Images of America: California Books

The Greenhaven/Pocket community is located just southwest of downtown Sacramento. Geographically, its unique location is within a meandering bend of the Sacramento River, thus termed "the Pocket" because it is bounded by the Sacramento River to the north, west, and south. Captured here in over 180 vintage images are the sorrows and triumphs of the area's earliest settlers, encompassing the continents of the world and spanning over a century. The Greenhaven/Pocket area was a rural farming community for 110 years before suburban development, with the most significant group of people contributing to the area's history and identity being Portuguese immigrants from the Azores Islands of Faial, Pico, Sao Jorge, and Terceira. They began arriving a few years after the Gold Rush and by 1880, almost half of the Portuguese population in Sacramento County was within these townships that encompassed and surrounded the Riverside/Pocket area. Pictured here is the evolution of this thriving community, from the earliest founding families and their sprawling ranches, to the Japanese settlement of World War I, and finally to the innovative Greenhaven 70 plan development in the 1960s that laid the foundation for today's community.

Stockton, referred to as Sam Fow by its Chinese community, was the third largest metropolitan area leading to the goldfields of California at the turn of the 20th century. The Chinese immigrants came from Kwangtung, China, to find their fortune, and instead found a series of restrictive laws aimed at keeping them from participating in the development of the burgeoning frontier town. Their story is here, in over 200 vintage images of community life and resilience.Despite legislation such as the Foreign Miners' taxes and the California Alien Land Act, and most recently the construction of the Crosstown Freeway combined with the redevelopment project that disseminated the heart of Chinatown, the Chinese of this area were major contributors to California and Stockton's economy. They have maintained a balance between their heritage of familial and religious obligations and western education and activities. Included are photographs dating from the late 1920s of traditional Chinese associations and more recent community activities. These images showcase once thriving businesses, educational and religious efforts, and familial milestones.

Oakland�s Chinatown has a history every bit as compelling as its more famous neighbor across San Francisco Bay. Chinese have been a presence in Oakland since the 1850s, bringing with them a rich and complex tradition that survived legalized discrimination that lingered until the 1950s. Once confined to a small area of downtown where restaurants stir-fried, laundries steamed, and vegetable stands crowded the sidewalks, Chinese gradually moved out into every area of Oakland, and the stands evolved into corner groceries that cemented entire neighborhoods. Chinese helped Oakland grow into a modern business and cultural center and have gained prominence in every aspect of the city�s commerce, politics, and arts.

The native Huchiun people once traversed the lush greenery of the Oakland hills, glimpsing breathtaking vistas as they followed the creeks down to the bay. In 1829, their territory became part of the huge land grant awarded to Mexican soldier Luis Maria Peralta, who in turn lost control of the hills as settlers arrived to harvest the virgin redwood. Although at one time a rustic haven for poet Joaquin Miller, who set up camp where a park now bears his name, the hills proved irresistible to developers. After transit lines reached the hills, promoters held picnics at the end of the line to entice people to buy land. Meadows and windswept hills turned to orchards and, soon after, to lovely neighborhoods. With the scars of the disastrous 1991 firestorm fading, the Oakland hills retain a bucolic beauty, a majestic backdrop for the city of Oakland.

Stretching out along the beautiful Pacific shoreline, Oxnard is the largest city in Ventura County. The flat plain area lay fallow for nearly a century after the original population, the Chumash Indians, concentrated around the mission of San Buenaventura. The first crops were planted by German and Irish immigrants in 1867, and by 1898, Henry T. Oxnard and his investors saw the potential to build the largest sugar factory in the world. These days, the annual strawberry festival attracts thousands of visitors who come to celebrate the city's deep agricultural roots.

The vibrant East Bay city of Hayward was named for William Hayward, a '49er and American squatter who endeared himself to Mexican landowner Guillermo Castro by making him a good pair of boots. With Castro's permission, William stayed to open Hayward's Hotel on what is now Main and A Streets. That fortuitous location, near the convergence of the eight tributaries forming San Lorenzo Creek, made the region a natural transportation hub between the bay and the fertile Livermore Valley. Stagecoach lines, a narrow-gauge railroad, and later modern transportation links encouraged more immigrants to settle. Today Hayward is a diverse city of almost 150,000 people, and home to a campus of the California State University.

In the early 1800s, it was called the Potrero Nuevo, or "new pasture." Gold-rush squatters soon put the squeeze on Mission Dolores's grazing cattle, and when the fog lifted, Potrero Hill became the first industrial zone in San Francisco, with iron-smelting plants, butcheries, and shipbuilding dominating the waterfront during the late 19th century. The Hill has been home to immigrants from Scotland, Ireland, China, Russia, Mexico, and from everywhere in between. These days, many of the factories and warehouses have been converted into housing and offices for techies. And for the record, the crookedest street in San Francisco is not Lombard--it's Vermont, between 20th and 22nd.

Boyle Heights was one of the earliest residential areas outside of Los Angeles's original pueblo. From the 1920s through the 1950s, it was the city's most ethnically heterogeneous neighborhood with residents coming from such far-flung places as Mexico, Japan, England, Germany, Russia, and Armenia, as well as from the eastern, southern, and southwestern United States. Over the years, Boyle Heights has continued to be a focal point for new immigration. Transformed through the everyday interactions of its diverse residents as well as by political events occurring at the regional, national, and international levels, the neighborhood's historical and contemporary communities reflect the challenges and potential of living in a pluralistic society.

Mill Valley rests in the shadow of Mount Tamalpais, the tallest peak of the Coast Range. Ancient redwood groves cloaking the mountain's flanks and nearby canyons attracted a pioneer sawmill that gave the town its name. As the timber industry was replaced by dairies, Mill Valley became a destination for those drawn to beauty: hikers, campers, naturalists, artists, writers, and dreamers who gave the town its early bohemian atmosphere. Tamalpais Scenic Railway once ran the "crookedest railroad in the world" to the summit, where passengers exulted in the taste of salty ocean winds, rolling fog, and stunning vistas of the inner bay and ocean shores. Pres. Theodore Roosevelt reserved some of the area's majestic trees, now national parkland webbed with 200 miles of scenic trails, and named them Muir Woods for naturalist John Muir.

Glacier National Park is a majestic million acres of towering mountains, ancient glaciers, and amazing biodiversity. Located astride both the Continental Divide and Hudson Bay Divide, Glacier contains Triple Divide Peak, the only point in North America from which the waters drain into three oceans. The land that George Bird Grinnell called the �Crown of the Continent� and that John Muir described as �the best care-killing scenery on the continent� has beendelighting visitors since well before it was set aside as a park in 1910. Through the years, countless people have come to Glacier to hike its nearly thousand miles of trails, marvel at its unrivalled scenery, and drive the Going-to-the-Sun Road, America's most spectacular alpine highway. Glacier is also home to remote mountain chalets and magnificent grand lodges. While most national parks have a singular signature lodge, Glacier has three.

The 500-acre Los Rios Rancho has operated through a greater century as the largest apple orchard in Southern California and the centerpiece of Oak Glen, the heart of a dozen orchards on the southern slopes of the San Bernardino Range about eight miles from Yucaipa. Los Rios Rancho is owned by the Wildlands Conservancy, a privately funded corporation headquartered at Oak Glen since 1996 that has purchased more than 750,000 California acres to preserve as natural landscapes for public benefit. The ranch is leased today to the Devon Riley family, which carries on in the tradition of the ranch's founder, H. L. Rivers. The Rivers family--la familia de los Rios--has been a fruit label name known throughout California grocery stores and roadside stands since before World War I. In this collection, more than 180 vintage photographs pay tribute to the Rivers, Wilshire, and other family orchards at Oak Glen over the years.

Fog billows gently across Monterey County's north coast, a white blanket tucked up against the hills of Aromas. Beneath its protective shroud, fishing boats gently rock, artichokes thrive, and shorebirds build nests along Elkhorn Slough. In this muffled landscape of fertile loam crisscrossed by sloughs, settlers built four distinct communities. Juan B. Castro subdivided his family's rancho to found Castroville, now known as the artichoke capital of the world. Captain Moss and Cato Vierra opened a port, a sea gate to a premier agricultural area. Moss Landing later hosted whalers, a salt works, canneries, and a power generation plant. John Porter's ranch was a safe haven for Chinese immigrants. Their apple-drying businesses spearheaded Pajaro's development as a central rail-shipping point with several produce-packing companies. Aromas pioneers judged their valley well suited for growing apricots. Drifts of white blossoms buried Aromas in spring, while summer's vistas were golden with trays of drying apricots.

These images are part of the life work of Italian immigrant Gino Sbrana, who started his American life in San Francisco as a vegetable peddler. By 1911, he had launched a large photographic studio, Pisa Foto, at Columbus and Broadway in San Francisco. Later Gino founded a studio in Oakland and, in 1919, settled in San Jose. Not content to confine his artistry to the formally posed studio portrait, he traveled over the Bay Area countryside with his large wooden field camera, using soft light on the shady side of barns or under large oaks to capture his fellow countrymen. Gino posed them in the coastal mist with machetes poised to harvest cauliflower, perched atop their brandnew motorcycles, assembled by trucks loaded with produce from the fields, sleeves rolled up and holding their vino.

These images are part of the life work of Italian immigrant Gino Sbrana, who started his American life in San Francisco as a vegetable peddler. By 1911, he had launched a large photographic studio, Pisa Foto, at Columbus and Broadway in San Francisco. Later Gino founded a studio in Oakland and, in 1919, settled in San Jose. Not content to confine his artistry to the formally posed studio portrait, he traveled over the Bay Area countryside with his large wooden field camera, using soft light on the shady side of barns or under large oaks to capture his fellow countrymen. Gino posed them in the coastal mist with machetes poised to harvest cauliflower, perched atop their brandnew motorcycles, assembled by trucks loaded with produce from the fields, sleeves rolled up and holding their vino.

On June 29, 1776, Fr. Francisco Palou dedicated the first site of Mission San Francisco de Asis on the shores of Dolores Lagoon. At the time, it was a just a patch in the village of Chutchuii, the home of the Ohlone people, and Palou could never have foreseen the vibrant city that would eventually spring up around the humble settlement. The final mission building, popularly known as Mission Dolores and San Francisco's oldest complete structure, was dedicated on August 2, 1791, at what became Sixteenth and Dolores Streets. After the gold rush, the district around the mission began its dramatic evolution to the diverse area we know today, a bustling mix of immigrants from other states, Europe, and South and Central America.

In San Francisco, the "instant city" of the gold rush days, Jews were pioneers among pioneers. Some came as immigrants directly from Europe, others as resettled adventurers from the East Coast, and still others as scions of southern Sephardic families. Out of this mixed multitude emerged a community with synagogues and institutions to care for the needy and the sick, along with a dignified social fabric. New immigrants following the Russian pogroms of 1883 were absorbed, and the ashen ruins from the 1906 earthquake were rebuilt. The city's cultural treasures and social needs were enriched, and the city's Jews were nurtured by civic commitments. Today's 70,000 San Francisco Jews, standing upon the shoulders of pioneering giants, continue to build and rebuild.

Grass Valley was named for its spring-fed meadows, but its history springs from deep below the soil. An immeasurable wealth of gold lay in ancient river courses, embedded in quartz, or scattered capriciously in surface gravel. Vibrantly entrepreneurial since its inception, Grass Valley echoed with the roar of stamp mills crushing gold-bearing quartz 24 hours a day, every day, for decades. Its mines produced $350 million, and millions more are thought to be buried beneath the modern city. Grass Valley's wealth drew flamboyant stars like Lola Montez and gold-camp-urchin-turned-star Lotta Crabtree. It was here that philosopher Josiah Royce was born and Cherokee writer Yellow Bird (John Rollin Ridge) lived his final days. Grass Valley was often the subject of Alonzo Delano's tales of the gold rush, and more recently, it was the setting and inspiration for Wallace Stegner's best seller Angle of Repose.

Those striking images of stagecoaches traversing rugged mountain terrain are no mere marketing gimmick, but part and parcel of Wells Fargo's storied past. When Henry Wells and William Fargo founded the company in 1852, the gold rush had already brought thousands of people to California and uncovered the largest amount of wealth then known to the world. Wells Fargo served a unique role as a banking, express or transporting, and mail-delivery agency. In 1857, the company helped establish the Overland Mail Company; in 1861, it operated the Pony Express; and in 1866, it put together a 3,000-mile network of stagecoaches running between California and Nebraska. Three decades later, Wells Fargo covered the nation over a web of iron rails. Miners and merchants, ranchers and farmers alike depended on Wells Fargo. The company always used the fastest means possible for its deliveries and fund transfers, whether by riverboat, ocean steamer, pony express, stagecoach, railroad, or the fastest method of all, the telegraph.

California's gold country has been profoundly influenced by Italian culture for the last 160 years. Immigrants from Italy's northern provinces were drawn here by the lure of gold, but it was the allure of the California foothills, where they found the terrain and Mediterranean climate similar to that of Italy, that convinced them to stay. California's fledgling economy provided unparalleled opportunities for Italian businessmen, and unclaimed land was available for agriculturalists. Settlement soon brought women and children, and within a decade, Italians represented a significant portion of the population in the region, numbering among the gold country's leading farmers, merchants, and tradesmen. The Mother Lode also offered women unique advantages, and Italian women proved wonderfully resourceful when necessity demanded. The 1870s saw a second wave of immigration, as Italian laborers arrived to work in the large, corporate-owned gold mines. Descendents of many of these Italian pioneers remain in the gold country to this day.

The Portola has a long and unique history dating back to the late 1800s. Too often misidentified with neighboring districts, it has its own story to reveal. Originally settled by Jewish immigrants, the area evolved into a community populated by nurserymen and their families who grew much of the city's flowers. "The Road," as San Bruno Avenue was affectionately referred to by the locals, hosted businesses that included bakeries, grocery stores, pharmacies, and a theatre. In recent years, the Portola has undergone changes as community leaders have enacted programs to beautify the neighborhood and attract new businesses and families to this locale.

Today's Lafayette is a modern East Bay suburb with a long and intriguing history of people, agriculture, and commerce. The story began in the summer of 1846, when Elam Brown and 13 families left St. Joseph, Missouri, in wagon trains and embarked on a sixmonth journey west to establish new homes and lives. By February 1848, Brown and his family had purchased the Rancho Acalanes in Contra Costa County from a San Francisco financier and had established the settlement that would later became Lafayette. Gradually Brown sold his land to other settlers, and the community began to grow. Eventually homes, stores, roads, schools, and churches were built. In these pages, the genesis of Lafayette, along with the story of its creators and early residents, is revealed in stirring early imagery.

Hemmed in by steep hills, Glen Park is defined by its quintessentially San Franciscan topography. Only 120 years ago this area, as well as neighboring Diamond Heights, was part of the �Outside Lands,� soisolated that only farmers would settle here. Life revolved around Islais Creek, which ran through the canyon and provided water for the dairies. Then, in 1892, a German immigrant named Behrend Joost founded the city�s first electric streetcar to shuttle residents to jobs downtown, and a neighborhood was born. As peak-roofed wooden cottages and houses began to fill in the valleys, the urban, homey, and decidedly livable Glen Park that we know today began to emerge.

San Francisco's Bernal Heights is a hilltop village tucked away in the southern part of the city. Freeways and urban thoroughfares now bound the neighborhood, once defined by the swamps and creeks of the original Mexican land grant. The legacy of Potrero Viejo, or "old pasture," and the farms of the 19th and 20th centuries have developed into today's passion for the preservation of open space. From the 1860s legend of Widow O'Brien's cow to the 1970s fight that saved the hill's crest from development, Bernal residents have tirelessly guarded their environment. An unofficial coyote mascot reigns over one of San Francisco's few remaining wild areas.

The Gold Rush drew the Portuguese from the Azores, sweeping them across the Atlantic Ocean and around South America's Cape Horn to the California shore. When gold failed to pan out, many Portuguese moved to the hamlet of San Leandro on the San Francisco Bay where land was reasonable and the ground fertile. Gradually the post-Gold Rush settlers joined with former Portuguese shore whalers to farm the fields of San Leandro. San Leandro became a principal landing place for newly arrived Portuguese immigrants putting down roots on small farms. A steady stream of relatives from the Azores and Hawaii poured into San Leandro's fertile foothills, and by 1911 the Portuguese comprised over two-thirds of the city's population. The early days were rough--Portuguese immigrants banded together in fraternal societies to overcome a lack of resources and to help one another navigate a strange world whose language they did not speak. Today the Portuguese Immigrant monument in Root Park's plaza commemorates the journey of Portuguese settlers who left everything behind to start a new life in the new world.

For hundreds of years, Portuguese explorers have swept across the globe, many of them landing in California in the 1840s as whalers, ship jumpers, and Gold Rush immigrants. Gold was the lure, but land was the anchor. San Jose became home to Portuguese immigrants who overcame prejudice to contribute to the area politically, socially, and economically. They worked hard, transplanting farming, family, and festa traditions while working in orchards and dairies. Many came from the Azores Islands, 800 miles out to sea from mainland Portugal. For over 160 years, the Portuguese have enriched San Jose with colorful figures, including radio star Joaquim Esteves; jeweler and filmmaker Antonio Furtado; the charismatic and controversial Fr. Lionel Noia; educator Goretti Silveira; and community leaders Vicki and Joe Machado.

The Gold Rush drew the Portuguese from the Azores, sweeping them across the Atlantic Ocean and around South America's Cape Horn to the California shore. When gold failed to pan out, many Portuguese moved to the hamlet of San Leandro on the San Francisco Bay where land was reasonable and the ground fertile. Gradually the post-Gold Rush settlers joined with former Portuguese shore whalers to farm the fields of San Leandro. San Leandro became a principal landing place for newly arrived Portuguese immigrants putting down roots on small farms. A steady stream of relatives from the Azores and Hawaii poured into San Leandro's fertile foothills, and by 1911 the Portuguese comprised over two-thirds of the city's population. The early days were rough--Portuguese immigrants banded together in fraternal societies to overcome a lack of resources and to help one another navigate a strange world whose language they did not speak. Today the Portuguese Immigrant monument in Root Park's plaza commemorates the journey of Portuguese settlers who left everything behind to start a new life in the new world.

The fertile Santa Clara Valley--once called the Valley of Heart's Delight and later Silicon Valley--has long been home to a substantial Chinese population. Like other immigrants, they arrived seeking opportunity and armed with survival instincts and the ability to persevere, but the struggles they faced were unique. From 1866 to 1931, five distinct Chinatowns existed in San Jose, each one devastated by mysterious fires or stifled by unjust laws. Early Chinese in the region labored relentlessly, building railroads and levees and toiling as laundrymen, grocers, cooks, servants, field hands, and factory workers. In the 20th century, new industries replaced agriculture, and an influx of Chinese invigorated the valley with innovative ideas, helping it emerge as a leader in technology.

Italian immigrants settled along San Diego's waterfront in the early 1900s and formed the "Italian Colony," a tightly knit community that provided refuge, shared culture, and heritage. Extended families, new businesses, and church traditions formed the foundation for a lasting social code. It was no coincidence that the area would become known as "Little Italy"--it was exactly that for its inhabitants--a home away from their native land. But by the mid-1960s, changes brought by war and urban modernization began to unravel the community. Take a compelling journey through this unique immigrant enclave. Vivid images and descriptive captions highlight essential elements of this community, such as labor and longing, fishing and family, ritual and revitalization. Through photographs contributed by local community members, this volume traces the evolution of a humble fishing village into the chic urban neighborhood that is Little Italy today.

The first settlers to carve the Pomona Valley out of the California wilderness were Ricardo Vejar and Ygnacio Palomares, who received land grants in 1837 for fighting for Mexico's independence. Nearly three decades after California was ceded to the United States, Southerners escaping the aftermath of the Civil War migrated to the area, and the city was incorporated in 1888. Pomona's landscape evolved from vast Mexican ranchos into prosperous vineyards and orchards, and later into one of Los Angeles's major suburbs. Pomona today is home to the world's largest county fair, the Los Angeles County Fair, as well as to California Polytechnic University and Western University of Health Sciences. The city boasts a thriving art colony, three historic districts, and a unique mix of architecture, including Victorian, Craftsman, transitional, and Spanish-style homes. The more than 150,000 Pomona residents pride themselves on a neighborly small-town flavor that belies the city's large population.

Attracted by the mild climate and abundance of fertile land, Italians came to the Santa Clara Valley from all regions of Italy, including Sicily, Calabria, Basilicata, Tuscany, and Piedmont. Beginning in the 1880s, the "Eden of the World" beckoned Italian immigrants as farmers, ranchers, orchardists, vegetable growers, and winemakers. Italian men, women, and children filled the numerous canneries and packinghouses supplying the rest of the nation with fresh produce. Once the largest ethnic group in the valley, Italians' impact on the region has been profound, yet is often overlooked. The photographs in this book present a special glimpse into the lives of a people whose irrepressible optimism, kindness, and can-do spirit overcame the challenges and obstacles put before them.

Nineteenth-century California was not a destination for the faint of heart, and Frenchmen are usually said to prefer their slippers to their traveling boots. Yet many visitors from France--starting in 1786 with legendary explorer Count de Lap©rouse--made their way to the remote and beautiful territory, leaving enduring accounts and images of their experience. As France's troubled revolutionary era began in the 1840s, tens of thousands of Frenchmen journeyed to California's goldfields. Some found wealth, others freedom, and some death. Many remained in San Francisco, helping shape the city and make it French from the inside.

The first Filipino settlers arrived in Stockton, California, around 1898, and through most of the 20th century, this city was home to the largest community of Filipinos outside the Philippines. Because countless Filipinos worked in, passed through, and settled here, it became the crossroads of Filipino America. Yet immigrants were greeted with signs that read "Positively No Filipinos Allowed" and were segregated to a four-block area centered on Lafayette and El Dorado Streets, which they called "Little Manila." In the 1970s, redevelopment and the Crosstown Freeway decimated the Little Manila neighborhood. Despite these barriers, Filipino Americans have created a vibrant ethnic community and a rich cultural legacy. Filipino immigrants and their descendants have shaped the history, culture, and economy of the San Joaquin Delta area.

The Irish have always been an important part of San Francisco. An 1852 census showed that almost nine percent of the city of 36,000 hailed from Ireland; by 1900, nearly a quarter of the population had come here from the Emerald Isle. Today a walk through any part of the city will showcase influential Irish street names such as Downey, Fell, Kearney, O'Farrell, O'Shaughnessy, and McAllister. Churches such as St. Brigid's and St. Patrick's still are supported by many of the faithful, while landmark buildings such as the Fairmont, Phelan, and Flood stand sentinel over the city's bustling downtown. Many businesspeople handle their finances through the successors of the original Hibernia Bank, established here by Irish immigrants in 1859. And after work, many folks like to relax with a pint at pubs such as Kate O'Brien's, Abbey Tavern, or the Little Shamrock.

Cloverdale lies nestled among forested hills and colorful vineyards at the north end of Sonoma County�s famed Alexander Valley. Originally inhabited by the Makahmo Pomo with white settlers beginning to arrive in the 1850s, the town later became known as �The Orange City� because of its flourishing groves of citrus. In the latter years of the 19th century, Cloverdale welcomed trainloads of visitors arriving to enjoy its signature event, the annual Citrus Fair, to relax at Russian River resorts or to experience the geothermal wonders of The Geysers. During the same period, unique communities developed outside of town�a religious colony around a charismatic healer, a utopian community of French socialists, and an agricultural settlement of Italian immigrants that became the unparalleled Italian Swiss Colony winemaking enterprise. Over the years, Cloverdale has been a farm town, a regional transportation hub, a stopping point for Redwood Highway travelers, and a thriving lumber town. More recently, Cloverdale has been refashioning itself into a distinctive tourist destination while retaining its identity as a friendly hometown.

Founded by Reuben H. Fleet in 1923, Consolidated Aircraft Corporation (later Convair) became one of the most significant aircraft manufacturers in American history. For roughly 60 years, this prolific company was synonymous with San Diego. In fact, whole sections of the city were designed to provide homes for the Convair workers and their families. These men and women were responsible for building some of the most significant aircraft in aviation history, including the PBY Catalina, B-24 Liberator, F-102 Delta Dagger, as well as the reliable Atlas missile, which was vital in launching America into space. To this day, more than a decade after the company passed from the San Diego scene, tens of thousands of San Diegans still celebrate a seminal connection with Reuben Fleet, his company, and his popular slogan, �Nothing short of right is right.�

This volume presents a pictorial history of Los Angeles hotels downtown, in Hollywood, and along the Wilshire Boulevard corridor from the late 19th through the mid-20th centuries. By the early 1900s, many hotels, including luxury ones, had been established in downtown Los Angeles to cater to business travelers and tourists. In the late 19th century, after the arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad, hotels were built to encourage tourism and sell real estate in the agricultural Hollywood area. And with the growth of the motion picture studios in the early decades of the 20th century, grander hotels were erected to accommodate the new industry. As the city expanded westward, luxury and residential hotels were also placed in the Westlake District and along the fashionable Wilshire Boulevard corridor connecting to Beverly Hills.

San Diego has always attracted a rich diversity of immigrant groups. Between the 1880s and 1970s, many of these groups helped to create a strong and dynamic fishing industry that became a key component of the city's identity. Waves of varied immigrants continually refreshed the industry, adapting their traditional skills and technologies to San Diegan conditions. Innovations in boat design, nets, and baiting techniques reshaped the fleets that harvested tuna and sardines from the teeming waters. On shore, canning factories sprang up, seafood markets bustled with activity, and fish restaurants filled with hungry diners. The vivid stories and fascinating photographs in this volume recapture the energy and variety that were the hallmarks of San Diego's fishing industry--an industry that has left a deep multicultural imprint on today's city.

Pinole began as the cornerstone of a massive land grant nearly 200 years ago and grew to become an economic center of early Contra Costa County. Today it is a diverse and public-spirited small city with a high regard for, and interest in, its heritage. Pinole was named for the gruel (penole or pinolli) made from seeds, grain, and acorns given by welcoming Native Americans to explorers in the Pedro Fages expedition in 1772. Pinole's rich commercial and farming history--made possible by its access to San Pablo Bay and by the convergence of two railroads that ran through the heart of the community--is chronicled here with numerous photographs from the latter part of the 19th century through 2009, recalling buildings, people, and events that still live in the hearts of the city's modern-day residents.

In January 1883, barely a month after the Northern Pacific Railroad (NPRR ) finished laying tracks to the "last crossing of the Yellowstone River," Minnesota's Winona Daily Republican proclaimed Livingston as the "future great city of the Yellowstone." With the arrival of the NPRR in 1882, the town boomed as it became the division headquarters for the railroad. Its future secured by the largest machine shops and roundhouse west of Minnesota, Livingston rapidly grew from frontier town to progressive city. By late 1883, its downtown area of substantial brick buildings housed more than 100 businesses, and supported a residential area of 2,000 stalwart citizens. Situated at the junction of the Northern Pacific branch to Yellowstone National Park, Livingston hosted the majority of the early tourist trade to "America's Wonderland of the West."

The second-largest Latino-immigrant group in Los Angeles after Mexicans, Central Americans have become a remarkable presence in city neighborhoods, with colorful festivals, flags adorning cars, community organizations, as well as vibrant ethnic businesses. The people from Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama living in Los Angeles share many cultural and historical commonalities, such as language, politics, religion, and perilous migratory paths as well as future challenges. The distinctions are also evident as ethnicities, music, and food create a healthy diversity throughout residential locations in Los Angeles. During the 1980s and 1990s, an unprecedented number of new Central Americans arrived in this cosmopolitan city, many for economic reasons while others were escaping political turmoil in their native countries. Today they are part of the ethnic layers that shape the local population. Central Americans have embraced Los Angeles as home and, in doing so, transported their rich heritage and customs to the streets of this multicultural metropolis.

Filipinos have been a part of the history of the United States and San Diego for over 400 years. The Manila-Acapulco galleon trade ships included Filipinos on sailing expeditions to California, including the port of San Diego. After the Philippines became a territory of the United States in 1898, many Filipinos began immigrating to San Diego. The community grew rapidly, particularly in the 1920s and 1930s. After World War II, Filipino veterans returned with their war brides and the community began to build further. The Immigration Act of 1965 increased Filipino immigration into San Diego to include military personnel, especially those enlisted in the U.S. Navy, as well as professionals. Today Filipino Americans are the largest Asian American ethnic group in San Diego.

North Beach and Telegraph Hill are among San Francisco's most charming and historic districts. In the early years, Mexican and Spanish settlements dotted the beach and the hill, but the area was heavily developed during California's Gold Rush as gold seekers flooded the city. Later, European immigrants added many layers of unique character. North Beach was home to A. P. Giannini, founder of the Bank of Italy (later the Bank of America), and in the 1950s, the Beat Generation evolved from the creative character of this artistic neighborhood. Charming cottages and architectural gems, such as famed landmark Coit Tower, decorate the slopes down to the bay, delighting residents and tourists alike. Many cafés and restaurants offer delicious foods, while the breathtaking views provide food for the soul.

Oakland, the other city by the bay, was a magnet for Italian immigrants in the early decades of the 20th century. Some relocated from San Francisco after the devastating 1906 earthquake and fire; many more came to Oakland predominantly from Italy's northern regions of Piedmont, Liguria, and Lombardy in search of opportunity and prosperity. These pioneers worked hard, typically at backbreaking labor, to build new lives. They raised a generation of children who succeeded in their own right and contributed in various ways to their community and nation. As they established new roots and adopted new ways, congregating largely in north Oakland's vibrant and bustling Temescal neighborhood, these Italian Americans also nurtured their Old Country customs and traditions--many of which, along with rare glimpses of bygone days, are portrayed in this charming trip through time.

Filipino immigrants came to Ventura County in the 1920s, beginning American lives mostly as farm laborers in work camps, notably the Arneill Ranch and Springville Ranch in Camarillo. They organized early societies like the Filipino Brotherhood Association of Ventura County, the Jordan Lodge 604 Legionarios del Trabajo, the Caballeros de Dimas Alang, the Filipino Optimist Club, and the Filipino Community of Ventura County. During World War II, Filipinos served in the 1st and 2nd Filipino Infantry Regiments of the U.S. Army. The omnipresence of the U.S. Navy in coastal Ventura prodded many second- and third-generation Filipinos to serve their country in Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, and the Persian Gulf. Today the same spirit of community engagement is illustrated in the 26 local Filipino organizations all under the umbrella of the Filipino American Council, which celebrates history, community, and culture.

Los Angeles has always been a city of possibilities and reinvention. A youthful and independent spirit permeates the culture and gives a sense of freedom found in few other places. This environment provided fertile ground for the growth of a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community that had a major influence on LGBT life in the United States. For most of American history, queer identities were only visible in forms of entertainment, with most of the culture existing underground and in fear. By the 1950s, however, a few brave gay people living in Los Angeles dared to challenge society's negative views on homosexuality. For the next two decades, L.A. produced the nation's first LGBT leaders, organizations, and publications, and gave birth to the national movement for LGBT equality.

Koreatown, located in the Mid-Wilshire district of Los Angeles, is the heart and nexus for Koreans in America. In the early 20th century, a small Korean community--many of whom were active leaders and supporters of the Korean independence movement--initially settled around Bunker Hill. The community migrated in the 1930s toward Jefferson Boulevard, near the University of Southern California, to an area known as Old Koreatown. By the late 1960s, following the freeway construction boom and the Hart-Cellar Act of 1965, Korean markets, restaurants, and businesses began to blossom along Olympic Boulevard. Today, Koreatown is a thriving urban center where Koreans, Hispanics, and Bangladeshis coreside in one of the most densely populated and diverse sections of Los Angeles. Its boundaries were officially designated by the Los Angeles City Council on August 20, 2010.

Napans tend more than grapevines. The area's diverse soil and mild climate make possible a generous yield of agricultural products. This book traces the cultivation of these products through a chronology of Napa's farming history, from indigenous food plants to the orchards that were planted to feed gold miners--orchards that would soon function as both therapy and sustenance for the patients in the newly created asylum. European and Asian immigrants joined newly emancipated slaves and Mexican citizens who had settled here before the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Together they cultivated the land, picked the fruit, nuts, and hops, cut the wheat, kept bees, and tended livestock on dairy farms and cattle ranches. Each chapter begins with a poem inspired by farming or a recipe reflecting the valley's bounty. The scents of peaches, apples, cherries, pears, prunes, and honey linger in the imaginations of thousands of locals, while the trees, hives, and vines continue to thrive wherever placed.

The images in this book document the intertwining of country and city in the character of Woodland, California, since the town's birth in 1853. The flat, rich land of the Great Central Valley, along with its Mediterranean climate and access to water for irrigation, enabled Yolo County to become a top producer of diverse agricultural products, ranging from almonds and tomatoes to grapes and rice. The wealth of the county flowed into Woodland, the county's seat of government, the largest market town, and the major agricultural processing center. As a result, Woodland produced distinguished architecture, abundant cultural and leisure activities, and prosperous businesses. The city's history reflects its ties to local agriculture but also to nearby metropolitan Sacramento and to larger events affecting American society, including technological and organizational innovations, war and social movements, and changing patterns of immigration.

As the world rushed in to profit from California's gold strike of 1848, many Jews joined the throng, not necessarily to mine but to sell merchandise to prospectors. Some settled in Napa Valley, a basin of rich agricultural land nestled between two mountain ridges. These pioneers conducted business, making significant contributions to the development of the Valley. Participating in cultural life, holding public office, and leading organizations, many also made fine wines, something perfected thousands of years ago as commanded in scripture. They continue to do so, and this is their story told through photographs.

Roller Derby found a home in the San Francisco Bay Area following its Depression-era Chicago origins. An early television sensation, it faded to a modest existence in Los Angeles during the 1950s. Creator Leo Seltzer turned the game over to his son Jerry, who repositioned the traveling Bay Bombers from their home terrain of San Francisco to Fresno and everywhere in-between. He shined television camera lights on skaters who became the zenith in Roller Derby, including Charlie O'Connell, Annis Jensen, Joanie Weston, and more. Syndicated television games seen by millions yielded sellout crowds in every major arena in the country. However, economic and cultural changes closed Roller Derby in 1973. Passionate fans clung tenaciously to its memory. In the 21st century, the game made an astonishing return not only in Northern California but also worldwide.