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Did you know ...

• the California-based donut shop Psycho Donuts has generated controversy for its mental health-themed products, such as the "Manic Malt" and "Bipolar"?
• the Californian plant Eryngium racemosum has become extirpated due to the non-occurrence of natural flooding?
• the clipper ship Carrier Pigeon successfully navigated the "roaring forties", "furious fifties" and "screaming sixties" only to get wrecked on the rocks of Central California 500 feet (150 m) offshore?
• the California aerial firefighting force is operated by the CDF Aviation Management Program?
• the pored mushroom Gyrodon lividus (pictured) has been found associated with alder trees in such diverse places as California, Latvia, and Japan?
• the 1898 Carpenter Gothic Bardsdale Methodist Episcopal Church in California underwent extensive renovations after a portion of the ceiling fell on a parishioner during a 1982 service?
• the 350-acre (140 ha) Mar Y Cel estate, built in the early 1900s in the foothills of California's Santa Ynez Mountains, included an aqueduct, water works, arches, and statues?
• the 371-acre Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge provides nesting for 1.2 million seabirds—more than California and Washington combined?
• the passing lanes of the Arroyo Seco Parkway, California's first freeway, were paved in a different color to encourage drivers to stay in their lanes?
• the San Diego neighborhood of Old Town was the site of the first European settlement in present-day California?
• the Carbonera Creek watershed in California has diverse plant communities including a rare assemblage known as Maritime Coast Range Ponderosa Pine forests?
• the Convento Building is the largest adobe building in California and the largest original building at any of the Spanish missions in California?
• the Downtown Historic District of San Jose, California, an area of just one square block, contains buildings of six different architectural styles?
• the California wine industry accounts for nearly 90% of all U.S. production, and if California were a country it would be the world's fourth largest wine producer?
• the Bonny Doon Ecological Reserve in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California contains an ancient seabed with fossils of various marine lifeforms, such as sand dollars and bivalves?
• the semi-arid, mostly agricultural Cuyama Valley was once one of the most productive oil regions of California?
• the U.S. Congress incorporated the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad in 1866 to connect Missouri and California, but the company only completed portions at each end?
• the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption in Washington was the first major volcanic eruption to occur in the U.S. since the 1915 eruption of Lassen Peak in California?
• the 1850 Squatters' Riot in Sacramento, California, effectively ended land speculation in the region?
• skeletons of many now-extinct animals, including saber-toothed cats (pictured) and dire wolves, have been recovered from the tar pit in McKittrick Oil Field in Kern County, California?
• in addition to its stone arch, Natural Bridges State Beach in California is known for the up to 150,000 Monarch butterflies that overwinter there?
• in the 1965 film The Greatest Story Ever Told, California's Death Valley was used as the setting of Jesus' 40-day journey into the wilderness?
• in the history of transportation in Los Angeles, the first California freeway "traffic jam" occurred on January 1, 1940?
• in 1928, the Mayo Beach Light tower was removed from its site on Cape Cod and re-erected in California as the Point Montara Light?
• in 1923, Charles Scott Haley conducted California's first statewide comprehensive study of tertiary fluvial placers, dredge fields, and dry placers?
• former California State Assemblyman Glenn E. Coolidge was the 1962 Republican congressional candidate for California's 12th district, but died suddenly during the campaign?
• in 1892, future I.C.C. commissioner Henry C. Hall was journeying to California for his health, but stopped off in Colorado and liked it so much he settled there?
• in 1920, George Shima was dubbed "The Potato King" as he controlled 85% of California's potato market?
• large swells produced by Hurricane Howard resulted in about 1,000 lifeguard rescues in southern California during the Labor Day weekend in 2004?
• lawyer Albert L. Gordon, a heterosexual who became a gay rights activist after his son came out, successfully challenged a 1915 California law that criminalized oral sex?
• radio evangelist "Fighting Bob" Shuler, known for his attacks on politicians and support of the Ku Klux Klan, received 25% of the votes in a 1932 US Senate election in California?
• residents of California buy more earthquake insurance than residents of any other U.S. state?
• scenic State Route 160 crosses California's Sacramento River twice on 1923 bascule bridges (one pictured) patented by Joseph B. Strauss, who went on to design the Golden Gate Bridge?
• parts of California were declared a disaster area when Hurricane Kathleen killed several people and caused millions of dollars in damage due to widespread flooding?
• originally a mudflat, Lido Isle in Newport Beach was one of the first master planned communities in California?
• lawyer Paul Neumann was born in Prussia but served in the legislatures of both California and the Kingdom of Hawaii?
• on Christmas Eve 1969, when California lawyer and noted political activist Ricardo Cruz was a law student at Loyola Law School, he was arrested for leading a march of several hundred demonstrators protesting the newly constructed, $4 million St. Basil's Cathedral?
• one variety of baby blue eyes, a common California wild flower, is white?
• the Elk Hills Oil Field in San Joaquin Valley is the largest natural gas-producing oil field in California, and has produced over 2 trillion cubic feet (60 billion m³) of gas since its discovery in 1911?
• the Gable Mansion is one of the last Victorian Italianate mansions of its style, size, and proportion in California?
• the largest striped bass ever caught in California, weighing 67.5 pounds (30.6 kg), was found in the O'Neill Forebay Reservoir in August 2008?
• the largest ever dam raise in the United States is occurring at the San Vicente Dam in California, which will increase its height by 117 feet (36 m) and more than double its reservoir size?
• the oil in the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, which killed upwards of 10,000 birds and numerous other creatures along the coast of California, U.S., came from the Dos Cuadras Offshore Oil Field?
• the interior and exterior of the Jose Maria Alviso Adobe (pictured) in Milpitas, California have not significantly changed in 150 years?
• the first documented discovery of gold in California was at Rancho San Francisco in 1842, six years before the California Gold Rush?
• the Woodland Public Library is the oldest, and one of the last functioning Carnegie-funded libraries in California?
• the Yulupa Creek watershed has been designated as critical habitat for two California endangered species?
• the U.S. military base Camp Kearny, predecessor of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California, once housed a mooring mast for the Navy's helium dirigibles?
• the original radio studios of the station now called KLMG were located in California's Old Sacramento State Historic Park?
• the origins of Castle Lake (pictured) in California date to the Pleistocene Era (more than 10,000 years ago) when a glacier carved a basin in the location of the current lake?
• when the Brother Jonathan (pictured) sank off the coast of California in 1856, it was the worst shipwreck on the Pacific Coast of the United States at the time?
• while commonly found in central California, Agaricus lilaceps can sometimes be found at the campus of Stanford University under the eucalyptus located there?
• while enrollment at U.S. tribal colleges and universities has increased significantly since 1982, California's only tribal college, D-Q University, had just six students in 2006?
• to survive during Prohibition, some winemaking families in what is now California's Russian River Valley AVA converted to bootlegging operations that sold a water-based wine known as "jackass brandy"?
• the voyages of the Otter crossing the Pacific Ocean from Australia and becoming the first vessel of the United States to enter a Californian port in 1796 were chronicled by French traveler Pierre François Péron?
• the owners of a Californian memorial park tried to buy St Margaret's Church, Rottingdean, England, dismantle it and rebuild it there, but built a replica instead when permission was refused?
• the ten cannons of Fort Guijarros, built in 1797 as the first defensive fortifications for San Diego Bay, California, have been fired in action only twice since?
• the two parts of California State Route 139 were constructed by a joint highway district of Lassen and Modoc Counties and by the U.S. federal government before being turned over to the state?
• the Ventura Oil Field is the seventh largest oil field in California, and was at one point the 12th most productive oil field in the United States?
• the tallest structure in California is a television antenna tower, while in Arizona it is a chimney?
• the Pomona City Stables, which housed 22 horses upon its completion in 1909, is reported to be one of the oldest municipal buildings still extant in California?
• the Presidio of Santa Barbara, built by the Spanish in 1782, is the second-oldest European building in the U.S. state of California?
• the obscure mealybug, a pest of vineyards in New Zealand and California, is believed to have been introduced from Australia or South America?
• the Montecito Tea Fire, which destroyed more than 200 homes in California, was caused by smoldering embers from a bonfire party at an abandoned tea house?
• the Midway-Sunset Oil Field contains an estimated 584 million barrels of oil, which amounts to 18% of California's total estimated reserve?
• the grunion is a sardine-sized fish only found off the coast of California and Baja California that comes up on sandy beaches at very high tides (during the new and full moons) to lay its eggs?
• the lime-green waxy cap has a limited geographical distribution, having been collected only in California and Mexico?
• the Marble Mountain Wilderness has one of only two stands of subalpine fir tree in California, and both are more than 50 miles (80 km) from the next closest stand in southern Oregon?
• the Ramona Valley in San Diego County California is the country's 162nd American Viticultural Area, and only the third such AVA designated in Southern California by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau?
• the San Ardo Oil Field is the 13th-largest oil field in California, and of the top twenty California oil fields in size, it is the most recent to be discovered?
• the world's first offshore oil wells began operations in as early as 1896 when oil was drilled from piers along the coast of Summerland, California, USA?
• the Transverse Ranges of California run east-west because of a bend in the San Andreas fault?
• the USS Pogy was named after a Californian trout and sank 16 ships during World War II?
• the Splittail, a cyprinid fish native to the Central Valley in California, is the sole living member of its genus?
• the South Yuba Canal Office was the headquarters for the largest network of water flumes and ditches in California?
• the Santa Fe Pacific Railroad was a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway that operated in Arizona, New Mexico and California from July 1, 1897 till July 1, 1902?
• the Seal Slough tidal channel in California hosts a thriving marshland habitat despite encroachment by a sewage treatment plant and two schools?
• the Sierra Highway was described in a promotional book to recruit teachers to California as "a highway with a hundred by-ways, each by-way with a hundred wonders"?
• former California representative Bertrand W. Gearhart ran unopposed and captured nearly 100 percent of the vote in his biennial re-election bids from 1936 to 1944?
• former California representative Allan O. Hunter was appointed as the president and chairman of Fannie Mae by President Richard Nixon in 1970?
• Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement park in California was initially built and run in the 1970s by the Newhall Land and Farming Company?
• U.S. Congressman Cecil R. King of California, deeply involved in the issue of Medicare, ran unopposed for his first 10 years in office?
• US Olympic discus throw gold medalist Stephanie Brown Trafton said that the downside of the Beijing Games was that they conflicted with the opening of hunting season in California?
• screenwriter Jamie Linden interpreted his winning of US$5,000 on game show The Price Is Right as a sign to relocate to Hollywood, California?
• Cardinal Mahony petitioned Rome to name Padre Serra Church after Junipero Serra despite controversy over his treatment of California Indians?
• Leavitt Peak is named after early California settler and innkeeper Hiram Leavitt?
• Medal of Honor recipient William R. Parnell died in San Francisco, California on August 20, 1910, after falling from a street car?
• Nevada City's Nevada Theatre is the oldest existing theater building in California?
• AltaRock Energy's demonstration project for generating renewable energy through geothermal power may increase the number of earthquakes in California?
• Armet & Davis was an architectural firm in California that designed buildings in the so-called Googie architecture style popular during the 1950s?
• Castle Crags Wilderness in California contains the site of the Modoc War's 1855 Battle of Castle Crags?
• Cymric Oil Field has the fastest-growing production of any oil field in California?
• Davidson Seamount, off the coast of California, is one of the largest seamounts in the world?
• Bolinas Ridge which runs parallel to California's San Andreas Fault has been the setting for numerous automobile television commercials?
• Bodega Bay in California was the setting for Alfred Hitchcock's film The Birds?
• Baby blue eyes is a common Californian wild flower - and one variety of it is white?
• Benjamin Aaron helped negotiate the first contract between a county and its public employee union in California history in 1968?
• Beverly Hills, California, produces more than 874,000 barrels of oil a year, with approximately 11 million barrels in reserve, and oil wells on campus at the local high school?
• Junípero Serra and Juan María de Salvatierra have both been called "the apostle of California," for their work establishing Spanish missions in Alta and Baja California, respectively?
• treated wastewater from Kern River Oil Field, the fifth-largest U.S. oil field, is used to irrigate crops in the San Joaquin Valley in California?
• California hunter Seth Kinman (pictured), who claimed to have killed over 800 grizzly bears, gave several U.S. Presidents chairs made from grizzly bears and elkhorns?
• California's 2007 Santiago Fire (pictured) was started deliberately?
• California's Gold Country quartz-mining industry was precipitated by a quartz gold discovery on Gold Hill?
• California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed Senator George Runner's Ronald Reagan Day bill and the state will begin celebrating it on Reagan's 100th birthday?
• California State Senator Abel Maldonado ran for election to the Santa Maria City Council in 1994 after being involved in a building dispute?
• 8-year-old Sylvia Mendez played an instrumental role in the 1946 Mendez v. Westminster case, which successfully ended de jure segregation in California schools?
• California's Leonard Law applies the United States Constitution's First Amendment protections to students at private colleges and universities?
• California's current State Senate Minority Leader Dick Ackerman ran for State Attorney General in 2002?
• California's Owens River has been entirely diverted for irrigation and drinking water?
  
• California's Rubicon Point Light, at 6300 ft above sea level, is the highest lighthouse in the United States?
• Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, the grandson of the late Philippine President Sergio Osmeña, was a Vice President of SEROS, Inc and Apex Realty and Developers in California?
• exploitation film director/producer S. S. Millard was able to pass himself off as Romanian nobility when a former Romanian queen visited California?
• Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz studied economics at Harvard University for two years before moving to Palo Alto, California to work on Facebook full-time?
• Californian politician Lou Papan received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 1996?
• California's four-lane Bayshore Highway, now a freeway, was built to high standards in the 1920s and '30s, but was called "Bloody Bayshore" because of the number of crashes?
• California's Russian River is named for the Russian trappers who explored it in the early 19th century?
• California's Sierra Nevada Conservancy is the largest state conservation effort of its kind in the United States?
• California's first State House was originally a hotel in San Jose owned by businessman Pierre "Don Pedro" Sainsevain and his associates?
• Graham Creek in California was a seasonal hunting and gathering ground for prehistoric Pomo and Wappo people?
• H. Brett Melendy was the first chairman of the history department of San José State University, California?
• Philippine Christmas lanterns, called Parols (pictured), are also used in Christmas celebrations in Austria, Canada and California?
• Texas has a long history of producing wine with grape vines planted by Franciscan missionaries over 100 years before vineyards were planted in California?
• a group of Russian Molokans left California to start a settlement in Utah in 1914 after a judge annulled a traditional marriage between two teenagers?
• Eriogonum parvifolium is a California endemic dunes shrub that is host to several endangered butterflies?
• Corry v. Stanford was a California court case that declared Stanford University's speech code illegal under the freedom of speech protections of the state's Leonard Law?
• You Chung Hong, the first Chinese American admitted to practice law in California, helped develop the new Chinatown in Los Angeles in the 1930s, including designing its neon-lit gateway?
• Boletus pulcherrimus, a large red and brown pored mushroom from California and New Mexico, stains dark blue when cut or bruised?
• Cirsium fontinale is a species of California thistle that actually represents three taxa, two of which are endangered species with narrow endemic ranges?
• about three-quarters of the Oroville-Chico Highway (now Route 149) in California's Sacramento Valley has been absorbed by realignments of Routes 70 and 99?
• after having over 912 million barrels of oil pumped out since the late 19th century, the Coalinga Oil Field, the eighth-largest oil field in California, is close to exhaustion?
• despite the lack of native vegetation, the endangered San Joaquin Kit Fox (pictured) continues to use areas of the South Belridge Oil Field in California as habitat?
• due to an error, the Pagsanjan Falls stamp (pictured), one of a series supposedly showcasing places of interest in the Philippines, actually shows a waterfall in California?
• during filming of The Emperor Waltz in Jasper National Park, director Billy Wilder had California pines planted on location because he was unhappy with the look of the native trees?
• despite being considered "much too far away" to affect weather in California, Hurricane Liza of 1968 caused US$5,000 in damage and the closure of a portion of Ocean Boulevard in Long Beach?
• as Burton Abbott was being executed in California's gas chamber in 1957, the governor was contacting the warden to stay the execution?
• after suffering a heart attack, John G. McCullough moved to California and was elected as its Attorney General in 1863?
• although Pueblo Revival Style architecture draws its inspiration from the Pueblos and the Spanish missions of New Mexico, it first appeared in California?
• architect Clarence W. W. Mayhew, known as an innovator of the contemporary ranch house in California, admitted copying "the underlying principle" from Japanese architecture?
• Sylvia Levin registered more than 47,000 new voters in the Los Angeles area, an individual record both in California and the United States?
• State Route 70, a National Scenic Byway through California's Feather River Canyon, was constructed using an access road laid out by the Utah Construction Company when it built the Western Pacific Railroad in the canyon?
• Kansas City Barbeque is a restaurant and bar in San Diego, California, made famous after scenes in Top Gun were filmed there?
• Kent Island, a national wildlife sanctuary in California's Bolinas Lagoon, was once just hours from becoming the future site of a 1,500-boat marina?
• Kimberly Crest House and Gardens, a Victorian mansion and California historic landmark donated to the city of Redlands for a botanical park, is a mirror image of the Magic Castle?
• Joe Shell, the conservative Republican who challenged Richard Nixon for the 1962 California governorship was a champion football halfback in 1939 and 1940?
• the word jazz was originally a California baseball slang term and was first applied to a style of music in Chicago?
• Hacienda Arms on the Sunset Strip was the "most famous brothel in California" in the 1930s and now houses a celebrity-owned restaurant described by Newsweek as "so hip it hurts"?
• Hood Mountain in California has high canopy mixed oak forests, pygmy forests and expanses of rock outcrop, and also has a vulnerable plant species named for it?
• James A. Forbes planned to build the first flour mill in California, but delays in construction allowed competitors to flourish, driving down prices and forcing him into bankruptcy?
• Lopez and Pico Adobes, built near the San Fernando Mission, are the oldest residences in San Fernando Valley, California?
• Madonna of the Trail is a series of monuments dedicated to the spirit of the pioneer woman in the United States? Created by German immigrant sculptor August Leimbach, 12 were placed from Maryland to California in 1928 and 1929.
• Robert Berning first introduced Trader Joe's private wine label as a way to get around California's fair trade laws that made it illegal to sell wines at a cheaper price than branded competitors?
• Sonoma Coast State Beach (pictured) is one of California's longest beaches and has rocks that have evidence of rubbing by mammoths 40,000 years ago?
• Sonoma Creek (pictured), a California-designated critical coastal watershed, drains the acclaimed Sonoma Valley Wine Country, and provides a home to many endangered species?
• Rattlesnake James, the last man to be hanged in California, was convicted of drowning his wife after a failed first attempt to kill her with rattlesnake venom?
• Rancho Las Mariposas, unwanted by John C. Frémont until gold was discovered in September 1849, turned out to be the richest rancho in California?
• Malin Space Science Systems is a San Diego, California company that operates the camera on the Mars Global Surveyor?
• Mount Saint Mary's Convent and Academy is the only extant original orphanage in California?
• Philip Leget Edwards, the first teacher in what became the U.S. state of Oregon, later served in the legislatures of Missouri and California?
• 19th-century California bandit Procopio, also known as Red-Handed Dick, was said to "love the feel and the color of warm blood," and his name was used by mothers to frighten their children?