California (On the Road Histories)


Book Description

A witty, expansive narrative that reveals the real story of the people and places that makes up the Golden State. From the European conquest to today’s economic crisis, Californians have experienced tumultuous growth and painful conflicts. Like the grinding of tectonic plates that has produced the state’s very landscape, these encounters, disputes, and transformations have continuously made and remade California. California: On-the-Road History doesn’t relate the cleaned-up tale of the California dream that school textbooks and the tourism commission tell. Rather it presents the sometimes bitter, sometimes triumphant history behind the California myth. Included are recommended museums, state parks, and other attractions, alongside literary excerpts from local authors who give readers a sense of California in different eras.







Ridge Route


Book Description

This book is a step back into time and the history of California's Scenic Ridge Route. When it opened in 1915 it was hailed as the "Magnus Opus" of mountain highway engineering. By-passed by the Ridge Alternative in 1933, it was left to the elements and all but forgotten. In this book you will visit sites like Sandberg's famous Summit Hotel where you would have seen Cadillacs, Packards and Studebakers during the road's heyday; the former site of the opulent Hotel Lebec, playground for the world's finest; the Ridge Road House; the National Forest Inn; and Kelly's Half Way House. Motorists faced 697 curves when navigating this famous moutain highway. You will follow "Ridge Route Annie's" adventurous search for gold. Read how highwaymen relieved unsuspecting motorists of their valuables and the 1922 blizzard that stranded scores of motorists. All of this in addition to early history on north - south routes and how Los Angeles had to entice the Butterfield Stage and later the Southern Pacific Railroad in Los Angeles. While this book focuses on the 1915 Scenic Ridge Route, it also addresses the 1930 Ridge Alternative, (U.S. Highway 99) and the current I-5 Ridge Route Highway.




Highway 99


Book Description

Before it was a modern freeway, California’s State Highway 99 was “the main street of California,” a simple two-lane road that passed through the downtowns of every city between the Mexican border and the Oregon state line. Highway 99: The History of California’s Main Street turns back the clock to those days when a narrow ribbon of asphalt tied the state’s communities together, with classic roadside attractions and plenty of fun along the way.




History of California: 1860-1890


Book Description

This work examines California's history from 1520 to 1890. It also contains a ethnology of the state's population, economics, and politics.







The Open Road


Book Description

A nomad and a swindler embark on an eccentric road trip in this picaresque, philosophical novel by the author of The Man Who Planted Trees. The south of France, 1950: A solitary vagabond walks through the villages, towns, valleys, and foothills of the region between northern Provence and the Alps. He picks up work along the way and spends the winter as the custodian of a walnut-oil mill. He also picks up a problematic companion: a cardsharp and con man, whom he calls “the Artist.” The action moves from place to place, and episode to episode, in truly picaresque fashion. Everything is told in the first person, present tense, by the vagabond narrator, who goes unnamed. He himself is a curious combination of qualities—poetic, resentful, cynical, compassionate, flirtatious, and self-absorbed. While The Open Road can be read as loosely strung entertainment, interspersed with caustic reflections, it can also be interpreted as a projection of the relationship of author, art, and audience. But it is ultimately an exploration of the tensions and boundaries between affection and commitment, and of the competing needs for solitude, independence, and human bonds. As always in Jean Giono, the language is rich in natural imagery and as ruggedly idiomatic as it is lyrical.




Highway 1 California


Book Description

"In the north, it stops in the shadow of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge and towering redwood forests, in the south, it slips into the City of Angels. You can begin your trip at either end of the 656-mile (1,055-km) highway or anywhere in between. Skirting the California coastline, you will discover all that California has to offer, from the bustle and excitement of Los Angeles and the star-studded Hollywood Hills to the ultimate "City by the Bay," San Francisco. On the way, there is an overwhelming choice of where to stop, what to see and what to do: checkered winery fields, waterfalls and wildflower meadows; sky-kissing redwood forests; freshly caught seafood at every stop; beaches of sand or sparkling pebble, not to mention sea lions. Stop to watch for whales, to explore towns and historic sites; to tour elegant Santa Barbara, and the beaches and attractions of Carmel, Monterey, and Santa Cruz. The photographs, descriptions and detailed maps in this book are all you need to travel Highway 1 for as long and as far as your spirit of adventure takes you. [This book] presents the iconic road in stunning color, a vibrant testament to why California welcomes the most domestic visitors of all the states, and is consistently one of the top three states visited by international travelers. Each worthwhile stop or side trip is shown in multiple photographs, all with extended captions."--Dust jacket flaps.




A History of the New California, Its Resources and People


Book Description

Brief biographies of prominent and influential people in California in the late 19th and early 20th century. With many portraits.




A History of California


Book Description

"This volume ... aims to complement the work of Dr. Charles E. Chapman, whose History of California : the Spanish period, has already been published."--Preface