide. Russell Meline, of Mount Shasta (pop. 3,621), won the 2005 Federal Duck Stamp Contest with her painting of several Ross’ geese.

first appeared: 4/8/2007

More than 21,000 bunny collectibles fill the Pasadena home of Candace Frazee and Steve Lubanski, which since 1998 has been known as The Bunny Museum. The couple’s collection includes seven real bunnies, plus stuffed toys, figurines and famous rabbit characters such as Bugs Bunny, Peter Cottontail and Thumper.

first appeared: 4/8/2007

—TripAdvisor has named the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo (pop. 44,174) the world’s 10th quirkiest hotel. The pink, chalet-style hotel offers rooms decorated in themes ranging from caves to safaris to Italy.

first appeared: 3/25/2007

—A former sea lion pool at the Santa Barbara Zoo is now home to 14 Humboldt penguins. With only 12,000 breeding pairs remaining in the world, the species—which is native to the South American coast from Peru to Chile—is considered threatened. The Crawford Family Penguin House opened last June, with the penguins and five Inca terns taking up residence over the summer.

first appeared: 3/11/2007

—Sheila Mills has become known for her Dutch oven cooking during some 30 years of guiding rafting trips on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. Based in Boise and Salmon (pop. 3,122), Mills adopted the flat-bottomed, cast-iron pot, which explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark called one of their most valued pieces of equipment, to cook delicious dishes that she since has shared in several cookbooks.

first appeared: 3/11/2007

—Actor Fess Parker became known for portraying Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone on television in the 1950s and 1960s. Today, he’s also known for his family-run Fess Parker Winery and Vineyard in Los Olivos, near Santa Ynez (pop. 4,584). The winery was filmed and presented as the Frass Canyon winery in the 2004 movie Sideways.

first appeared: 2/27/2007

When 5-year-old Gabriel Gottfried used a digital camera to photograph a California condor last fall outside of his home in Topanga Canyon, he may have seen the first condor in more than a century to fly in the area. Wildlife experts believe the majestic bird may have been taking temporary refuge from a nearby forest fire. Topanga Canyon is located between Woodland Hills and Malibu (pop. 12,575).

first appeared: 2/27/2007

—The world’s tallest tree has been discovered in Redwood National Park, north of Eureka (pop. 26,128). A researcher recently climbed to the top of the redwood, known as Hyperion, to confirm its height at 379.1 feet, almost 9 feet taller than Stratosphere Giant, another redwood that previously was reported to be the world’s tallest.

first appeared: 2/11/2007

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