California is a land brimming with stunning natural
landscapes, diverse cultures, and deep histories. As a tribute to summer
freedom and exploration, we’ve come up with a short list of destinations across
the state that provide an opportunity for adventurers of all ages to engage
with their surrounding while learning about the people and events that came
before them. Each photo included below comes from our permanent collection and will
be featured in Teaching California, a
set of new classroom-ready history curriculum resources set to become available
next Summer. The images provide a glimpse into the past, framing each destination
as it once was and prompting consideration of how time, change, and human
experience shape the places around us.
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[Crystal Cave, Sequoia National Park, undated]; [California
Counties photograph collection]; California Historical Society, CHS2016_2135.
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The area that is now Sequoia National Park was
first inhabited for thousands of years by Native American groups, each with a
unique culture and language including: the Western Mono (Monache), the Foothills
Yokuts, and the Tubatulablal. In the early 1800s, fur trappers arrived followed
by gold seekers and eventually loggers, all hoping to make a claim to the
area’s rich natural resources.
One of the most prized of these resources
was the Giant Sequoia tree. Giant
Sequoias can live to be 3,000 years old while growing to be more than 300 feet
tall and 100 feet in circumference, making them one of earth’s largest living
organisms. These epic proportions made the trees extremely attractive to
fortune seekers who descended upon the Sierra Nevada during the 19th
century and whole groves of ancient forest were leveled during this period.
Sequoia National Park was
formed in 1890 as the nation’s second national park to put an end to
deforestation and to protect the massive trees. The park is home to three of the top 5 largest sequoia trees on earth.
What to do:
What to do:
- Tour Crystal Cave. Beneath the shade of massive trees lies more than 250 underground marble caves. Crystal Cave is the only one open to the public and is filled will walls of marble, stalactites, and stalagmites.
- Visit the Giant Forest Museum. The museum is the starting point for visits to the Giant Forest sequoia grove and provides visitors with an opportunity to learn about local ecosystems. The Giant Forest includes the famous General Sherman tree, currently the largest living organism on the planet, by volume.
- Visit Buck Rock Lookout. Built in 1923, Buck Rock is one of the oldest fire lookout buildings still in use in the area and is the place where rangers once sat to scan for smoke signifying forest fires.
2. San
Francisco’s Chinatown
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[Street scene, Chinatown, San Francisco, circa 1910]; [San
Francisco Subjects photograph collection, box 9, folder 16]; California
Historical Society.
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San Francisco’s Chinatown is the oldest Chinatown in
North America as well as the largest Chinatown outside of Asia. In 1848 the first
Chinese immigrants arrived on the shores of the San Francisco Bay. The
discovery of gold as well as the building of the transcontinental railroad
resulted in a large increase in the Chinese population within the city and a
large portion settled in a community in the center of the city known as
Chinatown. The entire neighborhood was
destroyed in the massive fire that followed the 1906 earthquake and was
eventually rebuilt with tourism in mind.
What to do:
What to do:
- Walk through Portsmouth Square. The city’s oldest public square was established in the early 1800s in the community of Yerba Buena, which later became San Francisco. The San Francisco Bay’s shoreline was only about a block away. The park is now a bustling Chinatown community fixture where locals gather to catch up with friends, play mahjong, or practice tai chi.
- Grab a treat from the Golden Gate fortune cookie factory. This tiny fortune cookie factory down a classic Chinatown side alley was opened in 1962. Visitors can watch as fortune cookies are made fresh and can sample the treats fresh off the griddle.
- Visit the Chinese Historical Society of America. Explore rotating exhibitions which highlight the experiences of Chinese in America and San Francisco.
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[Children participating in a religious ceremony on Olvera
Street, Los Angeles, undated]; [California Historical Society collection,
1860-1960]; University of Southern California Libraries and the California
Historical Society, CHS-36243.
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What to do:
- Take in Olvera street. Explore the colorful Mexican marketplace, shop for handcrafted items and folk art, fill up on tacos at outdoor cafés, and listen to strolling mariachi music. Olvera Street, originally named Vine Street after the vineyards that spread across the area, is full of well-preserved historic buildings.
- Tour Avila Adobe. Built in 1818, the Avila Adobe is the oldest existing residence in LA and was the home of wealthy cattle rancher and Mexican native, Francisco Avila. A tour of the home will give you an idea of how the first settlers in the area lived under Spanish rule and the structure itself is built from local resources including clay from the LA River and tar from the La Brea Tar Pits.
- See the Siqueiros mural. “América Tropical” was painted on the side of the old Italian Hall in 1932 by Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros, a contemporary of Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco. The mural was controversial due to its imperialist subject matter and was whitewashed soon after its creation. The mural was rediscovered in the 1960s and recent efforts have restored it. It can be seen from a viewing platform on Olvera Street.
4. Sonoma County
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[Three children in a Sonoma County chicken ranch, undated];
[California Historical Society collection, 1860-1960]; University of Southern
California Libraries and the California Historical Society, CHS-45631.
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Sonoma is a diverse region known for its
wine, cheese, redwood forests, rolling pastoral hills, and dramatic coastline.
Pomo, Coast Miwok, and Kashaya peoples were the earliest human inhabitants and
the land was later utilized by Europeans looking for fur, timber, and fertile
farmland. After California became a
state in 1850, Sonoma was increasingly settled by the local logging, cattle
ranching, poultry farming, fruit processing, and winemaking industries.
What to do:
- Explore Fort Ross. Fort Ross Historic Park was once a Kashaya Native settlement and later became a Russian settlement and fur trading post before becoming a hub for agriculture and logging. The area is now a state park which showcases the Russian-era fort.
- Go on a Sonoma County farm tour. Take part in one of the many farm tours offered throughout the area’s verdant hills and farmland. Take your pick from offerings by local farms and ranches including cheese making classes, sustainable farming demonstrations, and goat cuddling. Buy fresh eggs or be the first in line for organic peaches. Many farms are family-run and focused on sustainability.
- Explore Mission San Francisco Solano. The mission is the 21st and last mission founded in California in 1823 and the only mission founded after Mexico’s independence from Spain. The mission is part of Sonoma State Historic Park which also includes Sonoma military barracks built by General Vallejo and is where the first bear flag was raised over California declaring it a republic, independent from Mexico.
- Visit the California Indian Museum and Cultural Center. This museum presents California Native history and culture from a native perspective and offers educational and cultural activities.
4. Mojave Desert
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[Two Mojave Indian girls standing in front of a small
dwelling with a thatched roof, 1900]; [Title Insurance and Trust, and C.C. Pierce Photography Collection,
1860-1960]; University of Southern California Libraries and the California
Historical Society, CHS-1241.
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We don’t necessarily suggest a trip to the
Mojave during the middle of the summer – but this trip can be saved for a bit
later into the fall when temperatures have dropped a tad.
The Mojave is an arid desert full of Joshua
trees and one of the driest places in North America. Located between the Great
Basin Desert in the north and the Sonoran to the south, this desert plays host to
the Mojave National Preserve as well as parts of Death Valley and Joshua Tree
National Parks. The Chemehuevi and Mojave peoples were nomadic residents of the
region for thousands of years living off of prickly pear, mesquite, agave, deer
and bighorn sheep. Europeans arrived in 1776 and throughout the 1800’s settlers
came to the area searching for gold, copper, iron, and silver.
What to do:
- Visit Mojave National Preserve. This 1.6-million-acre park is full of sand dunes, Joshua trees, wildflowers, volcanic cinder cones, canyons, mountains, limestone caves, petroglyphs, abandoned mines and military outposts. Hike, camp, and explore, making a stop at the Kelso Depot a Spanish Mission Revival style railroad stop opened in 1924.
- Explore Antelope Valley Indian Museum State Historic Park. This interpretive center for the Native American cultures of the Great Basin and surrounding regions holds more than 7,500 Native American artifacts and pieces of art from 12,000 years of human history.
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by Katie Peeler, California Historical Society
