History and culture
Bowers Museum gives Santa Ana a world-facing museum
Bowers Museum began in 1936 as a city-run Orange County history museum and grew into a major Santa Ana cultural arts museum.
California notes
California Notes, page 44
1033-1056 of 1,799 notes
History and culture
Bradbury stayed small on purpose in the foothills
Bradbury is a small foothill contract city named for Louis Leonard Bradbury, with a long effort to keep a rural, equestrian feel below the San Gabriel Mountains.
History and culture
Buellton's pea-soup fame grew out of ranch and highway roots
Buellton began with the Buell Ranch, then became a highway stop known for Pea Soup Andersen's and Central Coast road trips.
History and culture
Burbank has an aviation shrine tucked beside Valhalla
The Portal of the Folded Wings at Valhalla Memorial Park is a 1924 landmark that connects Burbank's airport edge with Southern California aviation memory.
History and culture
California City is much bigger on the map than it feels in town
California City covers 203 square miles, which explains its wide desert roads, OHV riding area, and spread-out high desert feel.
History and culture
Calimesa got its name because neighbors wanted a post office
Calimesa grew from the South Bench area, stagecoach routes, ranch land, and a 1929 community naming vote tied to a new post office.
History and culture
Calistoga has hot springs, a geyser, and a name people remember
Calistoga's spa-town story runs through Wappo history, Sam Brannan's resort dream, a famous name mix-up, and Old Faithful Geyser.
History and culture
Canyon Lake became a city around a reservoir and a retreat idea
Canyon Lake's story runs through Railroad Canyon, a San Jacinto River dam, a recreation community, and cityhood in 1990.
History and culture
Capitola's oldest-resort claim comes with a good seaside story
Capitola has long claimed an old seaside resort role, with roots in an 1874 beach opening, 1880s camping, cottages, and summer visitors.
History and culture
Carmel-by-the-Sea grew as an artists' village by the water
Carmel-by-the-Sea's cottages, theater history, Ocean Avenue, mission roots, and beach setting come from a village built around art and scenery.
Outdoors
Carpinteria's seal rookery asks visitors to slow down
The Carpinteria Harbor Seal Rookery is a coastal place where bluff views, pupping season closures, and wildlife rules all matter.
History and culture
Central Library keeps a California story above the reading rooms
Los Angeles Central Library opened in 1926, and its rotunda murals still turn a library visit into a small downtown art and history stop.
History and culture
Clayton's town story starts with Joel Clayton in Diablo Valley
Clayton was laid out in 1857 by Joel Clayton as a small Diablo Valley center for nearby mining, ranching, farming, and local trade.
History and culture
Cloverdale's History Center gathers the river, roads, and town life
Cloverdale's History Center and Gould-Shaw House Museum tie together Indigenous culture, lumber, citrus, stagecoaches, resorts, viticulture, and Russian River life.
History and culture
Clovis grew where a railroad and timber flume met
Clovis began around railroad plans, grain shipping, Sierra timber, and a 42-mile flume that helped turn fields near Fresno into a working town.
History and culture
Coit Tower has a whole 1930s story at its base
Coit Tower is a Telegraph Hill landmark with city views, a Lillie Hitchcock Coit backstory, and Depression-era murals that once stirred public debate.
History and culture
Colfax tells a sharper railroad story than the quick version
Colfax grew where the Central Pacific Railroad reached the Sierra climb, with Illinoistown nearby, a restored passenger depot, and a museum on Railroad Street.
Outdoors
Colusa National Wildlife Refuge turns valley fields into a bird stop
Colusa National Wildlife Refuge gives Colusa County an easy way to see Sacramento Valley wetlands, winter birds, and an auto tour close to farm country.
History and culture
Colusa's river bend explains why the old town mattered
Colusa sits at Salmon Bend on the Sacramento River, where river travel, farming, historic buildings, and the Colusa-Sacramento River park all meet.
History and culture
Commerce was built around the idea of a model city
Commerce incorporated to protect local identity, industry, services, parks, libraries, and an unusual free-bus tradition near downtown Los Angeles.
History and culture
Computer History Museum turns Silicon Valley into a walkable story
Computer History Museum in Mountain View connects Silicon Valley to computing history through artifacts, exhibits, demos, software stories, and a former SGI building.
History and culture
Corcoran's name sits between railroad and Tulare Lake stories
Corcoran's local history ties the city to a railroad junction, H. J. Whitley's development work, agriculture, the Tulare Lake Basin, and a name with two possible roots.
History and culture
Corning's olive story started with a railroad town and a stubborn tree
Corning began with the railroad in 1882, then grew into the Olive City through Warren Woodson, Sevillano olives, table olives, prunes, walnuts, and almonds.
History and culture
Corona once turned Grand Boulevard into a famous race course
Corona's circular Grand Boulevard hosted major early auto races, drawing top drivers before safety concerns ended the tradition.