Other Historic Sites of California

Big and Little Petroglyph Canyons

Location: China Lake, Inyo County

Relevant issues: American Indian history

Statement of significance: First reported in 1938, this site deep within the Coso Mountains is one of the most spectacular petroglyph areas known in the western United States, exhibiting more than twenty thousand designs. It represents at least two cultural phases.

Big Four House

Location: Sacramento, California

Relevant issues: Business and industry

Statement of significance: Built in 1852, the Big Four House was named after the “big four”—Collis Huntington, Mark Hopkins, Leland Stanford, and Charles Crocker—who planned, financed, and built the western end of America’s first transcontinental railway. It was in this structure that the four made their offices while organizing the Central Pacific (California to Utah) section of the railway and where subsequently they founded the Southern Pacific Railroad (to Southern California) in 1873.

Bodie Historic District

Location: Bridgeport, Mono County

Relevant issues: Business and industry

Statement of significance: In its location, setting, and total isolation, and in terms of the number of historic buildings and associated mining remains that have survived in unusually good condition, Bodie is probably the finest example of a mining “ghost town” in the West.

Bradbury Building

Location: Los Angeles, Los Angeles County

Relevant issues: Art and architecture

Statement of significance: Completed in 1893, this unique five-story office building was designed by George H. Wyman, who had no formal architectural or engineering training at the time. The heavy sandstone exterior leaves one unprepared for the cage of light-filled glass within; the whole is a cobweb of cast iron covered with delicate Art Nouveau ornamentation.

Burbank House and Garden

Location: 200 Santa Rosa Avenue, Santa Rosa, Sonoma County

Relevant issues: Science and technology

Statement of significance: For a half century before his death, this was the home of Luther Burbank (1849-1926), internationally known horticulturalist whose work produced many new plant varieties. Often called the “Plant Wizard,” Burbank experimented with thousands of plants, his sole goal the production of more and better varieties of cultivated plants; he introduced over 250 varieties of fruit alone.

Carmel Mission

Location: 3080 Rio Road, Carmel, Monterey County

Relevant issues: European settlement, Latino history, religion

Statement of significance: Established in June, 1770, by Father Junípero Serra, the Mission San Carlos de Borromeo served as the headquarters for the Padre-Presidente and was thus the most important of the California missions. By 1852, it lay in ruins. Since that time, it has been restored and reconstructed, and today is as an excellent example of a California mission.

City of Oakland

Location: Oakland, Alameda County

Relevant issues: Military history, naval history, World War II

Statement of significance: The U.S. Navy yard tug Hoga, now the fireboat City of Oakland, is typical of hundreds of World War II-era naval service craft. A well-preserved, largely unaltered example of this once-common type craft, City of Oakland is the only known surviving yard craft that was present at Pearl Harbor during the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941. While not engaged in combatting the enemy, these craft performed heroic service, extinguishing fires on burning battleships and other vessels in the harbor and rescuing wounded seamen from the oily waters of Battleship Row. Hoga fought fires on Battleship Row for forty-eight hours, particulary working on the blazing hulk of USS Arizona. For its actions, Hoga was awarded with a meritorious citation.

Elmshaven

Location: St. Helena, Napa County

Relevant issues: Health and medicine, religion

Statement of significance: From 1900 to 1915, Elmshaven was the home of Ellen Gould White (1827-1915), a cofounder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, one of the nation’s largest indigenous denominations. Raised as a devout Methodist near Portland, Maine, young Ellen and her family were expelled from their congregation for following a millenialist preacher who predicted the Second Coming of Christ in 1843 or 1844. Soon after it became clear this prediction was a disappointment, the seventeen-year-old Ellen began having visions, which she related to others. Ellen White and her husband played a central role in the formation of the Western Health Reform Institute in Battle Creek, which became famous under the leadership of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg.

First Pacific Coast Salmon Cannery Site

Location: Broderick, Yolo County

Relevant issues: Business and industry

Statement of significance: Here, between 1864 and 1866, William and George Hume and Andrew Hapgood of Maine perfected the canning techniques that led to the development of the multimillion-dollar Pacific coast salmon canning industry. The Hapgood, Hume, and Company cannery was situated on a scow anchored in the Sacramento River.

Flood Mansion

Location: San Francisco, San Francisco County

Relevant issues: Business and industry

Statement of significance: This, the only Nob Hill mansion to survive the earthquake and fire of 1906, was the residence of one of the bonanza kings of the Nevada Comstock Lode. James Clair Flood (1825-1889) operated a saloon when he came to San Francisco in 1849, but by shrewd dealing in the stock exchange and the judicious exploration and development of mines—the Comstock Mine in particular—he amassed a tremendous fortune.

Folsom Powerhouse

Location: Off Folsom Boulevard, Folsom State Recreation Area, Folsom, Sacramento County

Relevant issues: Science and technology

Statement of significance: In 1895, this hydroelectric generating plant sent high-voltage alternating current over long-distance lines for the first time, a major advance in the technology of electric power transmission and generation.

Gamble House

Location: 4 Westmoreland Place, Pasadena, Los Angeles County

Relevant issues: Art and architecture

Statement of significance: Constructed in 1908, this summer house in the California Bungalow style exemplifies the Arts and Crafts movement of the early twentieth century. Contemporary with Franklin Lloyd Wright’s “Prairie Houses,” this structure is the finest surviving example of the work of architects Charles S. and Henry M. Greene.

Gunther Island Site 67

Location: Eureka, Humboldt County

Relevant issues: American Indian history

Statement of significance: One of the largest Wiyot villages, this site (900 C.E.) typifies the late prehistoric period and was instrumental in outlining the prehistory of the Northern California coast. The site is a shell mound encompassing approximately six acres and attaining depths of up to 14 feet.

Hale Solar Laboratory

Location: Pasadena, Los Angeles County

Relevant issues: Science and technology

Statement of significance: Completed in 1925, Hale Solar Laboratory is important for its association with George Ellery Hale (1868-1938), the person most responsible for the rise of the science of astrophysics in the United States. Hale’s scientific contributions were numerous, especially in the area of astronomy. In the latter part of his life, this was Hale’s office and workshop, where he studied the sun with instruments of his own design.

Hanna-Honeycomb House

Location: Palo Alto, Santa Clara County

Relevant issues: Art and architecture

Statement of significance: Begun in 1937 and added to and expanded over twenty-five years, the main house is the first and best example of Frank Lloyd Wright’s innovative “hexagonal design,” where rooms flow together and, except the kitchen and baths, every room opens to extensive terraces and the outdoors. Patterned after the honeycomb of the bee, the six-sided figure, with open 120-degree angles, appears not only in the layout of the house but also in the landscape and many of the built-in furnishings.

Harada House

Location: Riverside, Riverside County

Relevant issues: Asian American history, legal history

Statement of significance: An architecturally plain residence near downtown Riverside, the Harada House was the object of the first test of the constitutionality of an alien land law in the United States. In California vs. Harada (1916-1918), the right of native-born citizens of the United States, albeit minors, to own land was upheld. Directly associated with Japanese Americans, the case is important to all Americans of immigrant heritage. The internment of the Harada family during World War II illustrates another aspect of America’s troubled dealings with its Japanese American citizens. The house is still owned by a member of the family.

Hoover House

Location: Stanford, Santa Clara County

Relevant issues: Political history

Statement of significance: Designed by Mrs. Lou Henry Hoover, this house strongly reflects the couple’s character and tastes. Legal residence of the Hoovers when Herbert was elected president, the house also served as their retirement home from 1933 to 1944.

Hotel Del Coronado

Location: 1500 Orange Street, Coronado, San Diego County

Relevant issues: Cultural history

Statement of significance: Begun in March, 1877, and open for business February, 1878, this enormous timber structure, rising from the Coronado Peninsula like a castle, was one of the last of the extravagantly conceived resort hotels in Southern California. It was the first hotel in the world, and the largest building outside of New York City, to use electric lighting; the lighting system was installed under the direct supervision of Thomas A. Edison.

Hubble House

Location: San Marino, Los Angeles County

Relevant issues: Science and technology

Statement of significance: From 1925 to 1953, this two-story stucco structure was the home of Edwin Powell Hubble (1889-1953), one of America’s greatest twentieth century astronomers who, among other accomplishments, discovered extragalactic nebulae and their recession from each other.

Jeremiah O’Brien

Location: Pier 3, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, San Francisco, San Francisco County

Relevant issues: Military history, naval history, World War II

Statement of significance:Jeremiah O’Brien is the only operative unaltered survivor of the many Liberty ships built during World War II as an emergency response to a critical shortage of maritime cargo ships. It participated in the D day invasion of France in 1944. In 1984, it was made a National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Lane Victory

Location: San Pedro, Los Angeles County

Relevant issues: Military history, naval history, World War II

Statement of significance: The Victory ships entered World War II ferrying supplies and troops to European and Pacific theaters. As the last Victory ship to retain integrity of original design and as best representative of its class, Lane Victory has been designated a memorial to the merchant marine veterans of World War II.

Las Flores Adobe

Location: Camp Pendleton, San Diego County

Relevant issues: Art and architecture

Statement of significance: Erected 1867-1868, Las Flores Adobe is an example of a two-story nineteenth century Monterey Style residence. This building combined the traditional Spanish-Mexican adobe with elements of New England frame architecture, including a double veranda across the facade, to create a popular building type unique to California during the mid-nineteenth century. It is located on Camp Joseph H. Pendleton.

Locke Historic District

Location: Locke, Sacramento County

Relevant issues: Asian American history, cultural history

Statement of significance: Founded in 1915, Locke is the largest and most intact surviving example of a historic rural Chinese American community in the United States, including more than fifty commercial and residential frame buildings in simple but picturesque style. Locke is the only such community remaining in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, which was a particularly important area of rural Chinese settlement.

London Ranch

Location: Jack London Historical State Park, Glen Ellen, Sonoma County

Relevant issues: Literary history

Statement of significance: On this site stand the ruins of Wolf House (1913) and the House of Happy Walls (1919), as well as the graves of John Griffith London and his wife, Charmian. Jack London (1876-1916), the most popular novelist and short-story writer of his day, wrote passionately and prolifically, drawing from his firsthand experience at sea or in Alaska or in the fields and factories of Califoria; between 1900 and 1916, he completed fifty-one books, hundreds of short stories, and numerous articles on a wide range of topics.

Los Cerritos Ranch House

Location: Long Beach, Los Angeles County

Relevant issues: Art and architecture

Statement of significance: Erected in 1844, this two-story adobe ranchhouse is an excellent example of the application of Monterey Colonial Style to the traditional Spanish-Mexican hacienda plan. The house is built on the usual U-shaped plan around a large patio, enclosed on the fourth side by an adobe wall. The foundations are of baked red brick brought around the Horn by sailing ships; the hand-hewn beams in the house came from forests near Monterey; and the walls in the center section are 3 feet thick.

Mare Island Naval Shipyard

Location: Mare Island Vallejo, Solano County

Relevant issues: Military history, naval history

Statement of significance: The U.S. Navy’s first permanent installation on the Pacific coast, Mare Island illustrates the nation’s effort to extend its naval power into the Pacific Ocean. The first U.S. warship (1859) and first drydock (1872-1891) constructed on the West Coast were built here.

Miller House

Location: Joaquin Miller and Sanborn Drive, Oakland, Alameda County

Relevant issues: Literary history

Statement of significance: In 1886, Joaquin Miller (1837-1913), the first major poet of the far western frontier, moved to this property near Oakland and built a small, three-room house which he dubbed the Abbey. Known as the “Poet of the Sierras,” Miller wrote largely about the exploits of pioneers, outlaws, and Indians of the Wild West. On this property, Miller also built stone monuments to Robert Browning, John C. Frémont, and Moses, as well as a funeral pyre for himself. The pyre was never used.

Mission Beach roller coaster

Location: San Diego, San Diego County

Relevant issues: Cultural history

Statement of significance: Constructed in 1925, this is one of two large, wooden-scaffolded roller coasters with structural integrity that remain on the West Coast. The “Earthquake” roller coaster, as it is also called, is the only one on the West Coast by noted coaster builders Prior and Church. It is the prime survivor and most visible symbol of the Mission Beach Amusement Center, the centerpiece of sugar heir John D. Spreckels’s ambitious early twentieth century recreational development.

Mission Santa Ines

Location: South of State Highway 246, Solvang, Santa Barbara County

Relevant issues: American Indian history, European settlement, Latino history, religion

Statement of significance: Mission Santa Ines is one of the best-preserved Spanish mission complexes in the United States, containing an unrivaled combination of landscape setting, original buildings, extant collections of art and interior furnishings, water-related industrial structures, and archaeological remains. The property is also important as the location of the start of the Chumash Revolt of 1824, one of the largest and most successful revolts of Native American neophytes in the Spanish West, representing indigenous resistance to European colonization. The intact archaeological remains of the two mission wings, a portion of the convent, and the Native American village are rare survivors and have been demonstrated to contain the potential for exceptional information on the critical period of accommodation between native peoples and European colonial powers.

Modjeska House

Location: 29042 Modjeska Canyon Road, Modjeska, Orange County

Relevant issues: Cultural history

Statement of significance: Madame Helena Modjeska (1840-1909), the internationally renowned Shakespearean actress and Polish patriot, was one of the first “stars” to settle in Southern Calfornia. The Modjeska House, located on the ranch she dubbed “The Forest of Arden” (from William Shakespeare’s As You Like It), was her most important home (1888-1906) during her long years of exile. Design of the house is attributed to her friend, architect Stanford White (1853-1906).

New Almaden

Location: Fourteen miles south of San Jose, Santa Clara County

Relevant issues: Business and industry, European settlement, Latino history

Statement of significance: Santa Clara Indians had used cinnabar from this site long before 1824, when information provided by them led Mexican settlers to the first quicksilver deposits identified in North America. Europeans used the mercury in the ore to facilitate the mining of gold and silver. The site was named after the world’s greatest quicksilver mine, Almaden, in Spain. Mercury from New Almaden’s mines was essential to the mining process during the gold rush.

Norris Cabin

Location: Gilroy, Santa Clara County

Relevant issues: Literary history

Statement of significance: A writer of the American naturalism school, Frank Norris (1870-1902) lived here before his death at the age of thirty-two. Surrounded by magnificent redwoods, the cabin is in its original condition.

Old Sacramento Historic District

Location: 111 I Street, Sacramento, Sacramento County

Relevant issues: Business and industry

Statement of significance: Situated on the lower Sacramento River, the Sacramento’s river port emerged in 1849-1850 as the great interior distributing and transportation center for the Northern Mines in the mother lode country of the Sierra Nevada. A large number of buildings dating from the 1840’s through 1870’s remain in the original business district.

Old Scripps Building

Location: 8602 La Jolla Shores Drive, La Jolla, San Diego County

Relevant issues: Science and technology

Statement of significance: The oldest building in continuous use by a major oceanographic research institution in the country, this is the first permanent structure of the Scripps Institution, an early marine biological station that became the nation’s first oceanographic institute in 1925. Designed by a noted California architect, it is an early example of reinforced concrete construction.

Old United States Mint

Location: San Francisco, San Francisco County

Relevant issues: Business and industry

Statement of significance: Constructed between 1869 and 1874, this Greek Revival building became one of the principal mints in the United States during the nineteenth century and chief federal depository for gold and silver mined in the West. Designed by Alfred B. Mullett, it is one of the few downtown buildings to survive the 1906 earthquake.

Paramount Theatre

Location: 2025 Broadway, Oakland, Alameda County

Relevant issues: Cultural history

Statement of significance: Built during the Depression and opened in December, 1931, this great Art Deco film palace was the largest auditorium on the West Coast, seating 3,476. Designed by Timothy Pflueger of San Francisco, the Paramount combines spectacular advertising with stark functionalism. With its 110-foot facade featuring a tile mosaic of two monumental figures, a stage 32 feet deep and 50 feet wide, a mechanically elevated orchestra pit, and twenty production and dressing rooms, it serves all the arts from symphony to dance to variety shows and films.

Potomac

Location: Oakland, Alameda County

Relevant issues: Naval history, political history

Web site: www.usspotomac.org

Statement of significance: One of three surviving major vessels used as presidential yachts, Potomac served only one president. It was used by President Franklin D. Roosevelt between 1936 and 1945 and was a major symbol of his presidency; briefings, meetings, and decisions were made on board, and it provided transportation to a rendezvous with Winson Churchill to arrange the Atlantic Charter in 1940. Restored to its 1939 appearance, it operates as a working museum vessel.

Rock Magnetics Laboratory

Location: Menlo Park, San Mateo County

Relevant issues: Science and technology

Statement of significance: In this unimposing structure, three U.S. Geological Survey geophysicists—Richard R. Doell, Brent Dalrymple, and Allan Cox—demonstrated that, contrary to what most scientists then believed, the earth’s magnetic field had reversed its direction on numerous occasions over the last five million years. The time scale developed in this laboratory from 1957 to 1966 was the key to the interpretation of the striped magnetic anomalies on the deep ocean floor that were being discovered and mapped by marine geophysicists around the world; their interpretation of this phenomenon led to the development of the theory of plate tectonics, the major revolution in earth science in the twentieth century.

Rogers Dry Lake

Location: Mojave Desert, Kern County

Relevant issues: Aviation history, science and technology

Statement of significance: This dry lakebed provided a natural laboratory for flight testing of aircraft that were on the cutting edge of aerospace and aviation technology. It is the primary resource associated with establishment of Edwards Air Force Base, the world’s premier flight testing and flight research center.

Rose Bowl

Location: 991 Rosemont Avenue, Brookside Park, Pasadena, Los Angeles County

Relevant issues: Cultural history, sports

Statement of significance: Since 1922, this has been the site of the earliest and most-renowned postseason college football “bowl” game. Held every New Year’s Day since 1916, the Rose Bowl also commemorates the civic work of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association, the sponsor of the annual flower festival, parade, and bowl game. Additionally, this was one of the venues of the 1932 and 1984 Olympics.

San Francisco Cable Cars

Location: 1390 Washington Street, San Francisco, San Francisco County

Relevant issues: Cultural history

Statement of significance: These are the only cable cars still operating in an American city. Begun in August, 1873, this system of traction locomotion was designed to accommodate even the steepest grades, which explains why ten miles of track are still in use in this very hilly “city by the Bay.”

San Francisco Civic Center

Location: Near Van Ness Avenue and Market Street, San Francisco, San Francisco County

Relevant issues: Cultural history

Statement of significance: Of international importance as the scene of the founding of the United Nations and the drafting and signing of the post-World War II peace treaties with Japan, the Civic Center is also the finest and most complete manifestation of the City Beautiful movement in the country. It illustrates the era of turn-of-the-century municipal reform movements and early public and city planning. Exposition Auditorium, in the Civic Center, is the only surviving building of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915.

San Francisco Port of Embarkation, U.S. Army

Location: Fort Mason, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, San Francisco, San Francisco County

Relevant issues: Military history, World War II

Statement of significance: During World War II, this was the principal port on the West Coast for delivering personnel, materiel, weapons, and ammunition to the fighting fronts in the Pacific Theater.

San Juan Bautista Plaza Historic District

Location: San Juan Bautista State Historic Park, 2211 Garden Road, San Juan Bautista, San Benito County

Relevant issues: Art and architecture, European settlement, Latino history

Statement of significance: A striking example of a nineteenth century village built on a traditional Spanish-Mexican colonial plaza plan, the district is composed of five buildings, all facing the plaza and all completed between 1813 and 1874.

San Luis Rey Mission Church

Location: 4050 Mission Avenue, Oceanside, San Diego County

Relevant issues: European settlement, Latino history, religion

Statement of significance: The church at Mission San Luis Rey de Francia (1798) is perhaps the finest existing example of a California mission church as well as a mission complex. This, the third church at the mission, was erected between 1811 and 1815. In 1893, the Catholic Church rededicated the mission as a Franciscan college, a function it continues to serve.

Santa Barbara Mission

Location: 2201 Laguna Street, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara County

Relevant issues: European settlement, Latino history, religion

Statement of significance: Built from 1815 to 1820, this mission, architecturally probably the finest and most distinguished of the twenty-one California mission churches, is the only original mission church to survive unaltered and in good condition into the twentieth century. In 1842, California’s first Roman Catholic bishop arrived at Santa Barbara to establish his see at the mission and to administer the affairs of his diocese, which included all of Alta and Baja California.

Santa Cruz Looff Carousel and Roller Coaster on the Beach Boardwalk

Location: Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County

Relevant issues: Cultural history

Statement of significance: Built in 1911, this carousel is one of the six essentially intact Looff carousels in the United States. The Looff family was one of the major early manufacturers of carousels. The roller coaster (1924) is the older of the two large, wooden-scaffolded roller coasters remaining on the West Coast.

Santa Monica Looff Hippodrome

Location: 276 Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica, Los Angeles County

Relevant issues: Cultural history

Statement of significance: The principal historic element of the formerly extensive collection of amusement facilities at the Santa Monica (Looff) Amusement Pier, this is a rare, intact example of an early shelter structure built (1916) to house a carousel in an amusement park and the better preserved of the two such structures that remain on the West Coast.

Sinclair House

Location: Monrovia, Los Angeles County

Relevant issues: Literary history

Statement of significance: From 1942 until 1966, this was the principal home of Upton Sinclair (1878-1968), one of the most influential American novelists in the area of social justice. Virtually all of Sinclair’s later works were written in this neo-Mediterranean house.

Space Launch Complex 10

Location: Lompoc, Santa Barbara County

Relevant issues: Aviation history, science and technology

Statement of significance: Built in 1958 for the U.S. Air Force’s Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) Testing Program, this complex was adapted for spaceflight purposes. The launch facility was first used on June 16, 1959. The blockhouse contains one of the best existing collections of the working electronics used to support launches of that era, and the entire complex is the best surviving example of a working launch complex built in the 1950s at the beginning of the American effort to explore space.

Stanford House

Location: Sacramento, Sacramento County

Relevant issues: Political history

Statement of significance: Built in 1857, this Renaissance Revival, two-story, square house was the residence of the two Civil War governors of California. Pro-Union Leland Stanford (1824-1893) was the first Republican to be elected governor of the state; his successor, Frederick F. Low (1828-1894), was elected under the banner of the Union Party, a coalition of Republicans and Northern Democrats. Their leadership from 1862 to 1870 ensured the state remained loyal to the Union. Stanford also served as president of the Central Pacific Railroad, which constructed the western portion of the transcontinental rail system.

Tao House

Location: Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site, 1000 Kuss Road, Danville, Contra Costa County

Relevant issues: Literary history

Statement of significance:Eugene O’Neill (1888-1953), winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1936, wrote some of his most significant plays here, where he lived from 1937 to 1944.

United States Immigration Station, Angel Island

Location: Angel Island State Park, Tiburon, Marin County

Relevant issues: Asian American history, political history

Statement of significance: The U.S. immigration station at Angel Island was the major West Coast processing center for immigrants from 1910 to 1940. What Ellis Island symbolizes to Americans of European heritage who immigrated to the East Coast, Angel Island symbolizes to Americans of Asian heritage on the West Coast. The largest island in San Francisco Bay, Angel Island was used as a prisoner of war camp during World War II. It was declared surplus in 1946 and since 1963 has been a California State Park.

USS Hornet (Cvs-12)

Location: Alameda, Alameda County

Relevant issues: Aviation history, military history, naval history, World War II

Statement of significance: Launched in 1943, this Essex Class aircraft carrier was part of the wartime buildup of the U.S carrier force during World War II. Hornet’s distinguished war career included participation in the invasion of Saipan and the Battle of the Puhilippine Sea; the amphibious landings on Palau, the Philippines, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa; and strikes against the Japanese home islands; later, it was reactivated for duty in both the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. Hornet also acted as the recovery vessel for the command modules and crews of the first two manned landings on the moon.

Wapama

Location: Sausalito, Marin County

Relevant issues: Business and industry, naval history

Statement of significance:Wapama is the last surviving example of more than two hundred steam schooners designed for use in the nineteenth and twentieth century Pacific Coast lumber trade and coastwide service. These vessels formed the backbone of maritime trade and commerce on the coast, ferrying lumber, general cargo, and passengers to and from urban centers and smaller coastal settlements. Wapama is the last oceangoing, wooden-hulled passenger and cargo-carrying steamer in the United States. It is included in the National Maritime Museum at Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Warner’s Ranch

Location: Warner Springs, San Diego County

Relevant issues: Business and industry, western expansion

Statement of significance: Established in 1831, Warner’s Ranch was foremost a pioneering cattle ranch. From 1848 on, it was also a popular resting place for overland travelers entering California over the southern route and was perhaps best known as a Butterfield Overland Mail stage station from 1859 to 1861. Today, two adobe structures—a house and barn—remain, situated on 221 acres of rural grazing land.

Well No. 4, Pico Canyon Oil Field

Location: San Fernando, Los Angeles County

Relevant issues: Business and industry

Statement of significance: Dating from the 1870s and 1880s, this is the birthplace of California’s petroleum industry and the first commercially successful well in the state. Because of training in the Pico Canyon field, oil industry pioneers made California the second oil-producing state in the United States in the first two decades of the twentieth century.

"Mare Island Naval Shipyard." Naval History and Heritage Commission, 7 Sept. 2022, www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/organization-and-administration/historic-bases/mare-island.html. Accessed 27 May 2024.

Treon, Rebecca. "Fascinating Facts You Might Now Know About San Francisco's Cable Cars." SFGate, 17 Apr. 2023, www.sfgate.com/local/article/cable-car-san-francisco-17878626.php. Accessed 27 May 2024.

Walsh, Jason. "Howdy Pardner: Sonoma Author Traces History of Dude Ranches." The Sonoma Index-Tribune, 27 July 2022, www.sonomanews.com/article/entertainment/howdy-pardner-sonoma-author-traces-history-of-dude-ranches/. Accessed 27 May 2024.