Local note · Last reviewed July 1, 2026
Rancho Cucamonga keeps a Route 66 gas station story alive
The Cucamonga Service Station began as a 1915 roadside stop and now helps Rancho Cucamonga show its place on old Route 66.
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History and culture
History and Culture, page 24
California history has many layers: Tribal homelands, Spanish and Mexican eras, the Gold Rush, ports, agriculture, migration, film, technology, and public lands.
Showing page 24 of 29 for this California topic shelf.
Local note · Last reviewed July 1, 2026
Red Bluff Round-Up turns spring rodeo into a valley tradition
Red Bluff Round-Up grew from Tehama County fair and rodeo roots into one of the far north's best-known spring events.
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Local note · Last reviewed July 2, 2026
Redding has a bridge that really works like a sundial
The Sundial Bridge crosses the Sacramento River in Redding and uses its tall design to cast a moving time shadow.
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Local note · Last reviewed July 1, 2026
Redlands Bowl made summer music feel open to everyone
The Redlands Bowl Summer Music Festival is a long-running Inland Empire tradition built around outdoor performances with no admission charge, community support, and music under the stars.
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Local note · Last reviewed July 1, 2026
Redlands has a Lincoln shrine tucked beside Smiley Library
The Lincoln Memorial Shrine in Redlands is a city-connected museum and research place dedicated to Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.
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Local note · Last reviewed July 1, 2026
Reedley's opera house rose from a downtown fire
The 1903 Reedley Opera House Complex grew out of a downtown fire and became a brick center for theater, commerce, meetings, and community life.
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Local note · Last reviewed July 1, 2026
Rodgers Ranch keeps Pleasant Hill's old farm layer visible
Rodgers Ranch Heritage Center gives Pleasant Hill a small living-history stop built around the city's oldest farmhouse and its mid-1800s farm life.
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Local note · Last reviewed July 1, 2026
Salvation Mountain turns desert paint into folk art
Salvation Mountain near Niland is Leonard Knight's bright desert folk-art environment, built over decades with adobe, hay bales, donated paint, and a simple message.
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Local note · Last reviewed July 1, 2026
San Bernardino helped turn a drive-in into a fast-food model
San Bernardino is where the McDonald brothers opened their early restaurant and later refined the Speedee Service System that shaped modern fast food.
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Local note · Last reviewed July 1, 2026
San Bernardino's Wigwam Village keeps Route 66 playful
Wigwam Village No. 7 in San Bernardino is a Route 66 motel landmark, with cone-shaped rooms, roadside design, National Register status, and a vivid travel-era look.
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Local note · Last reviewed July 1, 2026
San Diego's first bay light sat a little too high
Old Point Loma Lighthouse is a San Diego landmark with a useful twist: the pretty high perch also made fog a real problem for ships.
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Local note · Last reviewed July 1, 2026
San Fernando kept its own city identity inside the Valley
San Fernando is the oldest city in the valley that bears its name, with Mission City roots, railroad growth, and a long independent identity.
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Local note · Last reviewed July 1, 2026
San Gabriel's Mission District carries water, civic, and mission layers
San Gabriel's Mission District ties together Mission San Gabriel, the restored millrace, civic buildings, the Mission Playhouse, and the route story behind Los Angeles.
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Local note · Last reviewed July 1, 2026
San Jose helped give computers a memory they could reach fast
IBM's RAMAC work in San Jose produced the first computer to use a random-access disk drive, long before data storage became an everyday phrase.
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Local note · Last reviewed July 1, 2026
San Jose's Winchester House is strange even before the ghost stories
The Winchester Mystery House grew from an eight-room farmhouse into a huge, unusual San Jose mansion tied to Sarah Winchester's long building project.
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Local note · Last reviewed July 1, 2026
San Juan Bautista puts mission and plaza history side by side
San Juan Bautista State Historic Park and the nearby mission make a small town feel like a crossroads of Native, Spanish, Mexican, American, and travel history.
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Local note · Last reviewed July 1, 2026
San Juan Capistrano's swallows made a mission town famous
Mission San Juan Capistrano is tied to Orange County history and the annual Return of the Swallows tradition.
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Local note · Last reviewed July 1, 2026
Sanger's Christmas Tree City name points up toward Grant Grove
Sanger's identity as the Nation's Christmas Tree City comes from its long link to the General Grant Tree in Kings Canyon country.
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Local note · Last reviewed July 1, 2026
Santa Clara keeps the tiny-chip story close to home
Intel's 4004 began as a calculator project and became an early microprocessor story tied closely to Santa Clara and Silicon Valley.
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Local note · Last reviewed July 1, 2026
Santa Clarita has a silent-film star's hilltop home
William S. Hart Park and Museum keeps Santa Clarita's western film history tied to a real Newhall home instead of stopping at movie posters and street names.
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Local note · Last reviewed July 1, 2026
Santa Fe Depot shows San Bernardino's rail city side
San Bernardino's Santa Fe Depot gives the city a clear railroad landmark, a museum stop, and a reminder that its location has long mattered for movement.
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Local note · Last reviewed July 1, 2026
Santa Maria barbecue is a ranch-town food story
Santa Maria-style barbecue connects the city to ranch gatherings, red oak fire, beef, pinquito beans, Central Coast foodways, and a local style that still feels tied to place.
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Local note · Last reviewed July 1, 2026
Santa Paula keeps California's oil story on Main Street
Santa Paula's former Union Oil headquarters shows how oil, agriculture, downtown buildings, and Ventura County history came together.
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Local note · Last reviewed July 1, 2026
Santa Rosa is where Peanuts found a long home
Charles M. Schulz lived in Santa Rosa for decades, and the museum there keeps Peanuts tied to the city where much of his later life and work took shape.
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